Digital Piano?

  • Thread starter Thread starter TelePaul
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I learned on an old Cable Nelson console piano when I was 10. Through the years of synths, Rhodes, etc. I've always enjoyed sitting at a real piano - even bought on ten years ago as I went through a "purist" phase.

Now, I find myself being inspired on a regular basis with my Yamaha Motif. I use it in the studio and on gigs. I love playing the thing and it sounds great. I have the acoustic piano (PLG-150AP) card in it, and 9 gigs out of 10 people come up to me and ask "that is a great piano sound you have".

All that to say, I'm glad I learned on a real piano and was able to experience that. Now, I've found I can be inspired and get "that feeling" playing a good synth with good action. I don't mind turning on a power button, pushing another button to select a sound, and adjusting a volume slider. My personal preference is Yamaha, but I've used their gear since the mid 80's and have loved every piece.

You'll want to look for "graded" action for a close to real feel of an actual piano. My Motif has balanced action which is weighted, but evenly across the keys (easier to play synth sounds, organs, etc.) and still provides for a nice feel IMO.
 
Another vote for the Casio Privia line. I've had one for almost 3 years...no problem with it at all, but I leave it in the studio.
I've only had one semi-issue with it...my son knocked it off the stand and a couple of keys jammed up. But it's got a huge access panel on the bottom, held in with 10 bazillion screws. Once you get this open, the action is very easy to reset.

One of the best bangs for the buck. And don't knock the little cz-101.

That thing was crazy cool for a tiny, micro sized keyboard. You could do rudimentary editing and it even had midi capabilities. :D
 
warble2 said:
Now, I find myself being inspired on a regular basis with my Yamaha Motif. I use it in the studio and on gigs. I love playing the thing and it sounds great. I have the acoustic piano (PLG-150AP) card in it, and 9 gigs out of 10 people come up to me and ask "that is a great piano sound you have".
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Is that card really a big step up in your opinion? I have a Motif that I use in my studio and love it also, but on the motifator board many people gave the PLG-150AP a thumbs down and I've been reluctant to buy it.
 
JTC111 said:
Is that card really a big step up in your opinion? I have a Motif that I use in my studio and love it also, but on the motifator board many people gave the PLG-150AP a thumbs down and I've been reluctant to buy it.
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It sounds more natural than the stock Motif (I'm talking the "classic" Motif Power Grand or Natural Grand GM sound), and fits the 50's/60's genre of music I play with the one band. I've recorded it in one song that had a pretty full mix of synths, percussion, guitars, bass, etc. and it sounded good. I think for solo recording, I would choose another option and do (soft synths).

The "big" issue was a high pitched bell-ish jangling type sound that you can hear on key release. Apparently an artifact of the compression used for the samples. I've noticed it when I looked for it, but honestly, it doesn't bother me anymore. I also did some tweaking to the first grand sound on the board and the brighter grand sound (which follows the first one) which I use. Changed the velocity sensitivity depth for each voice from 64 to 72 and noticed a difference in richness.

For the pop music I do in coffee houses, etc. I use the Natural Grand GM sound and it always works for well for me. I like the way it sounds and it seems pretty expressive to me (even though I think it's only one level of velocity sampling). I did tweak it a bit

This is all YMMV. I'm happy with the board, others who I think were hoping for a purist spectacular grand sample, are not happy with it.
 
I've had a Casio AP-45 console style digital for eight months now and I really love it. And the newer generation including the Privias and the AP-200 and AP-500 are even better, I'm told.

Honestly, you owe it to yourself to at least check them out. All that "Casio makes toys" stuff is really tired.
 
I have a Yamaha DGX-620. Cost me $1000 at a music store that has high prices.

The weighted keys are extremely authentic, usurping my grand and upright pianos which are too tight and loose respectively. The main piano sample is perfect. It has some great electric piano and organ samples too, plus 450 useless samples (Fireworks, wtf?!). It's a little too feature rich, though, with a bunch of useless built-in songs and crap. I guess what I'm saying is go for a Yamaha, but keep it simple.
 
avieth said:
I have a Yamaha DGX-620. Cost me $1000 at a music store that has high prices.

The weighted keys are extremely authentic, usurping my grand and upright pianos which are too tight and loose respectively. The main piano sample is perfect. It has some great electric piano and organ samples too, plus 450 useless samples (Fireworks, wtf?!). It's a little too feature rich, though, with a bunch of useless built-in songs and crap. I guess what I'm saying is go for a Yamaha, but keep it simple.
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Hahaha... I have the DGX-505, only MIDI is USB :(

Got it only for the nice piano though...only cost me $500 :)
 
WhiteStrat said:
I've always loved Kurzweil's too (just played 'em, haven't owned one). Do you have any personal knowledge or experience with either the SP2 76 Key Semi-Weighted or the SP2X 88 Key?

(Sorry to hijack the thread into $1000+ territory!)
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I love my Kurzweil also, I've owned Korgs, Yamahas, and Rolands as well and the sound on the Kurzweil has always been my favorite.
 
the newer kurz sp2x is only $1100 at sweetwater right now if this is in your price range...
 
I have a Yamaha P 90 that I've used for about 5 years now. I believe I paid around $1200 for it then, so you can probably get one for ~$800 now. It's a beautiful instrument with a full 88 keys, MIDI I/O, headphone and line out, and graded hammer action.

Hammer Action - There actual little hammer that move around inside to give it that authentic piano feel.

Graded - The hammers on the low notes are heavier feeling than those on the high side...in reality I don't really notice this.

It's got 20 or so different voices... but the main concert grand is almost all I use it for. The only down side is that there are no external speakers so you'd need to have some monitors or headphones to use it.

Overall I've really enjoyed it and highly recommend it.
 
I was lucky enough to get a Casio Privia 730.

Its amazing... I have played yamaha's , rolands , and kawai's and I loved the feel of the casio so I have that one.. It sounds great and feels amazing..

I always thought that casio was best at making watches....

It turns out there digital piano's are the BOMB!!!!

:)
 
i have a yamaha clp840

think it's about ten years old now, but i've never had any problems with it, and it's realistic enough,,for me at least.

i've used it on plenty of recordings where piano was in the background, and even a few upfront and it's always been great...

the only drawbacks that i see is that it's sound bank is extremely limited,,,but hey,,,,i just wanted a piano sound!!

also, the keys are very noisy (can't mic it up), but they weren't always...

does anyone know about servicing these things? can you replace the felt strip? the noise is more of a clunk when you let go of a key..

for OPs info, it has two headphone outs, a pair of line outs, pair of line ins, and a midi out.....and i've seen them go on ebay for around the £300 mark.....
 
Steenamaroo said:
can you replace the felt strip? the noise is more of a clunk when you let go of a key..
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sure it's just a pita to get to... and you'll buy more felt than you need just to get a strip... try to find some of approx thickness and density... be glad it's not a roland they have some stuff ya gotta buy from them if ya want it right...
 
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