The RD-88 is Roland’s latest and lightest Stage Piano. Read how its feel, design, huge range of sounds, accessibility and built-in features makes it perfect for the gigging muso.
Why? Well, here’s five reasons…
1. Light and compact but still feels like an acoustic piano.
The RD-88 is ultra-compact and regardless of the piano action only weighs 13.5 kg. There’s a lot packed into its portable frame, not to mention that it’s also very affordable.
It has Roland’s industry-respected PHA-4 weighted 88-note keyboard. With a textured ivory finish, it responds just like an acoustic piano so your performance can have the feel of your acoustic piano that you love without breaking your back when it’s time to lug out.
2. All the sounds you need plus more available from Roland Cloud.
The RD-88 has Roland’s acclaimed SuperNATURAL Acoustic Engine as well as the incredible ZEN-Core Synthesis System giving you over 3000 sounds to play with.
You get a huge library of acoustic and electric pianos, organs, synths, orchestral instruments, guitars, drums and more. Plus, the synthesizer engine which combines PCM synthesis with Virtual Analog modelling for detailed, ultra-flexible modern and vintage synth sounds.
And with Roland Cloud, you can access even more new sound packs and expansions for the RD-88. You can use Roland’s enormous library of tones as a starting point and edit them to sound like a synth line from a cover song or get creative and make your own unique instrument!
3. Easy to set up layers and splits to be ready for your cover songs
You can stack up to three sounds in layers or have them split with one layer to the left and two layers to the right, AND you’re able to independently control the mix, tone and effects parameters for each layer quickly and easily from the front panel knobs, perfect for live performance.
You can save your favourite stacked sounds into ‘scenes’ in order as a setlist for instant recall. This means you can jump from one song to the next at the push of a button, knowing that all your individual sounds for each song are there ready to go.
4. Built in speakers and mic input for intimate gigs - no need for a PA
The RD-88 has built-in speakers, loud enough for intimate gigs like small restaurants, bars, or coffee shops, and with the built-in microphone input you will be able to play and sing without the need to bring a PA! There’s also a stereo line input to play your backing tracks and break music from your portable device.
This makes the RD-88 great for home practice, rehearsals with your fellow musicians, or parties at home.
5. Simple MainStage integration for a massive palette of sound.
MainStage is an Apple software that lets you play software instruments on your laptop. The RD-88 fully integrates with MainStage, and even displays performance patch names on its screen, making it extremely powerful for live performances giving you an even larger pallet of sounds.
You can connect to your laptop and play the instruments loaded into MainStage from the RD-88 keyboard and the audio from MainStage routes back through the RD-88’s audio outputs, all via one usb cable.
Take the Stage
The RD-88 has proven to be extremely popular with gigging musicians for all these five reasons. You can have the acclaimed RD sound and playability in a lighter, more accessible, and more affordable instrument. A plethora of sounds, internal, downloadable and expandable with MainStage integration.
For more info on the RD-88, visit www.roland.com/au/products/rd-88/
