If you’ve ventured into the world of professional stage pianos, and are looking at the best the market has to offer, it’s pretty much guaranteed that during your piano research you’ve come across the Kawai MP11SE vs Roland RD-2000 comparison. These are two of the most highly respected stage pianos in the business, and very common with professional musicians both on the stage and in the studio.
Both instruments have noteworthy features that make them equally unique in the space, for very different reasons. Whether it’s the full-length wooden-key keyboard action in the MP11SE or the thousands of onboard sounds and Piano Modelling Engine on the top RD series Roland, there is a lot to unpack.
In this article, we’ll look closely at both instruments, cover the exact differences between the paino actions, sound engines as well as other features, and offer some suggestions as to who each piano will be ideally suited for.
Kawai MP11SE vs Roland RD-2000 – General Overview
Piano Action
Let’s start with the action. The MP11 uses Kawai’s Grand Feel action, which is oh-so-close to their current Grand Feel Compact action. It uses a triple sensor, counterweights, a let-off simulator, simulated ivory touch keys, and of course the full-length wooden keys that pivots on a mid-point exactly like an acoustic piano.
The action feels robust, extremely responsive, and beautiful to play at any speed, velocity, or genre. It’s really hard to argue that this isn’t the very best action with the most articulate control available in a portable product, though Yamaha does offer a fully wooden-key action in their P515.
The only hitch is how one defines portable… at 72 lbs, it’s ½ the weight of a lot of piano players – especially females – who this is being marketed to. I’ve been lugging huge slabs my whole professional life, I’m 5’10” and 180 lbs, and this sturdy metal chassis with black polish wooden side arms is back-breaking to try and do myself.
So this is either reserved for those with roadies or studio work. You’ll also want a substantial keyboard stand for this instrument due to its weight.
On the other hand, Roland has deployed their newer hammer-action design, designated the PHA-50 keyboard (Progressive Hammer Action keyboard), on several of their high-end models, including HP and LX series instruments. However, the FP90 and RD2000 are the only two portable models to be equipped with this upgrade.
The action feels and behaves differently than the PHA-4 plastic action, both in terms of sensitivity as well as physical feel due to the hybrid keys which are a mix of plastic and wood.
Classical players and people using this action for solo work will be far more impressed with its precision and playability, whether in a studio setting or live performance over the PHA-4. It features a beautiful ivory feel and ebony texture on the key surfaces.
Along with escapement and accurate triple sensor. Given that I personally own an RD-2000, I can attest to the durability of this hybrid wood action as I have put my RD-2000 through the wringer of all types of professional scenarios and live sets over the past few years.
I think many folks would agree that if your number one priority is touch and a close-to-acoustic playing experience, then the MP11SE has the RD-2000 beat, as it boasts the most authentic grand piano touch in a stage piano.
That being said, the extra 30 lbs of weight on the MP11 can’t be ignored, and for many folks, the balance of a much lighter instrument that still has a great action will be preferable for many performing keyboardists.
Digital Piano Sound Engine Comparison
Let’s move on to the sound engines. The RD-2000 stage piano has two independent sound engines. Roland’s fully modeled V-Piano technology engine with full polyphony and a second SuperNATURAL piano generator make up the dual sound engines.
The modeling approach to sound is a relatively recent innovation in piano technology, and essentially refers to real-time control of a particular sound that’s not derived from a sample, offering more editable parameters and the tactile response of generating quality ensemble sounds in real-time.
The RD2000 features one of the highest-fidelity wave signals of any digital product on the market, period. The full keyboard polyphony of the V-Piano engine, and 8 full assignable zones for combining internal patches (including software instruments and soft synths) together in different key ranges without even batting an eye, make the RD2000 a dream for keyboardists of all stripes.
There’s also a scene function, which allows you to save up to 100 different snapshots of the entire keyboard setup for fast on-the-fly recall, and a pitch bend wheel.
The stock grand piano sounds are totally acceptable, although the expansion piano options give even more character and depth to the acoustic piano function. The electric piano category has a massive selection, ranging from contemporary sounds to very authentic l MKS-20 sound module recreations of vintage effects as well, such as the classic Boss CE 1 chorus.
The Organ engine has one of the most authentic Hammond B-3 tone engines of any stage piano on the market, along with highly expressive virtual tonewheel organs. Using the 8 slider bars as tone bars, users can set and save as many personalized presets as they wish.
Beyond the traditional acoustic and classic electric piano sounds, there’s a massive selection of additional sounds with synthesizers, leads, clavs, pads, strings, brass, and percussion sounds are also preloaded on the instrument, with over 1,100 internal sounds in total, and two wave expansion slots for adding even further sounds.
The RD2000 offers up to 4 simultaneous effects processors to function, as well as real-time 5-band digital equalizer, 3-band compressor, led indicators, Reverb, Amp simulation, tremolo/amp simulator, modulation wheels, and envelope control.
Heading over to the MP11se, which is actually arranged a little bit closer to how a Nord is if you’re familiar with that brand of highly popular stage piano synths.
The Kawai MP11SE is organized around three modular tone generators (or at least that’s what the interface leads you to conceptualize this as). The main acoustic piano sound is Kawai’s Progressive Harmonic Imaging XL engine, which is a sample-based engine centering around the Shigeru Kawai SK EX Concert Grand Piano.
This is a quality sample with a super realistic sound. There are several presets that have both tonal shaping (EQ, envelope) as well as some Virtual Technician-type effecting, such as damper resonance, damper noise, and string resonance so that you as the player have the opportunity to create an entirely customized piano tone.
The total number of sounds on this instrument is pretty low when you compare it to the RD-2000, with a total of only 40 onboard sounds. That being said, the quality of all 40 patches is without question very high, and the acoustic grand piano sounds are particularly great, as is the strong selection of realistic electric pianos. While not limitless, there is a robust 256 notes of polyphony available which should be plenty.
It seems obvious that if you’re looking for an instrument with a ton of onboard sounds then the RD-2000 is the clear winner here. If you don’t mind connecting to an external sound bank or VST however, that advantage is mitigated. It should also be noted that neither instrument is equipped with internal speakers as is common among stage pianos, but both can be played with headphones without the aid of an amp.
Other Features
Neither of these boards uses the Bluetooth BLE protocols for wireless midi, but that’s hardly an issue given the number of various ports that both instruments offer and options for connecting to DAWs.
The RD-2000 USB Audio/MIDI interface function is definitely a plus, and somewhat puzzling why the Kawai doesn’t include it, especially since the concept of the instrument in the first place was to have it integrated into a larger MIDI-connected setup. That said, it’s easy enough to work around since there are ¼” XLR inputs with independent fader so you can still have integrated mixing going on.
The MP11SE includes line-in and line-out ( L/MONO, R [unbalanced]) jacks and an intuitive panel fader to adjust the levels of connected devices.
A huge plus on the Kawai side is the inclusion of a triple pedal unit right out of the box (new GFP-3 triple pedal with full sostenuto). While this is available for the Roland as the RPU-3 add-on, it comes standard with a single damper pedal.
Overall Impressions
The conclusions between these two are quite clear actually.
The Kawai MP11SE is far more niche than the Roland, and for the crowd of music professionals it’s targeted, nothing holds a flame.
If the weight doesn’t present an issue, and its use is going to be exclusive as a piano or master controller within a multi-device setup, the Kawai has your number. The action is indisputably the best out there, and the quality sounds of the acoustic grand piano and e-piano tones are beautiful, rich, and easy to manipulate.
If your needs are more diverse and include using the instrument in a multi-genre setup, in studio, on stage, decent portability, rugged durability with plenty of patches (not to mention the acclaimed SuperNATURAL technology), and modern controller features across all sounds, the RD-2000 is a far better choice for your wishlist.
