Members oceancruze1 Posted January 14, 2011 Members Share Posted January 14, 2011 Well after a short time I got sick of my RD700GX, not enough variety of really good sounds to hold my interest and bought the Yamaha S90 XS and I am so glad I did. Yea Rolands got a great piano on there but in some respects its what you get used to playing and now I prefer the piano voices of the Yamaha although the two piano's are somewhat different. Rolands piano is more eccentuated and gives maybe more aftersound but I think Yamaha's is more true and realistic in a sense, hard to describe unless like I did you actually played both side by side. But the real difference is above and beyond that and that's why I got bored with the Roland. The Yamaha has so many other great instrumental voices that are so incredibly accurate you've got a whole orchestra pit of voices to select from and yea the violin sounds like one, harmonica, sax............ the strings allmost make you cry, the list goes on and on. The Roland is a great digital stage piano but not like enough more to get you that excited or interested in keep playing unless piano is your main interest. Bye bye Roland! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Outkaster Posted January 14, 2011 Members Share Posted January 14, 2011 Glad you did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Son of HuHefner Posted January 14, 2011 Members Share Posted January 14, 2011 Well after a short time I got sick of my RD700GX, not enough variety of really good sounds to hold my interest and bought the Yamaha S90 XS and I am so glad I did. Yea Rolands got a great piano on there but in some respects its what you get used to playing and now I prefer the piano voices of the Yamaha although the two piano's are somewhat different. Rolands piano is more eccentuated and gives maybe more aftersound but I think Yamaha's is more true and realistic in a sense, hard to describe unless like I did you actually played both side by side. But the real difference is above and beyond that and that's why I got bored with the Roland. The Yamaha has so many other great instrumental voices that are so incredibly accurate you've got a whole orchestra pit of voices to select from and yea the violin sounds like one, harmonica, sax............ the strings allmost make you cry, the list goes on and on. The Roland is a great digital stage piano but not like enough more to get you that excited or interested in keep playing unless piano is your main interest. Bye bye Roland! Both instruments have their strengths. This is why I have both, the GX1 and the XS Motif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members oceancruze1 Posted January 14, 2011 Author Members Share Posted January 14, 2011 Well I in a sense agree, so if you have both what do you see in the Roland that you like better than the Yamaha?? Piano, EP and organ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gribs Posted January 14, 2011 Members Share Posted January 14, 2011 I bought the Roland for the play feel, the piano sound, and the immediacy with the intention that it would serve primarily as an evening practice tool for my older son and I when my younger kids are in bed. It does this admirably. At the time I bought the unit I also owned an XS6 which I have since sold due to just not gelling with it. Now I have a M3M for the other sounds and my Q in place of the XS6 in front of me for immediate play and also use as my synth action controller and I am happy. I have to say though that I am really liking the advertised features of Korg's new Kronos and will very likely move up, but I don't know what I will do with the RD700GX and M3M after that - probably put the RD in a place convenient for my son to use - like in the same spot as his drum kit and xylophone - so he doesn't have to come into my office/studio to use it and keep the M3M for a while. Either way the Kronos is not out yet anyway. Our ground floor (half sunken under ground half above with large windows) is quickly turning into a second music studio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Son of HuHefner Posted January 14, 2011 Members Share Posted January 14, 2011 Well I in a sense agree, so if you have both what do you see in the Roland that you like better than the Yamaha?? Piano, EP and organ?? I like the Roland RD stage keyboard. ( I go back to the 1st RD700 model). I feel the RD is close to an acoustic piano for a tactile experience. Its not 'perfect' but it is quite acceptable. I also appreciate navigation and setups on the RD. I think Roland has done a great job with ease of use/speed/just enough function on their stage pianos. It suits me as a very good master midi controller ( 3 midi out). The XLR audio outs and piano lid menu are nice touches. as far as Roland sounds, we all know that Roland character. They are distinct and polished( possibly over produced), just to summarize. (I have never liked Roland's Hammond organ sounds). This is where I like the XS. I feel I can better capture the organic sense of the many classic instruments on the XS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DJBozo01 Posted January 15, 2011 Members Share Posted January 15, 2011 My S90 XS has served me incredibly well over the last year and a bit. Oceancruze, you're right. The amount of detail and size of the presets is incredible (tried any of the classical guitar samples?). The only thing in my opinion the S90 XS lacks a little in is a really warm organ sound (hence why a bought a Nord as well), the organs are deffinetly still usable and I have used them with heaps of great feedback but it's a personal prefference I guess. Piano samples really do take the cake especially when listening with a decent set of headphones. The s70xs and s90xs have my vote for best all round board at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members oceancruze1 Posted January 15, 2011 Author Members Share Posted January 15, 2011 Thanks for the note, I can see you agree. Describe what you mean by a warm organ sound I know sounds are hard to describe. What does really impress me about the organ sounds is the variety and the classical theater or church organ sounds plus some of the Hammond sounds although Roland is good in this category. The strings, violin and other instrumental really impress me with the accuracy of the samplings you can actually hear the strings as the bow crosses it or the sax quavers at the end while blowing into it. You got the whole band there so may as well gig alone right! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tangerine Posted January 15, 2011 Members Share Posted January 15, 2011 Tried Clavia Nord Stage EX guys? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members oceancruze1 Posted January 15, 2011 Author Members Share Posted January 15, 2011 Where can you try out a Nord? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DJBozo01 Posted January 16, 2011 Members Share Posted January 16, 2011 Tried Clavia Nord Stage EX guys? Yea I have one, it's honestly really the only thing the Nord has over the Yamaha, the organs on the Nord have virtual drawbars so you can add or remove harmonics to the sound, it has different amp effects built in as well as a couple of overdrive and rotor effects which are easily added DURING a performance (as in one hand is on the keys and the other is tweaking the knob). The Yamaha can do a lot in terms of the effects on the instruments but I guess the Nord just specialises in that area (organs and EPs). They just sound a little more realistic to me and have certain characteristics which give them that 'warm' feel. It's not a crisp clean sound like the Yamaha, a little more dirty I guess, that's as close as I can get to describing it really.lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DJBozo01 Posted January 16, 2011 Members Share Posted January 16, 2011 That's the problem with Nord's, I've found them hard to come accross at music stores here in Australia, might be different where you live though so I'd go ask Mr. Google. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members oceancruze1 Posted January 16, 2011 Author Members Share Posted January 16, 2011 Yea the Yamaha does have a crisp clean sound that is what I noticed opposed to the piano on the Roland too. Yamaha's notes seemed higher in pitch more shrill if you will crisp clean more like a striking a definitive piano key but the Roland had its own unique characteristics liking or disliking was subject to the players interpretations. I know what you mean now by warm as I used to play a Hammond 25 years ago when a Tremolo or Leslie was a real Leslie or one created thru electronics, miss that now and I don't know if any keyboard out there really duplicates a nice Leslie sound. Maybe its on my Yamaha but I have not found it yet LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted January 16, 2011 Members Share Posted January 16, 2011 I use a Yamaha CP300 and a Roland RD700SX. Granted the SX is somewhat dated now - however, even in that model, I never cared from the flagship piano sounds as much as I like the Yamaha pianos. The Roland pianos always strike me as a little darker...somewhat more "woody" than the Yamaha. There's also something about the way the Roland piano sound 'decays" that doesn't work for me as well as the Yamaha. I've always felt that the Yamaha seems to "sit in the mix" much better (at least to my ears). That said however, I like the EPs, Organs and Clavs on the RD700SX much better than that on the Yamaha. These days - I use the CP300 for it's flagship piano sound and as well as it's great feeling keybed - and augment it's sounds with a Motif ES rack unit. The RD700SX serves as my "2nd keyboard" - as well as the board I grab whenever I need a stripped down rig (i.e., rehearsals, multi-band events, etc.). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members oceancruze1 Posted January 16, 2011 Author Members Share Posted January 16, 2011 Shhh now your promoting GAS and the manufacturers might be listening that way you keep em all in business. But seriously selling the Roland there were sounds I hated to give up too allways wondered why guys on stage had so many keyboards sitting in front of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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