Hello forum friends...
The new SRX-02 Piano expansion card contains multisamples taken from an excellent and rare piano. These samples have been digitally edited by Roland to have natural feel, feedback, sound detuning across keys, realistic wood random harmonics and in general is one of the best piano digital reproduction. I've made some digital studio recording using it and compared the result with Yamaha S80 + PLGPF, Kurzweil 2600, Korg SG-PRO/X and studio's Steinway. All these keyboards and pianos also recorded using the same digital gear and using dry sound and no external or internal FX or compression. My results were that Roland SRX is excellent and in par with Kurz 2600 but somewhat more metalic than Steinway
Listening the master two famous in my country pro piano players could not understand what is sampled and what not. That's a good sign. Unfortunately i have not Yamaha midigrand to compare it with the rest.
The EQ in 5080 work on per output basis so if you route your sound on different outputs you can have different EQ settings. The whole EQ works as an FFT algorithm on output DSPs so its quality is far better than those work on OSC/FLT DSPs.
On 5080 there are three M-FX (1-3) sections just like 2080 and the same FX routing. But when you use some combinations (like COSM) there are some limits due to DSP overload. In general you must think the 5080 as a far better sounding 2080 plus new COSM MFXs that are just algorithms but unfortunately need much of CPU power. BTW there are not exist any "clicks" or delays on FX processing and the s/n ratio is excellent, better than 2080 or anything else. Also the legent FX algorithms like reverb and delays are all new and they have more realistic feel than older ones on 2080. The 24bit D/A helps here.
PS: By the way i live in Greece so forgive me if i make some mistakes
English is not my main language.
Cheers...
[This message has been edited by Inray (edited 05-17-2000).]