#FP 30 ROLAND UPDATE#
#FP 30 ROLAND PORTABLE#

The action is so responsive (“bouncy” in that Roland way) that you can do very funky things. But I got tremendous enjoyment out of those bottom three octaves. The high octaves are convincing as well, with a few notes being a little quirky – G# over middle C comes to mind. In fact, through the built-in speakers, the lows and mids are so rich and, at the same time, precise, that you can voice 1-3-5 triads down around low C and hear every tone distinctly. It feels like one of those big grands that you hear on Keith Jarrett records. With all its realistic variation in tone, Roland has caught the essence of a fine piano.

And as I played, I realized that something special was happening. And the onboard amplification, heartier than most with speakers that shoot downward, emphasises lows and mids more than my studio-spoiled ears have come to prefer. It is not a uniformly voiced, perfectly even instrument that you find on the competitor’s keyboards here there are subtle note-to-note variations. When it comes the FP-30’s raison d’être, it’s the piano sound provided by Roland’s SuperNatural engine.

#FP 30 ROLAND UPDATE#

(A forthcoming update will allow you to use the headphone outs without muting the speakers.) The piano experience Because there are no discrete 1/4' audio jacks, you will need an insert cable to feed the output to a pair of studio monitors or mixer inputs for example, a cable with a 1/4' TRS plug on one end (for the piano’s headphone output) that splits to a pair of 1/4' TS jacks.

For analogue audio output, you have your choice of 3.5mm and 1/4' headphone jacks on the front, below the keyboard. The FP-30’s rear panel hosts two USB ports (one for a thumb drive, another for computer connection) and two pedal inputs (1/4' and a multipin jack). Moreover, the FP-30 sends MIDI over Bluetooth so you no longer need a USB cable or Camera Connection kit to control your favourite music apps. A pair of built-in 4.75' speakers, each with an 11W amplifier, provides onboard sound. And it has a super-clean design.Īvailable in black or white, the FP-30 offers many of the features that have become de rigueur in this category, layering (called Dual here), split and twin-piano modes, 128-note polyphony, a metronome, a pre-programmed rhythm machine, WAV file playback, USB connectivity, and a (single-track) MIDI recorder with SMF playback capabilities so you can play along with multitrack song files. The Roland FP-30 is the size of its competitors but weighs in at about five pounds more than the others, lending it a reassuring substantiality.

#FP 30 ROLAND PORTABLE#

That’s why I was so curious to play the new FP-30: It is the latest incarnation of the portable digital-piano concept and Roland’s entry in the current under-a-grand, fully weighted, 88-key piano race.

Fp 30 roland