Roland Bk7m Review

[Oda Znidarsic]

Myapproach is very simple... "keep IT simple" .... and hand on experinces are hard to substitute and hard to get.. and a little like Your strategy... "if you know something... dont be afraid of sharing", and finally you will not loose but winn by sharing..... like happines.. share it.. and it becomes even more.... ;-) unlike with money.. "is never gone, is just in the hands of someone else" ;-(

The BK-series has become more professional, and especially for the BK-7m the user interface has improved dramatically with the new apps! give it a try and report about your experiences here and at www.roland-arranger.com

The touchscreen of the iPad will offer a much more smooth and direct connection to alter settings on the fly. I did not test this myself yet, but as per technical description and on behalf of the users manual it sounds very promising!

yes, open sourse at the best!and I do not understand why this interface is limited only to these few settings, all the effects, Midi, set-ups would be much more easy to adjust via an external touchscreen. as I said in the review: "the upcomming feeling is like navigating a submarine in the harbour by use of the periscope only!""Why make it ieasy when we can more complex!!"Maybe it comes in the next software update ;-) .. is like slow feeding, to keep you allerted about the challenge!

I agree in the modular way of thinking... get a midikeyboard which gives you the feedback YOU need, and add the modules/tonegeneration externally..as I have a Korg Trinity ProX HDR.. like NEW, and I do not need any other keys!

@Vitaliy_Kiselev Roland and others do this for living.... thats why they better like selling slices of "pie" instead of teaching their costumers to bake themselves!The interface "man-maschine" is very essential, and I see a lot of potential to make it a more easy approach to express musical creativity... to minimize the challenge of handling technical shortcommings e.g. design, sound, interfaces, mobility, cost, open source/network... Evolution was always done step-by-step ... and as good comsumers we should be thankfull for have great apps for free, and feel the joy for what we have instead of mouring like spoiled children for the "slightly bigger slice of pie my sister got"!;-)

In addition the the review I did write on the www.roland-arranger.com summer 2012, I do here add my observations, my personal opinion, about the newly released update on 1.07 firmware, und especially in the combination with the released BK-Partner software installed on an iPad.One of the major complaints I had previously about the BK-7m was the user interface, especially the tiny display and missing users manual. The BK-Partner app do give you a lot of more easy ways to control/program you BK-7m, but is it really usable?..

I now do own a Roland BK-7m, and I do confront myself with the setup, making performances, adjusting all to my preferences. It is very time demanding, and an app which would cover further settings would be of a huge advantage. I did spend thousands of hour playing life music on stage, and I do really attempt to use this module for this purpose again!

There are a couple of nice caveats to the 1-track MIDI recorder on these pianos the control panel will allow you to actually record 2 separate tracks provided you use the split keyboard function with one instrument sound on the left hand and a different instrument sound on the right hand, like piano on left and electric piano on right, or whatever two sounds you choose. In this way the 2 parts can be played back one at a time or together and you can play live on top of that. The same is true when you layer two sounds together as they will be recorded independently on right and left channels played back together or independently. You can even rewind & fast forward digitally. But as far as the traditional left hand/right hand 2 -track recording which is preferable, these Roland pianos cannot do that.

As with most other digital pianos, there are many editing features in the RP401R/F130R which include being able to incrementally adjust the brightness level of the sound coming through the piano or headphones which allows you to customize the overall sound from mellow to very bright., You can also adjust the ambiance/reverb amount from minimum up to maximum, change volumes of many functions & features, select and change metronome beat and tempo, adjust 5 separate levels of key touch sensitivity, change relative volumes between left and right hand parts and accompaniments, and digitally limit the maximum volume of the piano so that you can limit the total loudness through speakers or headphones even if a child should turn the volume all the way up. You can also save editing changes you make in the piano to a user memory so that they will instantly come back up again upon powering the piano up at another time, and other editing functions. A few other full featured digital pianos under $2000 can also do these things and it is very helpful to have these features.

A couple of the other very good digital pianos to consider under $2000 is the 2018 Casio Celviano model AP470 and the Korg C1 Air . These 2 models actually offer more in a some important areas with regard to key action, piano sound, features, and cabinet design in my opinion. The Casio AP470 is $1599 discount price and the Korg C1 Air is currently $1249 discount price. The Casio Celviano AP470 is very impressive when it comes to the actual piano playing experience you get and equally the Korg C1 Air at its current low price is in a completely different league when it comes to the features that it offers as compared to the Roland F140R. Both the Celviano AP470 and Korg C1 Air have long factory warranties and are built by digital piano companies who know what they are doing based on my years of experience with them. Go to the following links below to read my reviews on these two exciting models:

I cannot help you with your question here since those instruments are in different price ranges and they do vastly different things, especially DP90Se being substantially more money. If you want more specific info you may contact me by email

They are very close in piano sound realism although the now discontinued HP503 has the stronger total volume output. But adding a small stereo speaker system or low priced monitors to the RP401R would easily make it a much fuller, larger sound over the HP503. It's the new HP504 that has noticeably upgraded piano sound realism over the RP401R

Hi Tim, I have tinkered around as a novice to grade 5 on saxophone and guitar many years ago so have some music reading/playing experience. For my 50th in September I am really looking forward to getting a digital piano and have concluded after much research that my overall preferences are the similarly priced Kawai CN24 /Roland RP401R or the Kawai CN34 / HP504. I think that the Roland is probably my best option with the great looking trainer software but I am strongly swayed by the overall sound of the instrument. There's nothing I can find online that helps me hear these two makes compared to each other and the newness of the Roland models have few opinions expressed at present.

As a new starter on piano I am keen to take a different approach to learning this time around and ignore formal teaching until I feel it's needed. I'm looking to start out learning with my love of blues coupled with anything that takes my fancy using a mix of playing with and without written music to help become more accustomed to improvisation. I use Logic Pro a fair bit (for some game development music) so the midi capability is very important to me. Also of great important is the most realistic feel of the keys between these makes.

I do plan to visit a showroom to hear and feel both makes in the same location but I'll be reliant upon the sales person to support this in terms of playing some music for me. So I would very much appreciate your expertise on which piano you think would give the greatest pleasure?

Hi Tim, Thank you for your marvellous review. Isn't it grand that you help people on the other side of the world (in this case: Amsterdam, NL) to make their consumer's choices? We're a family of three daughters and two adults who love music and whose musical life consists of playing (or abusing) the keyboard, violin, guitar, saxophone, clarinet, English horn, and vocal chords. After two years of playing the Casio CTK-4200, we're on the verge of buying a better piano that would fit our city apartment.

We were considering the Roland RP301R, but now the RP401R has appeared on the stage, as well as the F130R, we (of course) forget about the 301 and turn our eyes to the new stuff. Are the wooden cabinet, the bench and the key placement the only differences between the 401R and the 130R? Then the choice is easily made, which saves us a couple of hundred quid, too. I don't care for the cabinet and find the extra portability of the 130R a plus. Or are there any other technical (or aural )differences between the 401R and the 130R?

Whether for a 6-year old or adult, I believe the new Roland F130R is a superior instrument as compared to the older Yamaha YDPS51 in almost every way. The Yamaha has 2-sensor electronics in its key action whereas the new Roland has 4 sensors under each key (a noticeable advancement) which allows for better key repetition sensing. The key action on the Roland offers more nuanced control due to better touch weight key movement, in my opinion. The pedaling sustain response is more authentic on the Roland and the digital and connectivity features on the Roland far surpass the Yamaha in many ways including the use of built-in educational technology for kids & adults. The Roland control panel offers more intuitive control over functions. The Yamaha has a more powerful and slightly fuller sound because of its larger 40 watt internal speaker system but the Roland is more than adequate for most living arrangements and additional external speakers can always be added should you ever want to do that to get a huge sound. The Roland is a much newer and more advanced technology over the Yamaha so comparing the two instruments may not be a far comparison. Nevertheless, I would recommend the Roland as the better long term investment and it's also less money in US dollars.

3a8082e126