Tune Up: Roland's New SuperNATURAL® Pianos

posted in: Features • Reviews & Playlists

If you were intrigued by our review of the ground-breaking Pianoteq software, then you might want to take that concept to the next level. This week we’ll be bringing the concept of synthetically-modeled/realistically-sampled piano sounds to the hardware department. Any musician is familiar with a keyboard; there are also electric pianos that attempt to emulate the weight of a real piano keyboard (typically also with great sampled sounds). In this case, we’re referring to Roland‘s SuperNATURAL® technology. While not inherently based on hardware, Roland recently released additions to their piano line that incorporate this technology.

The goal here is to create sampling, playback and expression that accurately replicate a real piano. Check out this video from Roland to see what we mean:

While this video specifically features Roland’s HP line, the same SuperNATURAL® technology is included in their recently shipped pianos: the LX-10F, the DP-990F, the RG-3F and the RG-1F. Here are some specs for the RG-3F digital mini grand piano:

” SuperNATURAL® sound engine

” Piano Designer to create custom sounds (changing hammer noise and such)

” realistic feeling damper pedals

” PHA III Ivory Feel Keyboard

As you can see, the name of the game with this piano is realism. So why not just buy a real piano? Well, there are a lot of positives with this type of electric model. To begin, they truly do have a very realistic feel (often better than a cheaper acoustic spinet piano). And the realistic cabinet of an electric piano can be smaller as it doesn’t need space for storing the strings (because it has none).

Also, unlike with an acoustic piano, you can actually change the sound of an electric piano (from one type of grand to a different type of upright, for example). This is a perk that could never be achieved with an acoustic piano and, because the new Roland models are quite realistic, they truly sound like each different type of piano. Top it off with realistic damper pedals and ivory-style keys (yes, they look, feel and even absorb air moisture like real ivory keys), and you’ve got a truly great line of electric pianos.