Topic by Ecaroh

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Topic: new Rolands

Hi!

Roland just released the new V-stage series which might be interesting to someone here too. Personally I have come to a conclusion that Roland PHA-50 is maybe the best action to be playable and yet still not too heavy to carry and move around. Also next piano (and controller) which I will buy someday need to have decent internal sounds and good MIDI features to control PTQ or other plugins or external gear. Let’s see if V-Stage meet these criteria.

Action of new V-stage 88 remain a bit mystery. On Roland’s site it’s just said to have ” 88 keys with Escapement and Ivory Feel”.

Any idea or guess what it might be? PHA-50 or something new?

https://www.roland.com/global/products/...fications/

EDIT:

I just checked a video and I can answer my own question: it’s PHA-4 which is rather disappointing. In this price range you would expect to get the best action. This makes me wonder why didn’t they say it clearly on specs? Does it affect to sales to admit that? Guy on the video explains that it’s a good compromise for playing pianos but organs, synth, e.pianos too. I don’t know, if I wanna have piano action I want to get closest possible not a compromise. On the other hand if I wanna play more others (pianos just occationally) my choise is waterfall organ action….


Anyway it’s there at 7:55

https://youtu.be/TBx2nQxlaco?si=yoY59QocRbqruhUC

Last edited by Ecaroh (25-01-2025 13:48)

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Reply by Pianistically

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Re: new Rolands

Ecaroh wrote:

I just checked a video and I can answer my own question: it’s PHA-4 which is rather disappointing. In this price range you would expect to get the best action. This makes me wonder why didn’t they say it clearly on specs? Does it affect to sales to admit that?

I had exactly the same reaction. I guess for the price one would expect to see their top action, but in this category,  users' top priorities are sound banks, live controls, knobs, midi zoning, input/outputs,EQ & effects,  seamless transition between patches, ability to record loops… Piano action is not top of the list for the target users for this board at the difference of home users who consider action as top priority even before sound.

Reply by Ecaroh

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Re: new Rolands

IMO it’s strange that they didn’t give best action to 88 model. If you play more organ, synth etc. and pianos just occationally, then there’s 76 model with organ action for you. This is normal with many other companies like Nord. Certainly I would not put 4200e for a keyboard with PHA-4. Till now PHA-4 has been clearly the low budget option for entry level pianists and keyboard players.

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Reply by dikrek

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Re: new Rolands

Ecaroh wrote:

IMO it’s strange that they didn’t give best action to 88 model. If you play more organ, synth etc. and pianos just occationally, then there’s 76 model with organ action for you. This is normal with many other companies like Nord. Certainly I would not put 4200e for a keyboard with PHA-4. Till now PHA-4 has been clearly the low budget option for entry level pianists and keyboard players.

To me it seems the better option for that board is the 76 keys.

Otherwise just get an RD2000

Reply by Pianistically

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Re: new Rolands

Ecaroh wrote:

IMO it’s strange that they didn’t give best action to 88 model. If you play more organ, synth etc. and pianos just occationally, then there’s 76 model with organ action for you. This is normal with many other companies like Nord. Certainly I would not put 4200e for a keyboard with PHA-4. Till now PHA-4 has been clearly the low budget option for entry level pianists and keyboard players.

But the vStage 88 is competing against the nord stage 4 keyboard which is the Nord flagship product and the nord stage 44 doesn’t have either the best ‘piano action’ that nord has ( RH3 Kawai action specifically adapted  for the nord grand 2) .  Most of the owners of the VStage 88 will end playing more organ and synth sounds than piano like owners of the nord stage 4. Users who play more piano than other sounds will go the Roland Rd2000 Ex route . Internally,  the new Vstage 88 is somehow competing with the Fantom 8  . ( even if the latest has the PHA-50 action) but the VStage offers more functionalities for the electric pianos compared to the Fantom .and also the live controls have been enhanced which matters a lot for gigging musicians .

Reply by Ecaroh

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Re: new Rolands

Sorry guys but still I don’t get it. In fact I have Nord Stage 4 and this is my main comparison. To me it’s not questionable why NS4 88 do not have same action as Grand. Latter is grand piano action which need completely different cabinet and mechanics. NS4 also need aftertouch. And BTW Nord Stage 4 has quite nice Fatar action which actually isn’t very far from Grand.

With Roland PHA-4 seems to be quite similar to PHA-50 what comes to mechanics, I believe they could have put it (PHA-50) to V-Stage 88. RD-2000ex is 2666e and V-Stage 88 is 4150e. This is my main reason to wonder this…

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