If you know the sound of Roland digital pianos, then I don’t have to tell you much about it. If you don’t, and you’re looking for a high quality digital piano that has that natural grand piano sound, but is under the $2000 comfort zone, then you will love the Roland RD-300NX Digital Piano. This model has a lot of features that you can find at its more pricey brother the RD-700NX.
Overview
Roland RD-300NX Digital Piano is a compact musical instrument that packs together many features, although having a cleaner and simpler front panel than other stage pianos in its category. The sturdy casing and its weight, which is slightly over 38 pounds makes it a great piano for the road that can be carried by a single person. The pitch and modulation paddle, which is a signature for Roland, is placed on the left hand side, opposed to other manufacturers that position theirs on the front panel.
The fully weighted ivory-feel keys are much more sensitive and responsive than the semi-weighted keys of previous models. The keys have a perfectly balanced touch. The action is not graded, but it does provide a sound that simulates of a hammer striking the chords when keys are pressed.
Sound Tones & Effects
Roland RD-300NX Digital Piano features 3 acoustic piano tones: stereo grand piano, mono grand piano and a slightly detuned piano sound. Pressing the gray piano button will give you ten live sets that have timbre, effects and split settings that can be easily customized. I noticed that the note decay happens a bit too fast when I compared it playing an acoustic grand piano. This is though pretty hard to notice and is a common trait of digital pianos.
The equalizer has three-bands that have each a dedicated knob and a global compressor that also has settings easy to edit. Roland has also included the so-called Sound Focus button. They say that it provides a kind of phase correction. According to my experience with the Roland RD-300NX Digital Piano, the button’s effect is better described as reducing the stereo width, bringing you forward in the mix, holding the same sound volume. For tones different from the piano ones, it seemed to enhance the sound, something like a midrange boost.
The other important category that is very easy to deploy is the so-called “E. Piano”. It’s turned on with the touch of a button and features 15 electric piano live sets. The presets are variations of 3 electric piano sounds: Wurlitzer, Rhodes and mid 80’s structured digital sound. When accessing any of these 3 variations, you’ll get to choose between 44 electric piano sounds.
Aside from the aforementioned tone settings, the RD-300NX features a multi-effects processor with 78 sound effects that can be applied to any tone setting.
Conclusions
Roland RD-300NX Digital Piano is perfectly balanced between simplicity and depth. If you want to customize your sound, it’s extremely easy to do so, accessing different sound and tonal variations on piano and non-piano sounds. It’s so easy and well thought that you can split, tweak and layer without being distracted from playing music. If you’re looking for a high quality and versatile digital piano, this is one musical instrument that should be high on your list.
In this video below you c an hear the great sound of the Roland RD-300NX Digital Piano.
