HPi-50e: Digital Piano

The piano that teaches you how to play it

Imagine a piano with a colour screen showing sheet music and exercises to help you improve. That’s the HPi-50e in a nutshell, a digital piano for anyone wanting to improve their playing. It combines Roland’s SuperNATURAL piano engine with a powerful set of speakers (called Acoustic Projection) and an authentic Ivory Feel keyboard action to replicate the sound and feel of a world-class concert grand piano.

But the HPi-50 is all about that big colour screen, called DigiScore, which is housed in the music rest. The DigiScore system displays digital sheet music (and even turns the page for you) with a choice of over 400 built-in songs. You can even add other songs via SMF data (also known as Standard MIDI Files). A wide range of exercises and games make learning fun for everyone. Younger children will love to earn ‘medals’ for their progress, while older players will appreciate the ability to perfect their playing technique and notation reading.

• Experience the rich, complex tone of an authentic acoustic grand with SuperNATURAL Piano
• New PHA-4 Concert Keyboard with Escapement and Ebony/Ivory Feel features Roland’s latest high-resolution touch-detection technology
• Fortissimo playing styles are fully expressed with the new Dynamic Harmonic feature, which provides both a unique tonal character and powerful sound
• Customise the piano’s tone to your taste with Individual Note Voicing, which lets you adjust the pitch, volume, and character of each note independently
• Interactive DigiScore training programs include digital sheet music plus entertaining skill-building games and exercises
• Large, high-resolution (1280 x 800) colour LCD built into the music rest
• 50 onboard rhythm accompaniments and nearly 400 internal songs, including popular études such as Czerny 100 and Hanon, plus classical masterpieces and popular songs
• 16-part SMF song recorder built in; records and plays WAV audio songs via optional USB flash memory
• Innovative Acoustic Projection system for natural, multi-dimensional sound
• Headphone 3D Ambience effect provides a rich, immersive sound field while using headphones for private practice
• Convenient features for daily playing, including independent volume for headphones, Volume Limit function, and adjustable music rest
• Progressive Damper Action pedal; wood cabinet with beautiful Simulated Rosewood finish

A piano with a built-in colour DigiScore screen

Just one look at the HPi-50e will tell you it’s different from other pianos. The DigiScore system displays digital sheet music on the built-in colour LCD screen. The resolution (1280 x 800) has been greatly enhanced over previous models, and can show 32nd notes and up to 48 measures* of music at once. The digital pages are even turned for you so you can concentrate on playing. The onboard exercises make sharpening your skills challenging and fun, while tools including a graphical metronome, onscreen keyboard and fingering number display will help you improve.

Bring a grand piano sound into your home

At the heart of the HPi-50e is Roland’s SuperNATURAL Piano sound engine. Although extremely powerful, this technology has a simple aim – to convincingly recreate the sound and feel of a grand piano. As you play, the tone (or colour) of the sound changes naturally in response to your touch, from the softest notes to the loudest. Tone decay (how long you can hear the sound after striking the key) is also natural and organic, with the sound not only decreasing in volume, but also gradually softening in tone as the notes fade away. With SuperNATURAL Piano technology, every note has its own character, faithful to the performance of a real acoustic grand. Upright piano tones are now included as well, which provide the unique short decay and up-close sound of a traditional upright instrument.

Develop essential piano techniques with onboard learning programs

Learning piano is pretty tough and although there’s no substitute for a piano teacher, sometimes you could do with a little help during practise. The HPI-50e’s Finger Training course displays the “finger power” in both hands while playing the built-in Hanon exercises (which develop finger movement skills). The Visual Lesson application identifies areas in the digital sheet music that you need to work on. These are just some of the powerful tools to improve your playing, no matter whether you’re a beginner or an advanced pianist who has been playing for years.

Motivate your children to practice with fun skill-building games

If you’ve ever dragged your kids to the piano for another round of scales, you’ll know that piano practise isn’t too high on their list of priorities. So make it fun with the HPi-50e’s interactive DigiScore games. The DoReMi Course reviews your music reading and fingering techniques and the Scroll Game lets you play along with a graphical piano roll on the display. The Medal Collection application awards gold, silver, or bronze medals for playing accuracy as you play along with the built-in songs. All of these games are challenging and entertaining for everyone in your family and, more importantly, they keep your child focused on improving.

Compose songs and create charts and lesson materials

It can be a real pain when the student outgrows the instrument. They get held back and you lose money when you sell it on eBay. The HPi-50e is a piano for the long term, with a 16-part song recorder that enables piano teachers to create original lesson materials for their students, as well as developing composition skills. You can build a song by recording up to 16 individual parts one at a time, each with their own unique sounds. Once completed, your songs can be saved as WAV audio files to optional USB flash memory, where they can then be transferred to a computer for CD creation or Internet sharing. You can also create music notation from a song with DigiScore, saving it as a BMP file to USB memory so you can print it from your computer. This provides a quick and easy way for teachers to create charts that are customised for individual students.

Explore an expanded range of dynamic expression

The Dynamic Harmonic feature allows you to adjust the unique overtone characteristics created with fortissimo playing. If you’re a student, this gives you a new palette of tonal colors to explore as the strength of your key touch improves. More experienced players will welcome the deep expressive control too.

Your piano, your rules, your sound

Most digital pianos offer a fixed piano sound: if you don’t like it, you’re stuck with it. The HPi-50e’s onboard Piano Designer lets you modify the piano sound to suit your taste. If you want to go deeper, the new Individual Note Voicing feature lets you adjust the pitch, level, and tonal character independently for all 88 notes. This is especially useful for balancing the overall piano sound to suit the acoustic properties of any room, or improve the sound through a particular set of headphones. You can even save and recall your favourite settings via USB. Finally, a piano that adapts to you, instead of the other way around.

A responsive keyboard that turns motion into emotion

A piano’s keyboard connects the player to the sound, so whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pianist, a responsive keyboard is a must. Get it wrong, and you won’t connect with the piano. Get it right and you’ll become the piano. The keyboard on the HPi-50e is called PHA-4 Concert Keyboard with Escapement and Ebony/Ivory Feel. Bit of a mouthful, granted, but lets look at what it does. First, there’s Roland’s latest touch-detection technology, with fast key repetition and high-resolution sensing. This faithfully translates into sound the subtlest differences in tone from different playing styles and dynamics. Next, the keys share the look and feel of real ebony and ivory, and their moisture-absorbing properties mean your fingers won’t slide off. Finally, the PHA-4’s authentic hammer-action mechanism produces less audible noise than previous designs, so you won’t disturb others when using headphones.

Close your eyes, and you’ll hear an acoustic piano

Acoustic pianos sound the way they do thanks to a complex yet harmonious combination of elements, including string resonance, soundboard, hammer material and the piano’s cabinet. The HPi-50e recreates this sound through Roland’s innovative Acoustic Projection technology, which marries the multi-dimensional audio system found in our flagship V-Piano Grand with the SuperNATURAL Piano sound engine. Acoustic Projection uses multiple speakers that are discretely placed to project the piano's various sound elements from their natural positions. These elements are naturally blended in the air space surrounding you, reproducing the sound field of an acoustic piano with stunning accuracy. It’s rather difficult for a digital piano to sound this pure and simple. But we’ve cracked it.

3D Headphone sound brings practise to life

The beauty of digital pianos is that you can practise in silence without disturbing other people. Great for them, but what about you? You’ll probably be listening to the piano through headphones for long periods of time, but many pianos don’t take this into account. With the newly developed Headphones 3D Ambience effect, you can now enjoy the unique sound field of an acoustic piano during these private sessions, making it feel as though the sound is emanating from the instrument itself.

Authentic Damper Pedal Response

The HPi-50e has a Progressive Damper Action pedal that accurately replicates the damper pedal on an acoustic piano. It features the continuous tactile response that experienced players expect, with light resistance when the pedal is first pressed and more resistance as the damper function begins to take effect. This allows for more intuitive control while playing, along with “half-pedal” techniques for subtle control over sustain and resonance.

Never needs tuning, never stops delivering

As a digital piano, the HPi-50e offers many advantages over acoustic pianos. It doesn’t need tuning or other regular maintenance, plus you get onboard metronome and recording features, silent practice with headphones, USB connectivity and lots more. The HPi-50e makes life easy in other ways too. You can limit the piano’s maximum volume level, preventing your kids from playing loud sounds unexpectedly. You can limit the headphone volume as well, to protect your ears. You can also connect standard over-ear headphones (¼-inch jack) or the smaller earphones used with music players and mobile devices (⅛-inch jack). The HPi-50e’s built-in music rest is easily adjustable too, allowing you to set the ideal angle to match the sitting height of everyone from small children to adults.

Contact

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