Roland FP-10 – Compact 88-Note Digital Piano with SuperNATURAL Piano Tones and Authentic Acoustic Feel Keyboard | Simple to Use | Ideal for Home Use, Students and Learning Correct Techniques

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The keyboard of the Recital Pro is nothing special. Yes, it’s weighted, but it’s not graded (the keys feel the same across the keyboard range), and it has a regular glossy finish on the keys. There is definitely a little bit more clarity and detail coming out of the S1100, but in terms of the overall depth of sound, the FP-10 more than holds its own. Other Sounds To my fingers, the key action of the FP-10 feels slightly heavier than that of the Casio PX-160 and Yamaha P-45.

The PX-S1100 arrived fairly recently with the PX-S3100 Privia digital piano so we’ve been putting it through its paces and comparing it to other popular models in the same price range and class. We recently compared it to the Yamaha P-125 which was a very interesting look, so the Roland FP10 is next on our list. This is also undoubtedly an interesting comparison, especially since the focus of these two instruments is a little bit different. Where the Roland FP10 is very much offered as an inexpensive practice instrument with a great tone and action but stripped-down features, the PX-S1100 is a little bit more versatile, and with discreet line outputs plus battery operation and a super slim cabinet, the S1100 is more equipped to serve as a gigging piano. As mentioned earlier in this article, the Roland also has much more natural-sounding voices than the Casio does. Twice as many of them too; 56 to Casio’s 18.The FP10 is using Roland’s SuperNATURAL Piano engine, which is very surprising to see given how inexpensive the FP10 is, but they have in fact downgraded some of the processing power compared to the version used in the FP30. When it comes to Bluetooth, the P125 doesn’t offer any Bluetooth connectivity, while the S1000 offers Bluetooth Audio, whereas the FP10 offers Bluetooth MIDI, so all 3 are different in this regard. Moreover, you can easily navigate the FP-10 using Roland’s Piano Partner 2 app (via an iPad for example). More about that in the connectivity section. Although the Alesis Recital has been around for a while, the Pro version, which comes with 88 fully weighted keys, was released not so long ago.

Both keyboards also use the SuperNATURAL sound engine, with excellent singles from different musical instruments such as acoustic pianos, organs and strings.The 1st Grand Piano tone is the main piano tone on the instrument and the one that you’ll probably use most often. Key off resonance is a subtle sound happening when you release a played note, and the damper falls onto the string to silence it, producing a subtle sound, which also changes depending on how fast your fingers leave the keys. Roland has equipped the FP10 with their highly regarded PHA4 Standard Keyboard action, and this happens to be the FP10’s single biggest claim to fame. In fact, the PHA4 weighted key action can be found pianos 3x the price of the FP10 and is widely held as one of the top 2 plastic key actions available. Looking over at the S1100’s Smart Scaled Hammer Action Keyboard, we certainly have some nice things to say about this action as well. The mechanical key action sound is actually a bit quieter on this action compared to the PHA4, and this is probably due to an increased level of key cushioning.

But of course, the famous name and an attractive price aren’t the only things the P-45 has to offer.An enjoyable sound is so critical to the enjoyment of just about any instrument. If you can’t connect with an instrument’s sound, it’s going to be tough to connect with the instrument as a whole. When it comes to pianos, a weighted key action is also quite critical, and some would argue it’s actually more critical, but we’ll start here by comparing everything sound related between these two pianos. If you are interested in knowing more, we invite you to see our review of the Roland FP30 Roland FP 10 vs Yamaha P45 There’s no strict standard, and touch is a highly subjective thing, so I cannot predict which action YOU will like better. I’ve talked to people who preferred every one of these actions over the others, so there’s no clear winner here. That said, we would still put the Smart Scaled action ahead of some others in the class, such as Yamaha’s GHS action (featured in the Yamaha P-45 and P-125) and Korg’s Natural Weighted Hammer Action. Action Wrap Up