Roland MKS-20 | The BEST 80’s Digital Piano?? 

Thank you very much for this impressive and informative video! In the 90s I played the MKS20 live layered with Yamaha TX802, a very nice and powerful combination. I'm happy to still have these Oldies. They are also working fine together with my new Roland RD88 Piano.

A Gospel Musician dream the Quintessential sound

Had an RD-300, replaced it with a DX7 & P-330 for portability, but the P-330 didn't sound anywhere near as good as the RD-300. Eventually got the MKS-20, which I have had for yonks. Absolute classic sound and always works better in a track than a sampled piano. Combination of MKS-20 Piano-3 and DX-7 EP is a dream.

The MKS20 or P330 are great for layering with real piano samples, for making the piano sound greater than life, for live use.

I have one because it was always best to my ears

I finally found one that was in good shape but wasn’t $600+! Been my dream to own one of these for awhile. I bought the iPad app that emulates this module and while it’s good (and more powerful, with the built in layering) it isn’t the real thing. As cumbersome as it can be to own the hardware versions of vintage synths, it just feels better to me. This module has a sound of its own. There really isn’t anything that emulates it. I happen to love it, and can’t wait to play one again. The dynamics and expressiveness of the patches is what makes this much more enjoyable and unique. Can’t wait to blend MKS-20 Piano 3 (+chorus) with JX8P P17, baby! A match made in heaven :)

Always surprises me that someone manages to play a piano sound with damn minikeys 😁 . I don’t especially like the sound either😳....but I think it’s popularity is based on the fact the acoustic piano was used on quite a few early house tracks.......BTW The model after this (P330) is the same engine. Effects (& editing) probably not as good but It’s a good option if you want basically the same Piano sound in cheaper, more compact 1U rack.

Piano 1 is Elton John’s love piano sound to this day. So are EPiano 1amd 2 are as well

At 20:05 onwards you clearly hear distortion, and I've found all units (4) I've checked has this problem. Anyone else noticed this? I modified one of the preamp stages to lower gain to get it clean.

Cool Sound ... If You like analog style piano try Korg DW-8000 ... It is also digital (one period sample rom), but has cool analog filters with pleasant analog color and a wonderful soft chorus .. In addition, it can create cool polysynt sounds and soft pads are no worse as JX-8P .. also has two oscillators

Sounds too high “trebled” and buzzy but these do get sound issues after a while and it’s hard to find a clean one Luckily my Roland RD300 has no issues and sounds clean and superb

I wish I had some way of confirming this. On one of my Roland synthesizer models, the VR-09, there is a piano preset called “SA Piano” that sounds to me like a dead ringer for the third piano present on this module and on the 1000 (they also put that patch on the Juno DS models). If I had either model at my disposal, it would be easier to do an A/B comparison. It’s a sound that Elton John used on his 1988 album *Reg Strikes Back,* Record he may just after getting the 1000. Afterwards, unless I am mistaken, it crapped up on records issued by Roxette, Madonna, Amy Grant and Michael Jackson, probably others.

Can that tremelo effect be completely turned off every preset? Im tempted to buy one of these but that effect is a bit annoying.

this is like the uncanny valley, but for sound

As so many have said it cuts through the mix and stands out live. Not only did Elton John use it, but Mags from A-ha used the Keyboard version. If that doesn't sound like a big deal consider the records setting hits and decade's worth of worldwide touring success of both artists. Personally, I find it's character to be bright and sharp yet contemplative. An unusual mix.

I bought a P-330 and noticed that the lowest notes on Piano 1, 2, and 3 appear to sound sharp by at least 6 cents. Is this same for the MKS-20? It is pretty noticeable at times when playing. Why is it like this?

Espen Kraft approved it already a while back

The first issue of Keyboard magazine I ever bought (in 1986) had a two page spread with an RD-1000 advertisement. I always thought that thing looked humongous, and wondered how it sounded. Now I guess I know. I would say, sure, compared to today's technology, it's rather subpar, but I bet back then it sounded more than good enough.

This could be cool in a situation when you want something that blatantly doesn't sound like a real piano. In a lot of '80s pop music, a piano is only supposed to give the vague indication of a piano, but it's not supposed to convince you that it's a real piano, and for that, this probably would sound great. Today however, you can get sampled pianos that sound so close to the real thing that when put into a mix, you couldn't reliably tell it apart from a real acoustic piano, so a module like this will have a very narrow use case.

I have an MKS 20 (and a P330) The comments below regarding using a weighted key "Piano" controller are pretty insightful as well I think Zach mentioned there were 7 presets, but there are 8, (he didnt mention the Vibraphone, though it was in the sound demo section) the most important points to make though regarding the MKS20 family is- first, Reverb is REALLY important, mainly because we are so accustomed to having reverb built in to most "modern" synths. the second point, which for me is HUGE, is that the real strength of, especially with the Piano sounds on the MKS 20 (and I am personally partial to Piano 2) is that when you layer them with other sounds, they work FAR better than a sampled piano, no matter how outstanding that sample set might be on its own. I think that the sustain portion of the sounds, since they ar synthesized, are far more natural than looped piano samples. so the takeaway for me in using it, is with other synths or keyboards around, its a total winner. If you are doing a take on Mike Garson's Alladin Sane performance, at the very least get a good reverb on it (I use a Roland SRV330 on mine) but you likely will be better off with a sampled piano. The Electric Pianos are pretty nice, though a little too similar for my taste, a Wurlitzer styled sound would have certainly been nice to have.... the Harpsichord,Clavinet and Vibraphone are nice as well.

It's a shame there's no actual emulation of the synthesis method out there. Keyscape (likely) uses samples like the rest of 'em.

At least, use a 88 key controller to demo a (digital) piano.

The tremolo almost makes me feel queasy. Not a fan of that. Interesting module, but not something I'd spend money on.