Is this the wrong forum to post a question about the RD-700? apparently it can hanlde two SRX expansion cards. I've gotten very used to Roland stuff. Played an XP-10 for a while (a friends), had an XP-50 for severel months. I now own an RS-9 and a JV1010. I'm looking for a weighter 88 key synth. Playack sequencer would be great. I know the RD-700 doesn;t have that. I was starting to think about digital pianos because of the progressive weighted keyboard, but after very careful analysis, for me, there's very little difference between balanced and progressive. I did notice I do like resistance from the keys. Not loose keys. I have a basic feeling the Rolands keys are slightly easier than Yamahas.

I like the idea of editing sounds and having loads of them as opposed to a normal digital piano that has anywhere from say 40 to 128 sounds. I like the hundreds of sounds available and although right now I really don't do any sound editing, i think I might like to experiment in the future.

As I understand the RD-700 it comes with 128 sounds. That's not enough for me. I alos wasn't highly impressed with the tone-wheel organ feature. Maybe it's me but I wasn't thrilled with it's organs. The Stereo Piano was fine but the keys seemed a tad light for my taste. The harder the keys are the more expressive I can be. But that's me.

Believe it or not, was more inspired playing the Yamaha S08 (not the S80) and I enjoyed the S08's organs more. I just don't like the limits of the S08.

So Can the RD-700 act like a real synth when it's expanded? Can the filters and cut-off and envelopes be changed and saved?

I hear the Yamaha S90 has the same keyboard as the Yamaha S08. I'm leaning towards the S90 for it's sounds, expansion capabilities and performance abilities. I'm looking for a performance type synth not a workstation. But at least on onboard playback sequencer could be highly valuable.

I gave up my XP-50 for the RS-9 loosing the playback function. I wasn;t using that function all the much and really was getting very annoyed at the XP-50's action. I'm really digging the ease of the RS-9.

Anyone have an RD-700? I tryed out the XV-88 and I really didn't like the action on it. The RD-700 seemed to have better action to me.

Any thoughts on the RD-700?

I've got a friend with a S90 and one with a RD700. The RD pianos were far less than the S90 pianos in my opinion. The S90 has no floppy drive for playing back sequences. The RD has a basic sequencer, I think it was 4 tracks. The RD has very limited patch editing. The S90 has more editing capabilities. I think I would go S90 if you arleady have Roland JV or XP gear.

Thanks FAEbGBD.

I think I'm going to set my sights on the S90. I can't seem to find a digital piano that is so much better than the S90's piano sound, that it outweighs all the extra features a synth has that a digital piano doesn't.

Thanks again for the info. I agree with you. I didn't think the RD700 piano was any better than the S90. I like the S90's 3layerS700 piano better.

Thanks again.
Peace

Bob
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The S90 pianos were too bright for me. The SRX pianos are very cool. I have had the RD 700 with the SRX Contemporary Piano expansion and I am very happy with the acoustic piano sounds. The feel of the board is great. The menus are so easy to move around on and edits are very simple.

The SRX boards only add sample tones .... not editing cababilities, so what ever the unit can do (alone), it can do expanded.

You have to expand the RD to get it to sound decent; the stock pianos are not very good at all. Even the SRX piano didn't impress me that much; the soft samples sounded good, but the louder, forte samples didn't seem to have good sustain to me. To me they fade away rather abruptly. And as uD said, expanding the RD will not make it any more synthelike as far as editting goes.

Keep in mind it is easy to edit acoustic pianos. There is a range of opinion of what acoustic piano 'should' sound like.

By changing, velocity, brightness, attack, sustain, TVA's on the acoustic pianos you might find the character you like on the RD 700 and SRX pianos

While we are on the subject of the RD-700 I thought I'd mention that Tom BetGeorge recently sent me an improved .ins (instrument) file for the RD-700 http://synthzone.com/midi/roland/rd700/

You'll have use "Save As" to download so Windows doesn't think it is an Internet Settings file.