Roland RD700 GX - Expression pedal & zones

[MontyMoose]

I am thinking of purchasing a RD700GX stage piano. I have been testing one at a local retail outlet, and I have a question about MIDI expression pedals.

I already have a Roland EV-5 pedal which works perfectly as an expression pedal on the RD700GX, however it controls the volume of all of the 4 layers.

What I would like to do is control 1 layer with the expression pedal whilst leaving the other layer unaffected. For example if you have a piano patch and you want to fade in a string section with the foot controller, you don’t ideally want to take your hands off the notes to move the zone sliders.

Is it possible to setup the RD700GX so that an expression pedal changes the volume of one tone/zone without effecting the volume of other zones/tones?

 

[rhbarnes80]

rd-700gx

Im afraid i dont have an answer about the pedal, but I was wondering what your thoughts were about the stage piano after having played with it in the shop? Have you also tried out the 300gx?

 

[MontyMoose]

Roland keyboards

I didn't have a go on the 300. The 700 was generally excellent, pianos were very good, electric pianos/clavs/organs were all good. Strings / Brass / Pads were very good too. You can easily layer up-to 4 sounds and the weighted keys are a joy.

I could only find 4 bad points (and they're all fairly small)

1) Expression pedal seemed only to be able to control the entire keyboard not individual zones/tones

2) No audio input jacks on the back (a nice feature with the FP range)

3) When you load 3 or more layers and play a massive chord it runs out of memory and notes begin dropping off

4) The electric pianos are not fabulous. They're very good, but don't quite match up to the pianos and clavs in my opinion.

The only other thing I would possibly considor is a Clavia Nord Stage. Apart from that, I don't think you could possibly go wrong with one of these. I may well be buying one. Hope that helps...