Hi there, I am new to this forum, actually I don't even play piano at all ( just guitar) but my wife is a player and we are a duo playing mainly worship music. We recently upgraded our "gig" piano from a Roland GO Keys to a Roland FP30. The FP30 is a beautiful machine and we really love it, however something is missing. The Rhodes in the FP30 are kind of uninspiring for us. We used the "Back to the 60'" preset on the GO Keys and it was a bliss. I believe that is a Mark 1 with some tremolo but I am not completely sure. The electric piano on the FP30 are not that exciting, I don't know if that is because the modulation effects are missing. I am asking some advices on possible solutions, I was thinking maybe some pedals can help, maybe I can buy a Reface CP to use as sound module or maybe there are other solutions that can easily be applied. Keep in mind that my wife is not that technical and we need something that we can easily set up when we gig. Thank you so much in advance for your help in this matter.
Roland FP30 EP
- Thread starter MartinoTJ
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The Roland Go Keys and their Go Piano are different in their functions, both are intended for specific markets or as a teacher once said..... do you want to learn to play a keyboard or a piano, they are different and I will have to teach you differently.
So your upgrade from the Go Keys to a Digital Piano will not necessarily transpose as you may think.
As it is the FP30 is not that large an increase in functions over a Go Piano.
It may be possible to load additional instrument voicings to your FP but the manual will provide info on if this is possible.
Personally I would suggest that if you can you return the FR and purchase a Roland Juno DS88 which will give you a vastly more capable and flexible keyboard since it has onboard many more instrument sounds than the FP and there are many patches available to install to give even more voicings.
I would not recommend using pedals or getting the Reface, put the cash towards the Juno which will keep the setup quick and simple.
So your upgrade from the Go Keys to a Digital Piano will not necessarily transpose as you may think.
As it is the FP30 is not that large an increase in functions over a Go Piano.
It may be possible to load additional instrument voicings to your FP but the manual will provide info on if this is possible.
Personally I would suggest that if you can you return the FR and purchase a Roland Juno DS88 which will give you a vastly more capable and flexible keyboard since it has onboard many more instrument sounds than the FP and there are many patches available to install to give even more voicings.
I would not recommend using pedals or getting the Reface, put the cash towards the Juno which will keep the setup quick and simple.
happyrat1
Destroyer of Eardrums!!!
I own a DS88 and agree it has some beautiful piano and EP sounds as well as over a thousand others plus the ability to load new samples.
Otherwise you might juice up the EP sounds in your FP by adding a reverb and a wah pedal to it. Those were the classic EP sounds of the sixties.
Gary
Otherwise you might juice up the EP sounds in your FP by adding a reverb and a wah pedal to it. Those were the classic EP sounds of the sixties.
Gary
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After having a quick glance at the reference manual, I'm not sure how much tone-editing you can do using the FP-30's function menu.
However, based on all of the settings which are listed in the MIDI implementation manual, it seems like you might be able to use MIDI to choose between a number of different effects and parameter settings, to a degree that might not be supported by the function menu.
I would recommend just trying to select and tweak each of the settings that are accessible from the function menu, to see how much you can do with those-- not just the effects (reverb, chorus, etc.), but also things like the cutoff and resonance.
If that can't give you the results you're looking for, you might try using MIDI to adjust any parameters which aren't accessible through the function menu.
However, based on all of the settings which are listed in the MIDI implementation manual, it seems like you might be able to use MIDI to choose between a number of different effects and parameter settings, to a degree that might not be supported by the function menu.
I would recommend just trying to select and tweak each of the settings that are accessible from the function menu, to see how much you can do with those-- not just the effects (reverb, chorus, etc.), but also things like the cutoff and resonance.
If that can't give you the results you're looking for, you might try using MIDI to adjust any parameters which aren't accessible through the function menu.
Thank you so much I will definetly give it a try....we really have no experience with modern piano technology.
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Are you using a tablet (iPad, Surface, etc.) or even just a smartphone to send "patch changes" to the keyboard, or just doing everything manually?
This is an old post and you might have found a good enough solution already, but for the record...
I had a similar problem; not enough good sounds on the FP-30. After digging deep into the MIDI Implementation document and by chance also discovering that internally the FP-30 has lots more sounds than the 35 you can select on the dashboard I ended up writing a computer program which lets me play dozens and dozens of sounds/instruments on the FP-30 and to edit them (using effects) to some extent.
I have a web page with more info and I believe you can see it in my profile (only joined recently, so not sure how this works). If you do visit it just skip the first bits (somewhat technical) and read about the program. I think it would work for you.
I had a similar problem; not enough good sounds on the FP-30. After digging deep into the MIDI Implementation document and by chance also discovering that internally the FP-30 has lots more sounds than the 35 you can select on the dashboard I ended up writing a computer program which lets me play dozens and dozens of sounds/instruments on the FP-30 and to edit them (using effects) to some extent.
I have a web page with more info and I believe you can see it in my profile (only joined recently, so not sure how this works). If you do visit it just skip the first bits (somewhat technical) and read about the program. I think it would work for you.
Roland have an App called Piano Partner 2 which is available for Apple and Android devices.
Whilst it will not open up the GS sounds it is no doubt useful for making selections and editing features.
Whilst it will not open up the GS sounds it is no doubt useful for making selections and editing features.
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Is your program freeware?
Currently it is free for anyone who reads my web page and sends me an email asking for it.
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Okay. The reason I asked was because I had thought to add the link to your post for you. But then I saw that you'd already added the link to your other thread, so it's kind of moot now.
Thanks. Maybe it still makes sense to add that link since it's a different thread. So here it goes:
synthesizer-explorations.blogspot.com
Roland FP-30 Digital Piano - Accessing the in-built GS Instruments
The Roland FP-30 implements the GS sound set, except you can't select those sounds from the dashboard. But, there is a backdoor - enter here!
synthesizer-explorations.blogspot.com