Roland Announces V-STAGE Performance Keyboards at NAMM Show
2025 NAMM Show News: Roland has introduced V-STAGE, a new line of performance keyboard for professional musicians.
Roland has released plenty of stage pianos in the past, but the new V-STAGE looks like something a little different. Indeed, it feels like Roland is parking its considerable tanks directly on Nord’s lawn with this one, right down to those red wooden end cheeks.
It’ll take more than that to displace the likes of the Nord Stage and Yamaha CP88/73 from their headline slots, though, so what does the V-Stage have on its rider?
V-STAGE keyboards feature four independent sound engines, based on Roland’s behavior modeling and sound technologies. Four discrete sections provide dedicated controls:
- Acoustic Piano – Powered by Roland’s V-Piano technology, the Acoustic Piano section kicks things off. There are two concert grands, an upright and a felt piano, all of which promise the usual combination of tonal authenticity, playability and nuance.
- Electric Piano – The Electric Piano engine is apparently new for the V-Stage, and based on the latest iteration of Roland’s SuperNatural technology. There are reed, digital and Clav instruments, while hands-on effects include tremolo, an amp sim, MFX processing and the intriguing Sound Lift Knob, which is designed to help you cut through in a dense mix.
- Organ – Over in Organ section, Roland’s Virtual Tone Wheel technology powers a three-layer console organ, two transistor models and a pipe organ, with drawbars and percussion controls giving you that classic feel. And of course, you also have overdrive, vibrato/chorus and rotary speaker emulations to work with, along with a brake control and adjustable mic positioning.
- Synthesizer – Things get potentially even more interesting in the Synthesizer section, where the tried and tested Zen-Core engine powers 400-plus built-in tones. You can use two parts simultaneously, while hands-on controls include attack, release, filter and more.
And sure enough, V-Stage is also compatible with the Roland Cloud, so you can add more patches and sounds as you wish. We’re led to believe that Modal Expansion emulations of the Jupiter-8, Juno-106 and other Roland classics come free with the V-Stage, so you’ve got some good stuff to play with right out of the gate.
The Official V-Stage Intro Video:
The V-STAGE interface is designed for live performance, with an intuitive panel layout, color LCD, and clearly labeled controls. There’s also a Total Effects section with a large selection from the Roland library and a Master section with EQ and compression to fine-tune the overall output.
Using 512 Scene memories and the Scene Chain function, players can save complete keyboard setups and rapidly access them while performing on stage.
V-STAGE offers versatile balanced output connectivity options. There’s also an XLR microphone input and a stereo line input for mixing in an external instrument. And with the class-compliant USB-C audio / MIDI interface, it’s simple to integrate computers and mobile devices with V-STAGE.
There are two V-STAGE models:
- V-STAGE 88 offers an authentic acoustic piano experience, with an 88-note weighted keyboard with hammer action, escapement, and Ivory Feel keys.
- V-STAGE 76 features a newly developed 76-note semi-weighted waterfall keyboard for a traditional organ feel and synth playability.
The V-STAGE 76 costs $3,499.99/£3,027/€3,499, while the V-STAGE 88 cost $3,999.99/£3,459/€3,999. Both available now in the US, and you can find out more on the Roland website.
