Buy a digital piano
Steve Kwok
I am going to buy a digital piano for my wife, a beginner. Currently the
quote on hand are Yamaha CVP92 and Kawai CA-800. And I am really known
nothing about piano, can anyone give me suggestions on this? or I should go
for another brand? a Roland or Korg?
Regards,
Steve
alexm...@my-deja.com
here
is the quick scoop from people on the net
and my own experience.
The Yamaha has the best dealers bar
none. And the most software. And they
make a very well-rated keyboard action.
And the Yamahas have the best digital
features, bar-none, also.
Some music magazines have rated
the Kawai more highly,though,
and I would agree
with this after playing the Kawai,
althought there
might be some problems with some models
with stuck notes.
However, in my opinion, and many others,
the Yamaha does not sound as good as the
Kawai, the Roland, the Technics, or some
others. Someone from the CVP users
group took his back because he
just didn't like the sound. I
would agree that other digitals
sound much better, in my opinion.
Others think Yamaha sounds the
best. If it is properly equalized, it
can sound okay, except for the utmost
upper octave. But the Kawai
170 sounds absolutely stunning, in
my opinion. Others do not agree.
But the models you are talking
about sound different. The 170
is $6,500 and the CVP96 is around
$4500.
The CVP92 does not sound as good,
in large part due to its smaller
speakers (hint a 200 watt stereo
from a megastore is a few hundred
dollars) and its more-limited
polyphony.
The stripped-down
Kawai still sounds good (CA750), but
there is a post about it getting
stuck notes. That frightened
me away, in addition to my
experience with one of their dealers.
Also, I think you are comparing
a the lowest end digital ensemble
of Yamaha ,
to a straight digital piano of Kawai.
To be fair, you should check out the
Clavinova CLPs without the digital
features, but with the bigger speakers.
Or check out the Kawai 150, the lower-end
Kawai digital ensemble. Good luck
finding these models in the store
to check them all out!!
I will be buying a Yamaha soon for
its service, its decent action, and
for its digital features--it has
the most of these period. Since
I am not too happy with its sound,
I can work with an external sound module.
Although the Kawai feels better
to my fingers because of its
wooden keys, I don't want to
take a chance on something
where the dealer network cannot
stand behind its product as
well as Yamaha and might
get stuck notes.
Besides
the CVPs have the Follow-
the-Lights feature called
which is not found on the
Kawai. This can be useful
to beginners as well as
advanced pianists.
I was extremely disappointed
when a saleswoman told me
the Kawai "had the worst
keyboard of any digital
she had ever sold in twenty
years". That was enough
to frighten me off, although
I still question why she told
me this.
I hope you have found this
information useful.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
wallace.e...@lmco.com
me with the CVP Users Group! <grin>
I'll mention that I played a Baldwin Pianovelle yesterday. I will now
change my assessment to say that the Baldwin is BY FAR the worst digital
piano on the market. I'm going to write up my review of the Baldwin and
post it on the CVPUG web site.
To the original poster, the CVP Users Group web site has much
information about digital pianos and CVPs. Check out the site at
http://welcome.to/cvpug.
Wally Lafferty
CVP Users Group
alexm...@my-deja.com
> I'll mention that I played a Baldwin Pianovelle yesterday. I will now
> change my assessment to say that the Baldwin is BY FAR the worst
digital
> piano on the market. I'm going to write up my review of the Baldwin
and
The store that pushed the Kurzweil also had the Baldwins for sale.
Apparently, they were also out of my budget of $4500. I didn't
bother. But they have a good website--it makes them look
good at least.
I am sure you can find a worst digital. By the way, I noticed
an 88-key Ensoniq digital for 588 dollars brand-new at the Guitar
Center. I don't know what I will do with my Yamaha PF1500 that
isn't even this nice.
Darryl
Korean grand piano (Sojin) that was only 9 years old but was getting pretty
crummy sounding despite tuning, voicing, etc. Because I accompany a
traveling choir I purchased a very good quality synthesizer, the Alesis QS8
which has 88 weighted keys, the *best* piano sound (Bosendorfer samples) and
really sounded much better than this Sojin grand. So, I played this for a
year and was pretty happy with it. Last month I got a very good buy on a
used Steinway grand and ditched the Sojin. Well, after a year of playing
the electronic keyboard I found that I'd gotten extremely sloppy on the
piano and had to relearn a lot. Here's what I found out the hard way:
Hi -
Thought you might be interested in some impressions of mine - possibly they
might be of some value to students and their parents who are weighing buying
a piano vs an electronic keyboard. As I'd mentioned before, I'd gotten into
the habit of playing my Alesis keyboard all the time since it sounded better
than my Sojin. After getting back to the Steinway (which has also inspired
me to do more classical music) I found the following:
1. Electronic keyboards produce nice sound that's always in tune. However,
the sound quality is always the same whether you play it loud or soft. The
keyboard is touch-sensitive, so soft passages are possible, but a real piano
actually produces a different sound quality depending on touch. The piano
can produce a wide range of tones dependent on touch - they can produce a
singing quality, bell-like, percussive, and everything in between. When
manufacturers "sample" sounds for digital pianos they put bright mics right
over the strings and record a forte strike that brings out the maximum
brightness. To tone it down they'll put on a high-frequency filter. This
is nothing like controlling the tonality yourself on a real piano.
3. The effect of "pounding" on the piano is very unpleasant and harsh but
merely louder on a keyboard. Playing the keyboard for such a long time made
me insensitive to using touch to control the sound quality. I was playing
everything hard and controlling the volume with the slider. When I returned
to the real piano my tone control was awful.
3. Pedaling is very different between the two and I really have had to work
on cleaning up my pedaling technique.
4. Action on the keyboard, while pretty good, is not like a real piano.
While it took a bit to get used to the stronger action of the Steinway I can
now play repetitions and runs faster. Also control and dynamics are much
better with the piano.
There are other subtleties that are completely lost when playing an
electronic keyboard vs a real piano. For piano students I once said that if
you only have a couple of thousand to spend buy a good digital piano instead
of a cheap junk spinet. Now I'd say either spend more or look around for a
good value on a used instrument - OR - realize that you're not learning to
play the piano, you're learning to play a keyboard.
I'm not telling everyone to buy a Steinway, but understand that by learning
on a digital piano the student does not learn necessary technique to play a
real piano. I guess, though, I'd still take a digital over a spinet!
Just my 2-cents!
- Darryl
<alexm...@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:7sgb2n$c2v$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
Mark Menser
search for a digital piano, I did contact Kawai and , for what it's worth,
found them responsive and helpful. Don't know about the sticking keys
although I thought the piano sound was respectable on the 150/170 models.
<alexm...@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:7sf58j$g28$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
alexm...@my-deja.com
"Darryl" <darrylg@ bigfoot.com> wrote:
> I'll tell you my experience with digital pianos and then decide. I
h
inspired
> me to do more classical music) I found the following:
>
> 1. Electronic keyboards produce nice sound that's always in tune.
However,
> the sound quality is always the same whether you play it loud or soft.
This is not true on all digital pianos. Some of the truly
good ones actually have different sound qualities whether you play
loud or soft. Notably the Kawai, the piano modules by GeneralMusic
and the recently discontued Oberheim, and the Roland MKS20 module
of a few years ago.
> keyboard is touch-sensitive, so soft passages are possible, but a real
piano
> actually produces a different sound quality depending on touch. The
piano
> can produce a wide range of tones dependent on touch - they can
produce a
> singing quality, bell-like, percussive, and everything in between.
When
> manufacturers "sample" sounds for digital pianos they put bright mics
right
> over the strings and record a forte strike that brings out the maximum
> brightness. To tone it down they'll put on a high-frequency filter.
This
> is nothing like controlling the tonality yourself on a real piano.
This is true of many synthesizers that use only straight samples.
Some high-end digital pianos do a much better job.
They still don't sound like a piano though; the complexity of the piano
has yet to be well-emulated. And, speakers just do not sound
like a sounding board, hammers, and strings--or the
resonance of that wood cabinet.
>
> 3. The effect of "pounding" on the piano is very unpleasant and harsh
but
> merely louder on a keyboard. Playing the keyboard for such a long
time made
> me insensitive to using touch to control the sound quality.
Can't just turn the Steinway down, huh?
I was
playing
> everything hard and controlling the volume with the slider. When I
returned
> to the real piano my tone control was awful.
>
> 3. Pedaling is very different between the two and I really have had to
work
> on cleaning up my pedaling technique.
That is especially true on the lower end digitals. Although, of
course, no digital emulates the pedaling very well, some do
a better job than others.
>
> 4. Action on the keyboard, while pretty good, is not like a real
piano.
According to some people, they can easily go from the
Yamaha graded hammer action to any grand. I thought the
Kawai felt more like a piano. So, some digital pianos
are better than others. Some digital keyboards are terrible.
Most of the 88-key syntesizers use the same action produced
by Fatar, which is not as close to a real piano as
high-end digital piano.
> While it took a bit to get used to the stronger action of the Steinway
I can
> now play repetitions and runs faster. Also control and dynamics are
much
> better with the piano.
Supposedly the Yamaha digitals
have an action equivalent to that
of a grand. I certainly didn't find that true.
I still haven't
a digital that you can barely strike to
play or play at full
volume to disturb your neighbors
without changing the volume slider.
> There are other subtleties that are completely lost when playing an
> electronic keyboard vs a real piano. For piano students I once said
that if
> you only have a couple of thousand to spend buy a good digital piano
instead
> of a cheap junk spinet. Now I'd say either spend more or look around
for a
> good value on a used instrument - OR - realize that you're not
learning to
> play the piano, you're learning to play a keyboard.
>
> I'm not telling everyone to buy a Steinway, but understand that by
learning
> on a digital piano the student does not learn necessary technique to
play a
> real piano. I guess, though, I'd still take a digital over a spinet!
>
> Just my 2-cents!
>
> - Darryl
>
Some current digital pianos are much better than
probably any 88-key synthesizers. None can compare
to a Steinway grand in terms of action and tone.
Digital pianos should be able to compete in terms of action;
it will be along time before they can compete in terms
of tone and therefore tone control with any piano,
although at least the high ends are usually
clear.
Of course, it is really hard to turn that volume
slider down on the Steinway when you want to practice
at midnight, or use its Guide Light features to
learn new music, or have fun with its internal
disk drive or MIDI connections,
RHagenston
>I'll mention that I played a Baldwin Pianovelle yesterday. I will now
>change my assessment to say that the Baldwin is BY FAR the worst digital
>piano on the market.
Wally,
Have you played a Korg lately?
Richard