Korg Grandstage vs Roland RD 2000

Electric piano is a great choice for any student or musician who wants to improve their skill, composing, or just as a hobby to spend their free time. For those whose goal is to perform and more of a professional or have an advanced skill already, Korg Grandstage Vs Roland RD 2000 will be your amazing options to consider. These full-sized pianos are highly designed but slightly different as well so before deciding the model, let’s see what they can offer below.

In this article, we are going to give you information about:

• Why Choosing a Digital Piano
• How to Choose a Digital Piano
• What are Korg Grandstage and Roland RD 2000
• What Korg Grandstage and Roland RD 2000 Look Like
• How are the Keyboard on Korg Grandstage and Roland RD 2000
• How are the Sound Engine in Korg Grandstage and Roland RD 2000
• What Connectivity Available in Korg Grandstage and Roland RD 2000
• Korg Grandstage Vs Roland RD 2000

Digital Piano Advantages

Digital piano has long been the choice for musicians and students to improve their skill or to work on their music because it is just much more convenient to do so compared to when you have to own the real, acoustic instrument. The most common reason is because the real piano cost is steep for most of us and they require continuous maintenance including tuning in which you will spend a budget from time to time to hire a professional service.

Another popular reason is they are convenient and portable because there is not a lot of materials to generate sound inside. An acoustic piano will not be ideal for people who transport their belongings a lot such as musicians on their gig tour hence a lighter, compact, and fairly sturdy digital piano will be the most suitable option. A digital piano also offers versatility in its connectivity, especially sound level for you can power them up with an external speaker or plug a headphone to play quietly.

A digital piano is also rich in features and the most prominent function we often seek is their recording ability to be directly sent to the computer unlike acoustic piano that requires microphone. If the purpose is for learning, many beginner pianos such as Yamaha YPT 255 Vs YPT 260 will have some learning lessons on board for an easy training session at home especially for children or students to memorize their lessons and improving the skill.

Choosing a Digital Piano

While the digital piano in general will be a nice choice for anyone who wants to get their benefits, the shopping journey will not be as simple. However, what you need to pay attention to when looking for a digital piano first thing first is the experience level or skill because there is no need to purchase a stage piano for students who recently learn how to play the instrument. Professional models are also far more expensive and may have too many features we will not be using.

For those who are living in an apartment or smaller house, it is necessary to consider the instrument form factor so we can be sure on where to place them or to store them when not being used. In case you will be travelling with the unit, checking how heavy they are can save us a chance of back pain. Some pianos are small enough to fit a duffel bag and some require a dedicated case to transport; some models may offer an ability to be broken down for easy transportation as well.

About Korg Grandstage and Roland RD 2000

If you have decided what type of digital piano to buy, now is the time to see what the available options are offered by various different brands out there. When it is about quality, all brands are the same, in general well-known manufacturers have the same level of quality despite the different design yet, in most cases price will decide how well-built or how richly featured and what technology used in the unit. We tend to stick with popular names because they are easier to access and have better customer service.

Among those many musical instrument brands, Korg and Roland are two of the most reliable options to shop from because they have been well-known to always offer reliable products both on two different spectrum of market. They carry various models to choose from and each elevation is usually accompanied by better sound technologies as well as features. No matter if you are looking for beginner models to improve skill or learning the instrument or using the instrument to compose songs, these two will have all the options ready.

If you are here then it means you are an advanced player and rather than learning, the piano has to be suitable for performance or to create which means the best option will be likely either Korg Grandstage or Roland RD 2000. Both of them are not suitable for beginners due to the rich features included in the unit and they are pretty expensive as well which equally boost the sound quality especially for the professional level. These models will be ideal both for your composing and on stage performance.

The Grand Stage itself is fairly new and while it is not the best nor the most popular piano from the company, this model is aiming stage performer as the main market which boost on how the instrument is very easy to connect as well as pulling some interesting technology from the older brother Kronos workstation. After quite the success of RD 1000, a few years ago Roland released its new model RD 2000 with an even more impressive specification to attract professionals or enthusiasts alike.

Korg Grandstage and Roland RD 2000 Design

The one we are talking about in this article is the Korg Grandstage with full 88 keys instead of the 73 variants because it is available in these two versions. They are the same but different on the build only with the full version measured at 51.6-inch wide, 14-1-inch deep, and 5.5-inch tall in which the little brother is about 43.3-inch wide. In comparison to RD 2000, the latter is measured at 55.5-inch wide, 14.4-inch deep, and identically about 5.5-inch tall while weighing slightly heavier at 47.9 lbs. as opposed to 44.1 lbs.

As for the build quality, Korg Grandstage and Roland RD 2000 are very sturdy and especially for Korg, this model is a bit traditional in comparison mimicking the older SV-1. The layout is the same as most stage piano slash workstation you often see on other models. All buttons and knobs are arranged conveniently together with a small LCD screen yet, these displays are probably too small to be comfortably read on a darker stage. 

Korg Grandstage and Roland RD 2000 Keyboard

Moving further, let’s check the keyboard on these pianos and the first thing you will notice about the difference in Korg Grandstage and Roland RD 2000 is that the latter comes with hybrid wooden keys while the former is full plastic. As the keys itself, Korg is using the RH3 which is the one used in the more expensive Kronos, similarly custom made in Japan with amazing responses yet, it is also slightly shallower. Roland on the other hand uses PHA-50 and the unique aforementioned construction does offer what’s not in its rival.

In comparison, Roland will be versatile because it has medium weight to enable organ sounds even with downbar while the Grandstage is excelling at key-based instruments. Side by side, in our opinion it is up to the user or listener to rank which keys on which position for they are actually on par with each other. Our only complaint with Korg is the texture of its keys because the white is shiny and smooth so if your hand is sweating, it is easy to slip on the surface compared to the Ivory-feel in RD 2000.

Korg Grandstage and Roland RD 2000 Sound Engine

After the keyboard now let’s see the sound engine used in these models and starting with Korg, this piano is boasting what’s taken from Kronos and it is the 7 sound engines; acoustic piano, electric piano, organs, and synthesizer as well as sampler. There are 500 presets here but what you may want to keep in mind is that you will not get to modify these sounds for there are no parameters to modify. However, right off the bat this piano sounds amazing already.

Talking about Roland, the RD 2000 is coming with the popular engine the company used in many of its products today; V-Piano engine together with SuperNATURAL hybrid modeling technology. While the V-Piano is entirely modeling, the sound produced by this technology is superb especially with the Piano Designer to allow players to do a lot more editing than just playing with sample sounds.

Korg Grandstage and Roland RD 2000 Connectivity

The last part we want to mention is their connectivity but the most important, notice that none of these pianos are not featured with speaker means you have to use either headphones or external speaker. We also like how they put XLR output here because while they may seem not as useful, this is great if you are going to perform in a stage with front-of-house mixing thus, we don’t need additional cost to add DI boxes. Additionally, you will find the Lift-Gnd switch feature like what we see on DI box if you pick the Grandstage.

 Korg Grandstage vs Roland RD 2000

In comparison both Korg Grandstage and Roland RD 2000 are an amazing choice if you are in the market for a stage piano. What set them apart from each other prominently in our opinion is the keys and sound technology because we do prefer how the key feels in Roland the most probably because they have the ivory-feel and hybrid construction while the sound engine combination itself is amazing to give you endless options to play around compared to Grandstage. 

Conclusion

All in all there is actually no bad options between these models because you can go amazing with any of them but comparing the two, we do prefer the experience of playing with Roland RD 2000 especially if you don’t mind the price difference.