The good old piano has not seen much evolution in design all these centuries but Casio and Donner have already shown us they’re willing to break the ice. Now for their 50th-anniversary celebration, Japanese music gear pro, Roland has also decided to bring something fresh to the equation. That uniqueness comes in the form of this concept piano designed to commemorate five decades of the Osaka-based brand.
As a part of the concept study in collaboration with Japanese furniture maker Karimoku, the design has the apparent influence of the “future filled with past creativity and future possibilities”.
Designer: Roland
The 50th Anniversary Concept Model Piano is centered on the PureAcoustic Modeling engine announced by the brand back in 2018. This makes the musical instrument not only look anything like other contemporary options but also ahead in intuitiveness. Case in point, the instrument modeling combined with the multi-channel loudspeakers for a dash of sonic realism. The patent-pending keyboard recognition design brings to the fore a very natural response along with the realistic mapping and reproduction of the pedal noise.
The 88-key piano keyboard instrument is honed by the unibody cabinet that’s purely a result of the Karimoku association in this creation. That eye-grabbing presence of layered Japanese Nara oak pieces arranged in flowing lines and sublime contours. This is perfectly matched to the piano stool having rounded padding on top. Once you lift the lid, there’s a color display panel to toggle all the player settings or the adjustable metronome. The app integration lets one make all the subtle adjustments on the fly.
Roland’s Concept Model Piano is powered by a button on the left and the gold-colored volume control lets you take control of the piano tones on the speakers. Other than that; it goes without saying, the piano looks absolutely stunning in a contoured wooden finish and is all set to embellish a modern living room. For now, there’s no word when this cool piano will be available to burn some cash on, but when it arrives, it’ll surely be on the collectors’ list.
