New Roland FP-30 - odd thing I noticed...

[tbessie]

Hi all!

I want to learn piano, and chose a Roland FP-30 (it was that or a Yamaha P-125, and I liked the feel and sound of the Roland better).

I don't know much about electric pianos, but I did notice something unusual about this one.

I played each note in turn, and found that all keys up to and including F#6, when released, decay very quickly. G6 and above decay more slowly, with ringing overtones. It is a very marked difference between those two notes.

I'm guessing this was some decision made by this piano's designers, but I can't guess why that would be. Is it trying to mimic some physical condition of real pianos? Does anyone know?

- Tim

EDIT: I also posted this question on Reddit, and got my answer, so nevermind here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/cpoqxv

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Thank you for sharing the answer here, as I'm sure sooner or later someone else may have the same question.

 

[CowboyNQ]

This exact question came up a little while back on here - the Redditor gave the correct answer. I'll post the picture I posted last time to illustrate the point:

 

[vaggbaba]

my friend I found it very awful too. I noticed that when I use headphones it is very overringing. without headphones it is not. do you have this issue with headphones too?

 

[tbessie]

my friend I found it very awful too. I noticed that when I use headphones it is very overringing. without headphones it is not. do you have this issue with headphones too?

I haven't tried seeing how it sounds with headphones yet. I can try and report back.

- Tim

 

[jcmusix]

I noticed the same problem with my FP-30 today so I did some searching and found this thread. When I play and hold F2, F#2, or F#3 I get that same strong ringing you have been discussing. If I switch it to grand piano2 sound font then F#2 and F#3 seem ok but F2 and F3 ring. At first I though maybe something in the room was ringing so I tried it with headphones and its the same. It's a great keyboard but I sure wish it didn't sound like that. I've owned it several month and just noticing it now so I suppose I can live with it. I'm guessing its a bug built into the sound font software?

 

[vaggbaba]

you must try many different headphones to accomplish a great sound. I have hobby with headphones so I tried a lot. I found some.
I think either complain together to Roland either try equalizer if possible with amplifier and etc.
And and maybe our part number has this trouble. I will check my part number and post it.

 

[jcmusix]

you must try many different headphones to accomplish a great sound. I have hobby with headphones so I tried a lot. I found some.
I think either complain together to Roland either try equalizer if possible with amplifier and etc.
And and maybe our part number has this trouble. I will check my part number and post it.

The Roland sounds good and I have pretty good headphones. This ringing noise is coming from the keyboard and has no relation to the headphones used. The noise comes when using headphones and when not using headphones. Changing the instrument the keyboard is playing seems to make a difference so I assume that it is coming from the sound sample and how the sound playback software handles the tone fadeout ( morendo?) I just checked and noticed that the ringing comes with grand piano 1 and grand piano 3 but not with grand piano 2.

 

[vaggbaba]

I agree with you. the core problem is sample. what do you suggest?

 

[jcmusix]

I agree with you. the core problem is sample. what do you suggest?

I don't think there is much that can be done. We could contact Roland about it but I highly doubt that Roland is going to edit the software and send us a fix. I think we have to get a different keyboard or live with it.

 

[vaggbaba]

As I said I have hobby with headphones. I found that monitor headphones such Audio Technica ath m50 has super sound with fp30
It makes sense if you consider that monitor headphones has neutral sound hence they mostly use the music studios

 

[jcmusix]

Since I last posted about this I have tested other actual pianos including grand pianos and I have noticed a very similar ringing. My conclusion is that this is just a sympathetic ringing. Using sound software like Mixcraft I also get this from other, but not all, piano sound fonts, so I now see this ringing sound on my Roland FP30 as normal, or not far from normal.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Using sound software like Mixcraft

Hooray, another fellow Mixcraft user!