Hello,

I have a XP-30 and would like to get some nice piano sounds because I am not happy with presets.
Has anybody tried the SR-JV Piano Expansion board ?
Does is really have much nicer piano sounds then the ones in XP-30 ?

Thanks
Dennis

According to most, the best piano available for the Roland JV/XP series, is the one featured on the SRJV80-09 Session Expansion. Provided you have an XP30 or JV1010 Sound Module, that piano should be included as the Session board comes preinstalled.

Contrary to popular belief however, I think that while the piano on the Session board is fantastic, the Piano expansion board has way more variety. If you're a keyboard enthusiast and need to have a variety of Piano sounds at your fingertips, then te Piano Board is a must have.

In order to grasp the sure quality of this board, you need to hear the demo included on the Roland SRJV Demo CD (not sure if this is still available). The main stereo piano included on the Piano board comes from the Roland RD-600 Digital Grand, which was popular in the mid 90s, and according to Sound On Sound magazine, is better than the SRX-01 Concert Piano board that's been produced for the XV series.

The Infamous Epu.

Thanks

I owned the Piano expansion board a couple of years ago. I'm a big fan of Roland gear, but I thought this board was awful.I think it was the effects that were used on the patches.I would recommend the Session Board piano as well. I personally use the EMU Proformance module for my piano sound.

I guess the Session Board is the winner.

Thanks

I felt an XP-30 for the first time this past weekend and I prefer the XP-30's feel over my XP-50. It looks like the only difference between the 50 and 30 is that the 50 has disk capability and a sequencer. But the 30 has more sounds and a better feel. If I'm only using the xp-50 to play live, and I'm not making good use of the sequencer, perhaps I ought to trade my XP-50 for an XP-30.

Are there any XP-30 users out here that want to trade for an XP-50? Would it be a fair trade?

Hmmmm

Hello RW,

I think that Xp-30 is much more powerful synth then Xp-50 sound wise.
It has a regular set of sounds as other XP models and in addition Roland included 3 of SR-JV80 expansion cards (techno, session and orchestral). Each card costs around $200.

Also, as you noticed the keys feel better.
Basically the xp-30 has the best sounds from all XP series.
If you don't need a sequencer and you like Roland sounds that is the right choice.

Cheers
D.