Roland announces the RD-700GX SuperNATURAL Piano Kit

Well my expansion board arrived this afternoon and for the short time I have had it i give it the thumbs up Even better than I had hoped.
What I like about it the most is the playing dynamics which the stock RD700GX piano sounds lack. Much easier to play expressively now with far greater playing dynamics.
The tone is quite good...Maybe a little brittle sounding in the 2 octaves above middle C but if I set the lid to almost shut, this improves it a lot. I also find that increasing hammer noise to 1 helps.
Overall I am extremely happy that I bought it

Mal

mal7896, if you could post some audio demos here, that would be terrific! You can even post in non-compressed WAV or AIFF (that would be best!) since we allow up to 20 MB uploads per each post. Thank you!

Hi Artemiy
Just did a quick improvisation to give you an idea of the sound, and most importantly the dynamics. I'm really happy with the purchase. Huge improvement in playability over Expressive Grand and Superior Grand (IMO)
Did an MP3 at 320 kbps (wave went a bit over 20mb)

Very nice demo! Sure, the dynamics have improved; I can't wait to put my hands in this expansion card! I miss some passage playing fortissimo, but otherwise, your demo is great to test the sound of the new piano.

mal7896, thank you very much for posting this demo! It sounds really... supernatural If I lift the attachment size, will you post the uncompressed file?

Just increased the attachment size to 50 MB

mal7896, would really love if you create a new topic and post your demo there so it has better visibility! Thank you!

Would be happy to help out Artemiy. Unfortunately I ditched the original wave file, so will do another demo later today in wave format..
Had a good play of it last night and I must say it gets better all the time. Lovely tone and the dynamics are a big improvement. (as I have already mentioned).
The "old" RG700GX pianos sound dreadful in comparison now.
I have the lid position set to 2 or 3 (on Grand Piano 1)for the slightly darker, less brittle sound I prefer. Increasing sympathetic resonance also is nice in ballads and new age stuff.
Roland have a winner here for sure I had been looking at the soon to be released CP5, but I doubt if I will get it now

if there was any doubt about it, you could always buy both.

Well, I installed my upgrade kit yesterday 3/10/10 and I'm well satisfied. I was concerned about it not living up to it's price, but I feel like it was worth every penny. I won't get into the tech aspects of the kit right now, but suffice it to say "I'm happy".
John

I too just installed my RD700GX1 upgrade (3/11/10) and must say I am a happy camper!!! Very organic tone and dynamics. The new Supernatural AP's now go well with the Supernatural EP! It's hard to explain but the sonic quality of switching between the two match up (not to mention I have tweaked my Ep's to my liking) The customizing parameters are pretty much the same, but now when you go into the micro tune edit, you really have something special because of the new processing engine. This feature was present in the stock pianos, but lacked the sensation of detuning and creating a "sweet spot" of an organic piano tone.

Anyway enough of my rambling ,I have to dig more into playing these new piano sounds. I will say that my favorite preset as of now is #2 (clear grand). I will advise all RD owners to get this upgrade, definitely worth the money and probably will have you reconsidering spending another $2600 for a CP5, although if you have the extra cash, why not ; )

Does anyone else find the upgrade to sound very Pianoteq'y? The low end is VERY heavy and the high end is very piercing. It lost that soft 'Steinway' tone that I had from my Expressive Grand preset.

I can't dial this sound out no matter what I try! Also, F#2 (the F# below middle C) sounds very bad to me on most of the piano patches (piano 3 is very pronounced for this). Very thin and out of place with the surrounding notes. Almost as if its "hammer felt" is messed up!

Curt

Sorry, Curt I really don't hear the Pianoteq sound in this upgrade. Trust me I KNOW Pianoteq. I have gone through the upgrades from the original to the current 3.5 version. I have tried various alterations and just couldn't get the artificial sound out of it! I believe Pianoteq is still a great product, but it is still evolving and just isn't there yet.

As far as the Roland expansion kit goes, it really DOES NOT have the same artificial tone as Pianoteq. Roland apparently knows about the "modeled" sound problems with their V-Piano and I suppose they created a comprimise between sampling and modeling to achieve an organic yet ACCURATE sound. I have heard others on other forums talk about the V-Piano and it's very Pianoteq nature. Then I finally got the chance to sit down and play a V-Piano. I swear I was home playing Pianoteq with my RD700GX!!! I was very disappointed with it and couldn't believe someone would pay $6000 for it. Yes I know it's very customizable, but the principle sound is artificial sounding and just doesn't cut it! However, this new expansion addresses the issue of the inaccurate tone of pure modeling and the static nature of pure samples. I really think that this is going to be the way that piano emulation is going to be done in the future. By using sampling ,you still get the quality of the particular sampled piano and then the modeling makes that tone organic and natural. Once again I think Roland has a winner here.

How about the supernatural kit for the fantom X?

Not possible I assume.

Then I must be losin' it! Can anyone suggest some settings that will give me something similar to that David Hicken tone (check him on iTunes)? I was VERY close to it with the stock Expressive Grand preset and this new tone of the SN has knocked me way off track!

I sat with this for the past two nights now and I believe I've tried everything (except get on the phone for an hour with customer support) and I'm at a loss.

Curt

Well, nevermind! I think I finally have it! Using GrandPiano2. Just had to adjust my touch really. It's all there!!

I'm a FAN!!!