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P-45 vs FP-10 MIDI Implementation

Gavin McMahan

Gavin McMahan

New Member
What's your experience with MIDI implementation from the FP-10?

I want to hear it totally clear from somebody that the MIDI implementation is better than the P-45 and that you can fully express velocities 1-127 haha.

I just got a P-45, disassembled it, and screwed it into my desk. Looks awesome. Feel pretty good. But the MIDI implementation is awful. If I hit it as hard as I can, I can get 113, but never 127. When I'm actually playing it like a piano, or writing orchestral parts, I can never get it above 110, and the 110 only comes when I really slam it. Playing piano musically, velocities are always between 25-95 or so. And that's me trying to be super dynamic. It's a pain. And this is on the "soft" velocity curve setting of the P-45. The other settings are even worse.

Really sucks for writing spiccato parts. You can never really get the "players" to dig unless you treat playing your keyboard like a sport and not music haha.

Anyway, I've heard that the FP-10 has more velocity curves native to the keyboard and has better implementation in general, meaning fully expressing 1-127 is possible and that you can play musically and tap into the full range of a libraries sampled dynamics.

Someone tell me this is the truth! I don't want to spend a McBillion dollars on a Doepfer or something!

I'm also open to other keyboards under $500 that are easily disassembled and mounted to a desk like a no-case Doepfer. I deliberately made a 4.75" gap from my keyboard tray to my desktop. All I want it good action and MIDI implementation.
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This is my experience with Yamaha digital pianos as midi controllers as well. I think it may be common to other brands as well. I haven't tried aP45 but had a p90 for years and it topped out at about 112. I have a P515 now which is similar. I could maybe get 117 if I hit it with a sledgehammer. My workaround where possible is to scale the midi in software to nudge it up. You lose 0-15 but that mostly silent anyway.

Can't speak to the Roland.
 
Yeah that's been my exactly my experience. It seems that the Roland FP-10 also has a triple-sensor as opposed to the dual-sensor of the P-45 which should grant it more fidelity and nuance in its expressiveness. Plus the action has escapement. I think I'm gonna pull the trigger on it today. I'll post back here once I get it to see if the MIDI implementation is better, although, I'm quite confident it will be.

Scaling the MIDI kind of works for me, but it's such a pain. I'm scoring this documentary right now that has tons of piano and have to spend so much time editing the velocities after playing because of the lack of nuance and fidelity while playing. I'd make my "money" back in like 2-3 days of work to not have to scale the velocities. Fingers crossed for the FP-10!
 
I have an FP-10 and I've been very happy with it. I use it as a MIDI controller and the action feels just right to me, though I do often tweak my various VST's velocity curves to suit. I read somewhere it has the same key bed as the FP-30 but less bells and whistles elsewhere.

BUT I have to admit I have had very little exposure to real pianos - it's sad, but its a fact.

DO consider getting the legs - its a lot of money for three bits of wood, but its heavy and it needs a sturdy support.
 
Oh and the provided foot pedal is trash.

Also: no 3-pedal support AFAIK.
 
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Last year I went through this.

Bought a Yamaha P45 as my first weighted keyboard to use for midi work. Got it home, plugged it in and started playing around with some piano vst and others. Found that I couldn't reach 127 velocity even on the highest velocity curve setting. I ended up returning it and buying the fp-10 and I was able to actually get to the higher velocities by cycling through the velocity curve setting on the keyboard.
 
Is there a velocity remapping function in your DAW? In FL Studio you can tell it to map a controller's midi velocities from, say, 0-110 to 0-127, by drawing a function.

Yea, you end up with less than 127 different possible velocities, but your ear probably won't notice it.
 
Guys! I installed the FP-10 and it's perfect! I can totally control 1-127. So musical. I did use the MIDI function thing to change the touch sensitivity to "light" which helped me access those higher velocities with ease. It feels way better. For anyone interested, here are some pictures of it installed in my tray. Disassembly was super easy.

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Gavin McMahan said:
Guys! I installed the FP-10 and it's perfect! I can totally control 1-127. So musical. I did use the MIDI function thing to change the touch sensitivity to "light" which helped me access those higher velocities with ease. It feels way better. For anyone interested, here are some pictures of it installed in my tray. Disassembly was super easy.

IMG_0152.jpeg IMG_0151.jpeg
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looks brilliant! I tried this with an FP-4 but it didn't work out. Would it be too much trouble to measure the height from the base of the keybed (metal protective bit under the keys) to the top of the black keys? Also did you find the circuit boards assembly (power board, sustain etc.) sits happily behind the desk without shorting or anything? (that happened to me!)

Cheers man!
 
It seems I'm not the only one using FP10 as a MIDI controler. Much happier with it than with Kawai ES8 or Korg Grandstage. I also set "Light" touch in Roland for >120 velocities to be easier to reach. One limitation of FP10 compared to FP30 is continuous pedal implementation. Although I'm using DP10, FP10 filters events and sends only 0, 90 and 127 values for CC64. FP30 sends full range values. For realistic piano experience it might be an issue (not sure if any other software than Pianoteq actually utilizes full range).
 
I use an FP-10 and very happy with it and use it as my name keyboard. I also have a Nektar Panorama T4 as a secondary keyboard. However it is a bit noisey, the advantage with that keyboard though is that it has springy keys for when you want to play quickly. That is the only thing I find more difficult on weighted keys like with the FP-10.
 
What's the noise of the action like on the FP-10. Is it more like the volume of the p-45 here, rather than the SL88 Studio?


And am I right in thinking that the FP-10 does have 128 velocities through midi/usb, and the 96 velocities is just for the internal sound engine I'm rarely going to use? P-45 vs FP-10 MIDI Implementation
 
Can't really tell about the sound of the action vs the Yamaha (and I'm not bothered because a good weighted action will always make some noise), but I can confirm the FP10 does send velocities up to 127 to the sequencer.
 
SupremeFist said:
Can't really tell about the sound of the action vs the Yamaha (and I'm not bothered because a good weighted action will always make some noise), but I can confirm the FP10 does send velocities up to 127 to the sequencer.
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Well it's more what it's like compared to the SL88 in the video, which is very similar to my hammer 88. Basically a really loud clonk on release. Louder than the initial strike if anything. I don't mind the strike noise being noticeable, it's the slightly delayed release which is extremely distracting.

And thanks for the velocity confirmation!
 
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Gavin McMahan said:
Guys! I installed the FP-10 and it's perfect! I can totally control 1-127. So musical. I did use the MIDI function thing to change the touch sensitivity to "light" which helped me access those higher velocities with ease. It feels way better. For anyone interested, here are some pictures of it installed in my tray. Disassembly was super easy.

IMG_0152.jpeg IMG_0151.jpeg
Click to expand...
Heya, I'm really interested in doing this too. It there a guide you used to do this, or maybe any tips you could give out to make sure everything goes smoothly, or maybe some pictures of where you installed the circuits and what you did with the speakers etc? Cheers
 
Just another post to confirm 1-127 velocity range being properly send from FP10. And just to remind: sustain is only send for 3 values: 0, 90, 127, so no actual continuous (info on Roland website is misleading!). Although theoretically the same, FP30 action seems to be quiter than FP10. The latter has no "felt" near to fallboard, so it might be the reason.
 
CeDur said:
Just another post to confirm 1-127 velocity range being properly send from FP10. And just to remind: sustain is only send for 3 values: 0, 90, 127, so no actual continuous (info on Roland website is misleading!). Although theoretically the same, FP30 action seems to be quiter than FP10. The latter has no "felt" near to fallboard, so it might be the reason.
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Ah good save, That is really useful to know actually! I just sent back a hammer 88 because the action was stupid loud and was thinking of getting the FP-10, but if that is the case I'll wait and get the FP-30. Cheers
 
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