Roland P-330

It's very easy to use, just scroll through patches and make minimal changes and you're having fun! There wasn't a whole lot going on in 1988 so it's basic, but it can be controlled via MIDI for automated changes.

10-16 note polyphony generally sucks, but the implementation is clever. I've never heard truncation be slighly musical, but try it one day, especially on the 10 voice sounds.

WOW this is why the unit is still respected today. Listen to any recording where it was used, and you will hear how much of a standout it is. I bought a Motif to put under it, but with a band the sounds stand alone. Great! It's not the quietest module as it does have some noise floor, but hardly excessive.

Built strong, no problems

Roland is awful, I hope I never have to talk to them again.

I'm trying to buy 2 more so I could have 30 voice polyphony.

Very Straightforward. Plug it into the mains, plug your midi lead from your controller in, switch it on, make sure you have headphones or amp

16 notes of Polyphone except for Harpsichord, Clav & EP2 which have 10 (Im quoting the manual).
The Chorus doesn't really serve any real purpose other than giving the sound a stereo image. I would advise using a separate Chorus unit or Multieffects unit to achieve a truly chorussed sound. There is also a Tremelo effect built in.

First, I've read many reviews here and some which claim this unit uses the same sound rom as the MKS20/RD1000. I have the P330 and the MKS20 in the same rack. I bought the P330 to serve whilst the MKS20 is sent away for servicing. So, the P330 does not have the same sample ROM as the MKS20/RD1000. Its close but there is a definate difference. If you can make the comparison, try comparing Acoustic Piano 2 from the P330 and the MKS20 and you will hear what I mean. The MKS has a fuller, richer tone to it. That said, the P330 comes a very close second and would be virtually indistinguishable (I hope I spelled that right) from the MKS20 to all but the most critical of ears. It can be very expressive and the built in Velocity Curves are a definate bonus. I would advise sticking a reverb on the output just to give it a little more dynamic.

Solid, error free. I've been gigging with it regularly and it does an nice, easy job.

I would always search for an MKS20 but this would be the second best option. Whilst some feel that this Piano sound is dated, and to some extent I agree, it is a classic and unique sound none the less. I guess its a classic in the same way that the DX7 Electric Piano sound is however unlike the DX7 this is not a sound that is associated with 80's. To me it's just a different type of Piano sound which will make you stand out from the crowd. If your after a Rock Piano sound then you could do a lot worse than the P330 or the MKS20 for that matter.

This is one cool unit! All of the piano's are very unique. The EPiano's are superb !! Can't say enough about EP1 w/ Chorus. WOW !

The p-330, mks-20, rd1000, rd250, rd300 all share the exact sample ROM.

It is very easy to edit the patches. You can adjust Bass/Treble, Attack/Release, Chorus Rate,Depth and Type(sine and/or saw), Aftertouch,pitch and Modulation.

I've also owned the MKS-20 and I can tell you that this one has more features that are important. Although the MKS-20 has a very slight edge on the Chorus (hardly noticable by most), it is not as easy to access the patches quickly. The MKS-20 also doesn't allow you to adjust the velocity curve, attack, release but the P-330 can, Which I think it really important. The p-330 is a lot lighter too !

16 Poly on important sounds - Accoutic Pianos and EP1. Others are 10, Chorus and Tremolo are analog effects and are very warm sounding.

The accoustic piano, while not as realistic as the newer stuff of today, they have something special that no other module I've ever played has, and that is very high range of expression. The pianos as well as the other sounds are sythesized intead of recorded. The creator of the MKS-20/P-330 rom studied the wave forms of pianos to create the dynamic structure. It was called Struture Adaptive (SA) If you play most digital pianos of today they are single layer and lack a lot of character. Of course I feel the high end Yamaha digitals with there 3 layer piano samples are also very good at this dynamic expression, but they are about the only brand.

If you can pick one of these units up for about $200-250, you won't reqret it. Buy it for EP1 !!

Yes!!

I would buy this again. A truly awesome piece. No EP exists are warm and as playable in any other module.

It's a preset digital piano.

8 Sounds, 56 variations (in chorus, tremolo and eq). Sound is basically the same.

Acustic pianos are nice (if you like it), bright and good for dance. I bought this unit especially for the Acoustic piano 3 (very nice but very different than an acoustic piano) and EP1 (a Simil rhodes very musical sounding; not real but wonderful). EP2 is nice for layering.
Vibe is "State Of the Art", simply unbelieavble , clavs and harpsi are nice. I don't know how to explain but harmonics are wonderful and even the sound is not perfect, they're very musical sounding. Piano resonance is perfect, SA synthesis rulez. Sometime much better than 2003 piano modules.

Roland.

For the price (about 120 $) it's better than many modules. I traded for the JV80 expansion which contains many samples from this module but this is way better and cost less !. Wonderful harmonics, very musical module, little price.

Presets are fine, but I like to fatten up the Piano 3 sound with some Bass and a very light chorus setting (more for giving a stereo image than actually having a chorus sound). Patch editing is easy, and you really don't need to do it that often with only 8 fundamental tones.

16 notes (10 on EPiano2 and Clavi) is enough polyphony for my rhythmic style of playing. If you feel you will be doing glissandos with sustain pedal, you might want to get 2 units and use the built-in Stacking function to increase notes (I suppose that stands for "Expandability" in a way). MIDI storage/sysex capabilities are better than the MKS-20 due to the "Midi Out" port.

The bread and butter tones here IMHO are EPiano 1 (nice Rhodes that goes from bell-like to an all-out bark) and Piano 3 (Sort of a CP-80 sparkle type of characteristic, minus the "Thud" sound in the lower octaves). Piano 1 is a good layering patch (although for some reason it doesn't sound as full as the same patch on the MKS-20). Dynamic response on all the piano patches, I swear this thing can simply drown any modern day sample-based piano module and leave it for dead. Be prepared to love its unrealistic-yet-extremely-musical piano sounds, else you might as well get a real acoustic piano instead.

This thing is a solidly built piece of equipment, its a joy to use, and it can always be trusted to work, no need for a backup.

Roland really doesn't keep parts for the P-330 (or MKS-20) anymore. Luckily I never had to call them for parts or repair.

The things I like about the p-330 are it's "Half-Damping" sustain pedal, the adjustments for velocity curves (to match the controller kybd), remember the last patch used and the master tuning setting on powerup (I still can't believe the MKS-20 can't do this!). I wish that Roland would have put a little more effort into the quality of the effects (2-band EQ,Chorus and Tremolo)

Well, i'll try to be brief once again.... The P-330 is probably one of the easiest rackmount units to use. It is very self-explanatory. The owners manual is very well laid out and it explains every feature of the unit with excellent detail.

The polyphony is 16 notes on most patches. However, it seems as though "note dropping" is not really noticable for some reason on this unit... I do alot of sustained arpeggios when I play and I have yet to hear an incident of "note-dropping/stealing" yet. In contrast, it seems to be very noticeable when the max polyphony is reached on most digital units of today (guess they just don't make 'em like they used to!). This unit cannot be expanded unfortunately. However, you can chain several P-330's together to increase the polyphony. But once you sit down and start playing, you will probably agree that all you really need is one P-330 (I was thinking I would need 2 units, but oh how wrong I was!). It only makes sense tho, because the P-330 is basically the same as the Roland MKS-20 (just a smaller 1u version with a few added features) and the MKS-20 seems to be very popular with virtually no complaints about polyphony.. So I figured that polyphony obviously would not be an issue with this unit. Also, as mentioned, there are a few more features with the P-330 as opposed to the Roland MKS-20... The main two features added are pitch bend and the ability to chain multiple units together. Also, you can edit/save/upload patches to a computer with the P-330 (you just can't save to a cartridge as you can with the Roland MKS-20... Big deal, right? Those cartridges are next to impossible to find these days anyway.).

I didn't buy this module to have a real "true" grand piano sound... I bought this unit for the "electric grand-ish" piano sound that is used so much in the gospel music of today (an example can be found at the beginning of "When Sunday Comes" by Daryl Coley). The sound that I was after is re-created in the Roland RD-500 as this keyboard has the Roland "Piano Collection" sounds built-in... If you check out an RD-500, it is the "MKS-20" ep. sound. But this re-creation is digital... If you want the warmest sound, go for the P-330, MKS-20, or any of the Roland synths (all older "RD's", and some "HP's") that used S/A synthesis. Don't get me wrong... That very-well could have been a Roland RD-500 using the MKS-20 patch on "When Sunday Comes".. I just usually try to go for the "original" sound when I can (i.e.- I hope to actually buy a REAL minimoog one day instead of constantly striving to re-create the moog sound on my other synths). To be honest, I just didn't have the money for what I really wanted (a half-rack sized JV-1010 with the "Piano Collection" expansion card). The jv-1010 of course has many more sounds to work with (plus you can grab it by itself and go with it's half-rack size)... But for 300+ dollars, I had to pass (at least for right now). To be honest once again, I actually wanted to sell my P-330 that I waited soo long for (it's becoming hard to find) and save the money for a JV-1010 + "Piano Collection" expansion... But after also checking out the excellent rhodes sounds on the P-330 (the most realistic rhodes next to the Yamaha Motif), the Clavinet sounds and the overall warmth/dynamics/responsiveness of this classic unit, I have decided to keep it...

I have only had it for a few days now, but I seriously doubt I will have a problem with it.. It seems to be nothing less that "rock-solid". Furthermore, there is no real "software" to worry about, and the unit is free of stand-alone glitches (I haven't sequenced with it yet).

I ordered a P-330 owners manual from Roland. They are cool, the shipping just took a little too long and the manual was somewhat expensive (they know they can cash in on owners manuals for those vintage units that aren't sold in stores anymore...lol). Greedy punks.

If this unit were lost or stolen, I must say that I would try my absolute best to replace it (although I know it would be hard)... As I mentioned before, these units are becoming very hard to find and you can't buy them brand new anymore. My only gripe is that I wish it would let me control the tremolo effect with the modulation wheel, but I can't seem to get it to let me do that (maybe i'm doing something wrong?). I would like to have a backup just in case god-forbid something DID happen to my P-330. However, I will probably end up just getting the Roland JV-1010 + "Piano Collection" expansion if anything ever does happen to my P-330... I only say this because by the time I get done waiting around trying to find another P-330 (with them being so rare [I waited a LONNG time for this one]) I could just save up and buy almost an exact replica of the main sound that I love from this unit. Nevertheless, the Roland P-330 = a true classic.

It's a one rack-space MKS-20, missing a few features, but adding others. Presets are the typical Roland RD piano set :
Piano 1, 2, 3 EPiano 1, 2, Clav, Harpsichord, and Vibes.

Sounds are a bit 'dated' but still are very useful, playable, and sound really great in a band context.

16 Voice on some presets, 12 on others. Build in effects are chorus, tremelo. Overall, it's surprising how well it sounds in a band context, and how playable it is. Other reviews have great stuff, so I'll compare it to the MKS-20.
1) P-330 one-space, MKS-20 two (harder to fit in case w/cables attached)
2) P-330 has attached power cord (good).

3) P-330 has attack, sustain, release, MKS-20 does not.

4) MKS-20 has XLR outs, P-330 does not.

5) P-330 tremelo and chorus usuable, but not as good as MKS-20.

6) P-330 responds to pitch bend, aftertouch, and velocity.

7) P-330 has different velocity curves, which help match the controller to the keyboard better.

8) P-330's can be chained together to increase polyphony.

9) P-330 costs about 1/3 an MKS-20.

10 P-330 EQ has bass treble, MKS-20 has Bass, Sweepable Mid (w/Q), Treble.

11) P-330 has two types of chorus - Saw and Sine wave.

Meat and Tater's here. No strings. Just some basic digital piano sounds, but they work really well.
Here's how I rank them:
Piano 1 - The main sound (Billy, Elton, etc)

Piano 2 - Supposedly a bosendorfer style

Piano 3 - CP70 Sound - cuts through anything and still sounds good.

ePiano 1 - A GREAT epiano - wonderful to play

ePiano 2 - A DX-7'y, but not as annoying, still fat

Clav - My favorite clavinet sound - fat, compressed, very playable.

Vibes - Best Vibe sound I've ever played. Chorus and Tremelo add a lot, MKS-20 rules here.

Harpsichord - Great - I've used it on several tracks.

That's it. All presets are variations on the above with chorus, tremelo and eq.

It's a roland. I've had three MKS-20s, and two of them developed bad relays from rough treatment. I like the P-330 because it's lighter, and should be able to last longer.

No Opinion here.

This piece is an incredible deal at $100+. Especially if you are playing live. True the MKS-20 is slightly better, but it's also bigger and more expensive. I would recommend the MKS-20 for studio, home rack, and the P-330 for the gig rig.

Sure the sounds are 12+ years old, but they hold their own really well in context with other instruments. Definitely seems to have more soul than the current crop of boards out there.

Although there are 64 possible patches in this box, the straight piano tone is the one I use pretty much all the time.

With 16-note polyphony, I've never had any problems with notes dropping out in any live situation. The effects are just ok, I don't use them much myself. All it has are chorus and tremolo, and they're certainly passable. The midi-sysex gets a little weird, if you're programming using a computer, but for the most part this is a set-it-and-forget-it kind of box. Great piano sound.

I've been using this box for years and I always get compliments on my piano sound. I play with a wedding band, and also with a Steely Dan tribute band. Just this weekend, someone emailed me asking about my piano sound after hearing it at our gig this past week. To my ears, it's the real deal and very expressive as well.

This thing is rock solid. I'd love to find a backup, in case this is ever stolen, because I don't ever want to be without that piano sound. I have the RD-300 at home, the unit that the P-330's sounds were based on. For a while I was even using the RD-300 as a controller and using the sounds out of the P-330. But that's another story ;)

never needed it

I would definitely get one of these things again. No question. I'd be hard pressed to find a single module that I could think of as "my sound" like I do this one.

Does not have many parameters, so it's very straight forward.
It's got presets as well as RAM. The presets sound right and just for minor alterations the RAM is very usefull.
Editing patches is easy, as it's limited in functions.

It's 16-voice. Perhaps not enough for classical pianists, but it never bothered me. It's possible to hook up more P330's to expand the number of voices.
The only built in effect is a Chorus and Tremolo. The Chorus is essential, but not as good as on the MKS20 and RD1000. For the electric piano's it's a must to have the Chorus on.

Even though these days there are much, much better emulations of acoustic pianos, the piano sounds on the P330 are just as useable. They're rock solid and really sound tight in the mix.
I bought the Grand Piano Q-card for my S4, thinking It would improve my piano sound, but in the mix the P330 did a much better job and I took the Q-card back to the dealer.
I have had the P330 since 1990 and these days I'm just using it for one sound. Probably the sound that is least used by all MKS20/P330 owners. The Vibraphone. Never have I heard a better sample than the P330's Vibe (which is not even a sample). I'm a big Jazz-Fusion fan and have listened a lot to Steps Ahead. The Rhodes sounds are also very nice. For a really fat balad type of piano sound, try this combination: The no.3 piano of the P330 and a DX/TX Rhodes piano. Very expressive and full.

Never had any problems.

Never had to turn to Roland.

I would definitely get another P330 if stolen. They aren't hard to get and fairly cheap. That Vibraphone sound I can't do without.
It's not as good as the MKS20, because of the Chorus and it also misses the Cartridge slot. The MKS20 was still a bit pricy at the time, that's why I chose the P330. It's also 1U 19", so it doesn't take up much space.
Another advantage the P330 has over the MKS20, are the velocity curves. Most people in the 80's were playing a DX7 and the DX's keyboard can't reach up to a 127 in velocity, so if you had an MKS20 the pianos get to sound a bit dull.
I would only recommend the P330 to people looking for the best Vibraphone sound. If you buy it just for the sake of its low price, you probably wouldn't end up using it.

Very ez to use.

16 note polyphony- a real pain. BUT, this module had a feature that allowed you to 'stack' two P-330's to get more polyphony. Then you would have 32 note polyphony - still a drag by today's standards.

I used it primarily for acoustic piano sounds in the early 1990's, and the module delivered; MIDI'ed up to a Roland A-80 controller, it was a joy to play. The clav sounds were nice, but I never used the electric pianos, nor did I use the Chorus or the horrible Tremolo effect. The EQ selections were nice. I bought it primarily for acoustic piano sounds.

It was VERY rugged.

Very good. (thank god, cuz their user's manual's really suck)

I bought it used in 1990 for $250, and sold it in 1992. Nowadays I play a Roland A-90 EX controller with the VERDI internal sound module, which is light years ahead of the P-330. I would never buy a P-330 again, simply because sample playback modules and samplers produce the best acoustic piano sounds. It was a great module back when I was using it, but times change, and there is MUCH better to be had now. I admit that it does have a certain unique funkiness to it, but the lack of polyphony would drive me nuts nowadays.