This is sort of stupidtacular - Roland has introduced the C-30 Digital Harpsichord. It’s also a sign that the technology is getting cheap and good enough to be irrelevant for a lot of types of instruments, so packaging starts making more of a difference.
Description:
Roland’s “click action” F-scale keyboard provides an authentic harpsichord feel, while two different types of unique harpsichord modes give you an expansive selection of sounds including French-type and Flemish-type harpsichord. Each mode has four stop variations: 8′1, (back), 8′11 (front), 4′, and Lute.
In addition, Roland has added totally new sounds with the “Dynamic Harpsichord”, which can be played with dynamics and with a damper pedal. It also features two positive small-pipe organ sounds and the sound of the early fortepiano.
Available tuning options include baroque pitch (415Hz) and Versailles pitch (392Hz), which can be switched instantly without changing the temperament (classical tuning). A total of five tunings are supported. In addition to equal temperament including: Werckmeister, Kirnberger, Vallotti, and Meantone.
It’s possible to adjust the sound to achieve a proper balance when playing in an ensemble with violin, modern flute, or other comparatively loud instruments. On the other hand, if you want to practice at home late at night, you can turn the volume down. You can also practice using headphones.
The C-30 can be split up into unit and stand. You can easily transport the unit (25 kg) and stand (13 kg) in an ordinary car.
The C-30’s unique keyboard lid and side panels can be customized with a variety of patterns including paintings, and stained-glass inspired artwork.
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6 Responses to “Roland Intros C-30 Digital Harpsichord”
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Stupitacular applies more to your comment.
Roland realises, as do the makers of most other floorstanding
musical instruments, that the instrument is also a piece of furniture.
Too often, if little Johnny or Janey don’t want to practice, that is
what a the instrument is for most of its life.
The technology is very relevant, things like effective emulation
of the feel of harpsichord keys, provision of alternative tempering
and other digital advantages are not as immediately attention-
grabbing as angels playing lutes.
The pricing instruments depends to a great extent on
projected sales to recoup R&D costs and the costs of production.
Making instruments that appeal to as many people as possible
is one way of making these superb musical instruments available
to as many people as possible.
There is no particular reason why a digital instrument has to
be made from moulded plastic. Instruments that are essentially
based on samples from acoustic instruments are reproducing
sounds. Why should it be odd that they also emulate the look
of the instruments they sonically resemble? It helps to complete
the illusion.
Without the hassle of tuning, you get several harpsichords and
a piano in a customizable wooden box. I’d say that is cause for
approbation not denigration. If you find the glass or the
keyboard panel lame or distracting, just remove them.
Thanks for your feedback, Mr Tongue.
I’m not sure what your comment about angels playing lutes refers to, though.
Sorry if the post offended you. My point is that synth technology is sufficiently advanced that the packaging is often more important than the technology. Disguising a playback synth as a 300 year-old harpsichord seems both stupid AND spectacularly awesome.
Like you suggested, Roland isn’t just selling a musical instrument, they’re selling something that frequently will be a nice piece of furniture for most of its life.
I should apologise for being, let’s call it,
excessively polemical.
The “Angels playing lutes” refers to the
decorative panel that comes with the C-30.
It displays when you have the keyboard lid up.
There’s also stained glass in the stands.
Luckily, you can remove the cultural bling.
“packaging is often more important than the technology”
is not restricted to synths. I would say that most people
care about looking cool. The moment of truth comes when
you actually have to play. The nice thing about the C-30
is that you don’t have to play in public. Harpsichords are
fickle instruments and have been too expensive for most
people to own. Now you can have one at home and explore
the history of music via switchable dispositions and access
to several different period instruments. With headphones
on, no-one has to hear you at all.
I hadn’t thought of disguise as a concept for this
product. I suppose we are coming at it from different direction.
If you are into synths, then you get a kind of x-ray vision into
the electronics. A consumer who always wanted to try a harpsichord
or wanted an interesting second keyboard, is not going
to be that concerned about anything but the quality of the playing
experience and whether or not it is affordable.
The appearance is part of the playing experience.
Moulded plastic is not probably not going to appeal much to
people are interested in hearing what Kirnberger harmonies
sound like and comparing them to Werckmeister.
You are right that making such an instrument depends on
being completely competent with acquiring libraries of sound
samples of sufficient quality and assigning items to keys. But
there is a little more to it than that.
In the C-30 the mechanical design of keyboard must have
required a great deal of know-how, research, and ingenuity.
There is a knack to designing successful products and keeping
an innovative business going.
In a product designed for music, you would think that sound
and playability are paramount, but as Apple has demonstrated
with the iPod, looks can be more important than sound and
convenience.
The C-30 does not seem to be simply another “playback synth”; it is a niche product that fills a very specific niche. As a harpsichordist who owns an authentic reproduction of a 1685 Italian instrument, I’ve always been frustrated that it constantly goes out of tune, and the so-called “harpsichord” stops I found on every electronic keyboard I ever tried never sounded anything remotely like a real harpsichord. If they can sample a grand piano to make a really good-sounding digital piano, I used to wonder, why they couldn’t do that for a harpsichord, too. In fact, I reasoned, they could offer more than one harpsichord sound (French or Italian or Flemish etc.) and offer different termperaments (since numerous temperaments were used in the 17th and 18th centuries), different pitch standards, different registers (8-foot, 4-foot, 16-foot), the whole works, all in an instrument that would never need tuning and never need to be “revoiced” by having all the plectra replaced periodically. But it always seemed that the harpsichord market was too small for it to be feasible to produce such an instrument. From their description, it sounds like Roland has created very near what I’ve fantacized about. They even (although I’m not sure how successfully) attempted to reproduce the feel of a harpsichord keyboard, which is unlike any other keyboard because you can actually feel the strings being plucked as you play. I have no interest in having the capability to reproduce the sounds of saxophones or trombones or a wordless chorus or any of the other sounds common to most synthesizers, and I suspect most other harpsichordists feel the same way. I have not yet had the opportunity to try the Roland C-30, and to tell the truth I’m not overjoyed by the visual design of it (it doesn’t look like a harpsichord, and who cares about stained-glass inserts, etc.), but if it comes anywhere near matching the description, I will certainly buy one. It isn’t stupid; it’s a fantastic idea whose time has come.
Be forewarned:
In 1988 Roland released their C-50 and C-80 Digital Harpsichords. I bought a C-50 in May 1988. Just beyond one octave above middle C, the keys in the range of E-A or so, in one of the 8′ registers, were mis-sampled. The result was that a distorted or static-like sound would occur after a fraction of a second when holding the keys down. In the words of a Roland technician whom I spoke to on the phone while he had my C-50 right in front of him, there was a “sampling error”, and as the sampling error was built into the original design, nothing could be done about it. In other words, it was not specific to my C-50, but to all of them. The C-80 also contained the same electronics as the C-50, but with a higher level sound system and cabinet, therefore, the C-80 would have also exhibited this problem.
The new C-30 contains the exact same voicing as the older models. I believe it is fair to assume that Roland has not corrected this problem, they might not even be aware of it. However, any potential buyer of the C-30 needs to be aware of this. That particular register was, for me, as good as unplayable, and therefore rendered my C-50 useless.
As far as realistic tonal response is concerned, that’s a subjective analysis. The basses were pretty good, the treble range seemed to lack something.
Caviat emptor: Try before you buy. If you can’t try it first, make sure you can return it.
I own a C-30 since a few days and I am impressed. This digital instrument can´t replace a real acoustic harpsichord but it is perfect to practise in a small room. I´m a music student (organ and conducting) and it´s very nice to have such a instrument near my desktop. This C-30 replaced my Clavinova and for my use it is a great deal because of the “click” - keyboard which is definitvely nearer to organ an harpsichord feeling than the heavy piano keyboard of a digital piano. The sound isn´t really important for me, but it is even very good! I can´t find the “sampling error” Jack mentioned above. The poissibility to change between old temperatures is great.
The C-30 is a perfect choice for students.