Which Roland Digital Piano Should I Buy?
There are a number of different manufacturers of musical instruments on the market today that could be considered trustworthy and proven brands, and all of them have a wide array of musical products to choose from. Whether it is concerning brands like Casio, Korg, Yamaha, Roland or Kurzweil, there are always certain distinctions which separate one brand from the other, and many times it is simply the fancy of the customer or a good experience with a past product that makes the difference. When it comes to digital keyboards and pianos made and manufactured by Roland Corporation, there isn’t much that keeps them from being at the top of the list, and there are many people who would say they are indeed at the top.
Piano Buying Guide
Below, please enjoy the interactive guide that was created to make your piano purchase easier, as you can quickly compare some of the top pianos on the market against one another:
| Photo | Model |
|---|---|
 | Yamaha YDP-145 |
 | Yamaha YDP-165 |
 | Casio PX-870 |
 | Casio AP-470 |
 | Yamaha YDP-184 |
The Benefits of a Roland Digital Piano
Roland digital pianos are known to be manufactured with a high degree of class and professionalism, and most every product made by them can be depended upon to be reliable, expertly constructed, and successfully productive. It is rare to hear of instances where customers were unsatisfied with the product they received from Roland, and this is due to the countless amounts of time and effort put in by members of the company from its inception in Osaka, Japan in 1972 till today.
The company was initially founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi and has come to deal not only in musical instruments but also in Audio/Video, General Electronics, and other computer related products. The company is officially traded on the stock exchange and has a number of factories in countries such as Italy, Taiwan, Japan, and the USA.
Roland digital keyboards and pianos make up some of the better products that can be found on the market, and this is due to the great effort by the developers and engineers to enhance technologies concerning graded hammer action keybeds, proprietary wave sampling technologies, tone selections, MIDI and connection capabilities, and many other areas.
These digital pianos are able to serve in a variety of different capacities, from student to teacher learning sessions to the recording of Grammy and other award winning collections of music. One of the greatest things about Roland is that there is a selection for every person’s desire, so people from different ranges of expertise and economic ability can always own some kind of Roland piano.
Best Digital Pianos on the Market
Below, please take a look at some of the best selling digital pianos online, and see how they compare to some of the Roland pianos we will discuss in today’s article:
| BEST SELLERS |
|---|
| 1) Casio PX-770 |
| 2) Yamaha YDP-145 |
| 3) Roland RP-701 |
| 4) Yamaha YDP-165 |
| 5) Casio PX-870 |
Notable Roland Pianos
The Roland DP-990F is one of the prized pieces of the company’s upright digital piano category, and this machine truly shines as one of their greater pieces of work. The DP-990F features Roland’s new SuperNATURAL piano technology, which is a comprehensive combination of the digital representations of characteristics and effects that are found on real acoustic pianos. Some of these features include multisampling, organic tonal changes, and natural decay. This upright digital piano also features a beautiful overall architecture with furniture style design and a choice of two elegant color finishes: Medium Cherry and Satin Black. The 990F comes with PHAII with Escapement, which stands for the second generation of Roland’s Progressive Hammer Action technology, and 337 onboard tones with 72 built in play along songs.
The Fantom-G8 Workstation Keyboard may possibly be Roland’s most powerful musical machine, and also one of the costliest and most coveted. It is a workstation that allows the musician to play and create whatever kind of music he desires, all without the need for any external device such as a computer with a digital audio workstation. The Fantom-G8 also features Roland’s SuperNATURAL piano technology just like the DP-990F, and the same PHAII “Ivory Feel” keyboard. This machine has a dominating and almost intimidating presence, with a heavy duty casing with aluminum panels, a length of 55 inches, a width of 19 inches, and an overall weight of an astounding 74 pounds.
The Roland Juno-Gi is classified as a mobile synthesizer, but contains many of the same elements of a digital piano or a workstation, and is built to have a much more accommodating to the consumer’s pocket. The main emphasis of the JUNO line of products is to provide “great sound, compact design, easy operation, and affordable price.” The JUNO-Gi delivers in every single one of these areas and more. It features over 1,300 high quality sounds along with 128-voice polyphony. It has a full-featured 8-track digital recorder with guitar inputs, and great connectivity features with a high capacity SDHC card slot and full computer integration with MIDI Controller mode. Its best feature is its price of under $900, which is a great difference from the Fantom-G8’s $4,000 range and the DP-990F’s $2,500 range.
Beginner vs. Advanced
Roland has a wide range of digital pianos, and no consumer should feel alienated from the brand because of the price or expertise of a particular machine. There are digital pianos made for each and every consumer ranging from beginner to advanced, with the price ranges for each usually increasing proportionally along that range.
Some of the better beginner digital piano options include the Roland F-120, the FP-4F, and the JUNO-Di. The F-120 showcases all of the qualities of a standard digital piano in a contemporary style cabinet with a price range around $1,300. The FP-4F is a standalone piano that emphasizes portability and Roland SuperNATURAL piano technology for around $1,500-$2,000. The JUNO-Di is more of a synthesizer and a cheaper version of the JUNO-Gi, and can be found for about $700.
Roland has a wide range of digital pianos that are more advanced and cost significantly more. The Fantom-G8 workstation and the upright DP-990F are certainly two examples of advanced models, with the Roland Jupiter-80 Synthesizer being another digital piano that would also fall under this category.
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