REVIEW - Roland HP504, HP506, HP508 Digital Pianos - Recommended - Impressive new instruments for 2014
UPDATED REVIEW - February 2, 2015 - Roland HP504, HP506, HP508Home Digital Pianos - Recommended
- The Roland Corporation started making digital pianos many, many years
ago and is well known throughout the world for building higher quality,
advanced digital music products that piano students, players, teachers,
professional musicians, churches, and studios use. I have played and
used many of the Roland music products including digital drum kits, MIDI
guitars, home organs, pro keyboards, digital pianos, pro audio systems,
keyboard & guitar amps, headphones, special effects systems, MIDI
products, and other music gear.
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| HP508 polished ebony |
When it comes to digital pianos, which is my specialty, I am very picky
about quality and realism in terms of accurate piano key action and key
touch, authentic piano sound & dynamics with full expression
capability, realistic pedaling response, and durability, especially in
the higher priced models such as these new Roland HP series pianos. The
HP (stands for home pianos) series has been out for many years and
Roland is well known for them. These pianos seem to get better every
time a new model comes out and the Roland HP series is a strong
competitor to the Kawai CN & CA series as well as the Yamaha
Clavinova CLP digital piano series in similar price ranges. Since Roland
does not publish its retail or store discount prices on its web
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| Roland HP504/HP506 control panel |
site or dealer web sites, nor are these instruments available on the
Internet in the US, getting price info is a little hard to come by in
the US. However, it's my best guess at the moment, based on what I've
already seen at Roland piano stores, that the HP504 in satin finishes
are selling in local US stores for approx $2700-$3000US, the HP506 in
satin finishes are selling approx between $3300-$3700US, and the HP508
in satin finishes are selling approx between $4500-$5000US. Actual
selling prices will vary depending on where you live, your local Roland
dealer, the prices they charge, and the demand for a particular model.
The HP506 and HP508 are also offered in a special high polished ebony
finish which increases price by about $600US each...so there is
definitely a premium for buying a high polish ebony finish, but they are
certainly beautiful to look at.
I have already played these pianos many times and I really did not
expect them to be much better than the previous model HP503, HP505, and
HP507 because the pianos appear to be somewhat similar overall, and
based on digital feature specifications, it did not look like much had
changed. However, I was very surprised that they had changed
(improved) in a big way with regard to the fundamentals of piano playing
including key action, sound & dynamic response, and pedaling. The
best product change analogy I can use is when Apple computer company
upgraded their iPad2 to the iPad 3 with Retina display screen.
The iPad Retina display was a huge upgrade in terms of the screen
display quality and realism for images, the processing power was
greater too and buyers were very impressed and bought them in huge
numbers. The new Roland HP504 (left pic with bench), HP506, & HP508
is much the same way in its new upgrades of noticeably superior piano
performance over previous models. The new key actions are much quieter
and move better, the piano sound and dynamic range is much more
realistic & pure, and pedaling is improved. For those people who
play digital pianos or have played good acoustic grand pianos, they
would be able to tell how good these new Roland pianos really are as
compared to anything that Roland and other piano companies have had
before. The subtleties in tonality, nuance, dynamic range, and
expressiveness are evident when playing complex music in ways not
possible on Roland pianos in the past.
Roland has two new upgraded piano hammer weighted graded key actions and
they have been given names beyond the boring model numbers used in the
past. The best key action, which is in the HP506 & HP508, is called Concert Keyboard (an appropriate name actually). The key action in the HP504 is called Premium Keyboard.
The difference between the two is that the Concert Keyboard in the
HP506 & HP508 feels even more like a grand piano to me and the
Premium Keyboard action in the HP504 (below left pic) is just slightly
less realistic but still very enjoyable to play and much better than
most other brands in its price range. This is the first major key action
upgrade in many years for the Roland company in terms of feel,
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| Roland HP504 |
key sensor ability and sensitivity, reaction time, and overall quietness
of key movement and keybed. For the first time ever in any major brand
of digital piano that I know
of, Roland now has 4 electronic key sensors per key (this 4-sensor info came directly to me from Roland US). The new 4-sensor piano
sound electronics is in all of the new DP, HP, & LX models and makes a
huge difference in overall touch sensitivity, dynamic range, and piano
tone subtitles and is especially noticeable if you are a more advanced
player. When it comes to piano sound, it's really all about expression and expressing yourself in a musical way.
These new models do such a fine job of that, that even an experienced
piano/music teacher like myself would not hesitate to recommend these
pianos over many acoustic pianos out there when it comes to having the
necessary fundamentals a student or player needs to make good music. So
if you ever hear a piano teacher say "I would never recommend a digital
piano to my students if they want to be serious about their musical
growth," then that teacher has not played a new higher quality digital
piano lately, especially the new Roland pianos.
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| New synthetic ebony keys |
As I mentioned before, unless you have a very musically trained ear for
listening to or playing high quality acoustic pianos, you may not be
able to recognize how good these new Roland digital models are as
compared to some lower priced digital pianos. This is because
sound and feel are, at the end of the day, subjective & personal and
objectivity for the untrained ear and fingers can be difficult to
obtain. Having said that, the piano sound realism, key sensitivity, and
dynamic range along with a much quieter key action than ever before is
really quite amazing in all three new models, and it really does give
you the impression that you are playing a real top quality acoustic
piano and much more so than previous Roland piano models. The key weight
and static touch weight (amount of finger pressure required to press
keys when keys are at resting position) are excellent as well as key
balance from bass through treble range and from black keys to white
keys. Unless you get a chance to play one of these pianos locally you'll
just have to take my word for it:).
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| New synthetic ivory keys |
Both new Roland key actions (Concert & Premium) also incorporate a
grand piano simulation
movement with a "let-off/escapement mechanism." This key movement
simulates the key action feel of a grand piano as opposed to an upright
piano. When you press the keys down
slowly on a real grand piano, you can feel a slight hesitation or notch
about half way down when the key action is moving and this is called the
escapement or let-off effect. Generally speaking, upright acoustic
pianos do not have this feature but grand pianos do. Is this
let-off/escapement feature a necessity for playing a piano?...not
really...but it's cool to have because it does offer even better playing
feel, especially for more advanced
players:) The white piano key tops
are coated in a synthetic ivory material which (tries to) duplicates
the feel
of the older acoustic pianos which had real ivory keys and has a slight
textured feeling to them. This synthetic ivory was on the previous
models too. But on these new models Roland has added new synthetic ebony
for the black keys (Concert Action only) which completes the total
realism of playing a real organic piano keyboard on all keys. This
synthetic substance on both black & white keys
has a slight texture and helps absorb sweat from the fingers and offers a
smoother playing
experience. It also looks a bit classier than the all
shiny white and black keys and I personally like this feel very much.
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| HP506 rosewood |
The piano cabinet and control panel in all three models have been
redesigned with more contemporary lines, a sleeker looking panel layout
with redesigned buttons and functions that are a bit more intuitive to
use. The satin cabinet finishes also look more realistic than previous
models and are more scratch resistant. Even the Roland HP piano logo on
the HP pianos was redesigned and relocated to the top of the music rack
where it looks elegant and classier, which is a small but important
detail in my opinion. Roland did keep something that was on previous
models and that is where the control panel is located and the fact that
the key cover is a two stage cover allowing the player the ability of
covering the control panel without covering up the keys. This allows for
a visually more minimalistic acoustic looking piano when playing it and
yet you can easily slide the cover back up inside the piano and expose
the control panel again so you can use the buttons to change functions
and features. I really like how that works and I am a big fan of having
the buttons up above the keys as opposed to on the left or right side of
the piano keyboard as in other digital piano brands and models.
The acoustic piano sound itself (taken from Steinway acoustic grand
pianos) on all the Roland HP pianos are identical regardless of model
and they all have 128-note polyphony
piano memory (how many notes can be played and sustained at one time)
which is more than enough for even the most complex piano pieces because
of Roland's advanced polyphony voice allocation. It's a fancy way to
say you won't run out of notes even when layering two sounds together or
playing complex MIDI song files while playing live over the top of it.
Roland calls its acoustic piano sound SuperNATURAL Piano
meaning that
Roland has attempted to reproduce a much more "natural & beautiful"
acoustic
stereo sound in their digital pianos and I feel they have done this
quite well on these new models. In fact, if you plug in a good pair of
stereo headphones to one of these pianos they would all basically sound
the same
to most people and have a great piano sound except the higher
priced HP508 would have many more key touch sensitivity settings (100 of them as opposed to 5 on the other two models) as well
as more digital sound
enhancements including what Roland calls Piano Designer
effects. The additional touch sensitivity settings are really a big
upgrade and allow for incremental changes in how the piano sound reacts
to your finger touch. The key touch is much more customizable
(for children or adults, beginners through advanced) on the HP508
because of so many more touch sensitivity settings, which is a good
thing. There are also certain tones that occur inside a regular acoustic
piano when
the hammers hit the strings and the strings are vibrating, as well as
how the pedals influence the piano sound. Some of the acoustic piano elements
include duplex scale, hammer noise,
damper noise settings, soundboard behavior, and digitally opening and
closing the lid of a grand piano at different height levels, and they
are included in the HP508 (and LX15e) but some are not in the HP504
& HP506. Whether or not these additional acoustic piano elements are
something you will personally hear one way or the other is hard
to tell depending on your ears, expectations, musical experience,
and sensitivity. But I can assure you that the extra piano sound
upgrades in the HP508 (as compared to the HP506 & HP504) do bring
another level of piano playing authenticity to the HP508 and I can hear
the difference. The main function of any good digital piano is to play
& sound like a real high quality acoustic piano and a good piano
manufacturer is always looking for a better way to do that and yet keep
their digital pianos at affordable prices. 
Overall, I like the SuperNATURAL piano
sound very much and it offers a beautiful acoustic playing experience
more closely associated with the Steinway grand piano sound and I can
hear that and it's impressive. However, everyone has
different ears and reacts to sound differently but I personally enjoy
playing and listening to the Roland acoustic piano sound in these new
models and in the HP508, it's a big resonate piano sound also because of
the substantially upgraded internal speaker system. People who own
these new pianos have told me they really can't believe their ears at
how good the piano sound is and how much it sounds like they are playing
a real piano. For me personally, the sound of any of these new models,
especially through headphones, really moves my musical soul and allows
me to create the music that's in my head and on the music in front of
me. Copyright AZPianoNews.com 2014
With regard to the piano pedals, they operate very smoothly and feel
realistic to press down and incorporate the three traditional pedal
functions
(damper/sustain, sostenuto, and soft) of regular acoustic pianos. They
do work better than other digital pianos I have played and also simulate
a
good note sustaining experience using a damper continuous detection pedaling
feature. This function gives the player incremental note sustain
amounts rather than just on & off or half pedal. It is definitely a
much more realistic acoustic piano playing experience than other brands
as well as
physically feeling like the pedal is changing resistance when being
pressed down. Roland calls this feature Progressive Damper Action.
Having quality piano pedals & accurate piano pedal operation is
very important, especially to more advanced players. Roland does not
skimp on this area of piano playing like some other digital piano
manufacturers do. Even the height of the pedals (an important aspect of
pedal playing) is
accurate as compared to concert grand pianos like the Steinway acoustic
grand pianos. Every aspect of pedal playing can make a big difference in
technique and performance and these are not features and functions that
should be overlooked.
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| HP508 control panel |
The HP models offer many high quality instrument sounds divided into 4
control panel buttons above the keyboard. These sounds include 14
variations of acoustic grand pianos, 5 upright pianos (uprights are
generally not found on other brands), 10 electric pianos, and
321 additional instrument tones (just about anything you can think of
including strings, organs, banjo, synth, sax, trumpet, sitar, guitars,
individual
drum sounds, etc:) for a total of 350 tones which is a lot! You can see
all of the instrument names and other function descriptions in the LCD
user display screen which is very nice for displaying relevant info and
the HP508 has a slightly better and larger display screens for accessing
even more information. On the panel button with the 321 extra
instrument sounds, it can be a bit tedious in getting to the sound you
want by scrolling to it
with the value +/- button, but this is true of other brands as well.
However, Roland has created a special iPad app that allows you to select
all of the instrument sounds on the piano (all Roland HP models) from
an iPad connected wirelessly to the piano. This iPad Roland app called Piano Partner,
displays all
350 tones from within the piano which are easy to find and
select right from an iPad touch screen (left pic). Of course you need
to dedicate an iPad to
the piano which not everyone can do as it does add extra cost, but it is
very cool to do that and personally I think an iPad is a great addition
to these pianos . On the piano buttons themselves, you can
change the "tonality" of the sounds by increasing or decreasing the
brilliance or mellowness of the piano & instrument sounds and you
can take any two sounds and layer them together or split them separately
on either side of the keyboard. The pianos also have the duet twin
piano feature which lets you electronically divide the 88-keys into two
identical 44-key keyboards playing the same notes in the same octaves so
that two people can play the same music at the same time. It's a great
feature for teacher-student, parent-child, etc, and many of the top
brands are including that feature in their pianos too.
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| USB ports |
A digital MIDI recorder is built into each model featuring 3 tracks of
recording and playback (for up to 3 separate instruments) and being able
to save the songs on a USB flashdrive which is very cool. There is also
an audio wav file recorder which allows actual CD recording and
playback giving a precise rendition of your song which you can then play
along with or save on a USB flashdrive for loading onto your computer
to use in notation programs or attach to emails to send to family &
friends so they can hear you on their computers...lots of fun with that.
You can also plug in another instrument or microphone into the pianos
and record that sound along with the piano and combine them. You can
also use a key transpose feature on the pianos to transpose your
recording (including the external audio source) to another key for
singing or modulating the song up or down in semi-tones one step at a
time. Even playback speed of MIDI and audio song files can
be adjusted up or down which is very cool for audio and most digital
pianos cannot do this on audio wav/CD files. So that means you can play
along with your favorite CD song direct in your piano and slow it down
to 75% of original speed to learn how to play it at a better (slower)
speed while learning...and it still sounds good! I have not seen
audio/CD song tempo control before on any other brand that has audio
record or playback. Copyright AZPianoNews.com 2014
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| General MIDI sound |
All Roland piano HP models playback General MIDI song files
from a USB flashdrive which is a great feature and one I use all the
time in my studio. The General MIDI song format allows you to play your
piano parts along "with the band or orchestra" and to interact with
multiple instruments at one time using well known piano lesson books
including thousands of popular songs from a variety of music styles and eras which can be found on the Internet.
For more info on the General MIDI format go here: General MIDI and Playing Piano.
Roland has a number of other ways its pianos can record music and
playback songs for music education & learning that are quite useful
and can be important when trying to learn music whether you are a
beginner or professional. But this comes as no surprise because for
years Roland has built professional recording & music learning
devices for musicians, teachers, and students who use them in their home
or studio for more effective practice sessions. If you want to know
more about this you are welcome to contact me.
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| Flash card game |
All of these models can connect directly to an iPad for another
interactive way of learning about music and playing the piano, and I use
iPad piano learning/teaching apps all the time in my studio which
provides a cutting edge visual way of interactive piano practice and
learning. A unique feature of the Roland HP pianos is that they
can do a wireless USB connection to an iPad using an optional Roland wireless USB
adapter and specially created Roland iPad apps such as the Piano Partner app (see pics on left). The Piano Partner
iPad app does a number of things including visually letting you access
all of the instrument sounds in the pianos by selecting the specific
instrument sound (more than 300 of them), which I mentioned earlier, and
touching the iPad to get it. It's intuitive and really something every
owner of a new HP models new Roland piano should have. The Piano Partner app also displays the actual musical notation for all
200 lesson songs built inside the Roland pianos so that you can see the
music and play along at any speed you like. You can also mute the right
and/or left hand so that you can play that part live while the other
"hand" is is being heard playing back on the iPad Piano Partner app. The songs include
popular lesson songs that teachers use for their students and there are
even orchestral accompaniments for some of the songs to make it sound
even more exciting. It's easy to use, fun, and quite motivational and is
recommended by music teachers and I really like it. The app also displays a flash card game
that allows you to learn to identify notes on the staff so that you
become better at sight reading. Beyond all that, on the Roland pianos there is wireless audio
to play music from your iTunes songs (with tempo & transpose control) and hear
it through the piano speakers by way of a new Roland Air Performer app without the need of connecting audio
cables from the piano to the iPad. This is very cool and unique and I
have not seen this feature offered on other brands before. The audio
sound & USB connections from other non-Roland iPad music apps still need connecting cables,
but that's true of the other brands too.
The
speaker/audio system in each model is good and gets better as you go up
in
models with the HP508 being noticeably best of all. Each piano model has
more audio
power, bigger speakers, and more speakers than the model before it and
the better internal speaker systems do make these pianos sound more
realistic. The HP504 has 24 watts of total audio power going into 2
amplifiers and 2 speakers and although that specification may not seem
like much, this model is surprisingly loud and full for its smaller size
due to special Roland speaker technology and competes quite well with
the bigger 40 watt audio power of other
digital pianos. The HP506 has 74 watts (an upgrade over previous model)
of total audio power
going into 4 amplifiers and 4 speakers, and the HP508 has 150 watts (an upgrade over previous model) of total
audio power going into 4 amplifiers and 6 speakers. The HP508 is
a bit taller piano (about 45" tall with music rack up - about 38" tall
with music rack folder down) so that
the 6 speakers can be laid out inside the piano with two near the top,
two near the keyboard, and two below pointing forward (instead of down
in the other two models). This system gives a more balanced
approach to recreating the acoustic piano playing experience and it
really makes the piano sound like a big acoustic grand piano. So it's
not only the power or the internal audio systems themselves, but how and
where they are installed in the piano and how the individual piano
tones are projected through those different systems. Roland has been in
the professional pro audio business for many years (I have owned and used some of their pro audio speakers) so they do have
experience in this area and it shows in these digital pianos. The best way I can sum up and identify the major changes in the HP504, 506, and 508 from the previous models are as follows:
1. New PHA-4 Concert Keyboard with Escapement and Ebony/Ivory Feel features Roland’s latest high-resolution touch-detection technology
2. Fortissimo (dynamically very loud) playing styles are fully expressed with the new Dynamic Harmonic feature, which provides both a unique tonal character and powerful sound
3. New Individual Note Voicing to customize the sound to your taste by adjusting the pitch (tuning), volume, and character of each note independently including Stretched Tuning: -50.0 – +50.0 cent, Note Volume: -50 – 0, Note Character: -5 – +5
4. Headphones 3D Ambience effect sound experience while using headphones for private practice
5. Display music scores and selected HP-508 tones & songs with Piano Partner app for iPad
6. Independent volume control for headphones, volume limit function, and a 4 level tilt adjustable music rest which no other major brand has
7. Better connectivity with mini stereo input and output jacks as opposed to just standard 1/4 jacks
I do need to point out that while all of the upgrades on these new
pianos are pretty impressive, the most interesting new feature to me is
that for the first time that I know of on a top name home digital
(upright style) piano, you can actually electronically adjust each of
the 88 notes one at a time for tuning, volume, and character (voicing).
On all other top name digital pianos you can only do this for all 88
keys at one time, but not for each note individually. This may not be
useful or ever necessary for beginner thru early intermediate players,
but for more advanced players you may have reason to want specific notes
individually altered because of the way you hear your music and the
notes that are playing. It's all about the "ear" and about your piano
playing experience & skill level, thus you may find this new and
impressive feature useful to be able to play your music exactly in the
way you want it to sound over 88 individual notes. I have used this
feature to customize the piano sound and I like the result very much.
Another new Roland creation I found intriguing was the "3D effect" through
stereo headphones. It's
supposed to give you the impression the piano sound is all around you
coming from different directions as opposed to directly into your ears.
Roland calls it "an immersive sound
experience" which gives you the feeling you're not actually wearing
headphones at all...and that's really the point of this feature. I tried
it out and found that overall, it had a more natural effect than
listening through stereo headphones without it. It actually
did sound like I wasn't wearing headphones...although I was:). This is
new technology in digital pianos and it's a nice feature to have
especially if you'll be using headphones often. The 3-D headphone sound effect
only works when the ambiance button on the piano control panel is
selected and it can be turned on or off or controlled in incremental levels Also, it's important to
have/own excellent sounding stereo headphones for private playing
because you want to capture all the nuances of the new
enhanced Roland piano sound dynamics and tonal qualities. I can give you
some good
recommendations if you don't already have headphones.
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| HP508 satin black |
As with all lower priced digital pianos under approx $3000 discount
price, I would have preferred the internal speaker systems on the HP504
& HP506 to be more powerful than they are, but this is true for the
other brands too. I am just spoiled when it comes to sound (I play
acoustic grand pianos often:) and I like the volume and tone to be big
such as what is in the HP508. But for the majority of people, the HP504
& HP506 will have more than enough sound and volume for most
homes and I have played them many times and they do sound great for
their price. These new Roland models also have built-in audio outputs so
you can add a small external sound system to any of the models (like
you would to a TV, iPod, home stereo, etc) and then you can enhance the
sound quality and volume even further if you want.
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| HP506 rosewood closed key cover |
If you want a realistic and satisfying "acoustic piano" style playing experience without an over abundance
of digital features (no drum rhythm
patterns, no automatic chord styles, etc), the new Roland HP504, HP506,
and HP508 would be an excellent choice depending on your budget, and I
do highly
recommend them. They are a big upgrade from the prior models in
key action & piano dynamics and play great. Also, as compared
against the other popular name brands such as Yamaha & Kawai, the
new Roland pianos have the latest piano technology out there right now,
and in a number of important ways (which I discussed previously) they
surpass what the other brands do in similar price ranges. Although these
new HP pianos do a lot more than I have mentioned in this review in
terms of digital features they have, those things are just "frosting on
the cake" as far as I am concerned. Once you get up into this price
range it's mostly all about piano playing in my opinion,
and that's definitely where the Roland HP models excel. Roland products
have been known to be very reliable overall and these pianos come with a
5 year parts, 2 year labor labor warranty which is quite good. As I
always tell people, do your homework before making a buying decision,
especially when it comes to some artificially higher piano store prices
out there, but you can't go wrong on any of the new Roland HP digital
pianos and you can enjoy them for many years to come.
