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Roland EP-85
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Roland EP-85

Digital Piano from Roland belonging to the EP series

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cslevine cslevine

« Very good feel, almost like a piano »

Published on 02/13/12 at 12:07
7 octaves, internal sounds dating from 1997, so it makes little sense to talk about them in 2012
MIDI in out thru, inputs for optional sustain and mute pedals

UTILIZATION

The keyboard of the piano is very interesting, because it's light: There's no need to hammer it to play, like it's artificially the case on so many weighted pianos that are much more expensive!
If you take any baby or parlor grand, the keyboards of these "worthless concert craps" are more similar to that of the "small EP85" than that of a Clavinova!

Put this piano together with a Pianoteq and a good patch and you'll have the first arabesque that takes off!
I won't give it the perfect mark for the benefit of the doubt: There are surely better things out there, but since I stopped looking any further, I don't know them.

SOUNDS

I give it an average mark for one reason: Back then (1997), it did a nice job. I remember cranking the reverb all the way up to make the sound more lively.
Coming back to the present: If you pull the volume fader down to zero, you can still hear something, which I solved by plugging a pair of headphones into the audio output and the sound is now excellent, because it's only the sound of the Pianoteq.

OVERALL OPINION

Oh, the ruthless passage of time.
Yes, I have tested clavinova and other Rolands, and other Yamahas, but their "weighted" keyboard are very artificial and far from any musical instrument.