Roland MP70 Digital Piano

Feature:
Twin Piano as a teaching function seems fairly useless, however the ability to define separate instruments on both registers could be interesting. Two track recording is nice, but AFAIK they are completely separate things, you can't record track #2 while listening to track #1 for example. The instrument selection is small but typical with all the typical ones that you might expect.

Quality:
Because the sides of the keyboard are thin sheet metal, they can be bent or dented. This is especially true of the rear panel, since it is so large with so few supports. The sliding key cover arrived skewed such that it would not close or retract completely. Pulling very hard on the appropriate side caused the gearing to slip and even out, but just the fact that it would be misaligned through shipping makes me wonder about its quality.

Value:
Compared to other companies' offerings at this price point, I would expect Roland to include a bench with this model. The lack of one hurts its comparative value, as do its non-intuitive method of reaching some of the options and functions

Desirability:
The piano looks very nice, thanks especially to the full modesty panel. However the image on the product page is somewhat deceptive, as there is still a two inch gap at the very top because of some engineering oversights (the power cable needs to be inserted in an area of the keyboard that is forward of the panel and requires a space to pass through). I would have preferred a gapless design to enhance the look of quality. The gold-toned pedals are interesting but a bit tacky when complemented by the ebony finish of the stand, a silver would have been more preferable to me.

Sound:
I've owned two other digital pianos, and each has been from a different era. Compared to those, I'm very pleased with the MP70's upper and lower octaves in terms of clarity, sound, and expressiveness. I'm not initially liking the MP70 sustain pedal as much as the prior pianos I've owned, it seems to cut off with far too much of the pedal still pressed.

Ease of Use:
Many features aren't exactly intuitive; buttons have multiple uses which make it difficult to remember how to do some things without checking the manual first. Things seem unnecessarily buried when they could have just put another button on the thing. One other note I'd like to make is the proximity of the buttons to the keys, as well as the button sensitivity. I've only owned the piano for a few days but on more than one occasion, while moving my hands by a few octaves, my fingertips have brushed one of the buttons, causing it to immediately trigger. It's an annoyance to me, but maybe desirable to the right person who needs to change things on the fly (but you'd probably own a different model if that was the case).

Feature:
The features on this piano are better than I would have originaly expected. After figuring out how to use all of them they can be very useful, especially the transposing feature. The only complaint I have about the features is there are not very many different instruments.

Quality:
The quality does need some improvements but it is still better that most other pianos. When I received my piano it had a small scratch on the music stand, and the pedals could use some improvements to make them more sturdy.

Value:
The value is excellent compared to other brands, but, they should include a piano bench.

Sound:
The sound of this piano is the best of all digital pianos I have used. Roland did an excellent job with the low and high pitch notes by making them sound like a real grand piano. On many digital pianos the low and high ends notes often sound rather phony.

Ease of Use:
This is a relatively simple piano to learn to use even if you don't read the manual.