Roland FP-E50

Tanto la sensación al tocar como la nitidez del sonido es decepcionante. Son pianos tremendamente apagados. Las demos engañan. No me queda más opción después de mes y medio de intentar mejorar ese sonido. Las demás funciones están bien pero cuando quieres hacer algo tan simple como subir el volumen de una parte del sonido al tocar dos timbres a la vez resulta que eso no se puede (mejoraría al necesitado piano añadiendo un pad suave). También he probado a ecualizar sin éxito. Decepción de sonido. No recomiendo este teclado para quien quiera un buen sonido de piano... todos, absolutamente todas las variantes que ofrece del piano dejan mucho que desear (habiendo escuchado el resultado con unos auriculares neutros Samson). Seguramente es por el DSP que es distinto que en otros teclados similares. He hablado con el equipo de soporte de Thomann y me permitieron devolverlo y comprar otro, concretamente el Kawaii MP7 SE. Este es definitivo, un piano con sonido realista y montones de opciones. Gracias inmensas al buen servicio de Thomann.

Unpacking the FP-E50, the first thing to notice is that it is visually very pleasing. I bought it with the matching stand (KSFE50) and triple pedal set (KPD-70) and it really looks great in the corner of the living room.

I was excited to try out my new purchase. The first piano sound that I chose to play was the factory default setting, which is the ‘Concert Piano’. What a disappointment. Just playing a single note, middle C, I noticed that there was something strange about it. It’s difficult to explain what. The best way I can describe it is that the decay seems to be artificially delayed. This means that, for the first fraction of a second, a constant tone is played, more akin to what you’d expect from an electronic organ. Thereafter, it decays in the way that you would expect to hear from a percussion-stringed instrument. This problem seems to be more noticeable in the centre of the keyboard than at the upper and lower ends.

My heart sank as the thought came to me that if this was what Roland was presenting as the best piano sound that the instrument could offer, what was the rest of it going to sound like? There are three types of acoustic piano sounds available: ‘SuperNATURAL’ (to which ‘Concert Piano’ belongs), ‘Preset’ and ‘Common’. The only ‘Preset’ piano sounds that come with the instrument are ‘Dynamic JD-Piano’, ‘Magical Piano’ and ‘Piano+Str Layer’, none of which you are going to want to play if you are looking for an acoustic piano sound. The best ‘Common’ piano sounds, ‘Piano 1’ and ‘Piano 2’ are both noticeably out of tune in F major (try F2 in the left hand and C4+F5+A5 in the right), so that ruled those out. So, I spent the next week tinkering with the ‘Piano Designer’ and ‘Ambience’ settings, in an attempt to find a likeable ‘SuperNATURAL’ sound that I might be able to live with. The Piano Designer has a ‘Lid’ parameter which is supposed to mimic how a grand piano would sound according to the degree to which the lid is opened. The problem I encountered is that, with the Lid parameter set to a high value (open), the strangeness of the piano sound became magnified, but, with the parameter set to a low value (closed), the piano sound become muffled. Bear in mind that I was listening to all of this through headphones, so this has nothing to do with the quality or orientation of the built-in speakers, although I can confirm that it was no better through the speakers. The default ‘Ambience’ is called ‘Concert Hall’ and I discovered that, again, this only had the effect of magnifying the strangeness of the piano sound. I found that only with the Ambience set to ‘Lounge’ were the piano sounds tolerable. Out of the 34 acoustic piano sounds that come with the instrument, I rate the ‘Piano Performer’ and ‘Bright Piano’ as ‘tolerable’ with ‘Lid’ set to 2 or 3. I don’t find the ‘Concert Piano’ to be tolerable, no matter what the settings.

Some of the ensemble strings sounds are curious. For example, when playing ‘Full Strings’, the instant that you take your fingers off the keys the sound stops dead. This is not alleviated by slow release of the sustain pedal. The only way to make this sound tolerable is to set the ‘Kbd Ambience Send’ (reverberation) to a high value via the menu settings.

For all these reasons, I can only rate this instrument 3 out of 5. But what does a person mean by ‘3 out of 5’? Just in case you think I am an acoustic-piano snob, who is not happy with any digital piano that doesn’t sound 100% exactly like a world-class concert grand piano, you should know what my benchmark is. The instrument that I am replacing is a Yamaha PSR-E323 61-key keyboard. This doesn’t have weighted keys, so the play and feel of the PSR is obviously completely inferior. But, despite its 2009 technology, it has a more pleasing piano sound than the Roland FP-E50. It seems to me that, over that time, Roland has put so much effort into the feel and play action of the keys that they have neglected what must surely be the most important part of any musical instrument: the sound. Judging by the amount of criticism online generally about the play action of digital pianos, I can only suppose that this is what the market demands and Roland have responded to those demands.

The words ‘SuperNATURAL piano with ZEN-Core sound engine’ do really sound impressive but, no matter how many times I say those words, the piano sound doesn’t. I doubt that any classical pianist would be happy with this instrument but, judging by the positive reviews that this product receives, there appear to be many people who love it. The keys look and feel great and I have no complaints about the play action. I certainly haven’t had any problems with clicking or bouncing keys that other reviewers have mentioned. You can produce some really great sounds with this instrument. For example, the imperfections of the piano sound can be masked by layering it with another sound, such as ‘CharacterStrings’ or ‘Air Pad’. The result sounds wonderful.

My advice is: (1) The special features of any digital piano are only worth it if the core sounds are good. (2) When listening to demonstrations, don’t allow yourself to be influenced by how much you like the piece of music. You could learn much about the quality of the piano sound from hearing a simple scale in C major played with one hand. (3) The FP-E50 might be the right piano for you, but I recommend that you try before you buy, something I wasn’t able to do.

The Roland FP-E50 is a great digital piano that combines high sound quality, ease of use and attractive design, making it an excellent choice for beginners and experienced pianists alike.

One of the key advantages of the FP-E50 is its sound performance. It features a rich and realistic sound that reproduces the sound of an acoustic piano with high fidelity. This gives the impression of playing a real instrument, making the FP-E50 an excellent choice for lessons and practice as well as for stage performances.

Ease of use is also commendable. The FP-E50 has an intuitive interface with a bright display and easy access to all the main functions. It also offers many features such as a metronome, recording and playback, and various sound settings that allow you to customize the sound to your preferences.

The FP-E50's design is stylish and compact, making it a great choice for home use or for live performances. It's easy to move around due to its portability, making it convenient to transport to classes, rehearsals, or concerts.

Overall, the Roland FP-E50 is an excellent digital piano that offers high sound quality, ease of use, and an attractive design. It is suitable for both beginners and experienced pianists, and offers all the features you need for successful practice and performance.

I already tested fp50e on the big festival stage and it was perfect and this is very good instrument but this is heavy so first advise if You are planning taking it for the show consider obtaining a bag with wheels
Playing it for 5 months I can mention lack of basic backing track they are quite specific, I'm not talking about auto accompaniment, another thing that I can't save my favourite tune in split mode in 1-2-3-4-5 favourite bank only in scene(special archive which is not one touch available)
And note that speakers underneath so putting on the table isn't solution you need to purchase keyboard stand or play with headphones
Overall this is a very interesting stage piano with lots of features something like plugging mic and sing with effects etc
And of course you can use it as a midi keyboard to record music (not using sound of piano but sounds of your DAW and plugins) but the piano sounds os great thanks to super-natural engine
By the way there are lots of interesting sound which can help create cinematic music and do the same on the stage
And this product is affordable considering high quality and features that offers this piano
I really like display showing chords name that I play in real time
Considering all of this and the fact that keys feels the same as on real Piano and Grand Piano and ability to play it with headphones I recommend it to people who wants to learn playing piano but wants to do that in interesting, exiting way
P.s you can lower key touch which means you don't need to play at the beginning as hard as on real acoustic instruments, very useful feature if you are beginner or have health issues of hands