I play piano but haven’t had access to one for many years (about thirteen!) I’d like to buy one but due to my slightly nomadic lifestyle I don’t want an actual piano as I can’t be bothered moving and tuning it etc. Instead, I thought I’d get some kind of digital piano. Now I’m looking for some recommendations to get me started in my search. I want something with a good piano feel to the keys and at least one nice piano sound. Beyond that it needs to be expandable so that I can purchase further quality sounds as funds permit. I have something like, but not necessarily, $1800 Aus to spend. I’m also technically literate and can learn the ins and outs of midi and anything else I may need to know. Lastly, I’d rather spend money on functionality and feel than looks.
A digital is a good idea - I enjoy mine more than the old upright. You can have bells and whistles, or go fairly spartan with features but priorities number one and two would be realistic Grand Piano sound and keyboard feel. Keep in mind that all of them have midi interfaces, so any deficiency in features can be addressed by computer software.
There are “Stage Pianos” that are intended to be connected to an amp and speakers (although they have their own internal speakers as well) and then various “Living Room” keyboards that have better speakers and look like nicer furniture.
Bottom line - try them out for sound and feel. Here are some links:
My main performance piano is a Yamaha p200 - I absolutely love it. Most of the of P series are really nice.
Built like a tank, with full hammer action, and it’s graded so that relative volume of the keys is the same as a real piano - lighter on the high end, louder on the lower register.
it’s a bit heavy, though - 70 something lbs.
There’s some really nice tone control also, especially with the piano and organ sounds.
The only real drawback is that the MIDI controls aren’t great, but it sounds like that’s probably not a huge consideration.
You can probably find a used p200 for about $500-700, other p series maybe a bit more.
ETA: it’s got some nice internal speakers for practice, although they’re not nearly enough for stage use in a rock context. I have used them as a monitor for jazz, though.
As a piano player, I have been very happy with a Yamaha S90 for the past 4 years. Yamaha has since released a new version, the S90 ES, which features a better piano sound. You might be able to pick up the orginal S90 for a good price, but the S90 ES sells for around $2,000 US.
I bought the S90 specifically for the touch & piano sound. The weighted hammer action is realistic and the piano is as good as you can get for this price range. It has hunderds of sounds, but I probably use the same 10 sounds 95% of the time.
Since this is a professional keyboard, it does not have built-in speakers. I frequently use headphones and also have a cheap speaker system (a Tascam subwoofer & satellite speakers for $200).
You might also check out the Roland RD 300GX which goes for $1500. Very good action and piano sound.
Kurzweil also makes excellent keyboards and have a solid reputation for their piano samples. Most of their equipment is on the pricey end, but they do have a more affordable stage piano: the Kurzweil SP2X for $1000. I have owned their equipment in the past and always had good experiences.
While these Kuzweil and Roland modeals are more afforable, the Yamaha will immediately provide you with hundereds of sounds. The Yamaha also has expansion slots which I’ve never used, but it’s nice to have the option to expand the sound banks. Once again, I use the same 10 sounds so I don’t see myself expanding anytime soon.
I have to take issue with this comment. While true for most lower end brands, the P and CP series all have speakers, and I can assure you, the P200 & P250 in particular are exceptionally well-regarded professional stage pianos. I’ve seen more of these two models on tour than almost any other. They sound great and are practically indestructible.
Just wanted to mention the woe and despair we had with a Behringer CDP-1000 last year.
The price was nice - $500 - but within two weeks, something went bad and it was hopeless - certain keys would predictably unleash blasts of noise or play a different ‘voice’ than what was selected.
About all it had going for it was the action - pretty good for a digital device, but not quite as good as Yamaha’s action.
We wound up returning it to the store and buying a used spinet from a local dealer for the same price. Thanks for reminding me… it’s about time we called the tuner.
Good point. My use of the word “professional” was not intended to downgrade keyboards that have built-in speakers. I simply wanted Death Ray to know that he/she would have to purchase speakers.
Besides… until recently, keyboard manufacturers rarely (if never) intergrated speakers in their “Professional” models. This has certainly changed with the models you mentioned. When I see a company use the “Professional” label, this category usually includes keyboards without speakers. I use the term “Professional” in the same manner and should probably change with the times.
I have not played the P200, but I did play a CP300 last week and this is a great instrument. Whether you are a traveling musician or a student with limited space/budget, the internal speakers are very convenient.
The CP series certainly has a respectable lineage going back to the 1970s. Still built like a tank, but you don’t need a team of roadies like you did with the CP 70/80!
I’ve half decided to get a Yamaha of some sort. The two that standout as being roughly what I want and within my budget are the P140 and the CP33. The CP33 is advertised as being a light portable stage piano whereas the P140 seems to be more of a home instrument. There are plenty of other differences between them (e.g., the CP33 does not have internal speakers) but it’s difficult, without knowing more about digital pianos in general, to pick out what’s important and what isn’t.
Can you expand on this? I have Cubase AI4 that came bundled with a Yamaha mixer. I’ve already used it for recording guitar songs and I’ve experimented with the midi side of it. It was a fairly laborious process as I don’t have a keyboard or other midi controller and had to enter each note manually through the software. Where does the P200 fall short in your opinion?
And if something does go wrong, they are pretty servicable. I had a pair of headphones break off in the jack of my P250. Basically this silenced the speakers because they thought a headphone was plugged in all the time. I was able to open it(a couple screws in the front and it hinges like a car hood), unmount the board with the jack on it, desolder it, take it apart, remove the fragment of a plug, and put it back together. It still plays like a champ.
I make a pretty extensive study of digital pianos when I made the decision to buy my 250. The Kurzweils were very tempting, but the 250 had everything I wanted and I was able to get it for a little under 2K. The main thing I wanted was a good feel so I can go back and forth from digital piano to real piano. Inside the 250 there are weighted keys with steel rods which simulate the movement and felt pads to cushion them when they fall back into place. Up until those rods ended it looked just like the upright I learned on when I was a kid. The only thing I miss is the fixed pedals. A single pedal is all you get with the P250 and it floats, as do all stage pedals, and that throws me sometimes when I tap and it isn’t there because the kids have been playing under the keyboard.
I’ll throw in a recommendation for the P-series Yamahas. Their sound is sampled from Yamaha’s grand piano line(which are some fine instruments) and they have a great feel too.
I don’t play the piano but my dad does and he is a die hard Yamaha fan. He has two Yamaha keyboard synths (one of them is their most high-end model, can’t remember what it’s called but it has a billion sounds and they all sound absolutely amazing,) a Yamaha Clavinova upright piano, and a Yamaha grand piano (not a full size concert grand but it sounds and looks beautiful.)
Everything Yamaha makes is good. Their motorcycles and Waverunner jet skis are very high quality. They also make woodwind and brass instruments that are top-notch. They definitely know what they are doing.
You see, I got really put off playing the Yamaha pianos from playing an older P-120. I didn’t like the feel, and I didn’t like the sound. Of course, YMMV, and a piano is a pretty personal piece of kit, and I haven’t played any of the recent Yamahas or the more advanced models.
My personal rig is a Fatar StudioLogic SL-880 Midi controller (so a fully weighted 88 key piano bed with midi out only) via whatever I want to put it through - an old Roland Soundcanvas midi module for quick and dirty practice, or my laptop and a sampled Essenfelder when I want a better sound. I chose the Fatar for the action and feel, and can wrap whatever else I want around it.
Unfortunately I don’t have a large range of gear to try as I live about 1000 miles from the nearest city. The local music store carries a limited selection of digital pianos that I can try, maybe 3 or 4 at any one time.
I think I’m sorting through the CP33 and P140. The CP33 has the same sound set as the P140 plus some. It has the same graded feel to the keyboard (on paper.) It also has a more versatile split keyboard function. The P140s split keyboard seems to limit you to a small selection of bass voices for the left hand. The only problem with the CP33 is that it doesn’t have speakers. I can use headphones of course and I guess I could connect it to my home theatre as well.
I’ll have a look at some of the other brands as well.
Oh, for that kind of midi work it’s fine - in-studio it works great. Sending and receiving, working with a sequencer, no problem.
But the control interface is kind of, well…minimalistic for a real time control setting. I use the P200 for my piano, e piano and some organ sounds, but use a dedicated midi controller for things like brass and strings in a live context. Oh yeah, and for clav sounds - the one essential tone they didn’t include.
