Piano user program

[George B]

I know this topic has been kicked around for sometime, but I am wondering if a GOOD piano sound for the FR-8X has yet been achieved by anyone on this forum . I heard an accordion player on youtube, who identifies himself as accordionman, who is playing the FR-8xb Roland. The piano sound he achieved, if it is legit, is pretty convincing. I have listened to many piano sounds for this model Roland, created by those selling user program sounds, and have not heard anything better than what I created myself by editing basic samples provided by Roland. (Which is only fair at best). I am totally happy to pay for the sound but haven't found anything which I like. I just can't believe that on a $10,000.00 instrument that the piano sound is not as good as what a $300.00 Casio can achieve (and no disrespect to Casio intended). Roland has been making good digital pianos for many years and this is the best they can do? After hearing the FR-8Xb piano on youtube, I believe there is still hope. There seem to be a thousand accordion sounds available. I would be willing to give up 997 of them for 1 good piano patch.
George

 

[JerryPH]

The Roland is what it is. It does what it does. If you do not like what it does, the only option is to look elsewhere or find a MIDI module that fits your needs. It is very possible that a $300 toy keyboard can have a better sounding piano, but that is because that Casio is not a Roland FR-8x and expecting one item to outperform another just because it is more expensive... is not a realistic expectation. I see lower cost "things" outperform more expensive "things" on a daily basis.

In this case you are asking if anyone has heard or knows how to see or modify the piano sounds that are included in the Roland accordion to sound the way that YOU like it. Honestly, that is simply not possible. The one that is going to need to do this homework... is you. You need to reach out to someone that has an FR-8X and you need to go through the piano sounds and see if this is something that YOU like... IN PERSON.

Asking someone to find something that you like on a forum or ANY kind of written or even videoed medium is a complete waste of time. The accordion may sound fantastic to you in real life, but because it was recorded on a $200 cell phone sounds and looks completely different... and YouTube is famous for screwing with the video quality after being uploaded. In fact, none of my 50 videos that I have on YouTube sound just like they do when I play the file locally. There are some things that can be done to minimize this (a strong understanding of what YouTube does and lot of audio tweaking) but I've never been able to totally eliminate it.

 

[Ventura]

the Quality of ALL non-accordion sounds, when played using an Accordion keyboard
whether MIDI accordion or Roland accordion

are PRIMARILY a product of the players skill at controlling these sounds
through this digital/mechanical interface

which has obvious limitations

musicians who achieve sounds comparable to the same sounds
created by Natural instruments are simply damn good at it and have
developed an empathy with those instruments by understanding
how they breath and flex and resonate and work and are played
then somehow massaging their digital-accordion interface to achieve this.

Roland in particular has had amazing digital Piano's since the MK-20,
which was the first Simulation using front-end attack samples
(then grafted onto waveforms for the decay/release) and quickly found
it's way into recording Studios worldwide, then used on tens of
thousands of recordings that millions of listeners NEVER KNEW were not
produced with an acoustic grand Piano

so the idea that the Roland Piano sounds available in ANY Roland product
are in any way sub-standard or less than state-of-the-art is, frankly, ridiculous.

they have been at the forefront of Digitizing the Piano from the start
and continue perfecting and preserving their position in this field

the instrument waveforms in the FR-8x (and in fact ALL Roland digital accordions,
and also all their general purpose Keyboards and modules) are identical.
Roland uses a Primary LSIC integrated circuit with literally everything on it,
as well as a similar LSIC for the FX which is also shared across their product line

obviously, not all of their devices can access all aspects of their LSIC core
capabilities, nor do they all have the same speakers and amplifiers built in

the Roland Accordion keyboard is obviously not going to be responsive
like a Digital Piano keyboard using the same force, speed. motion (attack)
as they are vastly different physically

even a Casio keyboard has a larger "delta" between make one make two
(or break one make one) physical switching

you just need to get closer to your instrument, your interface, and
find a way to finesse your approach to simulating the Piano

i would recommend you start by learning a piece of Music specifically
written for Piano, that has many recordings you can access for comparison

good luck

 

[John M]

See my post on the thread: Accordion Sound Samples for MIDI + digital accordion. Ketron/Cavagnolo/V3 Accordion or another ?