Roland FP-10

FP-10 is Roland's cheapest stage piano built mostly out of plastic but it is equipped with a SuperNatural sound engine and a basic piano sound that is found in Roland's expensive instruments such as RD series or Integra-7 sound module. For someone who does not really produce music but simply needs a digital piano with decent keys and a very good piano sound without many other functions, FP-10 can be a good choice and a great deal for this price. Even though very modest, FP-10 still includes few other but not so impressive sounds next to the acoustic piano and it offers smaller sound adjustments such as brilliance or reverb amount adjustment, which can slightly adapt the sound character to your liking but that is pretty much everything you can do with the sound.

FP-10 comes with a click pedal, which is a small pedal that has nothing to do with real pedals found on an acoustic grand piano. This might be disappointing for most of the piano players, who will probably have to add some extra money to get a DP-10 or something similar. However, the stock pedal is not as bad as I expected it to be and it works surprisingly fine. It has a rubber bottom and it is really steady on solid flat surfaces despite being very light. Other surfaces like carpets will not work well and the pedal will move a lot around.

Now, speaking as a music producer and someone who spends a lot of time in the studio: FP-10 has only one poor 3,5mm stereo output that does not let this piano shine and can only work fine with low impedance headphones, which also have a bit higher SPL. I have tried my DT-770 80 Ohm and K-702 and even with the volume set to the maximum the sound was always a bit below my preferred loudness. The sound can be significantly improved with a good DI-box and a decent preamp.