Roland Fp-10 Digital Piano, 88-Key Digital Piano, Portable & M-Audio SP-2 - Universal Sustain Pedal with Piano Style Action, The Ideal Accessory for MIDI Keyboards, Digital Pianos

Before I bought this I spent months researching which "entry level" digital piano to buy. Ultimately it is all about the key action (because, if you don't like the sound, you can always connect to a VST with MIDI, but you can't change the keys).Now, you don't start to get "hammer action", "weighted keys" (and hopefully "graded so lower octaves are heavier) until about the £300 mark - don't be fooled by "semi weighted" etc - if you want something that feels like a piano (with possible exception of DEP-20, see below) you will be looking North of £300Just above that £300 mark you have things like StudioLogic SL88, M-Audio Hammer 88 but those are simply "MIDI controllers" - they don't contain a sound module so you HAVE to connect those to a PC and run VST to get sound. Also there are very mixed reports as to their action (esp M-Audio). True SL88 is actually made by Fatar who make "piano" keyboards for a number of other manufacturers but there's some questions about their quality/reliability.Around that £320-£340 mark there is also the Alesis Recital Pro but this attracts some pretty bad reviews - it's possible their newly launched Prestige/Grand(on Amazon) may be better but it's perhaps too early to say until more users post video/written reviews.Next up above these their is the reasonably priced Casio CDP-S100 but watch the Youtube reviews by "Piano4ever" (James Pavel Shawcross) who is scathing about the mismatch in weight between the white and lighter black keys on Casio digital pianos. You might also want to find comparative reviews to hear the sounds of this one against things like Yamaha P45 and Roland FP-10. It may be a matter of personal choice but the Casio does not seem to sound that great compared to others - possibly too "tinny" (which some might call "bright")Going up the scale (!) the Yamaha P45 is somewhere above the Casio. A lot of reviewers have quite nice things to say about P45 but it's not a "modern" design and is perhaps getting a little bit long in the tooth. NAMM 2021 is coming up (this is July 2021) so it will be interesting to see if Yamaha offer anything new.Quite a good buy in the £300-£400 segment is the Korg B2. It has limited features but many people agree it has a really good feeling action so if budget is limited it may be worth a look.Talking of limited budget - the Donner DEP-20 which features a lot on Amazon - is a bit of a dark horse. It is "budget", not from one of the "big brands" but has surprisingly good speakers and a reasonably heavy key action that could be appealing but it is let down a little by the quality of the sound samples - with 238 sounds it has maybe gone for quantity over quality but at one stage I was seriously considering this one. That's especially true if you catch the Donner site when they are having one of their fairly regular 20% code offers. That reduces the £305 piano to about £240. But there are also regular offers on Amazon around the £260-£270. That is a pretty good price for what is a surprisingly good digital piano if you can't exceed £300.Having said all that I'm here writing a review of the Roland FP-10. It is actually sold by almost everyone at £469 so the £428 that Amazon have it listed for is a REAL bargain. £50 less than almost eveyrone else in the UK. Also note that because of Covid and a global silicon shortage, until recently it's been almost impossible to find FP-10 in stock so the fact that Amazon seem to have a fairly constant supply also makes it attractive to buy here.When researching which hammer action entry level piano to buy, in the end, having watched endless Youtube videos and read myriad online reviews, besides all the above the only two that I had left on my selection list were actually the Kawai-ES110 and the Roland FP-10. I know these are "pushing the budget" if you start out looking for "how cheap can I get a weighted hammer action digital piano?". There are options all the way up from that £240 DEP-20 but as endless Youtube videos and the very knowledgeable experts on forum.pianoworl.com will attest: the Kawai/Roland are really the "next level" if you want something that truly acts like an acoustic.The Kawai is perhaps just a shade too expensive (it often touches £500) and it's a pretty even call between ES-110 and FP-10 so when Amazon offered the usually £470 FP-10 at £428 it was an offer too good to miss.The PHA-4 action in the FP-10 is the same action seen in several of the higher level options in the FP range (and other Roland ranges) so for an "entry level" price you get an action that is in some seriously expensive, high quality pianos.It is graded (heavy lower, lighter upper), has a wonderful "ivory touch" surface on the keys and has triple sensors on the keys for more dynamic/expressive playing - esp when used as a MIDI controller for VST on PC.The built in sounds are great but something that I don't think they make a strong enough marketing feature from is that it is NOT limited to just 15 sounds that can be selected using Function+keys. If you run the Piano Partner 2 app (I use Android) which connects to the piano with Bluetooth you actually get to select between 35 instruments. For example I would say the 2nd church organ that can only be accessed this way is far "better" than the one you can get to using the piano's own interface.Talking of which - the only minor criticism I have is that the piano interface is very limited - three buttons and then some of the 88 keys in combination with "Function". But it's well worth while always having your tablet/phone running PP2 over Bluetooth to select the other sounds and through the app most other features can be accessed too.The bluetooth link is supposed to also handle MIDI over bluetooth so in theory you can connect DAW software in a PC to record and drive the piano. However I have a feeling this works better for Mac users than Win10 PC users. I fall into the latter category and Google will tell you about the "magic" you can perform to try and get BT-MIDI to connect into MIDI apps on Windows (midiberry+loopmidi etc) but I tried and tried and could only get this to work in one direction - so apps could play MIDI to the FP-10 but I could not get key data coming from the piano to record in various apps. In the end I gave in and simply plugged in a USB A-B cable and used MIDI over USB and it "all just worked". The idea of "cable-less" using Bluetooth wireless was a nice idea but I have a feeling I need a Mac!BTW if you visit forum.pianoworld.com and search for FP-10 you will find that there are a couple of editors that can be run on the PC and (via USB-MIDI) can control the FP-10 way beyond even what the Piano Partner app can do. While the user interface to the keyboard lets you do layers/dual/splits those things are limited to two sound layers through the user interface. Via the app you can have four. So you could have four sounds acorss the entire keyboard. Or a split with two sounds in each (or 3 and 1). Or dual with multiple layers and all kinds of options. One of the apps also reveals that the FP10 has an extensive EFX unit. While the user interface suggests only reverb and chorus you can do all kinds of weird effects like tape loop delay and so on. In fact you can get the thing to sound more like a "synthesizer" than a simple digital piano with fixed sounds!So far I have only had limited time to explore what the FP-10 can do but it is totally amazing and more than anything is that truly wonderful keyboard action. You buy "digital pianos" rather than keyboards/synthesizers because DPs promise "piano action feel" and the Roland FP-10 delivers this by the bucket load.At the £428 offer price it is a stunning bargain - if you are looking for your first digital piano do not hesitate - buy this.

This is an excellent keyboard. Great build quality and high tonal sound. Everything you’d expect from Yamaha really and at a very decent price. It arrived beautifully packaged and the delivery driver even offered to carry it up to my first floor apartment. I’ve been playing it for nearly a year now and it still sounds as good as new. The keys are weighted well and it compares well with a piano. I highly recommend this item.

I bought this as I had been playing a PSR E463 keyboard for a few months but realised I wanted to learn to play an actual piano after starting lessons. Not being in a position to put an actual piano in my apartment, a digital piano was my only choice. After watching a lot of reviews on youtube, and reading countless blogs and reviews on multiple music websites I chose the FP-10 and have had it for about a month now. Zero regrets (although I see it is already almost 50 quid cheaper, so maybe I could have been a little more patient!).Pros:Lovely action. As close to a real piano as I think you can get at this price.Very compact and light. I have no difficulty moving this around on my own.Nice piano sounds. You get only 4 grand piano tones, but all are good quality (All better than the one grand piano tone on my PSR E463). There are a bunch of other tones to play with, 36 in all.Nice speakers with a stand. They face down, so the rear panel on the stand directs the sound forward.Bluetooth connection to Roland app allows easier set up of various parameters for playing like reverb, tuning, key delay etc as well as choosing more tones than you can access on the keyboard controls.Cons:Very quiet headphone socket. You need good quality low impedance headphones for a decent volume. Or maybe an amplifier (I have not tried that as my headphones work fine).The controls on the keyboard are very basic and not intuitive. Using the app is almost a necessity.Only that one 1/8" headphone socket for output, so maybe not so great in a live performance or studio environment as you'll need an adapter for a mixer or external speakers.Stand is not cheap at 75 quid for 3 bits of wood. I built my own for less than 20. I originally used the X stand from my PSR keyboard, but it did not feel very steady, and the speakers didn't sound as good either.Only has a connection for a sustain pedal, and the pedal included is a cheap one. If you want to use 3 pedals you have to step up to the FP30. If you want to half pedal, you'll need to buy a better one which is another 30 quid for the Roland one. I'm using an M-Audio SP2 which is fine for my present needs (sustain on or off)