Sound and Tone | 1:04
Action | 12:14
Features | 15:47
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Comparable Alternatives
🛒 Casio PX-560▸geni.us/Casio-PX-560
🛒 Roland F-140R▸ geni.us/Roland-F140R
🛒 Casio PX-870▸ geni.us/Casio-PX870
#RD88 #Roland #DigitalPiano
Welcome, and thanks for being here for another comparison video at the Merriam Pianos KZfaq channel. In this video, we’re going to be discussing the brand new Roland RD88 stage piano.
You can think of the RD88 as an FP30 crossed with an RD2000. This is our first chance to try the instrument, so we’re very excited to dive in.
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Piano Sound:
The RD88 is different from most other stage pianos right off the hop due to the inclusion of on-board speakers. With two 6 watt speakers, you’ve got adequate power for solo playing. The RD88 combines different worlds here when it comes to the 3 distinct sound engines, starting with the ZEN-Core synthesis engine responsible for all of the on-board synth patches, with a whopping 3,000 patches pre-loaded.
The piano tone and E piano tone are brought to you by Roland’s tried and true SuperNATURAL engine. The highly regarded SuperNATURAL engine can be found in many of Roland’s digital pianos, so it’s presence here is very welcome.
The interface itself is easy to operate overall, and would be at home in both a studio setting for live DAW work, as well as on the stage with easy to access EQ adjust, compressor and transpose functions, as well as system wide control over reverb, chorus, delay and tone colour. Overall, you’re getting pretty close to RD2000 level functionality, but for about half the price (and substantially lower weight for easier portability.)
Piano Action:
Roland has equipped the RD88 with their PHA4 action, which is an action found on essentially all of Roland’s 88 note digital pianos under the $2,000 USD price point. Interestingly, there’s a good number of musicians out there who actually prefer the PHA4 action over the more advanced PHA50 action sound in more expensive models.
The PHA4 is well known for its reliability. It’s got a realistic ivory texture on the white keys, as well as a matte finish on the black keys. It also utilizes a triple sensor for accurate MIDI output, and features escapement. Overall, it strikes a nice balance for folks used to playing classical, and folks used to playing more contemporary styles. Really, this is an action that you can’t go wrong with, plain and simple.
Piano Features:
There are several really convenient things about this instrument. For one, there are two inputs; a ¼” microphone input, as well as a ⅛” stereo input. There are two modulation wheels, which can certainly come in handy. There are four assignable knobs for various parameters.
The RD88 is also equipped with quite a few on-board rhythms, as well as a trusty metronome. The speakers can be turned on and off, and if you’re in a really crazy playing situation, there’s also a “Panel-Lock” feature to make sure you don’t inadvertently hit a button by accident in the middle of a performance (which has happened to me by the way, not fun!)
There’s a wide range of pedal accommodations here too. The DP2 comes standard with the instrument, which serves as a basic foot switch. If you’re going to be using the instrument as a piano a lot of the time, we’d recommend upgrading to the DP10 pedal, which is capable of half-pedaling.
Conclusions:
Thanks so much for checking out our review of the RD88. This is an excellent product for a great price, and definitely makes a strong case for being the top stage piano in its class.
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