Overview

On first unboxing, the FP-90 is the picture of simplicity. Fit and finish are excellent. With circular buttons outlined in white light, the monochrome visual aesthetic seems intended to blend into formal living rooms and even more formal gigs. I could do with higher-contrast panel labels, though; these are difficult to read in anything but direct light.

Roland’s PHA-50 action has the hallmarks of their high-end keyboards: It’s fully weighted and graded, and simulates the feel of escapement and let-off. The key surfaces have a matte texture that improves grip and wicks away moisture. What’s new is the construction: The white keys have wooden sides wrapped around a synthetic skeleton. Compared to all-wooden naturals, this maintains an “organic” feel while saving on weight. Overall, I found the FP-90’s keyboard an excellent complement to its acoustic and electric piano sounds. It was quite capable of conveying subtleties of interpretation and expression, and though dialing down the velocity response to make the touch heavier made me work harder, it was never fatiguing.

Tones come in six groups: Piano, E. Piano (electric piano), Strings, Organs, Pads, and an “Other” bank for things like basses, drums, synths, and General MIDI sounds. You get a three-band EQ, an Ambience slider to control the active sound’s reverb, and a metronome that can keep any time signature. A Song section can play and record both MIDI and audio, the latter using external USB memory.

The internal speaker system is among the loudest and clearest I’ve heard in any slab digital piano with built-in speakers. Even at full volume, the sound doesn’t get crispy. You’ll certainly be heard in a roomful of party guests, and may even need to turn down the volume at brunch or cocktail-hour gigs. The speakers seemed less robust when I streamed audio from my iPhone over Bluetooth, never quite matching the loudness of their internal sounds, even though I tried a variety of sound sources.

Main Acoustic Piano Sounds

The star of the FP-90 show is the new SuperNatural grand sound used by the first four preset piano Tones: Concert, Mellow, Ballad, and Bright. SuperNatural is the marketing label for Roland’s marquee sound design across a range of products. Here, the core piano sounds are produced by physical modeling, not sampling. (An oversimplified explanation: Sampling triggers digital snapshots of recorded acoustic pianos when you play the keys, whereas modeling employs sophisticated “what-if” algorithms to mimic how all aspects of an acoustic piano interact.) The FP-90’s technology is a direct descendant of the V-Piano, an ambitious all-modeling piano that Roland launched in 2009.

The musical results speak for themselves. The Concert Piano preset is so versatile that it almost makes the subsequent Mellow and Bright variants unnecessary. Hold notes, and the sustain sings out in a lilting way I’ve experienced with better-regulated Bösendorfers. The sound’s harmonic content gets more aggressive as you dig in, albeit perhaps a bit too much with the default settings. Traditionally trained pianists may want to set the FP-90’s velocity response to a heavier touch; this goes a long way toward preventing harshness.

These four piano Tones also take advantage of Piano Designer, an editing mode that adjusts a plethora of sonic nuances salient to the mechanics and physics of real acoustic pianos. Lid position? Check. Key release and hammer noises? Check. Several types of resonances are adjustable (strings, damper, cabinet, etc.), as is the duplex scale — treble strings intended specifically for sympathetic vibration. Going deeper still, you can individually adjust the relative volume, tuning, and “character” (mellow to bright) of each note. While all of this is accessible from the FP-90’s display, it’s easier to use the Piano Designer app (Fig. 1).

Electric Piano and Other Sounds

Non-piano sounds on a piano-centric instrument are meant to provide enough pop vocabulary to keep beginning musicians engaged and to give experienced players anything they might need at a gig. Though the FP-90 doesn’t have what I’d call a lot of sounds, what it has is quite good at fulfilling both needs.

We have room for just a few standouts. The 1976 SuitCase is a fabulously realistic Rhodes sound, with just the right amount of auto-panning stereo tremolo. The Wurlitzer electric piano variants have just as much attitude, and a couple of Clavinets capably bring the funk.

String sections are gorgeous throughout, though for pop and disco music, I’d like to see a couple of Tones with faster attacks, i.e., less of a fade-in to their full sound. Organs covers the territory of pipe, tonewheel (B-3), and electronic. Though you can’t adjust drawbars or organ stops within a preset, the rotary-speaker effect is credible. Pads and synths lean toward the bell-then-swell textures that were exotic in the 1980s when first served up by the Roland D-50 synth, but a couple of Jupiter pads sound authentically analog. So does SuperSaw, which tempts you, against all better judgment, to play Van Halen’s “Jump.”

Drum kits are solid and punchy, and the double bass is nice and greasy, but I’d like to see a few more tonal options for pianists who play left-hand bass. Rounding out the roster are 256 General MIDI 2 Tones, which are what the Piano Partner 2 app (Fig. 2) accesses to generate auto-accompaniment.

Click on Playlist in upper left corner of video player for additional Roland FP-90 videos.