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Korg Liano is now available in 6 different colours – Black, White, Grey, Silver, Blue and Red – so which one looks the best?

Launched last year, Korg’s Liano is the slimline 88-note digital piano with a beginner-friendly, soft-touch key action. It is also portable: you can power it from batteries and it has a pair of built-in bass reflex speakers.

We are telling you this again because Liano is now available in six colour options. In addition to the original black, you now have pearl white and metallic grey, silver, blue or red options to choose from.

So which colour looks the best? Perhaps, if you want to play it totally safe, black is the obvious choice (no one’s going to be scared by that if you decide to sell at a later date) and the grey and silver options look rather conservative, as well. The white Liano is a little bolder, but we’d be worried about marking its pristine finish.

Which leaves metallic blue and red. There are quite a few red keyboards on the market already – but the blue option is genuinely distinctive. As such, this would be our choice, but feel free to disagree because the choice is in your hands.

In terms of performance, of course, it doesn’t really matter. The beating heart of all the Lianos is an Italian grand piano, and there are seven further sounds to play with, too. The Korg Liano is a mere 7cm tall, weighs 6.2kg and offers USB MIDI and audio.

As you can see, the control set has been kept simple. There’s no screen, so sounds are selected via a labelled dial. And includes reverb and chorus effects.

Korg Liano costs £339 /$330, and the new colours will be available soon. Find out more on the Korg website.

Roland has announced another portable digital piano – the FP-E50 – is bringing the company’s ZEN-Core synth engine along for the ride.

Does this 88-note keyboard give you the best of both worlds?

ZEN-Core is Roland’s flagship synthesis system – the one used in the likes of the Jupiter-X and Fantom workstation keyboards – and its inclusion gives the FP-E50 a notable point of difference in comparison with other digital pianos.

In the FP-E50, ZEN-Core supplies 1018 onboard sounds (synths, brass, orchestral voices, guitars/basses, drums and more). These can be layered with the all-important piano tones that come included.

Said tones are generated using Roland’s SuperNATURAL piano engine, and can be played on the 88-note hammer-action keyboard, which offers escapement and an ivory-like feel.

More ZEN-Core sounds can be added via Roland Cloud. But, it seems you can’t install the Model Expansions that emulate specific classic Roland synths – you will need a Jupiter-X, Juno-X or Fantom if you want those – but EXZ Wave Expansions and SDZ Sound Packs are on the menu, providing you have the appropriate subscription.

FP-E50 is designed for home use and it is also portable – the built-in stereo speakers are a clear indicator of that – and you can hook it up to external speakers if you wish. Other connectivity options include a headphone output, Bluetooth audio/MIDI and computer integration via USB.

In addition, there are auto-accompaniment tools. You can fire-up full-band backing tracks in more than 200 styles, with more style packs available on Roland Cloud.

Accompaniments are triggered using your left hand. Beginners can use one-note triggering, and there’s full-chord detection for more advanced players. An Interactive mode enables you to adjust the volume and “energy” of the backing in real-time, and you can set up chord progressions for improvisation in a dedicated sequencer.

And, there are vocal effects. Plug in a mic, start singing and the FP-E50 can generate real-time vocal harmonies that follow the chords, and there’s a transformer that can switch your vocals’ gender or turn you into a robot. Further “studio-grade” vocal effects include a vocoder, an ambience effect, a compressor and a noise suppressor.

Navigation of the FP-E50 is said to be simple. The top-level display shows you the current sound, tempo and other essential information, and we’re assured that it’s easy to make sound selections, favourite specific tones, transpose and more. Long-press functionality on many buttons is designed to cut down on menu diving, and you can save complete keyboard setups as Scenes. Landing this February, the FP-E50 will cost $1,000.

Find out more on the Roland website.

If you have always wanted a grand piano but have never had the require space to house one, Roland has come up with the solution in the shape of the GP-3, an “ultra-compact” model that you can actually fit in your living room.

However, we want to make clear that this is very much a digital instrument, so you are not going to get all the sonic benefits of owning an acoustic grand, but it does have a lid that you can lift up.

In addition, the GP-3 is the tiny grand that Roland says it is. From front to back, it measures less than 70cm. It is also a nice looking piano, coming with a slick gloss black finish.

Under the hood, Roland has used what it calls an “advanced sound engine”, and the 88-note hammer-action keyboard promises an authentic grand piano touch, complete with ivory-like feel. Additionally, there are sustain, soft and sostenuto pedals with support for half-pedal techniques, while the stereo speaker system delivers an immersive sound.

There are some clear benefits to the GP-3 being digital, example – Bluetooth audio/MIDI connectivity and compatibility with the Roland Piano App. Other features include a metronome, recorder and dual headphone jacks, and unlike with an acoustic grand, you will never have to pay for the GP-3 to be maintained.

Roland has not mentioned on the price and release date for the Roland GP-3. In the meantime, check it out on the Roland website.