COMPARISON REVIEW - Suzuki MDG300 vs MDG330 vs MDG400 Digital Grand Pianos - Semi Recommended - I have reviewed a number of Suzuki digital pianos in the past and I have not recommended any of them so far. The MDG300 ($1599US internet discount price), MDG330 ($2499US internet price), and MDG400 ($2999US internet price) have been out for a while now and are Suzuki's lower price digital grand pianos that look good on the outside but in some ways are not so good on the inside. The MDG300 is a 2'4" deep micro-grand size, the MDG330 is a larger 3'3" deep micro-grand size, and finally the MDG400 is the 4' deep mini-grand size. These pianos are manufactured in China by another less well known company, so Suzuki does not design or manufacture their own pianos as far as I know.

It is important to note that all three of these models are identical in every way except for cabinet size, color offerings, and speaker system power. They all have the same functions and features so it's really all about cabinet size and available finishes...and of course...what you can afford to spend. Pianos that are attractive with color display screens built-in seem like they would be very nice pianos from the way the outside cabinet appears. In fact if you just quickly press the keys and listen, you might think that the piano sound is pretty good. But if you play piano like I do and you more closely notice how this piano actually responds when playing a song, then you may come away with a different opinion than just looking at the cabinet and thinking it's a very nice piano.

The piano key action is by far the most important part of any digital or acoustic piano. Key actions can either be built cheaply or they can be built in a way where those key actions are clearly more responsive, more realistic, better built, more substantial, and just overall better moving keys that move up & down in a smoother and more natural way. But to get a better key action the manufacturer has to spend more money doing so...and that's mainly where these three models fall down. The key action in all three models are noisy and they make noticeable knocking sound when hitting bottom after the key is depressed. When the keys come back up they are also noisy, especially the black keys, and this kind of key action noise is an indicator of a cheaply made key action. The keys themselves are cheap feeling white plastic like an inexpensive $100 keyboard and the keys are thin on the edges making for a potentially unpleasant playing experience. On some of the keys I also noticed that a few of them take more pressure to press down while others are lighter. These keys were next to each other and so this is not normal. Keys that are near each other should all take about the same amount of finger force to press down so that you can get a consistent level of volume from all keys. When that doesn't happen then this situation can hurt your piano playing, throw off your technique, and make you change your playing to compensate for the poor key action movement and response in these pianos. Being that I am a long time piano teacher, I can tell you that if you have a child taking piano lessons then this problem will help to create bad playing habits that will be difficult to break if they go on for too long.

Next in line of importance comes the piano sound. The stereo piano sound is OK and better than in previous models, but is not great. I always say that you should not rely on the manufacturer and their on-line marketing material saying the piano is so wonderful in every way...what else would expect them to say:). The reality always is that many new digital pianos will be less than great when you finally get a chance to play them. When playing the Suzuki pianos I found that there is a problem with the keys controlling the volume properly when the keys are going up and down. This has nothing to do with the 128-note polyphony which is the maximum notes in mono sound that can be heard at the same time. But it does have to do with the fact that the piano volume that the keys produce on digital or acoustic pianos is normally supposed to get incrementally louder or quieter depending on how much force you apply to the keys with your fingers. Piano key volume control is also called "expression" and it is one of the ways the player is communicating their music...with volume dynamics when playing the keys down. Without good, smooth volume dynamic control from the keyboard, the song becomes either boring because there are no dynamics, or the song expression and dynamics becomes choppy and uneven...and that's exactly what happens on the MDG digital pianos. The volume of the notes when pressing the keys down is choppy and jumpy and not easily controlled to be incrementally louder or quieter, especially as compared to a real acoustic piano or many other good digital pianos. Simply stated...the volume is just not even from one note to the next or when playing a key up & down.

Beyond the topic of the uneven and inconsistent piano sound is the range of tone in the piano sound when playing the keys. Range of tone is also known as tonal dynamics and it's the range from mellow tone to bright and more expressive tone when playing the keys lightly or playing with more force or anywhere in-between. Tonal expression and dynamics happens on all music instruments including guitars, drums, horns, woodwinds, strings, etc. When you press a real piano key lightly the hammer in the piano strikes the string softly and the string produces a more muted, mellow tone. As you press the key harder and harder the hammer strikes the string harder which produces a brighter and brighter tone because the string vibrates more. It's this mellow to bright tonal range that really brings out expression in the music and in your songs. These Suzuki pianos do not have a good range of tonal expression and when this happens then it's a definitely sign of cheap electronics. The range of tone on the MDG300, 330, and 400 is quite compressed and not near as expressive as it should be. If you do not play the piano then you may not be at a point where you will notice this deficiency. But as you become a better player and if you hear what a real piano actually sound like, then you will instantly know what I am talking about. Bottom line...the tonal expression on these pianos in my opinion is not even as good as some basic name brand digital pianos that sell for $700 and less. But hey...you want that grand piano looking cabinet...don't you?:)

The three pedals on the piano do control the normal piano features of soft pedal, sostenuto pedal, and damper/sustain pedal. However real pianos have a variable amount of sustain for the right damper/sustain pedal and allows for incrementally more or less sustain which is called "half-damper." The damper/sustain pedal on the Suzuki pianos only allows for and on/off sustain control whereas most digital pianos these days have the half-damper sustain control which allows the music to be played more naturally like a real piano. Beginners will not notice this lack of "half-damper" effect for a long time and even some recreational players may not care one way or the other. But if you do play the piano then not having this feature which is normally found in real pianos may be a problem for you and your music. The pedals also seem to be made cheaply and look like they are prone to having issues with pedal noise or squeaking.

All three of these pianos produce a big volume of sound coming out of the internal speaker system so there is no shortage of overall big volume. However, based on my experience with the MDG's, the internal speaker audio system is not good quality because when you set the master volume past half way, then the volume is out of control where you cannot play the keys lightly and get a soft volume like you would on a normal piano. In other words, setting the master volume too high, even past just half way which normally should be fine, is not good on these pianos and completely throws off the dynamics and volume control when playing the keys. Trying to play softly on the keys is just not possible when you increase the master volume. A good digital piano with a competent internal speaker system will not do that. On a good digital piano with a good internal speaker system you can increase the master volume to a very high level and still play normally with proper control of dynamics including be able to play softly when playing the keys lightly. This is not possible with the MDG pianos, so again, if you like that nice looking cabinet enough to overlook these problems, then that is your choice:).

So what do these pianos offer that I like? Well, what I like has to do with all the other stuff these pianos do...all those cool electronic features referred to as "bells & whistles" that can make it fun to play music. Each of these pianos has lots of fun features such as having 122 instrument sounds along with being able to play MIDI songs from a memory card. The ability to layer or split different sound on the keyboard is nice and there are also 100 interactive accompaniment styles with variations including controls for start/stop, fill-in's, into/endings, and adjustable volumes for the different parts. The MDG pianos also have transpose feature, rhythm tempo control, metronome, reberb and chorus special effects, adjustable EQ settings with 10 digital graphic faders, and 10 registration memories to save your own setups.

All of the digital features are displayed on a nice 4.3" color touch screen which makes the appearance of the piano control panel look more advanced. Along with the color display screen (which is not a touch screen)  are a variety of buttons which gives the user better and quicker access to some of the more popular features of the pianos. So when you combine the versatility of the color screen with the buttons, these pianos are fairly easy to use and therefore it is more intuitive to find the features that you are looking for.

The MDG pianos also have a nice recorder/player system in them that allows you to record 3 separate parts or tracks which can be saved to a SD card. In this way you can record left & right hand separately and then play and record another different part or sound over the other two parts. This makes creating songs more fun and also allows you to play along with your own recordings. However, the SD card where you would save your music in this piano is a very old format of saving songs. It would have been much better to have a standard USB flash drive input instead which is better technology and more available. That's another sign of old technology which should have been updated in these models.

I like the fact that there seems to be some good connectivity in these pianos including a microphone input, stereo headphone jacks, audio input jack, audio output jack, and MIDI in & output connectors. Having a place for a microphone is a nice feature and makes it fun to be able to sing through the piano even if you are not playing it. The other features are good as well and there are pianos in this price range that don't have as many connections. The MDG pianos also have some technology features for connectivity including Bluetooth and USB output to device so that you can wirelessly connect to any device that has Bluetooth connectivity so that you can send your music through the piano speaker system. Also you can connect your piano by USB output to a computer or other external devices for interaction with apps and computer programs that can help you in learning to play the piano.

So in reality there is a lot to like about these pianos. Number one is the way they look, the design, and available impressive array of colors including the MDG400 in polished ebony and polished walnut, the MDG330 in polished ebony, and the lower priced and smaller MDG300 available in polished ebony, polished brown, polished mahogany, polished cobalt blue (yikes!), and polished bright red. I thought there might also be a white color which is popular, but they don't have it. I am guessing that all these colors are offered only in the smaller micro-grand 2'4" model because of the much smaller size and much lower price and most people just want the classic polished ebony, especially in the larger sizes. Plus...polished ebony has by far the best resale value of all the colors. The speaker system in the MDG300 and MDG330 are both the same...120 watts total power with 2 amplifiers going into 6 speakers. The MDG400 has 120 watts of power with 3 amplifiers going through speakers so all three models have plenty of power. But as I mentioned earlier, a lot of audio power is meaningless if you cannot play the keys properly (cannot play softly) while the master volume is up higher than half-way. So the piano speaker specifications don't necessarily tell the true story.

So here is what a shopper must decide when thinking about buying a digital piano such as the MDG300, MDG330, or MDG440. What is more important to you...the way the piano looks and all the "bells & whistles" or the way the piano actually plays as a piano? Yes, for many people the cabinet appearance is very important and there will be some shoppers who just won't care about the piano playing issues and deficiencies in these pianos and will be so impressed with the cabinet design, colors, and sizes that they'll just "live with the piano playing issues" and get the piano anyway. I will also say that the quality of the finish with regard to durability is questionable in my opinion. Just because they look good does not mean that the cabinet finish will be durable over time.

Personally I would rather invest more money for a true quality digital grand piano from Yamaha, Roland, or Samick than put any money into these Suzuki pianos. Or...I would rather spend my $1500 - $3000 on a new vertical size digital piano model from any of the top digital piano companies such as the new Yamaha Clavinova CLP625 or CLP635, or the new Casio AP270 or AP700, or the new Kawai CN27, CN37, or the popular Kawai ES8, or the Roland DP603 or Roland HP603. The reason I "semi-recommend" these pianos is because maybe you don't really care as much in how they play as you do in how they look along with all the "fun" features. That's the reason I don't fully NOT recommend these models. But there are much better alternatives in the world of digital pianos when it comes to getting the best possible piano playing experience for your budget although those alternatives may not be in that little grand piano shape:). There is a reason, for example, why the Suzuki MDG300 has such a low price as compared to other regular digital pianos in that price range. This is because the cost of that Suzuki piano mostly goes into the cabinet and the color display screen. To keep that price so low at $1599US you need to give up quality somewhere in the piano so there is a low quality piano key action, key action contacts, key sensors, keys, piano sound chip, and speaker system and those are things you cannot really see but nevertheless are very important. When making up your mind, please consider all these things before you make your purchase.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

COMPARISON REVIEW - Yamaha Clavinova CLP675 vs CLP685 - Recommended - Yamaha has recently replaced their older CLP500 series with the new CLP600 series which includes the CLP625, CLP635, CLP645, CLP665GP, CLP675, and CLP685. I have already done reviews on the CLP625, CLP635, CLP645, and CLP665GP so this one concentrates on the higher priced CLP675 and CLP685. 

The primary reason for me talking about the CLP675 offered in rosewood, satin black, and dark walnut for $4699US store discount price with a polished ebony version at $5299US store discount price, and the CLP685 offered in satin black for $5799US store discount price with a polished ebony version at $6599US store discount price and a polished white version at $7599US store discount price together in one review is because of the new GrandTouch key action that Yamaha has developed and that both of these models share, whereas none of the other Clavinova models have this new key action. Also both the CLP675 and CLP685 have much more powerful internal speaker systems than the other models. By the way, adding $1000 to the price of a polished black one just to get polished white color is crazy in my opinion, but I suppose if you want the CLP685 bad enough and also want it in polished white, then that's the price you have to pay to play...so to speak:).

As far as key action goes in these two models, without a doubt this portion of any piano is the most important part of any piano playing experience. There are a variety of different piano key actions in both acoustic and digital pianos including all the major brands and they all claim to have this "secret sauce" as I call it when it comes to producing what they think is a great key action that can handle all of a player's musical needs and desires for an expressive keyboard playing experience. Some of them actually are great key actions and very expressive to play and others aren't so great regardless of what they otherwise claim in their marketing and promotion. Most people would expect that the more money you pay for a piano instrument, the better and more responsive the key action will be therefore producing an even greater amount of playing enjoyment, which is not necessarily true. For this particular review I did play the CLP675 for long periods of time but have not yet had a chance to play the CLP685 as of this review, however I will be doing this very shortly and will report what I find if there is any noticeable difference in key action feel. The real difference between the key action of the CLP675 and the CLP685 are individual counterweights that are embedded in the wood keys of the CLP685. The prior model CLP585 also had counter weights in the keys and I liked that action best of all the Yamaha CLP500 series and I am hoping the new CLP685 will be the same way, only better.

But after playing the CLP675 I am having my doubts about the CLP685. The reason I say this is, believe it or not, I don't like the CLP675 GrandTouch key action which is in both models. Now I must say that I love playing some specific Yamaha digital pianos and enjoy the key action very much in those models. I also love playing some Yamaha acoustic Grand and Upright pianos and in fact own a very nice Yamaha acoustic piano that I use in my teaching studio. I also enjoy playing the new Yamaha CLP645 and its NWX wood key action which was the action used on the previous CLP575 and CLP585, so I was looking forward to playing and enjoying the new GrandTouch wood key action in the new CLP675 and CLP685. But what I found on the CLP675 was that the key action was overly heavy and stiff when playing more lightly and softly and the keys just took too much finger pressure to press down in my opinion. In other words, the static touch up & down weight of the keys (amount of upward and downward pressure it takes for the fingers to press down the keys) was overly heavy. So when I would try to play lightly the keys just did not want to go down easily and an unusual amount of finger pressure was needed to press the keys down as compared to the NWX action in the previous models and in the new CLP645. Beyond that, the new GrandTouch action is somewhat noisy. If you are playing with some energy and pressing the keys down with some force, it's like the keys are hitting wood with little padding underneath and they produce a noticeable knocking sound. Also, when the keys come back up they are also noisy and have a noticeably loud key return.

With regard to these key action issues that I experienced, I was really surprised because the NWX action does not have these issues at all. Now for someone who enjoys a stiffer key action and is not bothered by the noise then they may really enjoy playing the CLP675 and I would assume the key noise and stiffness may be the same in the CLP685 but I will know for sure about that real soon and will report my findings. It is true that real acoustic piano key actions do produce some noise when the keys are moving up & down, but acoustic pianos are always so loud that normally you don't hear the key action noise. But on digital pianos you can turn down the volume to play more quietly or plug in headphones for private practice and when you do either one of those things then that GrandTouch key noise becomes much more apparent and definitely distracting, at least it was for me. Finally when playing the GrandTouch action, because the keys had (what seemed to be) little padding under the keys, playing those keys was physically a more harsh experienced and actually stated hurting my fingertips after awhile of playing because of the hard vibrations coming through the keys into my fingers.

OK, now some people may think I am being dramatic here and/or making this stuff up considering how positive and glowing the Yamaha promotional videos and marketing claims are of this new key action. I have played top of the line Yamaha, Steinway, Bosendorfer, and other famous grand pianos and my experience on those grands with regard to key action was almost always good and very enjoyable to play with quick, relatively light and responsive keys. Regardless of everything Yamaha says this new GrandTouch key action has including a more stable key movement (which it does), or longer keys and more realistic fulcrum point so that the finger pressure needed for playing anywhere on the keys both black & white keys or front to back of key is more even like a grand piano (which I found to be true), the overall heaviness of the keys pressing down and the noise of both black and white keys going up & down (along with the fatigue I experienced in my fingers) that I experienced on the CLP675 that I played counteracts the positive points of this key action, at least it does for me. I much prefer the NWX key action that is currently in the CLP645 because the keys go down easier requiring less finger pressure (but not being too light), they are noticeably quieter, and I do not experience finger fatigue on that action. I recommend you play this piano for yourself because perhaps you may like it a lot because that's the way you feel about it. But for me at this point, it's a non-starter.

So on to the piano sound realism and other features. From here on in, all of the Yamaha Clavinova pianos models starting from the CLP635 share the identical piano sounds, the identical user control panel, and pretty much all the same digital features with the exception of the CLP685 having extra added instrument sounds including 49 proprietary instrument tones developed for the CLP685 along with 480 Yamaha standard XG instruments. The Yamaha XG instruments is a library of lower quality instrument tones that Yamaha also has in a number of other keyboard products just to offer a large variety of almost every instrument sound you can imagine. However one of the biggest benefits to this XG library of instrument sounds is that they are compatible with playing General MIDI song files including song play formats by other digital piano manufacturers. So if you want to find, buy, and download from the internet musically exciting MIDI song files from just about any composer or song you can think of , then you can put them on a USB flashdrive and have the CLP685 playback those songs. Then you can listen, sing along, or playalong with those songs for musical enjoyment, you can slow down the songs to more easily playalong and learn them, or transpose them to any key to suit your vocal range better or to modulate from a previous key, and none of the other Clavinova pianos can do this. The previous CLP585 also had this feature so it is not new but may be something a person might find useful.

With regard to the new Yamaha piano sound engine including recorded piano samples from the latest Yamaha Concert Grand and European Bosendorfer Concert Grand, I do like the new acoustic piano sound authenticity very much and they have greatly been improved from the previous models. I talk about this new piano sound in my CLP645/635 review so please read more about the new piano sound there.  Accessing these sounds and related functions in these new pianos from their side control panel is identical to the lower priced CLP635 and CLP645 pianos and the new control panel is much nicer and much easier to use as compared to the previous models CLP575 & CLP585. I have detailed my thoughts about the Clavinova 600 series piano sound, control panel, and other functions in my recent CLP 635/645 review so I recommend you read my comments there about the piano sound since the CLP675 and CLP685 are exactly the same as those pianos. Yamaha CLP635/645 Review.

As far as pedaling goes on the CLP675 and CLP685, both of these pianos have the upgraded grand piano damper pedal feel as opposed to the upright or normal pedaling feel that is found on the CLP645 and below. Other digital piano companies have this "grand feel" feature as well (even down under the $2000US range) and what they do is make the resistance of the pedals to your foot pressure a bit lighter when you initially press the pedals down and then the pedal gradually get heavier or more resistant to your foot pressure as you press it down further. This is a pretty cool feature and it does feel a bit different than the lower priced models and supposedly can help you develop a more realistic feel for grand piano pedaling, but how important this is in your overall piano playing experience on a digital piano is not really critical in my opinion. This is because ultimately the same right pedal sustain/decay result is the same regardless of the pedal pressure and fact is that real grand piano pedals and the pressure they exert on the right foot can be different from grand piano brand to another so they are not all the same. Some are heavier overall and some lighter, and yes, some adjustments can be made to that acoustic pedaling movement but as far as the CLP675 and 685 go, the pedaling is nice and for some people the grand pedal feel on the right pedal (aka: GP response damper pedal) would be a benefit but for most people just having a decent smooth pedal movement is all they really need which is what you would find on both the lower priced Yamaha CLP635 and CLP645.

The internal sound system in both of these new models are significantly louder and fuller than on the lower priced models. This will help when playing at softer volumes because the extra power helps to increase the richness of the sound when playing at lower volumes. However, I really don't think most people will ever use or need volume and sound quality much over 100 watts of power going through 2 amplifiers and 4 speakers which is what you find on the CLP645. However, on the CLP675 the internal speaker system consists of a huge 210 watts of power going through 6 separate amplifiers and 6 speakers with part of system enclosed in a separate speaker box under the piano. The top CLP685 has a whopping 300 watts of power going through 6 amplifiers and 6 speakers with the main speaker cone being made from spruce wood pulp instead of the traditional paper, plastic, and kevlar materials found in most speaker cones in digital pianos and audio equipment. Since Yamaha has never used wood as a material in a digital piano speaker before as far as I know, the speaker durability, longevity, and overall sound reproduction ability & consistency is yet to be seen. It is much too early to tell how this new "speaker cone" will behave over the long term and if it will be trouble free, but wood speaker cones have existed for many years in some hi-fi speaker equipment. Since I have not actually played the new CLP685 through its speaker system then I don't know if the wood pulp material in the speaker cone will make a big difference (producing a more natural tone) and more importantly, will it be obvious to most people who compare the CLP675 speaker sound to the CLP685 speaker sound? I will report on my CLP685 speaker system experiences as soon as I can. It's also good to know and remember that regardless of which Clavinova piano model you choose (with the exception of the CLP625), the piano sound coming through stereo headphones is absolutely identical on all models because you are not relying on the internal speaker system for the sound you are hearing. So if for some reason you will mostly be listening to the piano through headphones, then getting a super huge and loud internal speaker system could be overkill for your needs, unless you just want to blast your windows out of your home or really wake up your neighbors!

As for any other differences between the CLP675 and CLP685 go, the cabinet design is noticeably different with the CLP685, like it's predecessor the CLP585, being more contemporary, streamlined, and having a different look as well as the CLP685 being almost 3" taller and also about 30 lbs heavier than the CLP675 so it is more substantial. The CLP685 also has a unique slow-close folding key cover as opposed to the more traditional sliding key cover on the CLP675 like all the other CLP models have. I do like the CLP685 design although I am not as fond of the smaller, less supportive music rack on the CLP685 as I am of the more traditional music racks on the CLP675 and the other Clavinova models but there is no other way to attach a music rack to the CLP685 cabinet other than what is built into it. Some regular acoustic pianos have a music rack like that but I don't particularly like them and if you take a look a real grand pianos, their music rack is much more substantial with more room and support for your music...but that's just my personal preference. Both pianos come with a nice matching padded bench and the Yamaha factory warranty is 5 years parts & labor.

At the end of the day it's all about your personal piano playing experience and enjoyment and if either of these pianos will give that to you then I recommend you considering buying one because Yamaha certainly does produce some great music instruments including top notch acoustic pianos and I have played many of them for years. But I believe that, at least for me, I would probably opt for the lower priced CLP645 Clavinova primarily because I am not sold on the new key action in the upper models based on my playing experience with the new key action...and besides, the piano sound and most other functions on the lower priced Clavinovas are identical to the CLP675 and CLP685 so Yamaha did a great job of giving the lower priced CLP645 most of the important features of the CLP675 while still offering a satisfying piano key action playing experience in my opinion. Be sure to read my review of the CLP645 to learn all about the various digital features which these pianos share along with my thoughts on the grand piano sounds themselves in these new models.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

RP102

🎹 REVIEW - Roland RP102 Digital Piano - Recommended - Roland just introduced their 2018 model RP102 digital piano ($999US internet discount price) and it is the first furniture cabinet digital piano they have had priced at under $1000US. Up until now the lowest priced traditional type cabinet piano they have offered is the RP501R which sells for $1499US price, $500 more than the new RP102, but the RP501 is also upgraded over the RP102 and you normally pay for what you get. However, the RP102 is a welcome new model in the lineup of Roland home digital cabinet pianos because of its lower price under $1000 and that it has some of the basic but primary things people are looking for while still offering a few "bells & whistles."

FP30 stand, and triple pedal

The RP102 comes in a nice looking satin black finish only with built-in sliding key cover, 3 full size piano pedals, and a 1/2 size back privacy panel. What most people may not realize is that the RP102 is actually a cabinet version of the current lower priced portable model Roland FP30 digital piano, except that the FP30 is a far better instrument in terms of features, functions, and internal speaker system. The FP30 is priced at $699 internet price by itself but you can add a Roland furniture stand and furniture style (triple) pedalboard that turns the FP30 into more of a regular piano style cabinet with the additional cost of the stand & pedalboard being only $176. When you put it altogether the total price of the portable FP30 with stand & pedals is just $875 as compared with the price of $999US on the new RP102. However, you may like the look and design of the RP102 better than the FP30 and this may be the best reason for buying the new RP102.

RP501R

As I mentioned earlier, Roland has a more expensive version of the RP102 which is called the RP501R ($1499US internet price) and that model does more things and sounds better and has been out awhile already. Just to make matters more interesting, the RP102, FP30, and RP501R share the exact same piano key action, same piano sound chip, pretty much the same pedaling system, same polyphony memory, and some of the same features. But if you want to keep the cost down under $1000US, then the upgraded internal speaker system on the FP30 makes that model sound much bigger and fuller than the new RP102 along with the FP30 pedaling system being able to sense more levels of sustained damper tones with continuous pedaling detection as opposed to the RP102 with its standard half-damper sustain pedaling. So musically speaking the FP30 gives you more bang for your buck, but when you consider the upgraded more traditional piano cabinet of the new RP102 as opposed to the FP30, then as I said before, you may like this one better.

Basically the new Roland RP102 is for people who mainly just want to play piano although it does have some extra digital features (bells & whistles) but not nearly as many as the portable FP30. As far as the Roland piano sound and Roland key action goes, this is what shoppers should focus on the most. In other words...how closely does the piano sound, expressiveness of that sound, and the key action response come to replicating a real piano playing experience? I have detailed my findings of the Roland piano sound and key action in my FP30 review so you can read about that in great detail there. However to sum it up as far as the key action goes, the RP102/FP30 key action is a bit heavy in pressing the keys down as compared to other digital pianos in this price range but overall I like the key action and the way it moves. However, for me I personally would prefer to have the key action be a bit lighter and easier to press the keys down so that I can move more quickly. The key action is overall fairly quiet when it moves and seems sturdy to the touch and Roland calls it their "PHA4 Standard" key action with 128-notes of polyphony and 3 key sensors per key for good repetition response. The keys have a synthetic ivory & ebony feel on the key tops which is nice and also an escapement key response feature which tries to simulate what grand piano keys might feel like when played lightly and slowly although most digital pianos including this one still don't come close in that way.

With regard to the piano sound, there are four different acoustic piano sound variations including concert, bright, mellow, and ballad. They have good dynamic range and expressiveness using the Roland SuperNATURAL piano sound technology although the piano sounds overall can be a bit brassy and metallic especially when playing a bit more forcefully with louder keytouch volume. Some people may like the brighter, more metallic piano tone expression on this piano but even the "mellow" piano sound is a bit metallic when playing a bit harder on the keys and this is true of the other previously mentioned models as well. This is just a characteristic of the Roland SuperNATURAL piano sound, and based on all the Roland models I have played, the RP102/FP30/RP501R just has a brighter, more metallic piano sound than other brands in my opinion. But as I said for some people that's fine and they may like it especially for jazz, pop, and other popular music.

RP102 control panel

The RP102 is unusual and different from all other Roland pianos because it only has 4 buttons on its small control panel located on the left side of the keyboard which makes the appearance of this model very minimalistic which some people may like. These buttons are for volume up/down, function, and power on/off...that's it. However, all of the digital features in this piano are accessed by holding down the function button and then pressing a corresponding key on the keyboard to trigger that function which means you need to look in the owners manual to figure out how to access functions and features. The RP102 has 4 piano sounds along with 11 other instrument sounds including harpsichord, strings, choir, electric piano, etc. Other functions include being able to transpose to any key, change the brightness or mellowness of the piano sound, add and adjust reverb ambiance effects, select a digital metronome with a variety of timings and tempo control for rhythm training, changing touch sensitivity control to digitally adjust the keytouch response (5 levels), being able to layer two different instrument sounds together for playing at one time, and finally to adjust the piano so two people can play independently at one time when playing the same song in the same octaves using a feature called "twin piano." The "twin piano mode" is typically used by 2 students who are practicing the same song or by teacher/student during practice. However for most people I have found that the "twin piano" feature is generally not that important and is seldom used.

In terms of the piano speaker system and connectivity, the RP102 has 2 built-in speakers going through 12 watts total audio power which is by far the smallest amount of audio power on any Roland digital piano that I know of. Although 12 watts of power is generally enough volume for a room, the small amount of power tends to make the piano sound a bit tinny and not fuller or richer like more powerful digital pianos are. The Yamaha YDP143 digital piano ($1099 internet discount price has only 12 watts total power going into 2 speakers, and even the new 2018 Casio AP270 digital piano ($1049US internet discount price) has 16 watts of audio power going through 2 speakers, and believe it or not, that extra 4 watts of audio power makes a difference in volume and sound quality. Also the new 2018 model Casio PX870 digital piano ($999 internet discount price) has 40 watts total power going through a built-in 4 speaker  projection system which offers a much richer piano playing experience. The RP102 also has 2 headphone jacks, a USB output to external devices, and a special update port which would only be used if Roland came out with updated software for this instrument that you could load in with a USB flashdrive. Actually that's a pretty cool feature but only if Roland actually does something with it so we'll have to wait and see.

One of the big things Roland has done to promote this model along with other Roland keyboard product is with their new updated iOS/Android app called Piano Partner 2. The Piano Partner 2 app for iPad, and also in the future for Android tablet, gives the user access to some impressive and fun features such as interactive music educational help, play-along sheet music, interactive rhythm functions including drum patterns & one-man-band accompaniment, piano practice diary, and the ability to select the instrument sounds and metronome in the piano from the iPad making it more intuitive than using the piano itself. Roland has had their Piano Partner app available for their digital pianos for few years already but this version is an upgrade with more features and better accessibility. If you have an iPad or Android tablet then you may enjoy the various features in the Roland Piano Partner app and find them useful and fun. But it does not mean the app will teach you how to play or give you access to your favorite music. That aspect needs to be done through other 3rd party apps or through music educational programs for laptop computers.

The Roland Piano Partner app also has wireless connectivity using the Bluetooth function on your external device. Bluetooth wireless certainly is convenient and handy to use and cuts down on needing USB cable connection, although the Bluetooth signal is not always stable or reliable and personally I prefer to just use a USB cable to always be sure my connection is secure and stable from the piano to the tablet or computer. The USB/MIDI connection through Bluetooth or through cable controls the MIDI signal and page-turning function but not Bluetooth audio. So there are some limitations to it but the Roland app is very nice if you take advantage of it. However, there are many 3rd party popular music interactive apps for iPad that you can interact with from the Roland piano and be involved with some very impressive music education apps, additional music instrument options, music theory curriculum, and so much more both both adults and kids. These app options will work with any USB digital piano so you don't need the Roland piano to have all of that technology.

RP102

Overall the new Roland RP102 digital piano is a nice piano and many people could likely be happy playing it. But there are digital piano competitors who in my opinion offer more for the money in this price range when it comes to the actual piano playing experience. However these competitors may not have a dedicated iPad app to add features and capabilities to the piano playing experience, so it really just depends on what you want and these certainly are a lot of good digital piano options in and around the $1000US price range so before you purchase anything from anyone be sure to contact me and I can help you make the right buying decision based on your musical needs, musical desires, and budget. Also, don't forget to read my review of the portable version Roland FP30 and then you'll know what that one is like especially when it comes to the actual piano sound, piano tuning, piano key action, and piano pedaling. The piano sound and piano tuning in the FP30 (and piano key action) is the same as in the new RP102 so be sure you read my review of it.

Roland FP30 Review

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

REVIEW - Casio CDP235CSCB...aka: CDP235R - Recommended. The Casio company recently came out with a new consumer entry level 88-key "fun" digital piano called the CDP235R. The CDP235R replaces the prior CDP230R that was out for a few years and in the US the these "CDP" fun pianos have only been available at Costco. The new CDP235R is known under a different name at Costco which is the CDP235CSCB and this is because the piano also comes with a matching Casio stand and bench at no extra charge so the model number reflects that stand & bench. The current Costco price on this model is $449.99US plus local sales tax.

Even though the CDP235R replaces the CDP230R, very little has changed. The piano looks the same except for the display screen is back-lit in a blue color instead of a gold/orange color in the previous model. I happen to like the blue color a bit better and it seems easier to read and just looks "cooler." Also the color of the button description text is now white instead of the previous gold color so this also looks much cleaner and easier to read. The other change which is the most important in this model is that the piano polyphony chip is 64-notes of polyphony instead of the previous 48 notes of polyphony, which simply means that the piano sound itself is a bit better and also layering two sounds together is less problematic. Otherwise the new CDP235R is identical to the previous CDP230R in key action, pedaling, along with functions and features. In fact both pianos are the same price so the new one did not go up in price.

As far as the functionality and digital features, this piano model is much like a cheaper Casio 61-key keyboard with all those "bells & whistles" including drum rhythms, hundreds of instrument sounds, lots of recording features, mic plug-in and even built-in music education lessons. In fact there are so many "fun features" built in to this model that it will be unlikely you'll use them all, but for kids this might be cool to play around with, and even for adults too. I personally like some of these fun features but not if I have to give up getting a better piano so that I can learn to play more naturally like a real piano. At $449 plus tax it doesn't take a lot more money to move up to a high quality digital piano that can better replicate an actual piano playing experience.


The fun bells & whistles are fine but ultimately many of these things can be had by connecting a digital piano to an iPad to access some very cool new digital educational and fun features in that way. So when you play notes on the piano the iPad apps would recognize your key playing and the app would respond to your playing by giving you instant feedback in a variety of ways. In my opinion it would make more sense to purchase a better digital piano with better key action, pedals, and piano sound but with less "bells & whistles" and spend a bit more money for it so that you can keep it for many more years. Then to get the extra "fun features" if you should want that, you just connect the piano to to a tablet or computer to have access to a wide variety of educational programs and apps. Please read my review of the previous model CDP230R at the following link to learn all about the  CDP235CSCB at Costco (aka: CDP235R) and everything you read on that review will apply to the this new piano with the exception of the display screen light and the 16 extra notes of piano polyphony. Casio CDP230R Review

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

COMPARISON REVIEW - GEWA UP280G vs UP260G Digital Pianos - Not Recommended at this time - If you live in the US then you probably have not heard of the Gewa brand before. GEWA (pronounced with a hard "G" as in "give") is a music instrument and accessory company from Germany which among other things produces digital pianos. Some of GEWA's products are produced in China and some made in Germany and GEWA says their digital pianos are made in Germany. GEWA was founded in 1925 in Vogtlandmusikwinkel in Adorf, Germany which is located between the German cities of Dresden and Nuremberg very close to the border of the Czech Republic. The digital piano division is quite new for this company and they currently have 5 models with the top 2 of those models available in the US exclusively at Sam Ash Music Stores either in-store or on-line. The 2 models include the UP260G ($1699US internet discount price) and the UP280G ($1999 internet discount price).

At first glance the GEWA digital pianos look attractive with nice contemporary cabinet design and satin imitation finishes. These pianos have clean lines and a good size LCD display screen to the left of the keyboard to easily control all digital  functions of the pianos, which I like. The main differences between the two models is cabinet design (the 280 has a taller profile) and finish color availability with the 280 available in satin black and the 260 available in satin black and satin brown rosewood, along with a more limited digital/MIDI recorder in the UP260G. But all other functions and features are identical including internal speaker system, key action, piano sound, pedaling, etc. The GEWA pianos are available in other countries besides the US and a satin white color is available outside the US but not in the US from Sam Ash Music company as far as I can tell. It you were just to judge these pianos just by their looks and the fact they are made in Germany you might think it's a safe bet to buy one. So why is it that I don't recommend the new GEWA digital pianos? Normally I do recommend most new digital pianos including some of the lessor known brands. But after my playing experience on a brand new GEWA UP280G, I just cannot recommend them at this point primarily because of the key action and noticeably inconsistent volume dynamics from one key to the next, particularly in the middle octaves and more noticeably moving from a white key to a black key.

The GEWA piano sound chip itself while playing the main stereo acoustic piano sound seems to be pretty nice (when listening through good stereo headphones) and tone is overall resonate and full. But when I played the piano through its own speakers I found the piano sound to be very muffled, muted, and boxy sounding like the the speakers in the piano (UP280G) just are not that good and/or  are pointing down towards the floor from inside the piano. It appears like the sound just isn't getting out of the cabinet very well towards the player like you would find in a real piano or other digital pianos that have better speaker projection. Also, with only 2 full range speakers pointing downward and 40 watts of total power on both models, the volume is loud enough but the 2 main speakers need help getting the sound out of the cabinet and likely the piano needs additional speakers in the form of smaller tweeters pointing towards the player as well as the main speakers being re-positioned in some way. In any case, I did not like hearing the piano through its own speakers and much preferred hearing it through stereo headphones. I will say that the the piano sound itself can be modified by adding more brightness to the piano tone located in the general settings control area, and that does help a bit, but it does not resolve the speaker problem.

The inconsistent volume dynamics was probably the most disturbing aspect of playing this piano based on my experience with it. I am hoping that the particular piano I was playing was simply a defective model and that they do not all exhibit the issue I am about to talk about. But based on my time with the UP280G, the specific plastic key action was a problem. Plastic keys is not a problem and most digital pianos have plastic keys. However, according to GEWA the key action is not made by them but is made by a company called Fatar in Italy. Fatar is well known for making a variety of key actions for different piano manufacturers and some of them are very good. This key action in the GEWA pianos would seem to be a nice one from the outside in that it has the newer synthetic ivory white keytops which feel nice to the touch, so it looks good and the keys seems to move up and down OK. But as I mentioned earlier, when you play a white key using normal medium force with your finger to press the key down in the general area of the middle octaves and then you do the same thing playing a black key, the black key is almost twice the volume as the white key, which is not the way real pianos work, especially in the middle octaves. Every key should roughly the same volume if you play the keys with approx the same finger force so that the piano volume will be even and consistent across the entire keyboard. This was not case with the UP280G. It was noticeably jumpy in volume from one key to the next and in fact some of the white notes going from one white note to the next were also inconsistent in volume with some more muted than others. So there must be a problem with this particular key action model.

With regard to piano key actions, most of them in different digital pianos have key senors under the keys and if those senors are not working correctly when the keys are pressed down, then inconsistent key volume can happen like it is on this one. Perhaps this is the reason for this problem but I cannot know this for sure so at the very least there could be some bad key actions in these specific model GEWA pianos that are out there and for me this is just too much of a risk to take and therefore I cannot recommend these pianos for this very reason. It would be bad for any piano student to deal with this let alone an advanced player. If this were just a very minor issue I would perhaps not even bring it up, but this is just not normal and in fact is far from normal. I had other people play the UP280G and noticed the same thing right away....softer on one key (in the middle octaves) and much louder on the next when playing with the same expression/finger pressure. The upper and lower octaves seem to work OK overall so I did not notice the problem there. As I said, the Fatar key action company does make some very nice key actions and I have played many of them over the years. But the one used in these GEWA pianos have negative issues and that needs to be dealt with.

There are two more issues with the key action that I did not personally enjoy which include the key movement being physically sluggish when playing the keys lightly and softly. All 88 keys had this issue when playing across the keys lightly and did it did not feel quite right to me in this way and there is no way to adjust it. Some people may not find the key action to be sluggish depending on their piano playing experience and level of ability, but for me it would not be something I would choose. The other issue is that normally on a real acoustic piano the weighted keys should get progressively a bit lighter as you go up the keyboard and that would be called "graded" weighted key action. However, even though GEWA claims that this key action is weighted & graded, it really felt like the keys on the right side of the keyboard were just as heavy as on the left bass side of the keyboard and this would not be what you would find on a real piano. Good key actions should be "graded" and get more or less resistant as you move up & down the keyboard, and it needs to be that way as you progress in your piano playing ability. This piano just did not do it for me in that way, even though they claim they have a graded action, so I feel based on the price of these pianos (between $1700US selling price & $2000US selling price plus sales tax, they have a long way to go in getting their key actions working well as with needing to improve their internal speaker systems to project the sound better and more clearly.

As far as the piano sound itself goes, I actually like it and with 256 note polyphony piano processing (which is a good amount) and a nicely recorded grand piano sound, it was enjoyable to play through stereo headphones but not through the piano speakers as I mentioned earlier. GEWA calls their piano sound technology virtual resonance cross modulation which is a fancy name for trying to create a more realistic piano sound through resonance modeling. Listening through headphones is where you can tell that the main grand piano sound has good resonance and sustain abilities and the Bright Grand sound is also pretty good but a bit too bright. However, the other additional acoustic piano sounds including  Mellow Grand 1 & 2 were not very good at all as far as I am concerned. Those sounds seemed like they had not only been done in mono instead of stereo, but they did not sound like a real acoustic piano...they just sounded very digital or fake like some effects were on them and I was not impressed. The only piano sound on this instrument worth any real consideration as being enjoyable to hear is the one main concert stereo piano sound which GEWA touts as being sampled from a famous German Steinway grand piano. This may be true but this grand piano sound does not translate well through the internal speaker system of the piano and certainly not through the key action (from the Fatar action company) being used in these two models. It doesn't really matter how good your piano sound may be if your piano key action cannot translate that sound into good responsive dynamics that are even and controlled.

The 3 pedals seem to work good and the GEWA pianos offer half-damper sustain control which is a nice feature to allow variable levels or amounts of sustain depending on how far you depress the sustain pedal. Most brands of pianos have this feature in different price ranges but the GEWA allows some editing of this function so that you can digitally change half-damper point of contact. All of the pedals do what they are supposed to do and the amount of decay time for the piano tone when being sustained is quite good in my opinion so GEWA does a nice job in that way. However the decay time and decay volume level is unfortunately inconsistent on some notes sustaining for longer periods of time and notes right next to them might sustain for a shorter amount of time. If a digital piano manufacturer, especially a new one, claims to have made a great digital piano, then not only does it need to have certain features, it especially needs to have consistency from one note to the next and from my personal experience playing on the UP280G, it did not. These pianos also have damper resonance effect which is also a good feature to have in these models so that the natural resonance that you would get from a real acoustic piano when pressing the pedal down is also reproduced in the GEWA digital pianos when doing the same thing.

The GEWA pianos do look good on the outside although don't expect the cabinets to be made of anything different than any other digital piano company in this price range because the cabinets are normally made of MDF particle board with a thin layer of imitation textured "contact" style paper...but as I said this is typical of many digital piano companies because it helps them keep costs down and is good as long as you do not damage the cabinet . If you do damage the outer part of the cabinet then repairing it could be very difficult so you need to be careful. Otherwise as far as appearance, both models are attractive and look to be stable and functional with nice sliding key cover, back privacy panel, and front support legs. The UP280G is a bit taller and a bit more contemporary in design available only in satin black in the US, although it's available in satin white in other countries. The UP260G looks a bit more traditional in design and is available in the US in either satin black or satin rosewood and also in satin white for other countries only.

The digital features on these pianos are fairly extensive and are accessed by pressing buttons near the user display screen on the control panel. The functions are pretty intuitive to use once you read the owners manual so that you can understand some of the basics when it comes to using the control buttons. But once you do that then it doesn't take much time to become familiar with accessing the features. The GEWA pianos have 37 internal instrument sounds including electric pianos, harpsichord, strings, choirs, organs, guitars, synths, and a variety of other tones. Some of them sound pretty good but some of them were actually not realistic at all including the strings, choirs, synths, and a few others. The problem with those sounds is not necessarily the sound itself, but it is when you play the keys and hold your sustain/damper pedal down that those sounds should sustain for a longer period of time like the real instruments do. However these instruments in the GEWA pianos decay (fade out) very fast and sound choppy which is very unlike what these instruments actually sound like in person and when played in an orchestra. I did like the vintage electric piano sounds quite a bit, but as I said, some of the others just were not done well.

As I mentioned earlier, the features and functions on these pianos are fairly extensive with many editing and function capabilities including being able to split or layer any 2 sounds together, transpose the key and modulate easily, change the brilliance of the overall tone (this helped the muffled sound a bit when adding more brilliance), changing the tuning, saving your custom registration setups, being able to change headphone volume input levels, having reverb effects and being able to edit them, changing touch sensitivity curve, and also being able to play pre-recorded audio and MIDI songs through the piano using the audio wav file player recorder or the multi-track MIDI file player-recorder. The UP260G has a 2-track (2 instrument) MIDI player-recorder and the UP280G has an 8-track (8 instrument) MIDI player-recorder built in so that you can do more extensive so arrangements. These pianos also have an adjustable digital metronome for timing training which is a good thing.

Unlike some other digital pianos, GEWA also includes 10 drum rhythm patterns to play along with instead of just having a metronome, so I do like that feature when a digital piano company includes this feature. Unfortunately the sound of those percussive drum patterns such as jazz, rock, pop 80's, etc, are pretty poor and clunky sounding, and in fact the $200 Yamaha and Casio keyboards out there that have drum patterns are far superior in drum pattern realism than these GEWA pianos are. I guess having something is better than nothing but I was definitely disappointed by their poor sound quality and noticeable lack of realism. In fact, one of the rhythms is named "Acid" and I was thinking why would GEWA put a rhythm called Acid in a piano like this? They did not include any Latin rhythms, no country, no waltz 3/4 time, no 60's, no 70's, no 50's, no big band, and the jazz rhythm was so bad it was unusable. There were so many better drum rhythm choices and yet they included "Acid?!" To me whoever designed the drum patterns and made those decisions at GEWA should get someone else to do the job or just leave off the rhythms altogether since they are of such poor quality, especially compared to what I was expecting out of a $2000 piano.

One of the things I find useful on some digital pianos is their ability to play General MIDI multi-track song files. A General MIDI (aka: GM) song is a format what allows up to 16 separate instruments to playback simultaneously through your piano from a USB flash drive. There are thousands of GM formatted songs available on the internet through MIDI song web sites although most of the good ones do have a cost to them. I have used, played, and recorded multi-track GM songs for many years so I have a lot of experience with them and know what they can sound like. They can be useful in learning songs from some of your favorite artists as well as getting play-along MIDI songs that go with some popular piano educational curriculum that teachers use in their studios for their students to better learn rhythm & timing while having some fun backup music. To have proper playback of GM songs a digital piano should have at least 16 tracks of playback ability along with a minimum of 128 GM realistic instrument sounds that are formatted in a specific order so that the songs during playback in the piano can respond correctly and sound good. The GEWA pianos do have GM song playback capability, although the UP280G only has 8-track playback which is the one I tried the MIDI files in, and the UP206G only has 2-track playback capability. GEWA mentions all this in their owners manual.

I have heard many digital piano models over the years from Yamaha, Kawai, Roland, and Casio and others play back GM song files from movies, jazz tunes, pop music, Disney music, and many other types of music and I know great they can sound just like the original song arrangement in many cases. However I am sorry to say the GEWA GM instrument reproduction along with its ability to playback the instruments correctly from a number of songs doesn't come close to the other pianos I mentioned. The GM files playing through the GEWA pianos in some cases make the songs sound like they have toy instruments instead of real ones, or the songs don't play back completely normal, and the volume balance between instruments playing back in the song is way out of balance with some instruments and percussion too soft while others may be too loud. However some GM songs did sound really nice and well balanced, so it was just hit & miss. Overall, very unimpressive from a piano that is supposed to have a nice GM song player. The digital controls of the MIDI player through the user interface are OK, but not great...they should be upgraded as well.

When it comes to connectivity on these pianos GEWA offers a good variety including MIDI in & out connectors, stereo audio input and audio output, 2 stereo headphone jacks, a USB to external device connector, and a USB memory flash drive input connector so I am pleased they included all the necessary connectors that people like to have. GEWA also added a popular connectivity feature that many shoppers like to have which is Bluetooth audio wireless connection to external device. a few other manufacturers are now offering this feature in their pianos as well and the advantage is that you don't need to connect an audio cable to the device from your piano because Bluetooth makes it wireless. The rreason someone would want to use this feature is that they may want to play their favorite iTunes from their iPhone or iPad through the piano speaker system to have a place in the home to play your tunes. This is a pretty cool feature and can work well depending on the quality of the internal speaker system in the piano. Considering the GEWA pianos only have a 2 speaker 40 watt system and the internal piano sound is somewhat muffled and boxy as I mentioned earlier, I really don't know if the external songs you would be playing through the piano speakers would sound good or not because I did not get a chance to try that out. But I am a bit doubtful about the quality of external music coming through the piano given what I experienced just playing the piano. So we'll just have to wait and see.

In the final analysis a good piano needs to, first and foremost, have a solid, responsive key action that will reproduce the piano sound from the internal sound chip in an even and consistent way across the 88 keys. In my opinion the key action in this piano just does not do that and that's my biggest complaint and why I cannot recommend these new GEWA pianos at this time. The other things I discussed which I was not fond of such as the internal speaker system, some the instrument sounds, the GM song playback, the drum rhythms, etc are bothersome but not enough for me to not recommend the UP206G and UP208G. They would still be fine overall but in reality I believe you would get much more for your money in terms of quality key action, piano sound, pedaling, and features in this price range from the well known brands such as Yamaha, Kawai, Casio, Roland, and a few others. I really was looking forward to playing one of these pianos and coming away very satisfied, but unfortunately it did not work out that way. GEWA is simply not ready for "prime-time" in the US right now and they really need to get their act together to be competitive with the well known brands who have a foothold in the US digital piano market. Also I have no idea what the long term durability of these pianos will be like and if service and/or parts would be readily available in the US should any of them need service. I do look forward to this brand from Germany becoming stronger in the world of digital pianos one day, but they are not there yet and have a way to go in my opinion.

Please check out my reviews of the competitive models in this price range from the links below:

- Yamaha CLP625 Review
- Yamaha CLP635 Review
- Casio AP700 Review
- Casio AP650 Review
- Kawai CE220 Review
- Roland DP603 Review

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

🎹 COMPARISON REVIEW - New 2018 model Kawai MP7SE and MP11SE - Recommended - Kawai is just introducing replacement models for their previous MP7 & MP11 stage pianos which are called MP7SE ($1799US internet discount price) and MP11SE ($2799US internet discount price). Both of these new models have a few important upgrades over the previous versions which I will explain below. If you want one of these new versions then I suggest you do not wait (especially don't wait until the holidays) because Kawai only has a small initial quantity right now and they will likely be sold out soon and new inventory may be slow to come into the US.

🎹 If after reading these reviews you decide you would like to own one of these new models, please let me know and I can help you get a special introductory price with free shipping, no tax, new warranty, and my free support.

OK, so what is different about these new models? Well, as it turns out...not much in terms of quantity. However the things that ARE new are what I consider to be the most important features in a piano and that is a new key action in the MP7SE along with new piano chip sound realism, and the same new piano sound chip in the MP11SE along with more responsive pedaling. Kawai currently has a specific key action they use in their ES8 ($1999US internet price) portable stage/home piano called the RH3 (plastic key action) which now replaces the previous key action from the MP7 which was called the RH2 (plastic key action). The difference between the two key actions is a couple of things one of which is that there is a bit more resistance and weight in the new RH3 key action so it more closely approximates what a real good acoustic piano feels like, The RH3 key action also has counter-weights built into each each (left pic) so that the key return response is more accurate and that the key returns faster after it is depressed. Keyboard counterweight technology is found in all acoustic pianos and a some digital pianos, but most digital pianos don't have it. So the new MP7SE key action now has counter-weight technology in the keys and also the keys have a better "piano-like" feel to them.

The MP11SE key action has not changed at all and it still has the very popular and well regarded Kawai "Grand-Feel" wood key action which has longer individually installed keys that offers a different and more precise fulcrum and pivot point than the MP7SE RH3 key action. The longer wooden key not only moves up & down much more like a real full size acoustic grand piano (it can be really difficult to tell the difference it's so good), but the transition in key weight and finger pressure needed to press the key down from one key to the next on the MP11SE is almost seamless. It feels pretty much the same whether pressing the white keys, black keys, playing towards the back of the keys or front of the keys, the transitions are really smooth and realistic. Even the black wooden keys have an organic wood feel on the sides of the keys just like a real grand. I know many people who own and play great acoustic grand pianos such as Steinway, Kawai, etc and they buy MP11's so they can practice with headphones so as to not disturb other people in the home, which they obviously cannot do on a real acoustic piano. The MP11SE key action is quiet and expressive and that's what advanced players require of a digital piano so they can practice in privacy and yet still enjoy their piano playing.

So what else is different and improved on these 2 new models? Well, both of them have Kawai's top model piano sound chip with extended memory piano sampling. This piano sound chip offers a noticeably more natural and responsive piano tonal dynamic range and more organic elements of a real acoustic grand. There is a distinct difference in piano sound realism in these new models for both acoustic piano sounds and electric piano sounds as compared to the previous models. This change is on the MP7SE and MP11SE and the new piano sound chip comes from the top Kawai home digital piano model called the CS11 which sells for about $7000. Among other things this new piano sound chip offers 4 distinct individual sampled grand and upright piano sounds along with additional variations of those sounds so there is plenty of acoustic piano variety on the new models which is a welcome upgrade. It also offers precise piano editing control with the Kawai Virtual Technician.

The other upgrades and changes on these new models are that the MP7SE & MP11SE now both have redesigned side panels that are polished black wood rather than the more traditional dark mahogany wood tone side panels that were in the previous models. This is a more subjective change and I like both colors but the new black panel design which is also more flush with the keyboard itself and the black color does make them look sleeker with a matching look to the rest of the piano. The new side panel redesign also added about 3 lbs more weight to the MP11SE. The other and last change to mention is that the new MP11SE has a redesigned proprietary and upgraded triple pedal unit called the GFP-3 as compared to the previous model pedal unit on the MP11. The triple pedal unit which comes standard with the MP11SE (optional for the MP7SE) now has advanced optical sensors built in instead of traditional sensors/contacts so that the pedal calibration and response is more precise and expressive. Some people will notice this change if they were to play both models (MP11 and MP11SE) both many people may not notice the difference. Nevertheless, the new triple pedal that comes with the MP11SE is more durable, more responsive, and adds another element of authenticity to your overall playing on this new model. The MP7SE comes with one sustain-damper pedal and that pedal is extremely durable and expressive so there was no change need for that one.

Apart from the changes I just mention between the previous MP7 & MP11 models and these new ones, everything else is identical in terms of function, features, digital controls, piano cabinet designed, user interface...everything is the same and has not changed. Almost everyone who had purchased the former MP7 and MP11 that I know of was very satisfied by their experience with those models, and the only things that MP7 and MP11 shoppers were mainly concerned with was the "piano playing experience" which includes key action, piano sound, and pedaling and those are the changes (more or less) on the new MP7SE and MP11SE.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

REVIEW COMPARISON - Yamaha CSP150 vs CSP170 Digital Piano with Smart Pianist technology - Recommended - It was just a matter of time until someone out there (a piano company) thought "outside the box" and came up with a new digital piano that breaks all the boundaries of conventional thinking and creates a new digital piano category that is the first of its kind from a major manufacturer that I know of. The Yamaha piano company has just introduced two new 2018 digital pianos called the CSP150 ($3499US internet selling price in satin black, $3999 in polished ebony) and the CSP170 ($4699US internet selling price in satin black, $5299US in polished ebony). From the outside these two models look like they do nothing but play piano. In other words these pianos only have a power button and volume control on the right side of the keyboard, and a function button on the left side of the keyboard, but nothing else beyond that. they look as minimalistic in cabinet design and function as a digital piano could possibly be and still be digital. But you cannot judge a book by its cover and in the advanced tech world we are all living in, looks can be deceiving. Sometimes a complex looking electronic device can look like it does a lot. but it may not. On the other hand something simplistic may look like it's very limited in what in can do but when you actually use it then you know it goes way beyond what you ever thought it could do for you. Such is the case with these new pianos

Over the years I have had a number of digital piano shoppers tell me that they wished there was a really good digital piano out there that did not cost "an arm and a leg" (somewhere under $5000) and yet had the ability to replicate a real piano as closely as possible so that it would look good, play good, sound good, and have a variety of interactive fun and educational features for people of all ages & playing skill levels along with allowing more advanced musicians access to professional interactive music features that would stimulate their creativity...but still look as piano-like as possible. The problem with getting all of these very cool, very high quality interactive digital features that many digital piano shoppers would love to have is that until now all those features needed to be built into the piano itself with lots of physical buttons, big color touch screens built-in, and an array of controls and sliders to navigate all the functions. Some pianos have added built-in color touch screens now but even that technology is not necessarily practical for a lot of users because the operating system for the touch screen is proprietary for that brand and is not what people are used to using on their regular tech devices like iPhones, iPads, Android devices, etc. When all of the technology is built directly into the digital piano, especially in a higher price range, then these things tend make a piano look like a cockpit of an airplane with unfamiliar controls and that is not what most piano shoppers want on their pianos anymore, at least that's what I am seeing out there. People general like and want new interactive technology in their devices, but they want the technology to be intuitive, easy to navigate, and familiar to operate.

So here's a big question: what if you could do away with all the buttons, wheels, sliders, large built in display screen, and most other hardware on those expensive interactive, technologically advanced expensive digital pianos and take all of those features that are in those pianos and stuff it into (as an example) an iPad and operate every function and feature of your  piano (thousands of cool features) from your iPad alone using the familiar software controls of your iPad iOS device to operate your piano? Then you would have your iPad color touch screen with all the familiar controls that you are used to having (for those that have an iPad) and be able to have total control and nearly unlimited amount of digital piano features for your piano that up until now have only been available on the more expensive digital pianos with all the hardware buttons and sliders. Wouldn't that kind of thing be awesome?:)...I think so:).

This is precisely what the new Yamaha CSP150 & CSP170 digital pianos are giving people; a way to have a more understated but attractive digital piano in their home or venue that looks like a piano instead of an electronic device but actually outperforms and is easier to use (in a number of ways) than the more expensive top digital technology pianos like the Yamaha Clavinova CVP pianos. Using an iPad and proprietary Yamaha software that operates in an iOS app in cooperation with Apple company, these two new digital pianos are the kind of instruments in my opinion that the industry has needed as an alternative to the more "ornate and over produced" digital pianos of the past and even some current models. These hardware saturated digital pianos rely on tons of buttons, sliders, and screens packaged and built into a cabinet that can easily become outdated quickly because technology keeps changing. Having it all built into the piano cabinet can sometimes make it more challenging and more difficult to keep up with and retain resale value as opposed to offering a good, solid piano which uses external digital technology to control the piano that can easily be tweaked, changed, and updated without affecting the piano itself, the resale value, or the need to buy a new piano to get new technology. What an interesting concept now brought to life:).

But as far as these actual pianos go, when you power up either the Yamaha CSP150 or CSP170, you get Yamaha's best grand piano sound taken directly from its 9' CFX concert grand which has a maximum 256-note polyphony along with natural organic resonances and tonal vibrations. The dynamic tonal range is smooth and very wide and there is a lot of music expression you can get out of these pianos.  So you just start playing piano and enjoying yourself. From that point you can go a couple different ways. Yamaha has provided many internal features on the piano that can be simply accessed by holding down the function button on the left side of the keyboard and then simultaneously touching a specific key (from a chart in the owners manual) on the keyboard that triggers a preset function or feature. In this way you can have a variety of instrument sounds, rhythms, styles, metronome, and other features at your fingertips (literally) without needing to connect to any external device. There 10 instrument sounds including the Yamaha and Bosendorfer grand piano tones, 10 orchestrated playalong songs including "my heart will go on" from the Titanic movie, 10 drum rhythm patterns & 10 style accompaniments including rock, jazz, Latin, etc, tempo speed adjustment for metronome and rhythms, 6 levels of reverb effects, 6 levels of key touch curve sensitivity, and a few other features. So just playing the piano allows you quick access to some other cool features that many digital pianos in this price range do not have.

But what really makes these pianos incredibly amazing (in my opinion) is their proprietary Yamaha iPad/iOS app called Smart Pianist. This is where all the real excitement and power resides and how these relatively 'simple" pianos become monsters:). But before I talk about this very powerful Yamaha app, it is important to know that the CSP150 piano is really a Yamaha Clavinova CLP635 piano in terms of its GH3X plastic key action and internal 60 watt sound system being the same along with its cabinet design. The CSP170 is essentially a Yamaha CLP645 in terms of its upgraded NWX wood key action and cabinet design but with increased internal audio on the CSP170 power offering 180 watts of power going into 4 speakers with the main speakers housed in their own acoustic chamber speaker box mounted just underneath the piano which produces a fuller, more resonate sound with improved bass reproduction. Although the CLP645 speaker system is quite good offering 100 watts of power going into 4 speakers with no speaker box, the CSP170 noticeably upgraded. I personally like the wood key action of the CSP170 much better than the firmer plastic key action of the CSP150 and I notice a big difference in the natural key movement of the CSP170 over the CSP150 with the action being somewhat lighter, smoother, and an action that does not work against you but works with you. The pedaling on both models works quite adequately and each pedal does what it is supposed to do in allowing damper sustain with long decay time for all notes with the right pedal, sostenuto sustain for selected notes with the middle pedal, and soft pedal control with the left pedal.

The Yamaha iOS Smart Pianist app applies to both CSP models in exactly the same way with the same features. So the choice for shoppers is...what can you afford to pay (your budget) and which key action and internal sound system of these two pianos will most appeal to you? In my opinion there is only one choice assuming you can spring for the extra money, and that choice is...the CSP170. This is because of its noticeably superior key action and its beefier internal sound system that really brings out the tone of the piano sound along with the incredible musical features of the Smart Pianist app.

Now lets talk about this Yamaha Smart Pianist app and some of the impressive musical things it allows you to do whether you are a beginner, a serious piano student, a recreational player, or an advanced pianist who wants to add even more enjoyment to their music. First it is important to know that when connecting an iPad to the piano for a MIDI connection so that your piano can "talk to" the iPad and the app, you can plug in a simple USB cable from the iPad lightning connector going to the piano USB connector located on the right side of the music rack. So connection is quick, simple, and secure. The audio portion of the iPad (sounds, rhythms, iTunes, music, etc) can be heard through the piano speaker system by connection of a special core audio cable (included) from the iPad to the piano with the input connector on the piano located on the left side of the music rack. When you do these two things you control all the features and sounds of the Yamaha Smart Pianist app from your piano so when playing keys on the piano you activate all the sounds and playalong functions and those features are then heard through the piano speaker system or through stereo headphones when plugged into the piano.

So what interactive musical things does this proprietary Yamaha/iOS app give you so that you will have more than just a digital piano and a few extra features? In other words...what makes the CSP150 & CSP170 so cool? The first thing most people want to with their new digital piano is to...you guessed it...play piano! But with the Yamaha Smart Pianist, you can change many things on the  acoustic piano sounds in these pianos beyond what they do and sound like from the Yamaha factory . Yamaha has a feature called the "Piano Room" and in this virtual Piano Room you can make changes to the piano sounds to personalize them in a way that could be even more pleasing to your ears and fingers. You do this all with an intuitive, easy to understand list of piano sound changes on the app along with large icons/pictures of the pianos so you can see what is happening in real time. You can change up to 10 Piano Room functions in hundreds of ways by just using your finger on the iPad touch screen that makes it fun so that the end result will be potentially hundreds of new custom piano tones which you can create. You can change the grand piano lid position, brightness of the sound, touch curve of the key touch, the room or venue the piano is playing in (Recital Hall, Concert Hall, Cathedral, etc)...along with the control of that room and its depth of natural reverb and acoustic properties, you can change the master tuning of the piano, the depth of the damper resonance, depth of string resonance, and even be able to tune and control volume for each individual note as opposed to all the notes at one time. Therefore if you feel one note is a bit "out of tune" for your ear or the volume is not quite right as compared to other notes, you can individually adjust each note to your own personal tastes. If you mess up during these individual settings and restore the piano sound back to what it was, then that is easy to do by a reset function in the Piano Room. So hopefully you get the idea and understand that the very nice Yamaha acoustic piano sounds that come built in to these 2 models can be taken much further through instant access and control of the unique Piano Room in the Smart Pianist app.

I've only just begun talking about this new Smart Pianist app so here's a big list of features that are part of this very extensive feature laden Yamaha app: You get access to a library of over 700 very high quality (HD) instrument sounds from additional acoustic pianos, electric pianos brass, woodwinds, guitars of every type, stringed instruments including the most realistic guitars,  banjos, violins, harps saxophones, clarinets, trumpets, world instruments, and just about any other instrument you can think of. The authenticity and tonal reproduction of these instrument sounds are so good along with their detailed nuances that it's easy to think that you are hearing them "live." These are not "toy" instrument sounds but they are sophisticated recreations of the real thing and like nothing you have ever heard before on a consumer home digital piano. You can also use those instruments in song recordings, live play, accompaniment style play, layered, split, or just about any way you want to. Yes, I know that many people just want a digital piano to mainly play piano...but music is so much more than that and as a long time piano, guitar, keyboard, and organ teacher I can tell you first hand that the more exposure you and/or your children have to music technology, the better musician you and/or they can become. Playing piano is a worthy endeavor but if you can have built in features on these pianos that adds to your musical enjoyment and satisfaction, then I say...why not:).

The Smart Pianist app also has "Music Styles" so that you can have an interactive playing experience with a backup orchestra or band on your piano while playing your piano music. Just about any type of music styles you can think of is in the app including Jazz, Latin, Big Band, Swing, Hard rack, Classic Rock, Light Rock, Waltz, Blues, Country, Western, New Age, Alternative, Broadway, Disney, Motown, and everything in-between. When you select a Music Style from the Style library, whatever song you feel like playing on the piano keyboard, those piano notes will have a professional back up band or orchestra playing along with you at any tempo you choose. You can even access and control special interactive introductions and endings to your song so they start out and end just as a band or orchestra would do it. The styles themselves fill in the background and you play piano or any other instrument from the instrument sound library and then you are the leader of your own personal band or orchestra and music results are absolutely outstanding. As a piano teacher for many years I know there are people who play piano and students taking lessons who may not care for (or have not had the opportunity to know) these added musical features that interact with your playing. But the fact is that you can control those features to enhance your playing enjoyment in ways not possible in the past on conventional pianos, and all of it done from your iPad in real time. When you hear these Yamaha Smart Pianist interactive styles for yourself I think you might agree that it's all about playing music that makes you "feel good" and if this feature does that for you then that is what is truly important. At the end of the day music is all about feelings and personal expression and if you can gain more happiness from what these new pianos can do for you and/or your family, then that is what should really count.

One thing that I find that helps expand a person's musical ability and musical understanding is to be able to record themselves while they play along with being able to create more complex and engaging music. The Yamaha CSP150 & CSP170 Smart Pianist app offers these things with its ability to record your every note on one or both hands and then play them back in real time allowing you to slow the song down or even mute out left or right hand so you can analyse your piano practice and playing to get a better idea of what you really sound like. You control all aspects of your recording and playback from the intuitive recording/playback section of the app. You can also playalong with any recorded part live in real time like you would be playing along with your piano teacher of someone else. You can record your song either as a MIDI song file or an audio wav file CD quality and save it on a USB flash drive or playback from the flash drive. To make things even more interesting you can learn to create full song arrangements with up to 16 different instruments from the Smart Pianist instrument library played and recorded one at a time and then played back simultaneously as one complete song arrangement just like you would hear from a band, orchestra, or other musicians playing together. You can control every instrument with regard to type, individual relative volumes, tempo, octaves, effects, and being able to mute any or all instruments during playback. I have done this type of song creation and recording many times and I can tell you that a person, regardless of piano playing skill level, can get a real sense of musical accomplishment when you create an entire score of music on your own and then hear it played back all at one time. You can editing your recordings, save them to digital memory, and also see the music on your iPad. Recording and playing back music is a very cool thing to do and it can either be very simple with a 1-track piano recording all the way up to a full 16 instrument, 16-track musical arrangement of any song you like including your own music. You just may wind up with the next famous studio recorded song all done on your Smart Pianist app from playing one of these new CSP pianos:)

OK, so what else can this Smart Pianist app do? Well one of the most interesting things it does is something that just about everyone I know would like to have and no other piano offers this feature. You can take just about any iTune song (MP3 audio song file) from your iOS iTune library and play it through the piano. That's cool but not super impressive. What is impressive is that the Smart Pianist app converts the audio playback of the song to actual sheet music notation on the iPad so that you can following along with the song and actually play it from sheet music while even controlling the tempo and the key! Imagine having sheet music displaying the notation to an iTune song and being able to play the piano along with the song. Not only that but you can mute out different parts of the song so that you can play the piano while controlling the accompaniment in different ways. If you do not read music then you can instead have the app translate the iTune song to a "chord chart" so that you can play along using chords that are shown in the correct order as the song is played. This is great if you play by ear, don't read music as I mentioned, or play guitar along with the song because guitar players use chords. Given this new technology, not every (MP3) iTune song our there will be decoded properly into notation by the Yamaha Smart Pianist app. The app may be "smart," but it still has a lot to learn:). Also there are over 400 built in songs in the Smart Pianist "song library" with a huge musical variety that will give you access to instant song learning and playback that are very enable for any age and playing skill level and work well for the piano. The amount of songs the Smart Pianist app does translate correctly into sheet music is pretty big and will impress you and give you a musical tools that can be used in many ways for more immediate musical enjoyment.

But none of this would truly be complete without being able to sing along with your favorite song...right? Well...not only does the CSP150 and CSP175 allow you to plug in a microphone to the piano to sing through it while accessing special vocal reverb effects to give you pro performance quality, but the Smart Pianist app displays the words (lyrics) to the audio iTunes songs so that that you can read the words and sing them while the song is playing, kind of like karaoke. That's pretty cool and if the song is not in your singing range (too low or too high) then you can transpose the song into a different key to sing along in a vocal range that better suits your voice. A lot of people enjoy singing along with their favorite song and now all this can be done on your iPad in an easy to see, easy to read format that also allows you to control the volume of your voice so it mixes well with your playing. There are hundreds of songs that you can get with lyrics and it's great fun regardless of your age, musical ability, or singing ability.

In addition to the lyrics feature and vocal mic connection to the piano and being able to control it, I know a lot of people who have always dreamed of singing with their favorite song but thought their voice was not good enough to do it, especially in "public." The Smart Pianist app also lets you hear the vocal tracks to the songs you choose so you can sing along to it and still hear the original voice on the song. However, when you think you are good enough to sing on your own without the original voice on your favorite iTune song, then the Smart Pianist app will allow you to cancel out or "mute" that voice track so that you become the exclusive singer of the song. Yamaha calls this feature a "Melody Suppressor" because it suppresses the melody or sing line. So as you become more confident about your voice and vocal abilities you will want to use this feature so that you can be the only voice on the song and sound like a pro:).

Ok so all that is very cool but there is still one more very impressive thing the vocal feature will do for you. If you are a singer in a band or orchestra and want other voices to harmonize with you then that harmonizing can really sound great and add to your singing and playing enjoyment in a big way. Since you are just one person singing through the mic to get harmony you would need other people to sing live with you, know the song, and be able to perfectly harmonize with your voice. Since this situation is not likely to happen then if you want to take your singing dream even further, the Smart Pianist app provides an interactive vocal harmony feature when you sing. In other words, you can switch on the vocal harmony control and when you are singing the Yamaha harmony feature on the iPad app will automatically and perfectly add harmony notes using your voice for those notes. So basically you will hear other people singing with you in a variety of harmonies that you can select from and those harmonies are you! There are not 1, not 2, not 3, but 44 different harmonies you can choose from with the vocal harmonizer including duet, trio, open and close harmonies, 4 part, 5 part, jazz, and so many more. This takes singing to a whole new level so if you love to singing or have other people in your family (or friends) who do, or if your like to entertain, then this CSP150 & CSP170 vocal feature will give you even more musical enjoyment than you thought possible.

The Yamaha CSP150 and CSP170 both have a feature built into the piano themselves called follow along streaming lights. Streaming lights is a new and very impressive feature that will identify the black & white keys in a visual way that you are supposed to play while playing along with built in songs in the Smart Pianist app. Yamaha currently has a variation of streaming lights built into other models they have and that function is called "lesson guide" using guide lamps just above the keys to indicate the keys to press down at the appropriate time while a song is playing back in that piano. Guide lamps are basically little lighted dots, one above each key and those dots light up. The Yamaha CVP series of Clavinova pianos has these more traditional light-up dots but those pianos are generally a lot more money than the CSP pianos and the light guide system is not near as cool. Also, the streaming light function in the CSP pianos "stream" down above each key in a 4-step process so you know when that key (or keys) needs to be played. The new streaming lights are much easier to follow and give you that 4-step "countdown" during the light-stream so it is easier to play the correct key at the right time than with the convention light guide on the other models.

So...if you do not play piano at all or you just want to learn a song more quickly, the new CSP streaming lights can and will help you do that and you can even slow down the song to any tempo to learn the notes without the song jumping out ahead of you. Streaming light feature also has other things it can do and all of its features are controlled by the Yamaha Smart Pianist app on your iPad. You can take your favorite song in iTunes, see the notation, learn the chords, see the notes, follow the light streams (at different tempos) on the piano and even sing the lyrics and do this altogether while being able control how you use this system right from the app in a very intuitive way using familiar iPad/iPhone controls. Music should be enjoyed by your family and friends in whatever way gets them involved, and based on my personal time playing and working with these new pianos and the Smart Pianist app, there's no way that you can't find something to really like them. Music, whether listening to or playing it, should generate an emotional feeling in you so you can express yourself and the CSP models do that like no other digital pianos can do in my opinion. There are a videos of the streaming lights in action that you can seeing by going the the following links:

It would be easy for me to continue talking about this Smart Pianist app as the list of things it can do goes on and on almost without end. But I believe the main functions and features that I have described so far should give you a clear idea of the musical potential of both the CSP150 and CSP170 so that you can enjoy playing music in almost any way that you chose to do. The piano does have the standard digital features that most all of the other digital pianos out there have including duet play, splitting the keyboard into 2 sounds, layering 2 any sounds together and being able to just play the instrument as a piano. The CSP pianos also have all the connectivity that a person would need includingthe mic/line input as I mentioned before, dual stereo headphone inputs, auxiliary line input jack, audio output to connect to external speaker system if necessary (for church, school, outdoor event, etc), USB to device to connect external device to the piano (iPad, computer, etc), and standard MIDI connectors for MIDI in, out, and through to be used with older MIDI devices (keyboards, modules, etc). One more connection device that can work with these pianos is the optional wireless connector that Yamaha makes called the UDWL01. This wifi system allows a MIDI connection from the piano to a wireless router so that you can connect your CSP piano in that way using the wireless adapter rather than a cable. I personally like a cable because that connection tends to be more immediate and secure. But for those people who want less cables plugged into their digital piano and device, then this would be the way to do that. This proprietary Yamaha WiFi adapter is the only one that will work for the piano and it will cost you on average about $90US. So it's not cheap and you have to rely on a good router and placement so that it will work well.

In the final analysis, the new Yamaha CSP150 and CSP170 digital pianos have what a lot of people have been looking for in their price range: impressive and clean looking piano cabinets in nice finishes with very few buttons/sliders, no built-in user display screen to stare down at or worry about, and a very satisfying piano sound, key action, and pedaling response. Then you take those basic piano fundamentals and combine it with cutting edge music technology with literally thousands of digital musical options as I previously described, all controlled by a single Yamaha proprietary Smart Pianist app designed in conjunction with the Apple company for its famous iPad. Then you have all the interactive music features you could ever want residing in an external device instead of on and/or inside the piano. The digital piano has finally entered the age of personal interaction with a "monster" app on large color touch screen that can be updated with new features in the future or even be able to have potential "bugs" fixed like other apps do. Instead of relying solely on the piano itself you can now add just about whatever you want to your piano playing and musical enjoyment experience and you pay for it just one time...when you buy the piano. I suppose one could look at this and say that a person buying a CSP150 would be paying about $1000 more than a Clavinova CLP635 for the privilege and benefit of having the Yamaha Smart Pianist app than if he/she just bought the CLP635 instead of the CSP150 since the CLP635 is basically like the CSP150 but without the app. Therde are a few other differences in those models but the app makes the biggest difference by far. Same thing comparing the CSP170 to the Clavinova CLP645 although the internal speaker system in the CSP170 is nearly double the audio speaker power of the CLP645.

If you have multiple people in your family or where this piano may be going, then everyone can find their "musical joy" because there are so many features that provides so many ways of achieving your musical desires and needs. If you play piano and just want it for that purpose then these pianos will make that happen for you. If you want to be entertained with songs and accompaniments then the Smart Pianist app does a tremendous job of that. If you want to write music, perform music, sing music, record music and create music, then all of that is available for these models. The app is free when you buy either a CSP150 or CSP170 but we all know nothing is "free." But with the high quality music and operational technology that Yamaha, in conjunction with Apple, is providing through its Smart Pianist app, you otherwise would have had to spend way more money in a self-contained hardware driven digital piano than you would be in these new CSP pianos. So the question is...are the these new pianos worth the price of admission...the answer is yes. Are they the best digital pianos in terms of just playing piano in their price range?...maybe they are and maybe they aren't. There are other great brands out there including Roland, Casio, and Kawai to name a few. But do those brands of anything like what the CSP's are offering in terms of connecting with an iPad music app with almost unlimited possibilities, especially in their price range?...the answer is no. If you like what you see and hear when it comes to the new CSP pianos by Yamaha then I recommend you buy one and for my money I would spend the extra money (if you have it) and go for the CSP170. Just be warned that when you get one of these pianos in your home and start playing on it, you may not get anything else done for a long time:).

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

UPDATED REVIEW - November 25, 2017 - Williams Allegro 2 and Allegro 2 Plus Digital Piano -Semi Recommended - The Williams digital piano brand is made for and sold exclusively by Guitar Center and its affiliate companies (they own them) including Musicians Friend, Music & Arts, Music 123, Woodwind & Brasswind, and a couple of additional GC related internet sites. It's almost like a monopoly:). The Williams name piano is a product created by a Chinese manufacturer for Guitar Center and it's Guitar Center's house brand and not American produced even though the Williams name sounds like it, so don't look for it elsewhere. Guitar Center salespeople will suggest this model as a good one because after all, it's their brand name and you cannot buy it through a non-Guitar Center company as far as I know. The Williams name does not produce regular acoustic pianos and is not a brand that I have ever recommended in the past. With that being said, I do "semi-recommend" this Allegro 2 and new Allegro 2 Plus portable 88-key digital pianos ($299 store/Internet discount price).  

In the world of digital pianos and trying to get a good one for a low price, the Williams Allegro 2 attempts to rise to the occasion and for $299 does an OK job in terms of this model having 88-keys with some weighted response to the keys, having an OK piano sound with some touch sensitivity along with 64-note polyphony which is plenty of piano note processing power for beginners, and having a sustain pedal connection to hold and sustain sound when pressing the pedal down. So when it comes to very basics, the Allegro 2 does have it. The newer Allegro 2 "Plus" version, which replaces the Allegro 2, has slightly improved piano and instrument sounds although they are really not much improved. Also the power adapter and sustain pedal come in the box at no extra charge rather than being sold separately. Other than that the new model is the same as the old one and has all the positive and negative aspects associated with the older one...so keep that in mind. Regardless of what you may otherwise see in on-line consumer reviews or Guitar Center/Musicians Friend hype, these basic features do come with noticeable limitations, at least they were things that I definitely noticed playing it, and these features could easily be a noticeable hindrance to students trying to learn to play piano. That is why I only "semi-recommend" this piano, primarily because it is a cheap price and some people cannot only afford to pay up to a certain budget.

So here are the negative downsides to the Allegro 2/Allegro 2 Plus digital piano that I feel are worth mentioning and they mostly have to do with key action and piano sound authenticity:

1.There is only a small volume range of dynamics when you are pressing the keys at different velocity (speed/strength) levels. In other words, when playing the keys you really don't hear much change in volume touch sensitivity and the minimum volume never goes to zero. So no matter how softly you play the keys, the volume of the softest note is much too loud and comes in too quickly (more on that later). These limitations will likely not be apparent to beginners, but if you start to progress in your music as a student or you already know how to play, your music will come out in a way where it won't have much expression or musical authenticity in my opinion. Just because a piano type of sound comes out of the speakers doesn't mean the rest of what you hear and play is normal in terms of piano sound and dynamics. There is an editing function to change velocity curve touch sensitivity, but adjusting this to a different setting doesn't really help change this deficiency much at all. It just basically makes the piano sound louder, not better.

2. The Allegro key action is much better than a spring action keyboard like the cheaper priced Williams Legato, but as far as it having a key movement just like a real piano...forget about it because it does not. Maybe like a worn out used piano with a loose key action, but nothing beyond that. If you play on a lightweight key action like this one, you will eventually get into poor playing habits later on, especially as a student who is hoping to get the proper expression and key action response of a real piano. Beyond the lightweight spring keys, when you are pressing the keys with a harder touch, the keys bottom out and sound like they are hitting a hard surface underneath, There is very little padding or noise reduction material preventing this loud knocking noise when pushing the keys down. This issue is not uncommon with some other inexpensive digital pianos and keyboards, but unfortunately this Williams model also has this problem as do most Williams piano models I have played. It's even more noticeable when you are playing the piano wearing headphones and other people in the house have to hear this loud clunky knocking sound when the keys go down and bottom out...very distracting. If you press the keys lightly then it's not an issue, but that's not how music is played with just a light touch all the time.

3.When you press a key down on a real acoustic piano or a higher quality digital piano, you are not supposed to hear any piano sound until the key touches the bottom. This is normal and helps with proper note timing, expression along with volume control, and proper technique. Unfortunately when pressing a key down on the Allegro 2, the note is heard before it touches the bottom at about half-way down. This not at all natural and will generate a piano sound before it is intended to be heard. I have played on digital pianos with this kind of unrealistic key action volume sensing before and it is something to stay away from if possible. The Allegro 2 uses old and inadequate key sensing technology which makes a sound well before it should as the key is depressed and this will throw off a person's playing in terms of volume dynamics. You can notice this issue especially if you play slowly or softly. Once again this is something which can cause poor playing habits for students as they progress in their skills and may also inhibit and distract people who already know how to play piano and want a more realistic playing experience as well. I certainly would never recommend this piano to my students if they could adjust their budget and spend a bit more on a digital piano which plays correctly and that they could grow into instead of grow out of.

4.When pressing a key from a light touch to a hard touch on a real piano or on a higher quality digital piano, you would hear a number of tonal changes in the sound.I am not talking about volume changes (loud & soft), but instead I am talking about what pianos are supposed to do in terms of going from a mellow tone when pressing the key lightly up to a very bright and vibrant tone when pressing the key hard. This is called velocity tone changes or tonal dynamics. In a good piano you are not supposed to hear the tonal changes in a distinct way but instead, you should hear them in a wide range of subtle change going from mellow and on up to bright in a very small steps. On a good digital or acoustic piano, you would press the keys with your fingers from a soft touch and get progressively harder in your touch until you are really playing hard. You will hear a subtle but noticeable increase and decrease in tonal range. Not so on the Allegro 2. There are just 3 piano tonal changes (or samples) per key...mellow, bright, very bright and nothing in between, and those 3 tonal changes are obvious and distinct instead of a seamless transition like slightly higher price digital pianos. In fact to get (hear) the 3rd velocity "very bright" sound, you really need to play super hard on the keys just to hear it, which is unnatural to begin with. When you play the keys hard, that key knocking noise will be heard which will cause you to NOT want to play hard enough to get the extra dynamic. If you do get that very bright dynamic sound, it comes in suddenly and unnaturally. So what I am saying is, even though Williams (in their web site piano sound description) may claim they have three piano velocity samples coming from a "10' 2" Italian Grand Piano," even if that is true, the execution and implementation of that sound along with the velocity tonal changes of that sound is just bad...period. In reality it's done very poorly (difficult to control what's coming out) and you could get much better playing results on a $250 Yamaha keyboard. This is all about expression and good tonal dynamics when you play the piano, and as a beginner you will likely not notice this issue because beginners don't know what to expect or listen for. But if you want to have your music come out like it would on a real piano or a good digital piano, the Allegro 2 is pretty much mostly hype and will definitely not do it because of these limitations...and believe me...I tried to get it to sound good (and I know what I'm doing) and it just did not do it.

5. When playing or transitioning from one key to the next, you are supposed to have the sound characteristics of each key be very similar to the key before it or after it. This will change a bit when going from bass, the mid range keys, and then up to high treble, but if you were only playing in the middle of the keyboard up and down, then the piano sound should be even and sound consistent. This is not the case on the Allegro 2 and only slightly better on the Allegro 2 Plus and in fact it sounds as if you are playing two entirely different pianos when pressing one key and then going to the next. One key may be mellow, the next instantly bright, the next quieter, the next louder, and so on. Inconsistent and unrealistic is the best way to describe this issue but once again, if you are a beginner it is unlikely you will notice this because you won't know what is normal or abnormal when it comes to playing piano. When your piano sound is different and uneven from one note to the next (this does not happen on every note, but it does happen on many) then this will affect your expression, technique, and ultimately will sound unrealistic.

So what do I like about this Williams Allegro 2 digital piano?Well there definitely are some things that I do like including having an easy to use intuitive control panel with one touch buttons, easy editing features, very nice non-piano instrument sounds such as electric pianos, organs, and strings. The regular piano sample itself is OK but not great (sounds a bit plunky when playing staccato style), and not anywhere near in realism as compared to the slightly higher priced Yamaha & Casio portable digital pianos. The control panel buttons are pretty cool looking and work good and the panel has an intuitive LCD display with a blue backlite screen and a control knob. Editing the functions and features is really easy and is done with a press of the function button and turning the control knob to the function you want to edit and then just turning the knob to make the adjustment. It's a much more intelligent system than what either the Yamaha or Casio low priced digital pianos have and I am all for things being easy to use. Also, the Allegro LCD screen is not something which Yamaha or Casio has on their regular low priced portable digital pianos so that's a big plus for this piano. However the surface of the control panel is a large piece of shiny black plastic and although it looks cool, it shows fingerprints, scratches somewhat easily, shows dust, and the black plastic smears like crazy and is not something I would ever want on my piano. A non-smear, no scratch surface would have been much better, but remember, this thing is only $299 so you just put up with all the fingerprints, potential scratches, and smears...right? As I mentioned earlier, I do like the (optional) pedal sustain and decay time for the piano sound, so that is OK for the piano's $299 price. The Allegro 2 also offers the ability to transpose key (up or down in half steps) for singing or playing, layer any two sounds together, split two sounds apart (left hand bass, right hand instrument sound), add reverb (echo), chorus, and special effects to the instrument sounds along with changing the octave of the instrument. The functions include having a separate EQ for the brightness control as well as having rotary speed control (fast/slow) for the B-3 type Jazz & Gospel organ sound. For rhythm and timing training, there is a digital metronome which you can hear and change timing settings into 4/4. 3/4, etc. There is also an easy quick record and playback feature which allows you to quickly and easily record yourself as a 1-track MIDI file and then play it back to see how you did, which is a nice feature.  So as far as features go, the Allegro 2 does a very nice job and it has a sufficient amount to keep you busy.

The Allegro 2 also has a good internal speaker system with enough volume for the average indoor space, but if you need more volume you can connect an external speaker system to the 1/4" audio outputs on the back of the piano. A headphone jack is also provided for private practice and and you can connect a sustain pedal to the piano. The Allegro will work on 6 D cell batteries which is a nice bonus when no electric power is nearby and the piano takes an a/c adapter for electric current but that adapter along with pedal and small (cheap sounding) headphones will cost you an extra $30 bucks whereas some other brands include a free a/c adapter and/or sustain pedal. There's even a USB output jack to connect to external devices like tablets, computers, etc which is pretty handy, although a USB output jack is not unusual these days on digital pianos and keyboards and has become a standard feature where not too many years ago you didn't see a USB jack provided too often. The piano itself weighs almost 30lbs, comes with a black metal music rest, and is not too big, whereas the previous model was much heavier and clunkier. The warranty on this model is only 1 year, but what do you expect for what I consider to be a throw away digital piano...because that's what it really is. But for only $299 you really cannot expect more than what this piano offers, and after having played this model a number of times, in some ways it offers a lot and certainly a big upgrade in these ways over the previous Allegro. However, instead of investing your hard earned money into the Allegro 2, I recommend you save your money or spend a little more now and go up to the new Yamaha P45 portable digital piano ($449 internet discount price), Casio CDP130 portable digital piano ($399 internet discount price), or the brand new Casio PX160 portable digital piano ($499 internet discount price). The deficiencies in this new Allegro 2 that I outlined in this review are, in my opinion, too important overlook. If all you have to spend is $299 plus $30 for the adapter & pedal, plus local tax, then I suppose the Allegro 2 is better than nothing and that's why I "semi-recommend it." It's because it's such a low price. But if instead you look at the brand new higher quality Casio PX160 which is quite impressive and comes with a sustain pedal and a/c adapter at no charge ($499 discount price), once you add the pedal & a/c adapter cost to the Williams and add sales tax for most states in the US, the Allegro price comes up around $350 and for just a bit more you could instead own any of the other portables I mentioned or go up to the Casio PX160. My review of the PX160 is coming soon but I have played it as well as the others so if you want to know more about them or want my advice, don't hesitate to ask me.

At the end of the day it's important to know that a higher quality key action movement along with proper key sensitivity, quality, response, weight, and other aspects of key action along with good piano sound dynamics and tonal realism costs money to produce. You just don't get something for nothing when it comes to those things. All the pretty lights, shiny buttons, cheap black plexiglass plastic, easy to use functions and nice non-piano instrument sounds will never make up for a poor piano playing experience, especially if a piano student is trying to learn to play the right way so they can avoid getting into poor playing habits. If you want a fun keyboard with some cool functions, you can do that for under $200 in a brand new Casio or Yamaha keyboard. But when it comes to piano, and playing it so it will satisfy you or your child and allow you to grow musically in the right way, you can pretend to do it on the Allegro, but you can really do it by spending a bit more money and know that you can keep that piano well into the future instead of just having a short term solution in trying to spend less money. The old saying is still mostly true..."you do get what you pay for:)" If you think the Allegro 2 is the right instrument for you, then buy it. This is, after all, your decision and not mine:). But my recommendation for a playable and dependable portable lower priced digital piano would be to look at the Yamaha P45 ($399US internet price), Casio PX160 ($499US internet price), Casio CDP135 ($399US internet price), or Yamaha P115 ($599US internet price).

Please read this - *As I have stated many times before on my AZPianoNews.com blog, the real reason you will see so many inflated positive "reviews" on certain digital pianos from some other so-called review sites is simply to get you to buy one on Amazon because those people make money (an affiliate commission) when you do that and most of them obviously don't care what they say to get you to buy one. As for Amazon user reviews, here's one I just read on the Allegro 2: "This is the best keyboard I have ever bought! It feels and sounds just like a grand piano. Highly recommended!"Really?...you've got to be kidding!That's like saying a McDonald's hamburger tastes like Prime Rib...not possible:). But fake or extremely naive reviews by unknown people are everywhere. If you believe the Allegro 2 is just like a grand piano or really any acoustic piano then you are dreaming so please don't expect that once your playing abilities grow that this piano can keep up with you and perform at somewhat higher piano playing levels because it will not. You almost always get what you pay for so at $299 selling price you are getting a digital piano worth no more than $299. If you value you hard earned money than do yourself a favor at try to get up to the $400-$500 range and get a better digital piano that you can keep for a lot longer.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

REVIEW COMPARISON - Dexibell VIVO H7 vs H3 Digital Pianos - Recommended - Dexibell is a digital piano and musical instrument company located in Italy and they have been in business for a number of years and are fairly well known in Europe. They produce their piano technology at their local factory and recently started exporting their products here (in the US) but are not known by many people in the US at this point. The Dexibell company produces a number of digital piano/keyboard models under the VIVO name including pro stage portable pianos, home portable digital pianos, and a unique array of home cabinet digital pianos in a variety of very attractive finishes. The models I am reviewing here are called the VIVO H7 & H3 home digital pianos with the H7 model priced higher than the H3 model because of upgraded cabinets, upgraded internal sound system, and upgraded key action. The H7 models sell in retail stores for $3499US for polished finish and $2999US to $3299US for satin finishes which is Dexibell's top-of-the-line home furniture cabinet digital piano. The H7 comes in contemporary cabinets offered in 5 different colors/finishes including polished and satin finishes. The lower priced H3 model which differs from the H7 in terms of cabinet structure, key action, and internal speaker system sells for $2399US-$2699US and comes in four matte (satin) color finishes including a matte black, white, light blue, and pink! Yes...you heard me right...a softpink or skyblue cabinet color along with the silver key-cover accent that are on all the pianos, and they do quite attractive, especially for someone who wants something very different in terms of cabinet color:).

It is important for me to say at the beginning of this review that all of the digital piano companies out there have promotional marketing content on their web sites that would indicate they produce the best digital pianos that you can buy for the money in that price range. The manufacturers list their product specifications and positive attributes that would compete as well or better than the other brands and this is no different with the Dexibell company and I expected as much. I have played the VIVO H7 and H3 many times and closely examined them and although it is nearly impossible at this point for a digital piano shopper in the US to find a VIVO H7 or H3 to try out, I intend to be as detailed on this model as possible in this review so that you can know more about it.

I will be mainly discussing the top of the line H7 model as it has the better upgraded key action and cabinet design and the first thing that is most obvious about this model is this model's unique cabinet design and color finishes. This model's noticeably elegant appearance is low profile and very contemporary to more easily fit in compact spaces while still being the center of attention. This is due to its subtle curved stand, rounded cabinet edges, and two-tone color using either polished or satin cabinet finishes with an attractive silver trimmed front slow-close key cover with rounded curves at the front of the key cover. When the key cover is closed you can even see a a partial view of the keyboard showing through sitting across from the piano. Considering that Dexibell is offering a beautiful white, red, or black finish on the piano with a couple of those colors offered in a more expensive high gloss polished finish, the appearance of the cabinets are different than any other brand or model out there. Digital piano shoppers that I talk with are sometimes looking for cabinets that are different or unique in appearance and these Dexibell pianos certainly would win in that area. Dexibell also offers optional matching benches for their black, white, and red finish pianos including for the polished black and polished white, with benches priced at between $249US to $299US each.

When it comes to replicating the organic sound of a real acoustic piano, the Dexibell company has a digital sound technology they call T2L (aka: True to Life) which is in all models of the VIVO series. The way they describe their T2L technology is as follows: "T2L is how we have called the symbiosis of the innovations developed to enhance the timbre veracity and the reactivity of the sound to multiple articulations of the pianist." OK, that sounds really impressive but a lot of people may not understand what that means and in a way I don't either:). But if you try to extrapolate a meaning out of that statement then what they are likely saying is that their piano is awesome! But the reality of it all is...how does this piano actually play and sound? What is it really like up close and personal when playing it and listening to the sound through it's internal speaker system. Does it feel real like an acoustic piano, does it sound real like an acoustic piano...or does it not? That's really the questions to ask and not be concerned with any company's descriptive language they use to try to convince you otherwise. I have seen that all too often with other brands and their bark is much, much bigger than their bite:). I did want to love this digital piano because it looks cool, the internal speaker system specs give you the impression it will sound great, and based on the descriptive rhetoric the Dexibell provides on this model, it seemed like it could be a great instrument to play. It has some fairly nice grand piano sound samples in it, a good solid key action, nice pedaling, and some impressive usable digital functions.

The first thing that anyone needs to do when wanting to play these VIVO pianos is you have to power it up like you do on all digital pianos, so you press the on button and wait for it to be ready. However, you don't just wait for a few seconds until the piano is fully powered up to play like you do on most digital pianos, but instead it takes 42 seconds for this baby to fully power up until you can get any sound out of it. I understand this piano has some good electronics in it that are quite powerful and maybe beyond what many other digital pianos offer, but we're not talking about a cell phone here...we're talking about a digital piano and when you want to play, then normally a person (like me) is not in the mood to wait that long to get going. If you want to power down and turn off this piano then when you press the on/off button to do that and then the user display screen asks you if you want to turn it off and when you press the button that says "yes," it still takes 9 seconds before the piano actually powers down. So the whole power up and power down process takes much too long as far as I am concerned and I have not encountered that before in a home digital piano. Maybe that's what having some of the more advanced technology in these pianos requires, but for me this long power up process is a  negative thing because when I am in the mood to play then I want to play now and not have to wait for my piano to be able to accommodate me later. Also, if you want to shut off the piano and maybe play it again soon after, you have to go through the power up process all over again.

Once you get this piano powered up then you want to play. It defaults to the VIVO grand piano sound. There are three different acoustic piano sounds with two of them in full stereo and one of them in what appears to be a condensed or smaller stereo sound field with the piano sound mainly coming through in the middle of the sound field. Each acoustic piano sound is recorded (sampled) from a real acoustic grand piano and then a technology called physical modeling is used in the piano sounds to enhance their realism. So basically the Dexibell company is using the two most prominent digital sound technologies these days to create their piano sound which allows for unlimited polyphony along with no discernible short or long sample loops when playing the piano sounds and using lots of sustain. This simply means the piano tones sound more authentic and less digital or fake than many other digital pianos out there. Of the three acoustic piano sounds offered on the H7 I really like the two full stereo sounds because you get the sense of the sound moving from one end of the sound field to the other (right to left/left to right) when playing the keys. The H7/H3 has a touch sensitivity editing control to allow the piano sound to come in more quickly when striking a key or a bit more slowly when playing. If you like to press on the keys hard then having the touch curve on normal to heavy is the better way to go but if you have a lighter finger touch on the keys then you need to set the touch sensitivity curve to light or lighter.

Part of playing a a real acoustic piano is being able to get tonal expression out of your music which is also known as dynamic tonal range. Normally this is done by simply playing the keys with less or more force from the fingers and then the sound will respond by not only being louder and softer, but also along with the piano sound being more mellow and progressing until the piano sound is very bright and more metallic with strings vibrating at faster levels as you play the keys harder. This is the way pianos should work and you should not have to plays the keys too hard to hear these changes. However on the H7/H3 piano the touch sensitivity control defaults to normal which is where it should be on most digital pianos, but in my opinion this setting on the H7/H3 makes a person have to play much too hard to get natural tonal changes and expression out of the piano sounds. The remedy for this is to change the touch setting to light or extra light and then it greatly improves that experience and will give you more natural expression without having to bang hard on the keys.

Speaking of piano sound, one thing I noticed when playing the two main stereo acoustic piano sounds, especially when playing with headphones, is that in the first octave on the D, Eb, and E notes that when playing at a soft to medium touch using some sustain pedal or holding the key down for a couple of seconds or more, the piano sound has a noticeable growling tone that is heard overpowering the actual piano sound. These anomalies are heard through both the internal speakers and using stereo headphones but is even more apparent using headphones. I don't know what Dexibell did when sampling and creating these specific bass notes but I did not hear it on other notes or on the mono piano sound in the H7/H3. As far as I can tell there is no way to edit out this unusual growl  so it may be inherent in the VIVO piano sound software and unchangeable, at least right now. This is an issue I was definitely not expecting and although I have heard other piano sound anomalies in other brands and models of digital pianos, I certainly wasn't expecting to hear this particular one in this new model. Dexibell should have caught this one but it only happens on these few notes and only when playing the keys at somewhat lower velocities. With regard to the other acoustic piano sound which is called "Romantic," this particular piano sample does have near as much dynamic tonal range as the other two piano sounds and the sound is more compressed. Also the "Romantic"piano sound has obvious velocity switching of two piano tones as you play the keys softer and harder when using this sound. In other words the tonal transition from mellow to bright is more choppy which just makes it seem more unnatural to play. I don't think many people will notice this but since I play real acoustic pianos at higher skill levels and know what they are supposed to sound like, I did notice it and was not impressed by that limitation.

Another thing about the piano sound that I noticed on these models and something that I never talk about in my digital piano reviews of other pianos, are the lower bass notes and specific individual sustain/decay time on those notes when dampers are used. For those of you who don't know about this subject and that would likely be more than 90% of everyone shopping for a digital piano, it is the fact that inside a real piano are felt dampers and when you play most keys on the piano the damper is lifted off the string so the string can vibrate and make a sound and then when you let go of the key the felt damper drops back down to the string and mutes it so that it cannot make a sound until you play that key again. That's the physics or nature of the piano. If you play a key fast and repeat that note up & down without holding down a sustain pedal then you are playing short notes (staccato) and the dampers are moving very quickly to mute each note when the key goes back down. Each string in an acoustic (regular) piano has a different thickness for different tonal frequencies and the low bass notes have the thickest brass wound strings. When the damper inside the piano is released from the thickest strings when the key is being played, and then goes back down on the string to mute the sound, the bass notes have a delayed amount of time of about 2 seconds each before that string is completely muted, whereas the higher brass and steel strings are muted immediately when the dampers return to the strings because those strings are not very thick. The delay in the bass note being muted is due to the fact that the bass strings are so thick and vibrate so much that a felt damper cannot immediately stop the vibration when it goes back down on it so you get this small delay on the bass note sound from stopping. This very unique detail in actual acoustic piano behavior is present in the VIVO H&/H3 pianos due to the advanced digital piano technology being used in these models. So while most people who buy pianos would never know this or be concerned at all that the piano could do this, the fact is that the VIVO can do this and they do it well and that aspect of bass note sound just makes the music you play on these models that much more authentic and adds to the realism of the song being played.

Now it's time to talk about the non-acoustic piano instrument sounds which total about 75 different sounds, most of them including the organs, strings, orchestral, electric pianos, synths, bells, percussive tones, choirs, etc are excellent in producing a big, bold, realistic sound...especially the strings, orchestra, organs, and harpsichords, and there are a big variety of them more so than what most other digital pianos offer. For people who love more traditional classical piano, baroque, or organ music or institutions like churches who love the sound of strings, choirs, and organs, along with piano then the VIVO pianos definitely excel in this area are and are more advanced in tonal realism and stereo imaging for these instrument tones than are Roland, Yamaha, Casio, etc in my opinion. These sounds are rich in tone, beautiful if rendition, and make the music really come alive especially when layering them with an acoustic piano sound in the H7/H3. When switching from one sound to the next in real time (such as piano > strings, harpsichord > organ), or when layering (aka: coupled) or un-layering 2 sounds together, the transition to the next instrument sound from the first one is absolutely seamless while playing and there are no breaks or drop-outs of sound at all. This takes a much more sophisticated digital sound technology to allow this to happen which many digital pianos do not have, and it really pays off when you are in a live, real time performance setting (or just at home) and you want to change sounds occasionally as you play your song. There are some other higher priced pianos name brand out there than cannot do this type of thing at all or very well. Also these instrument tones are editable such as being able to electronically change octave up or down of that sound when playing solo or mixing with a piano,harpsichord, organ, or other sounds. The tones have excellent sustain qualities and damper pedal holds sustain if you want it to do that. The tones are very expressive and realistic although a few need some help such as the guitars and a few of the other tones, but overall these instrument sounds are a big highlight of these pianos and I enjoyed playing and hearing them very much. They are also fairly easy to use with the control panel once you understand the layering and/or split controls. There is also a "favorites" function which can be stored as internal memory and this allows you to select sounds from the piano and put them in a "favorites" list so you can instantly recall these sounds in your internal memory sound library rather than scroll through all the preset sounds to find what you want. So that is a pretty cool feature.

OK, now on to the key action. The VIVO H7 has a 3-sensor ivory feel key action (synthetic ivory material on the white keys) that does produce some nice key movement when playing a variety of music. However, the H7 key action does have firm keys to press down and this could be a restriction for some people who want a physically lighter key touch because they have smaller children who don't have good finger/hand muscles or perhaps as an adult you also prefer something not as heavy. For some people this type of key action can be more challenging to play for longer periods of time due to finger and/or hand fatigue that may occur and there is no way to adjust the physical nature of this key action. I personally enjoy playing a slightly lighter, less firm key action but can also play this H7 key action with no issues because my hand and finger muscle strength are to the point where I can handle it. Also, the white keys are a bit noisy when coming back up after being pressed down, and in this price range I would have thought the key action would have been somewhat quieter in this way, although the black keys were actually quieter than the white keys. Key action noise is not generally noticeable when you are playing the piano at higher volume because the louder volumes drown out any noise from the keys that might otherwise be heard, but when playing at a low volume or using headphones then any key action noise becomes more apparent such as on this key. I will say that I have heard even noisier key actions in some other brands and models so this is not necessarily unusual but for this higher quality brand and in this higher price range the key action noise should have been reduced if possible.

The VIVO piano key actions in the H7/H3 do not have the "escapement or letoff" feature that other digital pianos in this price range have such as Roland, Yamaha, or Kawai which try to simulate the feel or response of an acoustic grand piano when the keys are played very slowly and you feel a slight hesitation or notch in the movement when playing. This would be a good feature to have but it's not really critical because even on digital pianos which have this function, it's still a simulation at best and not something that comes close to the real thing. It's also not something that you would be able to feel in real upright acoustic pianos because most don't produce that kind of "feel" and people who have regular acoustic pianos have upright style acoustic pianos in their homes as opposed to grand pianos so escapement/letoff is something most people with acoustic pianos would never have anyway.

The pedaling on any piano for all three pedals, especially in this price range, needs to be accurate and responsive for people who may be playing at a higher skill level. The right side sustain damper pedal should have the half-damper pedal feature which allows for a variable amount of sustain depending what position the pedal is located in when you press down or release the pedal at different points. Also there is something called damper resonance and pedal decay time for the piano sound. Damper resonance is the organic sound you hear when the the dampers in a real piano are released from the strings when pressing the sustain pedal down and you would hear natural vibrations in the piano when the pedal is used. Decay time is how long it takes for the piano sound to fade away when playing a note and holding down the sustain pedal or playing and holding down a key until you hear the piano sound totally disappear. The VIVO pianos do have adequate damper resonance and it does sound good and adds to the realism of piano playing. However, the damper/sustain decay time is on the short end (small duration and volume) of realism in my opinion and the piano sound fades out  a bit too fast in the middle and upper octaves as compared to a real upright or grand piano. It does fine in the lower octave notes but the middle and upper notes the damper sustain time needs be improved just a bit but overall for most people it will be good enough because they will likely not notice it because you would need to be at a much higher piano playing skill level to discern the difference and to have it affect you in any negative way. I have heard shorter piano decay times on other brands and models of digital pianos so these are not the only ones, but nevertheless, it could be a bit better particularly in this price range. All three pedal function like a real acoustic piano although the pedals are physically a bit noisy when they go up & down, but real acoustic piano pedals can be somewhat noisy as well. The spacing between the pedals is a bit smaller than I would like it to be with about 1.5" of spacing between the pedals as opposed to 2" of spacing between the pedals on most other brands and models of top digital pianos. This may be important for some people who are not in a more precise sitting and leg position when they are using the pedals but for other people it may not be an issue at all. That spacing issue is something I am sure the Dexibell company could easily improve upon in future models down the road. I am a bit picky when it comes to these things so that's why I mention it:).

The VIVO home piano series has an LCD display screen and buttons under that screen off to the left side of the keyboard which has become common lately among many digital piano brands in this price range including Yamaha, Casio, Kawai, and a few others. Having all the controls off to the left side does give the pianos a more minimalistic appearance and a lot of people like that. However the material surrounding the display screen along with the material surrounding the buttons below the screen is a thin shiny black plastic that blends in with the piano, which is nice. However that shiny black plastic can collect and show fingerprints and scratches when using that control panel pressing buttons along with showing dust because that black plastic material is reflective. I would have much preferred a matte black non-glare finish or material on that panel instead of what Dexibell has chosen to use and a matte black material (such as what Yamaha & Kawai are using on their digital pianos) would have been a better choice, although the shiny black is a nice color. The buttons below the display screen are easy to press and are light gray, dark gray, and black colored buttons which is fine but the black buttons are difficult to see because they blend right in with the black plastic on the control panel. Those black buttons should have been a different easier to see color such as white, yellow,  or red, etc. The buttons are what allows you to access all the functions and features in these pianos and although some of the buttons on the control panel are fairly obvious as to what they do, overall they are not very intuitive. Most digital pianos can layer of split two different instrument sounds in the piano so that you can get some nice instrument combinations and quickly accessing the layer and split mode is important as far as I am concerned. With the H7/H3 pianos there are no labels on the control panel that actually says layer or split but instead there are very small pictures of 2 keyboards at the lower left side of the control panel that are supposed to indicate the layer, split, and piano duet functions. The same is true with the transpose button function where there they don't use the word transpose but instead have a flat & sharp sign.

Another area on the control panel that can be somewhat confusing to use are the functions called Menu, Settings, and Edit. They all do different things and control different important aspects of the piano but it can get a bit confusing as to what button to push for the function or feature you might be looking for. You might want to control volume of the layered or split sounds, or maybe control electronic touch sensitivity for the key action, or perhaps change split point on the keys for your split mode or change the octave for one or two of the sounds in a layered sound or split. So what you really must do is read the owners manual to help you understand where functions & features are located among the control panel buttons so you can bring them up on the LCD display screen and then be able to control and change them properly. One of the more frustrating parts of using a couple of digital functions that I personally like to use on digital pianos is the way the H7/H3 handles the reverb/echo effects and the digital transpose key that you are wanting to play in. On the most digital pianos that have reverb effects or transpose feature is the ability to simply turn those functions on and off in a simple way. In other words once you set the type and amount of reverb you want on an instrument or piano sound (which adds to the realism of that sound) and also the transposed key you want to play in just in case you need to have the song come out in a different key from the one you are playing in, then you can just turn the feature on or off whenever you want to from a button on the panel. However in the VIVO pianos you cannot do that. You have to go through a very unintuitive and somewhat lengthy process to undo the settings to put those features back to zero (or normal) what you originally set up. So instead of just using a simple on/off control, you need to mess up what you have done just to shut it off or turn them on to where you had them. Worse yet, when it comes to the reverb controls that show up in the display screen, they are so confusing that the average person would have no idea of how to actually use this feature at first glance let alone make it sound good. Even the owners manual doesn't help out to make it any easier. On the upside, if you do figure these things out, which you can do but it does take some practice (I have done it), then they work well producing really nice reverb/echo in the piano which makes the whole thing sound more authentic and then reverb does what it is supposed to do...it's just getting there that is a somewhat of an issue (aka: pain in the butt:).

Another special effects feature of the VIVO pianos is the additional special effects beyond just adding reverb. The additional special effects are the popular Phaser, Chorus, Flanger, Vibrato, EQ, Delay, Rotary, Tremolo, among others. These effects are used by people to add a special realism to certain instrument sounds for better authenticity reproduction of those instruments along with being able to create brand new sound environments that change the preset instrument sounds in ways that make them entirely different. Many digital pianos have special effects features built into them but most special effects in most digital pianos are just OK and sometimes not very good at all. As an example, the vintage electric piano and organ sounds in the VIVO pianos that many professionals use along with people who just play recreationally and enjoy those sounds include the famous Fender Rhodes electric pianos, Wurlitzer electric pianos, Yamaha electric pianos including DX7, Hammond organ tones including the famous C3, B3, and others, along with vintage pipe organ tones. These vintage tones are generally difficult to reproduce in these new home digital pianos and you generally need a pro stage keyboard to do it. But on the new H7 and H7 these special effects are so powerful and so good that you can create the exact vintage sound reproductions that those older and popular pianos and organs had. There are so many ways to edit and control these special effects so that they apply to the builtin instrument sounds that there are literally hundreds of possibilities. However, once again these effects are not necessarily intuitive to use, especially for the novice player or inexperienced keyboard user. But once you get the hang of using these things then you will realize just how powerful they are and how good they make everything sound. In fact when you change from one sound effect on an instrument and go to another sound effect on a different instrument there is no lag time and no breaks in transition from one sound to the next. In other words the effects are so sophisticated and work so well that they rival even the best effects systems in pro digital stage pianos. Once you added these effects to the instrument sounds that you like, then you can save these new setups into the piano memory for instant recall later on so you don't have to start all over again with creating that special sound that you like. For those of you who don't care to get that deep into these kind of things then that's OK because you don't have to...but it's nice to know that these controls are there if you want to do it later on or you are using instrument sounds that would sound more authentic if you had them. I can say that after using the effects on a number of instrument sounds that I was very impressed with the results.

The VIVO home pianos also have a USB wav file recording and playback feature which allows the player to record their song using single tones, layered tones (aka: coupled tones), or split tones and then be able to save that song on a USB flash drive for storage and playback later on. This is a very nice feature to function to have and works well. Also while the recorded song is playing back through the piano speaker system you can playalong with it playing any notes on the keyboard and choosing any instrument/piano sound on the piano. So it's like having two people play at the same time only the player has full control. You can also change the playback volume of the recorded songs while they are playing back so that if you want to play along live with the song then you can easily balance the playback volume with the live volume. Along with the recording feature which is a great way for piano students to hear themselves and what they really sound like (that can be scary sometimes) these models also have adjustable built-in metronome to help with rhythm and timing which is also great for piano students of anyone trying to learn a new song. The metronome is easy to use and adjust but turning it off is not intuitive and can be a bit confusing because there is instant on/off feature just like with the reverb and transpose buttons. All Dexibell would have to do is update their software to include direct button access to on or off for those specific buttons. Not sure if those Italian people understand that "simpler is better." They certainly understand how to produce a great sounding piano but they need to produce easy to use pianos when it comes to some of these various features I mentioned so maybe they can upgrade this but we'll have to see what happens. In the meantime it all works once you get the hang of the process to do it.

When it comes to playing a piano one of the things many digital pianos lack is a high quality internal speaker system. A regular acoustic piano sound is generated by the strings and then the wood soundboard amplifies those strings and the sound is big, bold, and resonates in a organic natural way. If you have a good upright or grand piano then you hear full tone with great frequency response, especially in the bass section. When playing digital pianos, many of them can sound "tinny" and somewhat fake because of the speaker system not being able to amplify and put out the sound in an effective, natural way whether playing a loud volume or softer volume. The VIVO H3 internal speaker is certainly adequate and within its price range it does keep up with its competition in that it offers 70 watts of power (which is a bit more than some of the other brands in this price range) going into 4 speakers (2 woofers/2 tweeters). The H7, however, is where the sounds in this piano really come to life because of its noticeably upgraded internal speaker system with 112 watts of power going into 5 speakers which includes 2 woofers, 2 near-field tweeters, and one very large sub-woofer with both of the woofer speakers and sub-woofer housed in a separate acoustic box chamber that sits just under the piano keyboard with those speakers slightly angled toward the player. This speaker/amplifier configuration with the tweeter speakers projecting upward behind the keyboard and towards the player gives the piano a clear, powerful, and natural sound system that makes the VIVO H7 sound big, full, and resonant (like a big grand piano) with great bass response, unlike many other compact digital pianos in this price range. In fact, the dB sound pressure maximum (volume) level on the H7 is 113.6 dB as opposed to a much higher priced top-of-the-line $7000 Roland LX17 digital piano which has a maximum dB sound pressure of 112dB. This makes this Dexibell H7 more powerful than the much more expensive Roland digital piano which is surprising but true. So with regard to the VIVO "H" models this H7 is definitely the way to go because of the much more  impressive internal stereo sound system, especially if you want your piano to sound great.

The H7 & H3 have pretty much all the connectivity that someone would want in a digital piano including stereo audio outputs, stereo audio input, USB to external device, USB flash drive input, 2 stereo headphone jacks, and Bluetooth audio streaming. The USB output jack allows you to connect with external devices such as iPads, computers, etc so that you can utilize external technology for a more fun interactive experience, especially given all the very cool available music/piano related apps out there. The USB flashdrive input can save audio wav file song recordings to build a library of your practice songs as well as let you load them back into the piano for later use. That's a great way to practice your songs and hear them playback later on. The Bluetooth audio streaming feature is easy to use and set up in the pianos and allows the digital piano internal speaker system to be used as your personal home stereo audio system so you can run external Bluetooth devices through it to play MP3/iTune files from your iPhone, iPad, etc or from any bluetooth music device. I have played my own personal iTune files through these pianos and with the H7 those songs sounded incredible with clear tone and big resonant bass response, and the maximum wireless Bluetooth range was very impressive as well. Most people I know do not have a home speaker system as nice as what is in the H7 with that speaker box and sub-woofer system so having access to the H7 speaker system through Bluetooth audio or even regular stereo audio input jack is pretty cool. The H3 speaker system is good and for many people will be impressive by that one as well, but it comes nowhere near the higher quality sound coming through the H7 speaker system.

To sum it all up, even though the Dexibell VIVO H3 and H7 pianos have some quirks to them and things I would like to see improved as soon as possible (but that's true of a few other new digital piano brands as well), overall for the price, assuming you like the look of the cabinet designs and colors, I do like them very much. The piano sound authenticity and the speaker system, especially on the H7, combined with solid key action and pedaling, are impressive, although as I previously mentioned they do have a few shortcomings, but nobody is perfect. When you put it all together, for a piano company like Dexibell who is not yet known in the US by the average piano shopper, they have two very nice products in the VIVO H3 and H7 that I believe need to be seriously considered when shopping for a new digital piano in the approximate $2500-$4000 price range especially as compared to other attractive, compact digital pianos such as the current model Roland DP603. The compact cabinet designs in the VIVO models are really beautiful in person and can add some contemporary elegance to any room that you won't find in any other digital piano I know of, especially in the polished black, white, and red cabinets of the H7. The H3 is unusual because it comes in some unique custom colors as I mentioned before including satin pink and satin light blue. Beyond those colors the Dexibell company offers "special order" colors that can be made one at a time in their factory in Italy but there is a premium price for those finishes although it may be worth it to you if you want that color bad enough:).

I do want to point out one glaring, and in a way...funny negative issue with these two pianos...and that is...the owners manual. Owners manuals produced by the manufacturer for US buyers are usually well thought out, make sense, and have the features and functions explained in a reasonable sequential order. This is not the case with the H7/H3 owners manual. Some of the feature/function explanations are confusing, are not in sequential order and the grammar used in the explanations is bad along with poor spelling of words in sentences. I would bet big dollars that the reason for this disappointing owners manual is because it was written in Italy by Italians who don't understand the English language, cannot spell correctly and use proper grammar that makes sense for Dexibell piano owners to understand. If Dexibell really wants to sell pianos in the US digital piano market they definitely need to be able to explain how their pianos work, especially because some of the features and functions on the piano, as I mentioned earlier, are not intuitive to use.  This is an easy problem to fix in that Dexibell can come out with a new revised manual as well as an instructional video (written/recorded by someone who is well versed in the English language) so the user/player can know how to operate all the features, what they are for and how they work.

Finally, I believe it is important for piano shoppers know that these pianos do not have things like multi-track recording, General MIDI file playback, drum rhythm patterns, hundreds of instrument sounds, and other extra "bells & whistles" that some buyers may not want or need. What they do have are the "bread & butter" features that shoppers look for when wanting a new digital piano and those features focus on the piano playing experience along with some very high quality instrument sounds that can be played individually or simultaneously with the piano sounds to make the musical playing & listening experience very authentic, expressive, and inspiring. By the way, if you did want or need more instrument sounds, drum rhythms, or other extras, you can get that by connecting an iPad to these pianos (as I mentioned earlier) and downloading some very cool apps that will allow you to do all of that and it works very well and I have done it myself in my music studio. So if  this is what you are looking for in a new digital piano and it's within your budget, then you likely have come to the right place with the new Dexibell VIVO H3 and H7 pianos and I recommend them as a very good value for what you would be getting.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

*Quote below and Article from Music Author, Piano-Guitar-Organ-Synth Teacher, Song Writer, Pro Musician, and Digital Piano Consultant to famous piano brands…Mr. Tim Praskins.

“Make sure your young children learn a 2nd language in 2018. No, not Spanish, not Japanese, not French, it's not any of those...it's the language of MUSIC. If your child learns to read it, write it, and/or play it, they will have a life that opens up doors to a world of incredible experiences which will last a lifetime. Good MUSIC will also enable their minds to grow and develop in ways like few other things can. MUSIC...it's a language that will change their world. Don't let your kids miss out..."

1. It is well known that a baby in the womb can hear sounds before birth whether they be voices from the parents, siblings, but especially music. Those sounds have a profound impact on the baby’s nervous system and hearing. If the sounds the baby is hearing are soothing and relaxing then the baby’s brain and physical functions will develop in a way that will allow the brain to respond to outside stimulus in a more positive and productive way. Good music, especially classical music has been shown by experts to help the brains of babies in the womb become smarter, more responsive, and react more calmly to stressful situations during the Mother’s pregnancy.

2. After the baby is born and begins to grow, the stimulus of good music that is rich and complex in nature will continue to help the brain and physiological systems in the baby’s body to form in a strong, positive way that will also allow the baby’s behavior to develop so that the baby is better equipped to handle the busy world around them. A baby’s senses are developing throughout their early stages of life so they will learn to be more sensitive to hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling, and tasting objects around them. Music is all about hearing and hearing music triggers physical and mental reactions that can either be good or bad. Having the wrong type of music being heard by a baby can cause the baby to be nervous, afraid of things, depressed, and can make them lose their appetite for eating and also cause them to lose sleep. Their health can be negatively affected by bad music and loud music, so not all music is good for a baby.

3. As a baby grows up and becomes a child who can walk & talk and go to school, good music can help the child become smarter with academics and give them the ability to better handle and understand school work, mathematics, science, comprehension, and other things that music can influence in a child’s life.  There are many types of musical instruments that can have a positive effect on a human being depending on if they hear them or play them, and not all instruments produce good results in a person when it comes to their mental or physical health. Classical music is most recognized when played on a piano, harp, classical guitar, violin, or harpsichord and some of the greatest composers in the world and especially in Europe played those instruments and wrote their music using those instruments. Today one of the ways people are generating new music to increase the health benefits of people around the world is by using digital pianos to play and record their music. This is because digital pianos are easier to record than acoustic instruments so that the music can be heard and reproduced more easily and the actual musical notes can be instantly generated on a computer as sheet music from playing a digital piano and that sheet music will then allow other people to read the same music and play the same song and this is a great thing for children to have access to.

4. For a child, learning to play music on a musical instrument, regardless of whether it’s a piano, violin, etc, and actively participating that way has an even deeper impact on human biology and physiology. This is because the body and mind are engaging together in the learning & playing of music and when the person involved in this activity learns to play music so that the song actually sounds good, then that person experiences a rush of pleasure and satisfaction that will have a profound impact on the soul of that person. In other words, the health of that person who is experiencing 1st hand the pleasure of playing music has been shown by mental health experts to increase a person’s resistance to sickness of the body and mind along with stimulating the body’s brain neurons to work at a higher level. Listening to good music on a regular basis does similar things to the body but playing music on a musical instrument takes it even further to another level. Over the centuries in various parts of the world, men and women who actively and regularly participate in music that means a lot to them can live a longer, healthier life with less disease and sickness. It is true that people can still become unhealthy from other unexpected attacks on or in the body due to unavoidable health issues, but overall men and women, boys and girls can live healthier lives because music will impact their mind and body to help regulate and reduce their stress levels and increase their ability to resist attacks of germs.

5. Finally, listening, singing, dancing, and playing music while very young and continuing it for a lifetime will make people healthier in many ways. It is important that parents of younger children do whatever they can to give their children an opportunity to get actively involved in music, especially with learning to play a musical instrument which will increase their mental, physical, and spiritual health for their entire life and allow them to develop to their full potential and beyond because you have given them one of the most important treasures they can have in their life…MUSIC.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

REVIEW - Kawai KDP110 digital piano 2018 model - Recommended - The Kawai piano company has been producing high quality acoustic & digital pianos for many decades and is well known throughout the world by professionals, teachers, and musicians as a leader in digital piano technology. So it should come as no surprise that Kawai has really "upped its game" with their newly introduced KDP110 home digital piano at just $1199US internet discount price which now takes the place of the previous KDP90. What makes this piano really stand out among the crowd of popular competitors is the fact that it is Kawai's only traditional furniture cabinet digital under $1800 whereas the other top digital piano manufacturers such as Yamaha, Roland, and Casio have a number of furniture cabinet models selling for under $1800 all the way down to $700. So if you are only going to offer one model that gets near the $1000US price range then it better be good...right? Well, as far as I am concerned after having played this new model many times, Kawai has really broken through and it could easily be argued that this new model is better than anything else out there in its price range.

*If after reading this review you are interested in purchasing a new Kawai KDP110 then please contact me to find out how to get a special introductory price while in the US while they last.

The primary things shoppers are looking for when wanting to purchase a new digital piano is realistic, responsive piano weighted key action, expressive, organic acoustic piano tone with a smooth,wide dynamic tonal range, and last but not least...responsive pedaling with long, bold piano sustain decay times. Also, to enhance these things it is necessary to send all that great sound through a competent internal speaker system which can bring out a good bass response so the sound is not tinny, but big and bold with a rich sound coming through. All of the other things a digital piano can do such as offering other instrument sounds, drum patterns, recording, layering, USB connectivity, etc are secondary although they can be useful and fun to have and the KDP110 definitely has many other useful functions and features to offer.

First, it is important to talk about key action which is by far the most important thing you should be concerned about when shopping for a digital piano. Key action includes how the keys move individually or together, the weight of each key, the amount of pressure it takes for the fingers to press the keys down, the amount of time and pressure the keys exhibit in coming back up, the way the keys interact with the piano sound and if the key action under each key has proper electronics under the keys (called key sensors) to allow the piano to have smooth transition in volume when playing lightly or quietly and then when playing harder with more expression and how the piano sound volume and tonal dynamics come out as you are playing. Also many key actions exhibit a lot of noise (much more than normal) when the keys are being played, both when the keys go down and when they come back up, and many off-brands of digital pianos behave badly in this way and produce loud and distracting key movement noise along with terrible volume and tonal response. Unfortunately that is one are that the shopper cannot see...inside the key action where it all happens. Also, if you do not play piano at all or do not play fairly well, you are likely not going to know what is good and what is bad when it comes to the all important key action and the way it is supposed to work. If you get a digital piano with a poor quality key action it will absolutely stunt the growth of any piano student no matter what their age and that is something you want to avoid at all costs.

In its price range the Kawai KDP110 key action called RHC2 is very good and excels in just about every way for a digital piano in this price range and I was extremely impressed. It has just the right balance of graded weighted keys with key movement from low to high octaves being not too firm and not too light...just right, kind of like the Goldilocks story:)...and overall a quieter moving key action as compared to the competition including Yamaha, Casio, and Roland. Also the weight and movement of both the black and white keys were good which is not necessarily the case with other manufacturers, especially when it comes to the black keys. Beyond the physical nature of the piano key action are the electronic key sensors under each key. In the past Kawai had a 2-sensor key action which has 2 electronic sensors under each key. This is fine for beginners through intermediate players but if you are a bit more advanced in your piano playing skills then having 3 key sensors under each key will also better key repetition response when playing faster and more quickly on the keys, especially when the keys are being pressed down before they come all the way back up again. There are only two things this key action does not have that a couple other brands do such as Casio & Roland and that is synthetic ivory & ebony keytops and/or the escapement feature. Synthetic ivory and ebony is being used to try to replicate the key feel (the tops of the keys) that old acoustic pianos used to have decades ago. The escapement feature is a hesitation or "notch" that you would feel as you press the key down very slowly on a grand piano. However the escapement feature on a digital piano is at best a very limited imitation of the real thing and in reality does not actually simulate it. The KDP110 does not have the synthetic ivory & ebony but neither do real acoustic pianos these days. The KDP110 keytops simulate what real new acoustic upright & grand piano keys feel like that are being made today. Since Kawai builds and is famous for their acoustic upright and grand pianos then they know what they're doing in producing high quality piano keys. So as far as I am concerned Kawai has done a great job with offering a very satisfying piano key action in their new KDP110, especially in this price range.

The next most important thing when shopping for a good digital piano is to pay attention to the piano sound authenticity. For people who do not play piano or have little experience with the actual piano sound of good acoustic pianos then knowing what constitutes a good piano sound can be a daunting task. How do you know if one piano sound is more realistic than other and does it really matter? The answer is that it doesn't matter so much in the beginning if you don't know how to play piano yet. But as you grow in your piano playing skills then having a more authentic and expressive piano sound in your digital piano will matter quite a bit because unless your piano is capable of reproducing a large amount of smooth tonal expression and volume, you will not be able to properly reproduce the music your are trying to play and your piano can and will stunt your "musical growth." So just because the instrument looks like a piano does not mean the piano sound and expression will be any good, particularly in the off-name, lower quality brands like Artesia, Kurzweil, Suzuki, Williams, etc. In fact in some of these cheaper brands the tonal dynamics and volume when playing the key action is so choppy and compressed that it will hurt any piano student trying to improve in their piano playing skills and abilities. So you need to be very careful in what you finally decide to buy.

With all this in mind I can tell you from 1st hand experience that the new Kawai KDP110 has a very impressive acoustic piano sound reproductions coming from Kawai acoustic grand pianos and these piano sounds off impressive dynamic tonal range (mellow to bright and everywhere in-between) depending on how hard you play on the keys along with smooth volume transitions from very soft to very loud and also everywhere in-between. The piano tones are actual samples/recordings from real Kawai acoustic grand pianos including concert quality, mellow, bright, jazz, pop and and a variety of other choices. With 192 notes of polyphony power there is plenty of room in the piano memory samples to play complex pieces of music and be able to have a very satisfying result. One of the reasons the piano tones come across so realistically is because Kawai samples all 88-notes individually instead of in groups. In other words some piano companies sample one note and then electronically stretch that note up to the next note and the next note and so on. So basically the notes are "tuned up" to the next note rather than the next note be individually sampled and recorded from the real grand piano. Since Kawai does individual note sampling then the piano sound characteristics on each key are noticeably more realistic when transitioning from one note to the next. When you do the same thing in playing one note to the next on a cheaper quality digital piano like the ones I mentioned above, it's like you are hearing different pianos on each note/key. One key is more mellow then the next key is very bright and then one note may be louder and then next note be softer in volume. This kind of thing really inhibits musical growth, creates bad playing habits, and overall the music just sounds "fake" and not pleasing at all. Unfortunately many shoppers don't understand what to look for when it comes to piano along with key action the key actions to express those sounds. So they buy something because they think they are getting a "good deal" and instead what they wind up with what I call a"PSO" (aka: a piano shaped object). Please...do not get a piano shaped object but spend your hard earned money on something good, something that will be as much like a piano as you can afford to pay, otherwise you will regret it especially if this piano is for a student (you, an adult relative, or child) or you already play piano and you want a new digital piano that will allow you to have good musical growth which in my opinion this KDP110 will do very well within its price range.

The three pedals attached to the front bottom of the piano are important, especially the right damper/sustain pedal. Without using the right pedal most songs can sound choppy and much less beautiful. However when a beginner student is learning to play then the right pedal is not important until many months have passed by where that beginner student is ready to use the pedal and learn proper pedaling technique. The other two pedals include the center pedal known as sostenuto pedal which sustains only specific notes and the left pedal is known as the soft pedal which softens the volume on all notes simultaneously whenever the song calls for it. The damper sustain pedal is used almost all the time while the soft pedal is used seldom by beginner to intermediate players and the sostenuto pedal is rarely used by anyone these days...it has almost become a decoration rather than a useful function...although in some classical pieces for some players, it is useful. But it's really all about the right damper/sustain pedal and Kawai does a very good job reproducing that pedal experience with a "grand feel" pedal system which tries to simulate the actual feel of the pedal when pressing down on it and which also offers half-damper pedaling. Half damper means that when you press the pedal down there is a variety of sustain times or amounts of sustain that you get depending on how far down you press the pedal. This function is absolutely necessary for realistic piano sound and without the half-damper feature the piano sound would be more like a keyboard because most keyboards don't have half-damper piano pedaling...the pedal just is on or off with no variation of sustain which makes it more choppy sounding. So when it comes to pedaling Kawai has what anyone would need in this price range to have a very good pedaling experience.

When it comes to the non-acoustic piano sounds and functions in the KDP110 there are many and they are all quite good. There are realistic instrument tones including electric pianos, organs, choirs, harpsichord, strings, etc and you can layer (combine) any two sounds together such as strings and grand piano or harpsichord and choir just to name a few. You can also digitally transpose the key you are in and play the song in any key which can be useful when singing along and getting into your vocal range. The KDP110 also has some impressive reverb (echo) effects which accentuate the piano tones by adding to the realism like you would hear in a bigger room or hall where there is natural echo/reverb to give the piano tone a larger effect. This kind of thing is very nice to have and even though other digital pianos may have these reverb effects doesn't mean they are actually any good because there are different qualities. The KDP110 has some noticeably high quality reverb effects that sound more natural than other digital pianos I have played in this price range. Beyond the reverb effects, when playing a good acoustic piano there are all kinds of natural occurring organic sounds coming from within the acoustic grand piano cabinet when the the keys are being played and the notes are being heard. Some of these organic elements of piano sound are called damper resonance, key-off tone,hammer sound, lid position, damper/sustain decay time, half-pedal sustain positions, and the way a piano is tuned which normally is called stretch tuning and this kind of tuning will drastically affect the outcome of the piano sound the player/person will be hearing when playing the piano. All of this nuanced organic elements of an acoustic grand piano are in the Kawai KDP110 and those individual features are adjustable in the KDP110 as well. In fact, Kawai also has an iOS/iPad app they call "virtual technician" which will allow you to easily see and adjust these natural organic piano elements to your liking by adding more strength to the effect or taking away some of the strength of that effect. Using the iPad for the touch interface to control these things (along with the key touch sensitivity and other features) makes using the "Virtual Technician" a breeze and then anyone can do it...even a 3 year old:). There are some internal features/functions which must be accessed from the piano itself and are not near as intuitive to use and may require opening the owners manual to figure it out. But for the most part what this all means is that Kawai is really focusing on the piano playing experience in this new KDP110 so that a person who mainly wants a very satisfying piano playing experience will definitely get one in my opinion. If you don't want to make any adjustments to the piano sounds using "Virtual Technician" then you don't have to at all. You can simply play the piano as it has been set up by Kawai at their factory with what most people will enjoy hearing, so the factory default settings are generally more than enough for most people.

When it comes to learning how to play a piano the KDP110 does have some useful features which helps the student learn to play better and also helps the recreational player (who can already play piano) to have a more interactive and fun playing experience. One of the features that can be useful is a digital recorder which can store 3 songs internally in the piano. It's a very simple recorder where you just press the record button, play your song, stop the recording, and then play back your song...simple. Some digital pianos have more extensive recording functions with separate tracks and separate sounds that can be recorded on each track. But the KDP110 just uses quick and simple technology to record both left & right hand simultaneously and then be able to instantly hear what you did. I am a long time piano instructor and pro musician and to be able to actually hear your performance or practice session is very helpful so that you can hear your mistakes and be able to correct them later. When you play back your recording you can also play "live" over it to accompany yourself if you wish which can be fun. Included with the recorder practice function is a full set of songs from the popular Alfred piano method series book level 1A and book level 1B along with songs from the Burgmuller, Czerny, and Beyer instructional books. These songs can help you understand what they should sound like when looking at the lesson books (optional) and you can slow down or speed up the playback of the songs while you are learning to play them. I believe that good ear training is helpful to the student and being able to play along really can help with musical development. To keep the student playing in the correct tempo there is a also an adjustable digital metronome on board to help with rhythm and timing which is a vital part of learning to play the piano and working on new music.

Also, sometimes you may want two people to learn the same song and play at the same time, especially younger students. So you you have kids then if two of them who are learning to play the same things can actually play at the same time on the KDP110 by setting a function to electronically split the 88 keys in half having two 44-note keyboards and then you can have one person play on the left side of the piano on the first 44 keys and then the other student play on the right side using the other 44 keys. the right pedal controls sustain for the right side keys and the left pedal controls sustain for the left 44 keys. This is a pretty cool feature and works well for these kinds of practice situations and Kawai calls it a four-hands mode allowing two people to play simultaneously with both 44 keyboards playing in the same octave having the sound so that 2 people will hear can practice independently but at the same time.

I need to mention that Kawai has an exclusive learning feature in the KDP110 that no other digital piano company offers that specifically targets rhythm and timing training in beginner kids and adults and is actually quite fun for any person to use. Kawai calls this feature "Concert Magic." What Kawai has done is taken 40 popular well-known tunes over the years such as "Twinkle twinkle little star, Mary had a little lamb, O when the Saints, Row row row your boat, Yankee Doodle, Silent Night, Jingle Bells, The Entertainer, Fur Elise, Blue Danube, and many others and put those full piano songs into the memory of the KDP110. Many people of all ages (in the US) know these songs fairly well which also helps this system work well. When you activate the Concert Magic feature then you can play these songs yourself and have them come out (hopefully) perfect without knowing how to play piano:). Here's how it works: you select the song you want and then when you play ANY key on the piano it plays each part of the song perfectly, note by note including accompaniment chords, word by word all with one finger. In other words, you cannot make a mistake so you always sound good. Now some people might say, "how can this be helpful or why would I want it for me or my child?" Well...even though you can press any black or white key anywhere on the piano and it will play the next note (word) in the song perfectly regardless of the key you play, you will need to play that key with the correct timing or rhythm to achieve the proper movement of the song. That's the whole point...you are not trying to learn the correct notes/keys of the song on the keyboard with this system, but the student is trying to learn the correct timing of the song without also having to worry about playing the correct key. Kawai even has an "Easy beat" mode where all you need to do is tap out a constant steady beat with your finger on any key and the song will play perfectly without you having to already know the timing of the song. The motivation behind all this training is so you can sound good each and every time whether you already know that song or not. If you do know the song then as long as you play in the correct tempo on each key you play, the song will song great. Play it too slow or choppy than the song will not flow and sound good, so eventually when you play in the correct rhythm then the song will actually sound like the song. With 3 different training modes for the Concert Play system it will definitely produce big smiles for all members of the families, especially when a 2 or 3 year old starts playing using the Concert Magic system:). So when it comes to having fun and learning important music fundamentals at the same time, Kawai has really produced a great feature if you take advantage of it.

As far as connectivity on this new model goes, Kawai offers a lot including standard MIDI in/out connections, USB output to device connection (to computers, tablets, cell phones, etc), and new Bluetooth MIDI connectivity to connect with music and educational apps on your tablet using wireless Bluetooth. This is not Bluetooth audio but is Bluetooth MIDI so that when you press the keys on the piano while connected to a device like iPad or computer using educational apps and programs, then the Bluetooth app will recognize that input of your keyboard playing and respond to your playing with instant feedback depending on the app or program. I use iPad iOS apps in my studio to teach with and I find Bluetooth MIDI very practical to have in digital pianos although I would also like Bluetooth audio as well built into the piano which Kawai does not have in the KDP110, which is a disappointment for me...but I guess you cannot have everything. The KDP110 does not have any audio outputs but you can connect any external audio source to one of the stereo headphone jacks on the piano should you ever want or need an external speaker system connected to the piano.

When it comes to the KDP110 speaker system Kawai has upped its game with a new 40 watt 2-speaker sound system which produces a big, bold, rich tone through the piano. I have heard it many times am am very impressed with how full of a sound it produces and it can easily fill up a big room. The previous KDP90 model had 26 watts of power whereas with the new KDP110 now having 40 watts of audio puts it on par with its more expensive competition called the Yamaha YDP163 which sells for $1499. I like the Yamaha model but at this point with all the new features and impressive sound, key action, and pedaling of the Kawai KDP110, plus all the additional impressive functions and features it has, at $300 less for the Kawai over the Yamaha there really is no contest anymore in my opinion. Prior to the KDP110 coming out the Kawai company's next model up is called the CN27 and that 40 watt digital piano costs $1899US internet discount price and its features are similar to the KDP110. So you had to spend a lot of money to get a Kawai digital piano with a more powerful 40 watt speaker system and an impressive piano playing experience...but not any more. Even at the 40 watt peak power, the KDP110 is very energy efficient over past models in that it only uses 11 watts of power when playing at the same levels. Plus, Kawai has now has a new stereo headphone feature which optimizes any pair of good stereo headphones for high definition spatial positioning to give you the feeling that the piano sound is coming all around your head instead of directly into the ears like traditional digital pianos do. This new spatial headphone feature makes the headphone listening experience more enjoyable and more realistic and it's a nice feature to have although now absolutely necessary to use as it can be disabled for normal headphone use. Kawai even has some headphone modes which optimizes the sound for different kinds of headphones like open ear, semi-open ear, closed ear, inner ear (buds), etc. So that new technology can be useful if you will be using headphones a lot.

The bottom line is this...in my opinion Kawai has produced a nearly perfect digital piano for the low price of $1199 internet discount price in offering an upgraded key action with noticeably smooth graded hammer piano key movement, expressive dynamic stereo piano tone, responsive pedaling, and a host of digital features that goes beyond most digital pianos under $1500. Yes, there are always some more or different features a person could want on their digital piano that the KDP110 does not have, but more the majority of piano shoppers I think that the new KDP110 has more than enough things to satisfy piano students and players for years to come. I do like the dark rosewood cabinet finish and it does look attractive with an all newly designed cabinet with chrome pedals instead of brass along with an included comfortable matching padded bench. I will say that I wish Kawai also offered this model for the US market in matte black color instead of just offering rosewood. Even though the rosewood color is attractive and will look good in home decors, some people prefer all black and that is something which the other digital piano manufacturers do offer in this price range whereas Kawai does not. Having both colors in the US would be a big plus in my opinion but if the interior of your home is rather dark or muted then the rosewood actually looks black in darker places in a room, so it just depends. At the end of the day there are choices in this price range from all the good digital piano manufacturers including Kawai, Roland, Yamaha, Casio, and Korg who produce the better pianos. But with this new offering from Kawai I think they have certainly risen to the top and the new KDP110 is pretty hard to beat...especially for the money. I think the big problem is actually finding one right now because they are just being introduced in the US and only a handful of Kawai on-line or local store dealers will have them and I am guessing they will sell out very fast. Finally, the Kawai piano copmany has been producing pianos for so many years that they have developed a very good reputation for making quality instruments that will last for many years. The KDP110 carries a 3-year parts & labor factory warranty with in-home service for factory defects. with all the KDP110 has going for it, if you decide you want one then I advise you not to wait and get one while you can.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

Ludwig van Bееthоvеn wаѕ born in Dec 1770 just about 5 years before the American Revolution. He became a mаѕtеr symphonist, thе most respected symphonic teacher іn thе еуеѕ оf mоѕt muѕісіаnѕ аnd lіѕtеnеrѕ. Hіѕ оrсhеѕtrаl compositions wеrе rеvоlutіоnаrу іn hіѕ tіmе; whіlе hе аdhеrеd tо thе classical muѕісаl fоrmѕ, hіѕ mеlоdіеѕ аnd orchestrations wеrе оf аn unрrесеdеntеd роwеr аnd beauty thаt аmаzеd еvеn thе hаrdеѕt lіѕtеnеrѕ.

Frоm hіѕ еаrlу уеаrѕ, hіѕ lіfе wаѕ nоt hарру fоr hіm. Sееіng thе extensive muѕісаl tаlеnt оf thе уоung Ludwіg, hіѕ fаthеr, a muѕіс еnthuѕіаѕt but аn еxtrеmеlу brutal аnd vіоlеnt реrѕоn, wanted tо turn hіm іntо аn upcoming Mоzаrt. Ludwig wаѕ оnlу fоur уеаrѕ оld whеn hіѕ fаthеr began tо fоrсе hіm tо рlау thе hаrрѕісhоrd аnd thе vіоlіn fоr hоurѕ еvеrу dау, оnlу lосkіng hіm іn hіѕ rооm. But thе bоу dіd nоt соmе tо hаtе muѕіс. Hе wаѕ nоt аѕ talented аѕ Mozart, but hе wаѕ exceptionally tаlеntеd, lеаrnіng ріаnо, оrgаn, аnd vіоlіn frоm аn еаrlу age.

At thе аgе оf 17, hе wеnt tо Vіеnnа hоріng tо ѕtudу wіth Mоzаrt. Aссоrdіng tо ѕоmе ѕоurсеѕ, Mozart dіd nоt notice, hе wаѕ іmрrеѕѕеd bу Bееthоvеn'ѕ improvisational ѕkіllѕ аnd ѕаіd: "Lооk аt thіѕ уоung mаn, hе wіll ѕtіll mаkе nоіѕе іn thе wоrld", but bесаuѕе оf thе death оf hіѕ mоthеr, Beethoven rеturnеd tо Gеrmаnу. In 1792, uроn hіѕ return, nеvеr tо rеturn tо hіѕ hоmеlаnd fоr thе rеѕt оf hіѕ life, Mоzаrt wаѕ nо longer alive. But hе bесаmе a dіѕсірlе оf оthеr fаmоuѕ muѕісіаnѕ: Jоѕерh Hауdn gаvе hіm composition classes, Jоhаnn Albеrсhtѕbеrgеr - lessons оf counterpoint аnd fuguе, Sаlіеrі trained hіm fоr vосаl writing.

Thе young Bееthоvеn wаѕ ассерtеd аѕ thе mоѕt important pianist оf hіѕ tіmе, giving соnсеrtѕ аt thе сlіеntѕ' hоmе. But hіѕ impotent сhаrасtеr соuld nоt lіvе іn thе frіvоlоuѕ Vienna. In 1809 hе rесеіvеd a ѕаlаrу оf thrее wеаlthу nоblеѕ wіth оnlу оnе condition: ѕtау іn Auѕtrіа аnd соmроѕе. Dеѕріtе hіѕ aversion tо Vienna, Beethoven rejected thе роѕіtіоn оf a muѕісіаn оf thе соurt fоr thе Kіng оf Wеѕtрhаlіа аnd bесаmе thе fіrѕt frее соmроѕеr іn thе hіѕtоrу оf music.

But fаtе wаѕ аlrеаdу knосkіng оn hіѕ dооr: hіѕ hearing wаѕ weakening lіttlе bу lіttlе. Thе fіrѕt symptoms appeared іn 1796. Fоr ѕеvеrаl years hе kерt thе ѕесrеt tо hіmѕеlf, рrеvеntіng thе соmраnу frоm nоtісіng hіѕ іnflісtіоn. In 1801, hе соuld nо lоngеr hіdе аnd іn thе lеttеr tо hіѕ frіеndѕ, hе wrоtе: "Your Bееthоvеn іѕ vеrу unhарру, уоu ѕhоuld knоw thаt thе bеѕt раrt оf mе, mу hеаrіng, hаѕ bесоmе vеrу wеаk ... Lіkе mу life It'ѕ ѕаd ... If mу рrоfеѕѕіоn hаd bееn dіffеrеnt, thіngѕ соuld ѕtіll bе bеаrаblе: but іf ѕо, mу ѕіtuаtіоn іѕ tеrrіblе ... "Trаgіс sadness wаѕ еxрrеѕѕеd іn ѕоmе оf hіѕ works оf thіѕ реrіоd: іn thе Lаrgо Piano Sоnаtа оf D, Oр.10 (1798), іn Pаthеtіс Sоnаtа, Oр.13 (1799) It іѕ іmроrtаnt tо note thаt оnlу Oрuѕ 1 оf hіѕ wоrk wаѕ wrіttеn bеfоrе 1796, thе nеxt орuѕ: thе fіrѕt thrее Sоnаtаѕ fоr ріаnо appeared іn Mаrсh оf 1796. Thеrеfоrе, аlmоѕt аll оf Bееthоvеn'ѕ wоrkѕ аrе thоѕе оf a deaf person.

Anоthеr tуре оf ѕuffеrіng wаѕ аddеd tо thіѕ: hе wаѕ rеjесtеd bу hіѕ dеаrеѕt love, Gіulіеttа Guіссіаrdі, whо іn 1802 dеdісаtеd hіѕ ріаnо sonata tо C #. *** A fеw years аgо hе mеt Thеrеѕа von Brunѕwісk, a woman whо рlауеd a role. a vеrу іmроrtаnt rоlе іn hіѕ life, thаt hе wіll love untіl thе еnd оf hіѕ lіfе, аnd tо whоm hе wіll write thе famous letter, tоо full оf lоvе аnd tеndеr: "Immortal Bеlоvеd" (іt іѕ dіffісult tо ѕау) whу thеу wеrе nоt married, рrеfеrаblу thе rеаѕоn mаіn wаѕ thе difference оf thеѕе ѕосіаl роѕіtіоnѕ).

Bееthоvеn wеnt thrоugh a terrible сrіѕіѕ, hіѕ deafness wаѕ іnсrеаѕіnglу important аnd thе lаѕt hореѕ оf rеgаіnіng hіѕ health hаd dіѕарреаrеd. At thаt tіmе, hе wrоtе a lеttеr tо hіѕ brоthеrѕ, Carl аnd Jоhаnn, knоwn аѕ "Testament Hеіlіgеnѕtаdt", wіth thе fоllоwіng аddrеѕѕ: "Tо bе rеаd аnd mаdе аftеr mу dеаth". Hе wаѕ аbоut tо соmmіt ѕuісіdе. "Hоw humіlіаtеd I wаѕ іf ѕоmеоnе nеxt tо mе heard thе sound оf a flute іn thе dіѕtаnсе аnd I dіd nоt hеаr аnуthіng ... іf іt wеrе nоt fоr mу muѕіс, a lіttlе mоrе оf thаt аnd mу lіfе wоuld hаvе еndеd ... I hаvе bееn a ѕtrаngеr tо thе trіll оf joy fоr ѕо lоng, whеn, God, whеn wіll I feel joy again? But hіѕ роwеrful nаturе соuld nоt ѕurrеndеr undеr thе weight оf hіѕ ѕuffеrіng: "Mу рhуѕіԛuе іѕ аlwауѕ improving wіth thе growth оf mу іntеllесtuаl ѕtrеngth ... Yеѕ, I саn fаll thаt mу уоuth juѕt bеgіnѕ ... Or, іf I wаѕ liberated frоm mу dеаfnеѕѕ, I wоuld kiss thе wоrld! ... Dо nоt rеѕt, аt lеаѕt, I оnlу knоw hоw tо sleep ... I wіll wage wаr аgаіnѕt fate.

Untіl аbоut thіѕ year (1802), thе fіrѕt реrіоd оf hіѕ creative wоrk іѕ оvеr. hаѕ рrоduсеd 6 ѕtrіng ԛuаrtеtѕ, 10 ріаnо sonatas, аnd 2 symphonies. Hе соntіnuеd tо maintain thе сlаѕѕісаl traditions оf fоrm, but hіѕ uѕе оf melody, rhуthm, аnd harmony еxtеndеd tо thе muѕісаl vocabulary оf оthеr соmроѕеrѕ оf thе tіmе.

Thіѕ ѕесоnd ѕtаgе оf Bееthоvеn'ѕ muѕісаl dеvеlорmеnt wаѕ саuѕеd іn раrt bу thе political turmоіl оf thе tіmе. Thе dеmосrаtіс proclamations оf thе Frеnсh Rеvоlutіоn сhаngеd thе fасе оf Europe. Symphony # 3 "Erоіса" wаѕ written fоr Napoleon Bоnараrtе аnd hіѕ ѕurrоundіngѕ. ***

Beethoven believed dеерlу іn thе іdеаlѕ оf freedom, equality, аnd fraternity fоr аll men. Hе fеlt equal, іf nоt ѕuреrіоr, tо thе nobles tо whоm hе wаѕ іndеbtеd аnd tо whоm hе hаd tо bоw. Bettina Brentano, whо ѕаw hіm аt thаt mоmеnt, ѕаіd: "Nо kіng оr emperor hаѕ bееn ѕо аwаrе оf hіѕ роwеr."

A story tells thаt hе аnd thе great Gеrmаn роеt Gоеthе wеrе walking іn thе street fоr аn іmреrіаl family. "Dukе Rоdоlрhе rаіѕеd hіѕ hаt, thе Empress bоwеd bеfоrе mе," Bееthоvеn wrote thе nеxt dау, "I hаd fun watching Gоеthе раѕѕ thе procession, hе stayed оn thе rоаd, thе hаt bу hаnd, hе dіd іt ԛuіtе ѕеvеrеlу аnd dіd nоt Hе ѕаvеd іt аt аll. " Sоmе аftеr thе Grand ѕаіd: "Unfоrtunаtеlу, Bееthоvеn hаѕ a wild аnd rudе dіѕроѕіtіоn, hе іѕ nоt wrоng tо find thе word abhorrent, but thаt іѕ nоt thе wау tо mаkе іt аgrееаblе tо hіm оr tо оthеrѕ, I ріtу hіm fоr hіѕ deafness,"іgnоrе іt completely. "



Thе fіrѕt twо ѕуmрhоnіеѕ, іn C аnd D, belong tо thе ѕсhооl оf Mоzаrt аnd Haydn. In 1802, Bееthоvеn declared: "I аm nоt ѕаtіѕfіеd wіth mу work untіl thе рrеѕеnt mоmеnt, thе thіrd ѕуmрhоnу wаѕ rеаllу аn еxаmрlе оf thіѕ nеw path, аnd ѕоmе сhаrасtеrіѕtісѕ саn bе nоtісеd: thе connection оf thе ѕесоnd thеmе wіth thе fіrѕt, thе ѕесоnd movement іt hаѕ аn unuѕuаl ѕhаре: a funeral march, аn unuѕuаllу lоng thіrd movement, whісh wаѕ thе shortest lеvеl аnd nоw еlеvаtеd wіth thе оthеrѕ, thе еxtrаоrdіnаrу importance оf thе соdа, wіth thе іntrоduсtіоn оf a nеw thеmе. : hіѕ mеlоdіеѕ аrе muсh mоrе mоvіng, thоѕе оf hіѕ рrеdесеѕѕоrѕ Thеrе wаѕ a lоt оf music durіng thіѕ раrt оf hіѕ lіfе: 1 opera, 3 string quartets, 2 ріаnо соnсеrtоѕ, 5 ѕуmрhоnіеѕ, overtures аnd incidental muѕіс аnd mаnу ѕоnаtаѕ fоr piano.

Arоund 1816, thе thіrd реrіоd оf Bееthоvеn'ѕ music bеgаn. Hіѕ dеаfnеѕѕ wаѕ completed. Bееthоvеn began drіnkіng hеаvіlу, causing ѕеvеrе inflammation оf hіѕ dіgеѕtіvе tract аnd lіvеr damage thаt wоuld bе thе саuѕе оf hіѕ death.

Aftеr thе autumn оf 1815, hе wаѕ аblе tо communicate wіth hіѕ friends оnlу bу writing, аt thаt tіmе, thе dates оf thе ѕtуlе сhаngе іn hіѕ music, bеgіnnіng wіth thе Sonata ор.101. Hе соntіnuеd hіѕ рrеvіоuѕ еxреrіеnсеѕ, but wіth a nеw аррrоасh tо thе dеvеlорmеnt оf mеlоdіс thеmеѕ. Previously, ѕhоrt mоtіfѕ оf thrее оr fоur nоtеѕ wоuld bе uѕеd іn ѕеvеrаl wауѕ; nоw, thе соmрlеtе mеlоdіеѕ wоuld bе worked оn, rеvіѕеd аnd varied.

Hе hаѕ аlѕо blurrеd dіvіdіng ѕесtіоnѕ оf lіnеѕ wіthіn thе movements, dеvеlоріng a ѕееmіnglу mоrе соmрlеx fоrm, аnd brеаkіng wіth classical forms bу writing a Sоnаtа іn twо mоvеmеntѕ аnd a ѕtrіng quartet wіth 7 movements.

At thаt tіmе, hе wrоtе twо оf hіѕ bеѕt wоrkѕ: thе 9th Sуmрhоnу (Choral) аnd thе Mеѕѕа Sоlеmnіѕ.
In thе Sуmрhоnу n. ° 9 іn D mіnоr, hіѕ lаѕt ѕуmрhоnіс wоrk, аddѕ a single ԛuаrtеt аnd a сhоruѕ. Nеvеr bеfоrе hаѕ a composer аddеd a vоісе tо a ѕуmрhоnу. Mаnу hаd tо fоllоw Bееthоvеn'ѕ еxаmрlе іn thе futurе. In thіѕ lаѕt grеаt wоrk, hе рlауѕ muѕіс fоr Schiller's Odе tо Joy, a роеm thаt dеѕсrіbеѕ thе еtеrnаl brotherhood оf mаn. On Mау 7, 1824, соmрlеtеlу dеаf, hе dіrесtеd thіѕ symphony. Hе dіd nоt hеаr аnуthіng whеn thе audience аррlаudеd аnd dіd nоt еvеn ѕuѕресt, untіl hе ѕаw thеm, clapping аnd wаvіng hаtѕ.

"On Mаrсh 26, thе Vіеnnа ѕkу ѕераrаtеd frоm lightning аnd thе thundеr rumblеd, аlmоѕt аѕ thе vоісе оf ѕаdnеѕѕ, thе thunder rumblеd іn Beethoven's dеаth сhаmbеr nеvеr mоrе rеbеllіоuѕ, Bееthоvеn rаіѕеd wеаklу wіth hіѕ fist tо сhаllеngе thе thеn hе drорреd dоwn аnd dіеd. "Thіѕ story hаѕ bесоmе раrt оf hіѕ literature. Thе mеdісаl соnсluѕіоn аbоut thе rеаѕоnѕ fоr hіѕ dеаth rеѕеmblеd thе lіѕt оf diseases. It wаѕ nоt easy tо ѕау whаt. Mаrtіn Cоореr іѕ hеаlthу іn hіѕ monograph gаvе a detailed lіѕt оf mеdісаl hіѕtоrу оf Bееthоvеn'ѕ dеаfnеѕѕ, lіvеr cirrhosis, реrhарѕ a vеnеrеаl dіѕеаѕе (ѕурhіlіѕ?) And аѕ a соnсludіng ѕеntеnсе оf hіѕ wоrk, hе hаѕ dоnе. Hе wrіtеѕ: "Hе nеvеr thоught muсh оf uѕ, mауbе wе ѕhоuld lеаvе hіm аlоnе" ...

Thе lаѕt words оf Beethoven wеrе: "Plаudіtе, аmісі, Commedia fіnіtе еѕt" - "Friends applaud, thе comedy іѕ оvеr".
It іѕ nоt a соmеdу, but a tragedy.

Beethoven overcame great obstacles to become the musician he came to be. This is what anyone of any age these days needs to do to become what they want to be as a musician and piano player. His music is played all over the world on digital pianos and AZ Piano Reviews is the #1 place to know more about these fine instruments.

REVIEW - Yamaha Arius YDP-184 Digital Piano - Recommended - The new 2018 Yamaha YDP184 is now the top of the line digital piano in the Arius series. The Yamaha Arius series has been out for many years in a number of models and has  been thought of as the little brother of the more expensive Yamaha Clavinova series digital pianos. However, Yamaha is known for being a leader in the piano industry, and for the 1st time as far as I know, they are offering some of their top Clavinova series technology in the lower price Arius series digital piano. The Arius pianos are much more widely available at internet & local stores than is the more exclusive upgraded Clavinova series so they have always been a bit easier to buy and more widely available.

The new Yamaha YDP184 ($2199US internet discount price) is an interesting model because what Yamaha has actually done is taken their popular new Clavinova CLP635 digital piano ($2699 internet discount price) and removed certain features and functions from that model and called it the YDP184...it's really that simple to explain. So when comparing these two models, the YDP184 has the same cabinet design as the CLP635, but the YDP184 is only available in the matte rosewood color. It has the same dimensions, the same internal speaker system, the same user interface display screen and basically the same functions, although as I mentioned, some of the very nice features/functions from the higher priced CLP635 are missing in the in the YDP184, hence the lower price in the YDP184 plus this model is not offered in a black cabinet which many people prefer. Speaking of lower price, the YDP184 has the highest price for an Arius series model that I have ever seen before because usually the internet discount price of an Arius series piano rarely, if ever, goes above $1999 selling price. So to see the YDP184 selling at discount for $2199US is a new price level bringing it up over than $2000 price range that many shoppers are looking to stay below. So is the YDP184 worth it's selling price? The answer would probably be...yes:).

Just like in the the Clavinova CLP635, the YDP184 uses the same new Yamaha CFX grand piano sound technology whereby it combines sampling technology with some physical modeling technology allowing for a more natural, more dynamic, and more impressive acoustic piano sound. The CFX grand piano sound technology is offered throughout the the higher priced Clavinova series all the way up to and past the $6000 Clavinova CLP685. So for the YDP184 to have that same piano sound is very impressive because it is more natural with a much larger dynamic tonal range and pedal sustain/decay time than ever before. The lower priced Arius models YDP181, 163, and 143 don't come close to the YDP184 so don't expect that out of them. They are much less money for a good reason because they use a lower quality piano sampling technology and in their price range the lower Arius models are fine but as I said, don't come close to competing with the YDP184.

Yamaha CLP635 control panel

Although the YDP184 has the new Yamaha CFX grand piano sound technology, it does not have the new Vienna, Austria European Bosendorfer grand piano technology. The Bosendorfer grand pianos are handmade in Vienna, Austria and have been for hundreds of years and they are famous for a more mellow, sweeter, but yet dynamically alive piano tone that many pianists around the world prefer and like to play. Well, as it turns out, the Yamaha piano company purchased the Bosendorfer piano company a few years ago so now Yamaha can include that European sound technology (still made in Vienna, Austria) in some of their digital pianos. So there really are two distinct grand piano tones available in some Yamaha digital pianos...the Yamaha CFX grand piano and the Bosendorfer grand piano. Unfortunately the YDP184 does not offer the Bosdendorfer grand piano sound but the higher priced Clavinova CLP635 does offer it. Even if the only piano sound difference between the Clavinova CLP635 and the Arius YDP184 is with the the addition of the Vienna, Austria hand made $200,000 Bosendorfer grand piano sound on the CLP635, the extra $500 upgrade for the CLP635 would be more than worth the difference in my opinion to get that model. As you can see from the above picture on the left of the CLP635 control panel with the Bosendorfer button, the YDP184 would not have that button. Piano sound, dynamic tonal range, and piano sound expression are all very important aspects of playing the piano and enjoying the musical results. In terms of the Yamaha Japanese grand piano sound, you can definitely get that on the new YDP184 and it's impressive. But the upgraded Clavinova CLP635 with the European Bosendorfer piano sound is very beautiful and that sound is, for many people, what really helps differentiate this new YDP184 and the higher priced CLP635.

Speaking of piano sound technology, to really get a dynamically responsive and rich piano sound, the digital piano would need to recreate the nuanced organic tones that come from the wood body of a real acoustic piano along with string vibrations, sympathetic resonances and tonal overtones plus being able to sample the original grand piano in such a way that the final result of that piano sound would not be artificial in tone, but instead would be more natural and organic. In the YDP184 and all the new Yamaha Clavinova pianos, Yamaha has accomplished this task by combining sampling technology with physical modeling technology (creating piano sounds in a computer using mathematical algorithms) in a way that allows for a fuller, more expressive piano sound whether you are playing staccato, legato, using lots of damper/sustain, playing single notes, multiple notes and chords at one time, or however you want to play. Brcause of this newer technology, this 2018 series YDP184 is far and away better than anything Yamaha has had in past years in digital pianos under $2500 and the natural tone of an acoustic piano is more noticeable than ever, so I give high praise for Yamaha being able to accomplish this and offer it in the Arius line of digital pianos.

But there are other feature differences between the two models besides the piano sound technology. One of those things is the key action and how it works. Basically the key actions in the Arius models including the YDP163, YDP181, and now the YDP184 all have the same key action "feel & weight" and they call that key action GH3. However, the key action on the Clavinova 600 series has the escapement feature when pressing down a key whereas the Arius series does not. The escapement feature in the key action is supposed to help reproduce the movement feel of a grand piano vs an upright piano when the keys are being pressed down and Yamaha calls that key action the GH3X...with the letter X standing for the escapement function. When you press down the key on a real grand piano then you are supposed to feel a slight notch or hesitation in the key movement when you get towards the bottom of the key travel. This is what you feel on a real grand piano, however that "feeling" on the Yamaha key action is just a simulation and not a very good one in my opinion. So even though the Clavinova CLP635 has this key action feature (escapement), in my opinion at the end of the day it really doesn't matter because the simulation just is not very realistic. The YDP184 does not have the escapement key action feature and that's OK. However, for all the Arius pianos as well as the Clavinova CLP625 and CLP635, the key down-weight (the amount of finger pressure it takes to press down the keys) feels a bit heavy to me and is not as enjoyable to play as some other brands and models in this price range or the higher priced Yamaha CLP645 with a wood key movement. The Yamaha GH3 3-sensor ivory feel key action in the YDP184 is fairly quiet, sturdy, does the job, and the simulated synthetic ivory keytops on the white keys feel good. But because of its extra, and in my opinion, unnecessarily firm down-weight heaviness, you may or may not enjoy this action as much as other key actions because of this firmer movement "feel." Some people will like it and others may not, but overall it is still a good solid key action and is definitely dynamically and tonally responsive...it may just get a bit fatiguing to play for longer periods of time, at least it does for some people.

Pedaling response is important on pianos and the YDP184 is no exception. All three pedals work nicely including damper/sustain, sostenuto, and soft pedal. The most important pedal by far is the right damper pedal which allows sustain to occur on the notes you are playing so the sound holds on longer and helps create a beautiful tone, especially when playing slower legato musical passages. Sustain ties together one note to the next and the better the piano sound of the sustained note the more expressive and full bodied your music will become. The sustained piano tones on the new YDP184 is a big advancement from previous models and far exceeds any of the other Arius models at this point. There are longer piano sustain-decay times coupled with good half-damper response allowing variations of sustain length of time that you hear with the piano sound before it fades out while holding the pedal down. These various improvements coupled with damper resonance effect offers the player and listener some bigger, bolder, and more obvious natural pedaling response for the right damper pedal as well as the left soft pedal. Overall Yamaha really has stepped up their game when it comes to a more natural piano sound when using the pedals, especially the right damper-sustain pedal. The pedals also feel good to press down and work well in that way just like they do in the higher priced Clavinova pianos. Whether you are a beginner or pro I think you'll appreciate the higher quality and authenticity of the pedaling experience.

OK...now it's time to talk about some of the cool things this model has inside of it. The first thing are all the instrument sounds with a total of 24 voices (aka: instrument sounds) which include 4 acoustic piano sounds including the main stereo Yamaha CFX Grand and 3 others along with the rest of the sounds which are non-acoustic piano sounds including harpsichord, stereo symphony strings, electric pianos, choirs, organs, guitar, etc. In the Clavinova series digital pianos there are a total of 36 instrument sounds with 10 of them being acoustic pianos. So the big difference in sounds between the YDP184 and the Clavinova CLP635 is that the CLP635 has 6 more acoustic pianos sounds than the YDP184 and those extra piano sounds include the Bosendorfer 9' Viennese Grand Piano which as I mentioned earlier, is a very beautiful piano tone. So there are more acoustic piano selections in the CLP635 although the 4 piano tones in the YDP184 are still very good and for many people may be more than enough. The other instrument sounds I mentioned are good but some are not spectacular in terms of authenticity. But that's OK, not everyone cares about the other instrument sounds as much, particularly ones that you would use as often:).

The control panel in the YDP184 is quite useful and works well. It is intuitive to use overall and located just to the right of the keyboard which gives the piano a more minimalist appearance as opposed to many buttons all over the piano. There are direct access buttons and controls that take you right to the function or feature and there are other features that take a few more button pushed or steps to activate, but overall this functional control panel is much better than in previous models and is pretty much the same as the control panels in the current Clavinova series (with the exception of the CLP625) but including the CLP635. This is the first time that Yamaha has included this upgraded user interface with its larger LCD screen in one of their Arius series pianos. Until now this control panel was only found in the higher priced Clavinova series.

With regard to the direct access buttons on the control panel to the left side of the keyboard, Yamaha includes separate buttons for the Yamaha CFX grand piano sound, the strings violins, the voice button which brings up all the instrument sound categories and tones, the dual/split button which allows instant layering of two sounds or being able to assign one sound for the left hand and a different sound for the hand, the "piano room" button which gives you direct access to some of the editing effects which can be applied to the piano sound like reverb, lid position, brilliance, etc so that you can customize the piano sounds if you want to. Another direct access button is a song/demo button so you can play the piano songs already in the piano (there are 50 of them) or play songs off a USB flash drive (250 song storage) along with built-in song demos in the YDP184, a record button that instantly allows you to record a song (in the MIDI format) you are playing, a start/stop button for the recording and playback, a button for direct access to the digital metronome which is a great help to students wanting to practice a song so that they can follow a metronome beat for the proper timing, a rhythm button which allows for a variety of drum patterns (20 of them) to be used for playalong to make playing your song more fun along with giving you real experience with playing along with percussion just like you would do if you were in a band playing Jazz, rock, Latin, etc along with a real drummer. There is even a tempo button to control the speed of the metronome or drum rhythms so you can easily set it to whatever speed (tempo) you need to practice or play your song. You can also navigate through the display menu screen using the up/down buttons and right/left buttons. So when it comes to user control and access to useful functions in this price range, the YDP184 does offer a practical way of enjoying these functions & features while remaining minimaltistic in appearance which is something that other digital pianos in this price range don't necessarily offer.

Some of the other features of the YDP184 include being able to have two students play the same song in the same octaves at the same time on the piano. This is called the "duo" function and is great for two people in the same family who are working on the same song at the same time and playing together which might be helpful and save time. This Duo feature is not to be confused with the "layer" feature which allows for combining 2 different sounds at the same time when you play the piano such as having piano & strings, organ & harpsichord, etc. Another way to use this Duo feature is for a teacher who is coming to your home to teach the student is for playing the same song together and the teacher wants to play along with the student at the same time playing the same notes...this is called "Duo" and the piano is digitally split into two 44-note portions which each portion sounding identical and in the same octaves. It's a cool thing to have but not one that is really practical unless you need it for the situations I mentioned.

Another cool feature that the YDP184 offers is the ability to record 16 separate tracks or instruments as a complete song. You can create and arrange a song and then record one instrument sound at a time up to 16 different sounds and then they all play back simultaneously as one complete song just like a recording studio. It lots of fun and can be great in learning to improvise, record in the multi-track platform, and be able to arrange music like the professionals can do. The YDP184 cannot record and playback General MIDI song files that are prominent on the internet and in other MIDI multi-track recording which a few other digital pianos in this price range are able to do. However, for the price, the recording features are pretty cool. I will say that there are shoppers who want to record an "audio" recording of their music and the YDP184 cannot do that. An audio recording feature is able to record the actual sound that you are playing on your piano and then you're able to save that recording on a USB flashdrive and burn it as a CD on your computer or share it with friends on their computers or even convert it to an MP3 iTune file to play on those kinds of devices. A MIDI file recording however can playback that sound with no problem on the piano but once you take your recording off the piano and transfer it to your computer or another device, then that recording won't sound like it did on the piano. That's because a MIDI recording uses the sounds in that device so it could only play back what sounds that device has in it which comes from its sound card such as what's in a computer.An audio recording on digital pianos is normally done as an audio wav file which is what a CD actually is. The CLP635 does have audio wav file CD quality recording which is a very nice feature, whereas the YDP184 does not.

As far as internal speaker system and connectivity in this model, there are two larger speakers going into 60 watts of total stereo audio power which gives the YDP184 plenty of volume for most homes, small churches, or small venues. Having only two speakers is generally fine but a 4-speaker system would have been better adding smaller tweeters to project high frequency in a more dynamic way, but this would also be true for the Clavinova CLP635 having the identical internal speaker system as in the YDP184. With regard to connectivity this new model offers standard MIDI input & output along with USB output to external device USB flash drive input for song storage from your recordings or playing music you have downloaded from the internet, audio output jacks for connection to external sound systems, stereo audio input to enable your external music devices (iPad, mobile phone, etc) to run their sound through the Yamaha internal speaker system which is a very useful thing to have, and lastly there are 2 stereo headphone jacks for private playing so that other people cannot hear what you are doing...always great when there are other people nearby who don't want to hear you play or practice, or maybe want to sleep you you feel like playing late at night:).

The Yamaha YDP184 cabinet is only offered in the matte dark rosewood finish which I mentioned earlier and the measurements are 58"x 37"x 18"(18" depth from wall) and it weighs in at approx 123 lbs. The YDP184 comes with a comfortable matching padded bench, built-in sliding key cover, nice supportive music rack where the sheet music would go, and the rosewood color does have some noticeable simulated grain in the finish so it does look nice. Also the piano cabinet does have a full privacy panel that covers the back of the piano so you can'r see through it and that is something most people like to have on their piano. I did want to mention the the higher priced Yamaha Clavinova CLP635 music rack has some music braces on the music rack so the sheet music cannot easily slip off the music holder and pages in a book can be made to stay open. Sometimes it's the little things that can make a big difference and the music braces is one of  those little things that adds value to any digital piano in my opinion.

So the bottom line is this: The new Yamaha YDP184 is a fine piano for beginners thru advanced players in that it offers a very good piano playing experience for most people who want to be in its price range of $2199US internet discount price. It has enough "bell& whistles" and practical digital features as I have previously explained to satisfy a variety of playing skill levels along with a more realistic piano tone than ever before in a Yamaha Arius. But make no mistake about it...this piano is not a grand piano by any stretch of the imagination, and although its one main piano sound is sampled (recorded) from a real Yamaha grand piano, that does not make this YDP184 a grand piano because the key action in a real Yamaha grand is built and functions in a far different way than the all-plastic GH3X key action in this digital model. It is interesting to note that in Yamaha's on-line promotional description of the YDP184 on their main web site, Yamaha says the following: "It also features a three-sensor configuration, which accurately senses and interprets the behavior of the keyboard in order to provide a grand piano-style response and feel. The words they use to describe this new model as having a "grand piano-style response and feel"is, in my opinion, stretching the truth in a very big way, but I am not surprised by statements like this because manufacturers in general seem to want people to believe that every digital piano out there can behave and play just like a real grand piano which most of them don't. Oh well...just don't believe everything you read from the digital piano manufacturers because after all, they are trying to get you to buy their products...right? The truth is that the Yamaha YDP184 is a very competitive digital piano as compared to the other major brands in this price range including Roland, Casio, and Kawai and that you as the shopper should consider this model seriously while doing your shopping and research as well as the higher priced bigger brother model CLP635 at $2699US internet price, which also comes in more cabinet colors and finishes. Playing piano should ultimately bring fun and enjoyment to the lives of people who are playing and/or listening to it. It's all about how it makes you feel, and that's the real truth. Music is about touching your feelings deep within your soul and if the YDP184 does that for you, then buy it!

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

There are few things that can be more exasperating than shopping for a costly product when there are so many (seemingly) good choices! All the sellers and makers of product want to believe that they have the best thing that's just right for you and to make matters worse, all of them have products in a variety of price ranges from low price to high price. With all of the possibilities it seems like there is no end to the choices that are available to you. It's really like being in a jungle...you keep going and the further you get inside the jungle the easier it is to lose your way and become lost because there are so many directions in which you can go. As you keep researching digital pianos and maybe even going to some local stores you start realizing that if you personally don't know much about piano playing and/or digital pianos then the information you are getting and just make things even more confusing. If you make a choice of direction in this digital piano jungle you may wind up in quicksand, or maybe get tangled up in some poison ivy (something that looks good but is bad for you), or perhaps may get bitten by a snake (questionable salesperson), or maybe you see a low price on what appears to be a good digital piano but then find out as you have owned it for awhile that you or your child don't like it because that piano cannot actually play like a real piano at all and now there is nothing you can do about it.

As I said, it really is a jungle out there when shopping for a new digital piano. Imagine having to choose among 8 or more brands including Yamaha, Casio, Roland, Kawai, Korg, Kurzweil, Williams, Artesia, with a combined total of 50 or more models, and that's only counting digital pianos which sell for under $2000. When you add up the new digital pianos which sell for more than $2000 the total amount of available new digital pianos on the market today can be overwhelming. Some piano stores will tell you that you need to spend over $2000 to have a good piano playing experience, or maybe over $3000, or perhaps you want to stay under $2000 but don't know how far down in price you can go and still get a good piano that will musically satisfy the needs of your child or yourself, or maybe your school or church. It's difficult to know for sure unless your are a trained pianist with years of experience in playing acoustic pianos along with the knowledge of what makes for a good digital piano playing experience.

Then there is all of this new digital piano technology and whether it will be meaningful for you to have in your new digital piano. This could include many instrument sounds, multi-track recording, rhythm training patterns, Bluetooth connectivity, MIDI-USB connectivity, General MIDI song record & playback, LCD display user interface, synthetic ivory touch keys, triple digital sensor key touch, escapement/letoff feature, plastic keys, wood keys, hybrid key action movement, wood soundboard, 12, 14, 16, 24, 26, 30, 40, 60, 100 watts or more of audio power, 2 speakers, 4 speakers, 5, 6, 8 etc, physical modeling piano sound technology, sampling piano sound technology, combination of physical modeling & sampling sound technology, small LED display screen, small LCD display screen, large color touch scree, no display screen, iPad app function control screen, grand piano key action, upright piano key action, half-damper pedaling, continuous detection pedaling, and the list goes on and on. Even that part is a big jungle because you can get tangled up in jargon and explanations by these manufacturers that try to convince you that you need all this stuff when in fact you may not need it at all. 

Yes, if money was no object then you would just buy the most expensive name brand digital piano and be done with it, right? Maybe not because that most expensive digital piano you could get ($15,000US and up may not have the features you really want or need. All of these digital piano manufacturer and dealer lions, tigers, and bears along with trees full of monkeys are making a lot of noise trying to get you to look their way so they can pounce on you and get you buy what they are selling and it just plain makes things scary for a lot of people who really just want to spend the right amount of money and get a very good piano playing experience based on their musical needs, their piano playing experience for themselves or their family members, and be able to have something for many years without growing out of it to soon.

Now I do know that there are a number of digital piano shoppers who have a very limited budget and cannot spend more money than what they have and that's fine. But even in the lowest price range under $500 or under $1000, there are a lot of options now, some good and some not so good, and a few that are just downright bad. Also I find that there are many people driven towards certain brand and models because they like the the cabinet on that digital piano and the way it looks. But as we all know in this world, looks can be deceiving and if you are not careful that so-called nice looking instrument may be a can of musical "worms" in the jungle that will slither around and not play good or sound good but maybe they looked good to begin with. I call that a "PSO" which stands for piano shaped object and that is something that looks like a piano but doesn't come anywhere close to playing and sounding like a real piano. Be careful of those traps because they can definitely come back to bite you when you least expect it.

How about servicing and repairing digital pianos? Some of them do have a bad track record for needing service and repair, especially some of the no-name brands and/or older used digital pianos you may find on the internet or Craigslist. Some people even want to give their older digital pianos away for free and all you have to do is come and get it. That's pretty much like playing roulette and gambling that it will all turn out good when actually there is a better chance that it will all turn out bad and I have seen this happen many times to people who were once again, drawn by the pretty cabinet and not by the capability of the instrument to come close to replicating (even at minimum standards) what it is like to play a real piano.

OK, being a long time piano teacher and pro piano player I know that giving a child a chance to learn to play a piano is one of the greatest things you can do for them so giving them any keyboard or digital piano, regardless of condition or ability is better than having nothing...that's for sure. So I do believe in giving every child an opportunity to learn and practice. But as a parent of piano student child or an adult who wants to learn for themselves, please understand that as the student continues to progress in their playing skills it becomes vitally important to eventually (sooner than later) get a digital piano which allows the student to have good expression on the instrument, good tonal dynamics, smooth playing key action with correctly weighted keys, proper pedal response, and other needed musical feedback in the instrument so that they will not develop bad playing habits. If the student loves music and is showing signs of improvement then those bad playing habits they will certainly pick up because of the inability of that instrument to play right, will cause the student to enter a musical jungle of inabilities cause by the instrument not responding correctly to their playing efforts. It's like trying to sweep the house with an old worn out broom, or cutting food with an old worn out un-sharpened knife, or trying to use new software or apps on an old computer or tablet that cannot support it. If the piano "hardware" (the piano itself) cannot do the job then the user (student) of that hardware will become frustrated and may a lot more easily want to give up playing or simply not progress at all, and that's the last thing you should want for your child and for you.

So do yourself a favor...when shopping for a new digital piano or really any digital piano, consider all these things because having (good) music in your life is something that is an awesome experience for anyone, especially a child and having a quality instrument, regardless of price range, is the kind of thing that every shopper of a digital piano should strive towards. With the maze of digital pianos available today including used ones, along with the jungle of sand-traps and thick vines & trees (the manufacturers and sellers wanting your attention) which can mask the right piano for you, I encourage you to reach out to me, Tim Praskins, Digital Piano Consultant & Expert, and let me know what you are looking at, what you need, and what your budget is, and I will help you decipher what is going on out there in understandable ways so that you can make an informed and confident buying decision which will lead you to many happy musical years for yourself, your family, or for whoever would use the piano. I don't charge a fee to speak with you and playing & teaching music is my passion and that's why I do what I do. That's what playing and listening to music is all about...happiness, joy, meaning, passion, fulfillment, a hobby, or for some people, a life's work that keeps on giving to you and the people around you for the rest of your life!

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

REPORT & REVIEW - New 2018 Home Portable and Cabinet Digital Pianos under $1000. My name is Tim Praskins (top left pic) and I am the foremost expert throughout the US and the world on new digital pianos. I have a very musical family with 2 of my daughters being piano teachers and my wife being an excellent vocalist along with being able to play instruments and sight read music. My son Erik (lower left pic) and I love to help people looking for good advice on new digital pianos. I have been personally working with digital keyboards and pianos professionally for well over 40 years ever since I was a kid (I started very young). I have played on stage with some great players, taught thousands of students in both group and private piano, keyboard, guitar, and organ lessons, and I do consulting on digital pianos for churches, schools, universities, studios, and other big venues along with being an independent product consultant for a variety of digital piano companies. I know what makes for a great piano playing experience and what does not. I have also had years of experience playing name brand acoustic grand and upright pianos including Steinway, Bosendorfer, Kawai, Yamaha, Bechstein, Young Chang, Samick, and other name brands over the years. I teach piano using the latest technology because I believe using educational technology in learning to play piano is helpful and stimulating for students of every age and the digital piano music curriculum out there for iPad, laptop, and other devices can help students in ways that regular traditional curriculum cannot always do. When you combine music educational technology with the current line-up of quality digital pianos that are available on the market today for under $1000, you have a win-win-win situation for the teacher, the student, and the audience, including Mom & Dad.

My definition of a digital piano is any 88-key instrument with fully weighted piano type keys that is either portable or in a furniture type cabinet. A digital home piano would almost always have a built in internal sound system whereas a pro digital stage piano would normally not have a built-in audio speaker system but instead you would need to connect it to an external system or powered monitors. Digital pianos can be big, small, tall, short, on a portable keyboard stand or have their own stand, and have 3 pedals or one pedal. But the common thread is that they are all 88 weighted keys (with a few exceptions) as opposed to semi-weighted or unweighted keys. When it comes to figuring out which digital piano will meet your needs and your budget, that is where things can get difficult and confusing because there are about 30 digital pianos out there in all available brands in the US with 88 weighted keys in a number of configurations and prices under $1000....that's a lot of models to choose from and we're not even taking about new digital pianos over $1000!

So where should you start and how do you know what to spend your hard earned money on? Certainly there are some well known brands such as Yamaha, Casio, Roland, and Kawai that may be better to consider over brands that are not well known industry leaders such as Korg, Kurzweil, Artesia, Suzuki, etc. For the most part, going with the well known brands is a safer bet and generally you will get more for your money, although not in all cases. Another thing to consider is whether it would be better for you get a portable digital piano that is easier to move and can be played on a portable x-stand, or maybe a furniture cabinet digital piano would be more appropriate for the room the piano is going in? Finally, which digital piano actually plays and sounds the most like a real piano in your price range under $1000 and how would you know if it did or did not? That's the tricky part because even though you may want to keep the price down, you also do not want to "short-change" yourself and get a digital piano that you or your child will quickly outgrow!

Below are the new 2018 digital pianos currently available in the US under $1000. I have played all of these pianos and know them well. The best way for you to know what will fit your musical needs and budget is to do your homework and research and then contact me before you buy anything anywhere. My son Erik (he's an experienced digital piano consultant as well) and I will help you figure it out and we expect nothing in return. We do not work for any manufacturer, we don't get paid for our blog, and we do not link you to Amazon so that you can buy anything there. However, once you decide what will work best for you, then we can help you order a variety of new digital pianos for less money than internet or store discount prices incl free shipping, no tax, brand new, with factory warranty. We recommend you do not make a buying decision (in the US) without contacting us first.

It is interesting to note that of the 4 top digital piano manufacturers (who all have their international headquarters in Japan) which include Casio, Yamaha, Roland, and Kawai, none of them have brand new models for under $1000 in 2018 that were not already introduced and available in 2017. This is because digital piano models normally have a life cycle of about 3-4 years depending on brand and model of the instrument and those manufacturers all have recently introduced their new models under $1000, many within the few months of 2017 or in the last year or two, However, this is not to say that new digital pianos under $1000 will still not be introduced later in 2018, perhaps after summer or in the fall. But for now, what is available from these companies in 2018 are very good and have the latest digital piano technology they offer in this price range.

Casio - Casio is definitely in the top 4 digital piano manufacturers worldwide. Their pianos are high quality and offer a big bang for the buck...and that's what makes Casio a big contender for your dollars....a lot of piano for not a lot of money. Their current models include the CDP235R, CDP135, PX160, PX350, CGP700, PX360, PX770, PX870, and PX5S. So they have a total of 9 models under $1000 which is a bunch. Seven of them are portable digital pianos and 2 of them are furniture cabinet type digital pianos. If you want something that looks more like a piano then you would need to choose the PX770 or PX870. With regard to the latest and great digital piano technology and best sounding digital piano in a cabinet under $1000 then it would be the Casio PX870 ($999US internet discount price) over any other furniture style digital piano brand or model under $1000 in my opinion. Please read my review of the PX870 at the following link: Casio PX870 Review

Yamaha - Yamaha is a great manufacturer of both digital and acoustic pianos and many top pro musicians and piano teachers own Yamaha digital pianos. However in my opinion Yamaha is much more competitive in a price range over $2000 as opposed to under $2000 or under $1000. They do make some very good digital pianos under $1000 but in my opinion are outclassed by both Casio, Kawai, and even Roland. But that's OK, you can't be #1 in everything you do:). Yamaha has 6 digital pianos currently available under $1000 including the P71, P45, YPG535*, P115, DGX660, and YDP103. I don't recommend the YPG535 primarily because it does not have piano weighted keys. The keys are "semi-weighted" much like a regular $200 keyboard only with 88-keys. If you have an interest in actually learning to play piano or you already play, then I would not recommend buying the YPG535. As for the other models, there is only one of them which is in a furniture style cabinet and that is the YDP103 at $899US internet discount price. All the others are portable digital pianos with optional stands and pedals. Although the YDP103 is a nice digital piano, it's very basic and the Casio PX770 or the upgraded PX870 is the better way to go for a number of reasons. The most popular Yamaha digital piano under $1000 seems to be the P115 because of its low price and impressive features all at $599US discount price, but you would still need a stand and a better sustain pedal for it.

Roland - Roland is a great music products company and they have made pro stage music products for many years along with an array of digital pianos. However just like Yamaha, Roland is much more competitive with their digital pianos over $2000 as opposed to under $2000 or under $1000. They have just two digital pianos under $1000 in the mainstream consumer market with one of them called the FP30 ($699US internet price) and that one is a portable model, and the other one called the RP102 at $999US discount price. Roland is known for offering a lot of interactive music technology in their digital pianos which is nice to have but overall most people are looking for the best piano playing experience they can get for their price range. In that way when it comes to Roland digital pianos, they do offer an enjoyable piano playing experience although their key actions are a bit more firm (heavier) than the others and their piano sound is a bit more brassy or metallic than the others, but still good and expressive. In my opinion they are better overall than the Yamaha models for the money but not as realistic or impressive as the newer Casio models when it comes to a more natural or organic piano playing experience.

Kawai - Kawai is the only piano company out of the top 4 manufacturers who make only pianos, both digital and acoustic. The other guys make produce many other types of products including drums, guitars, audio equipment, computer related product, motorcycles, watches, calculators, etc. So when it comes to the Kawai company, although they are quite famous in the piano biz worldwide, they are not known outside of that business and they really are a rather small company in comparison the other digital piano manufacturers. However with that being said, the piano product they do make are outstanding instruments and thousands of professional pianists, universities, piano teachers, churches, recording studios, musicians, and piano students own Kawai acoustic upright, grand, and/or digital pianos. Kawai only has 1 digital piano under $1000 and it is a portable model called the ES110 at $729US internet discount price. Even though they have just one model in this price range, it is what I consider to offer the most authentic piano playing experience in a portable digital piano. Kawai does not have a furniture cabinet model under $1000 so the ES110 is your only choice when it comes to Kawai digital pianos. They do offer an optional furniture type stand and triple pedal-board unit so that it can look and behave bit more like a piano but even without the options the ES110 is a big contender for best bang for the buck under $1000 in a portable model.

There is one more digital piano brand that I would recommend for purchase consideration although it is not as well known as the top 4 brands. This brand is called Korg (from Japan) and they have been in business for over 50 years. Korg is a well known keyboard and digital piano brand among pro and studio musicians and they make other music equipment including drum machines, synthesizers, digital organs, recording and pro audio gear, computer music products, tuners, and metronomes. I have reviewed Korg digital home pianos in the past and with a few exceptions have not been impressed at all. However, Korg now has two new home digital pianos that I have played and impressed with but both models sell for over $1000 and are called the C1 and G1, however the C1 is just slightly over $1000 with a $1049US discount price. So I do recommend them and have played the C1 many times. I will have a review on it (and the G1) soon so stay tuned for more info.

Other than the pianos I have mentioned in this review I would recommend you stay away from the "no-name" brands that are out there including Williams, Artesia, Gewa, Suzuki, Medeli, etc. Some of these brands are sold by Guitar Center or Sam Ash as "house or exclusive brands" and others are offered by Costco which generally are low price but I overall do not recommend them as instruments. Also there are other brands available in Europe and Asia that are not available in the US but most of those brands are "private label" meaning they are cheaper technology made in China and renamed for consumers in other world markets and many but not all) of those pianos are of poor quality and not recommended. Although all of these pianos can "look good" on the outside, they are clearly inferior in my opinion on the inside when it comes to offering a good, natural piano playing experience. Extra "bells & whistles" such as drum rhythm patterns, 100's of instrument sounds, LCD color display screens, etc, are sometimes fun to have, you should not let that, and the way the piano looks, dictate your dollars spent. Besides, generally speaking you do get what you pay for so if the price is cheap then there is likely a good reason for that and it's usually not getting you better quality, regardless of what the manufacturer says in their advertising. Just remember, when at all possible, stay away from PSO's (aka: Piano Shaped Objects) that look like pianos, may be attractive, might have a lot of buttons or functions, but in terms of actually playing like a real piano or even coming close to it...forget about it...or as they say in New York City and part of New Jersey...fuhgeddaboudit!

My recommendation is that you think carefully before you buy any digital piano and also consider possibly spending a bit more money so that you won't need to trade out of your piano, especially if you (or your child) progress in your piano playing skills and then find that your current digital piano cannot keep up with you. In reality, you could probably be happy on any of my recommended brands and their models but depending on what your musical goals are, some of them do offer more for the money. A piano can last many, many years and your can look at it as an investment in your (or your child's) musical future. So when you finally decide to purchase one, make sure you do it right so you won't regret your decision. You can also contact me (and my son, Erik) by phone (if you live in the US) or email and we can help you with free personal piano advice without obligation because we enjoy helping people & talking about pianos. I have been doing this for people throughout the US and the world for many decades and am the foremost authority on the subject of new (and used) digital pianos.

Speaking of "used" digital pianos, some people think they might get a better deal if they buy a used digital piano at a lower price but in reality that rarely happens. As digital piano technology changes, many of the new ones play and sound more authentically than ever while the older ones are more artificial and noticeably less realistic. Also the new ones are really not that much more money than used digital pianos plus used digital pianos are almost always sold "as is" so you take a big risk that they will actually work correctly or for a long period of time. If a repair should be needed then it could be very expensive if you can even get replacement parts at all of find a service tech in your are to repair it. A used digital piano can also have "intermittent" electronic or keyboard issues that may not show up all the time so if you buy a used digital piano this may happen to you and you would not know it. Then one day you go to play it and it doesn't play right or doesn't play at all. My suggestion is...buy a new digital piano unless the price of a good used digital piano is so low that you are practically getting it for free:).

Check out my blog for individual digital piano reviews, info on piano lessons, shopping tips, and other info that I believe you will find useful. Go to my "Search My Reviews" to find my reviews of the various digital pianos and if you don't see what you want, I am always working on and publishing new reviews so it may be up there soon. You can always contact me directly as I likely have played the digital piano you are asking about even though you may not see it yet on my blog. Playing piano is one of the most fulfilling and relaxing things that anyone can do and I can personally attest to that fact along with my entire family. Just be sure that you give yourself and/or your kids the chance to express themselves musically with a digital piano...you won't regret it!

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

🎹 REVIEW - Yamaha NU1X Hybrid Digital Upright Piano - Recommended - The Yamaha piano company has been producing acoustic and digital pianos for many decades and is one of the premier piano companies in the world. Many superstar musicians, piano teachers, and universities own and play Yamaha pianos and in fact I own a couple of their pianos and use them in my large teaching studio. Yamaha is certainly not the only good digital piano company out there but there is no disputing they are in the top 3 companies making acoustic and digital pianos in the market today. It comes as no surprise that of the 4 top digital piano companies in the world including Roland, Casio, and Kawai, Yamaha is the only company that produces a new full hybrid piano model called the AvantGrand NU1X ($5999US discount internet price for polished ebony and $6299US for the polished white color) which comes closer to replicating the actual piano key action playing experience of a real upright piano than any other model on the market today. In fact, even though the NU1X is in an upright form, the key action response is more like that of a real grand piano in terms of "feel" in my opinion and the way it moves. The Yamaha AvantGrand series includes the NU1X with the "U' signifying "upright" piano and the other Yamaha hybrid digital piano models are called the "N" series (N1, N2, N3X) which are designed to replicate the grand piano experience, but those models sell for well above $10,000US.

real upright piano key action

So what is a hybrid digital piano and why are so many digital piano manufacturers calling some of their higher priced digital pianos...Hybrids? Well, that fact is that for years every digital manufacturer has been trying to figure out how to produce a digital piano that gets as close as possible to actually playing and sounding like a real organic high quality acoustic piano because that has always been the goal. But the technology available over the years to accomplish this task has been limited and the manufacturers could only do so much with what they had. The best way to get as close as possible to a real piano in a digital piano is to use acoustic piano parts such as wood keys, wood soundboard, wood cabinet, full functioning actual acoustic piano key actions, and so-on and mix it with the digitally produced piano sounds from a real piano. The more parts (moving & stationary) a manufacturer can take from a real piano and put it into a digital piano, the more that digital piano will become like a real acoustic piano...at least theoretically.😉

Unlike any other digital piano in this price range, the Yamaha NU1X actually takes a real acoustic key action (built by Yamaha in their acoustic piano division) including all 88 individual wood keys and all moving parts for each key that would normally be in an acoustic upright piano, and they put that into the NU1X. In this price range there are a few manufacturers that offer a 100% wooden key or a partial wooden key, but beyond the wood key itself there are no other real authentic acoustic piano moving parts in the other brands. This is probably because it takes approximately 59 separate key action parts per key including all the small original parts that go from the key up to the individual string in a real piano. So if you took all 59 parts in the key and hammer action (per key) and multiplied that number by 88 keys (total keys on a piano), you would have 5,192 total key action parts in an upright piano of which most of those parts are connected together and move in a specific way when you depress the key. Yikes!...that's a crazy number of parts but this is one of the reasons why regular new acoustic pianos are so expensive because there are so many individual parts involved not counting the cabinet parts, pin block parts, tuning pin parts (for the strings), soundboard parts (for the strings), etc. Also, because there are so many wood and organic parts in an acoustic piano and in this NU1X, there are more natural occurring tonal vibrations which can be felt by the player as they play the piano. As I said earlier, the more original wood and organic parts from a real piano that are in the digital piano, the more organic and natural the piano playing experience will be.

The new NU1X key action has all these hundreds and thousands of parts that work together in harmony with each minus the actual felt hammers, wood soundboard, strings, and string parts (because there are no strings inside the NU1X) since the piano sound is produced electronically and then comes out a special internal speaker system specifically designed for this piano. So there are no strings, no soundboard to amplify the strings (don't really need one), and because there are no strings the NU1X never needs tuning. So the question is...why is it necessary for Yamaha to build a digital piano with all of these 59 parts per key (minus the actual felt hammers, etc) when most digital pianos don't have all these connected. complex parts? There are a number of digital pianos that do have wooden keys which move pretty well but the other parts of the key action are not there like they are in the NU1X. So does that really matter? The answer is that it depends on what your musical goal is and how much you are willing to spend to get there. A piano key action is the most critical part of any acoustic or digital piano and the more precise the key action is, the more precisely you can reproduce the actual piano playing experience you would otherwise get from a real high quality acoustic piano such as the famous Yamaha U1 or U3 upright piano which has been a staple for many piano teachers and students for lots of years, but there is a very high cost for those pianos and they need maintenance, tunings, etc...and they are also heavy.

If the the key action is awesome in a digital piano then all you need next is a great piano sound chip with authentic piano sounds coming through a high quality internal audio system where the piano sounds behave "organically" along with responsive pedaling to control those piano sounds for sustain and/or soft playing. Ultimately this is what the Yamaha NU1X is all about...an acoustic piano playing experience without the strings and maintenance! No tuning, ever, the ability to control volume with a single master volume knob if you want to play more quietly which you cannot do on a real acoustic piano, using stereo headphones to play silently so as to not disturb others in the room or in the house which you cannot do on a real acoustic pianos, and finally having the ability to interface with external devices for music education, on-line piano lessons, and/or song writing, etc using computers, iPads, etc.

When it comes to describing the feel and movement of the NU1X I would classify it as a lighter, fast moving, responsive key action that offers a great deal of expression. In fact the NU1X key action is quicker, lighter, and even more responsive that the Yamaha Clavinova CLP digital pianos...but it should be that way because it is designed to replicate the "real thing" and is also in a higher price range that most of the Clavinova CLP series of digital pianos with the exception of the CLP685. I happen to like a quick responsive key action and although there is one or two of the Yamaha Clavinova CLP models which offer a very satisfying key action response for most people, the NU1X goes way beyond the CLP models into the next level of authenticity of expression because every single key movement up & down is more nuanced and more controllable because of all those original key action parts that are part of this model. The keys are actual all-wood keys with extremely durable and long lasting acrylic resin key tops for the white keys (just like the real) and you can also feel the escapement/let-off movement in the key action when you play the keys softly. In my opinion the expense of this actual acoustic piano action is worth the investment if your looking to be at the highest level possible of authenticity in a key action for an upright style digital piano. I will say that the keys themselves when they move up & down are slightly noisier than the CLP Clavinova models but this is quite normal for actual acoustic piano key actions because they are built and installed differently and the "keybed" is different and life-like. This "noise" is not distracting at all when you are playing the piano normally, but when you have the piano turned down to a low volume, then you can hear the increased key noise as compared to the Clavinova pianos, but again, the noise is not bad, not distracting to me, and completely normal. Real piano key actions (like the NU1X action) in real acoustic pianos do the same thing only those pianos are always loud because there is no volume control knob to turn down the volume so you can never play them quietly and therefore you'll never hear key noise because it gets drowned out! I bet you didn't know that?👍😊

OK, so there is a very impressive key action in the model, but how does it translate to triggering and playing the piano sound in a way that reacts like a real piano for loud and soft, mellow to bright, playing the key lightly to get a delicate piano tone or playing the keys aggressively to get that thunderous piano sound, all of which is necessary for tonal dynamics and expression? The way Yamaha handles this is by using non contact "optical fiber" as opposed to the standard physical rubber key contacts under the piano keys as all the other models and brands of digital pianos have. This allows for a more precise piano sound response without needing to be limited to just 3 key contacts under each key. With non-key contact optical fiber the piano does not need to rely on a limited number of physical sensors like other digital pianos but instead has unlimited potential when it comes to allowing electronic sensing of the key/hammer movement without limitations. When the key action is moving, because of precise digital optical measurements in real time, there is digital recognition of hammer movements at many more velocities than you would get on a standard physical key contact under each key. The optical sensors are triggered when the metal tubes or rods which are secured in a hard plastic housing (which take the place of the felt hammers) move back & forth in the path of the optical senors so the piano sound is triggered and this type of action also eliminates wear & tear of normal physical key contacts which then offers a longer life for the keyboard action. This technology provides more advanced key key repetition recognition and more accurate key movement sensing which is very impressive and results in a more natural piano playing experience as you would get on a real acoustic upright piano. It's important to remember that there are no strings in digital pianos and they have to rely on key contacts to send electronic messages to the digital piano sound chip to produce the piano sound which is then heard through the internal speakers. So when you consider all of the authentic piano parts this NU1X key action has combined with optical sensor technology for recognizing what the key movement is actually doing along with how and when the piano sound comes out, you have a piano playing experience that can be considered "real" which can easily satisfy beginners through advanced players in my opinion.

A few other things worth mentioning with regard to the NU1X key action is the fact the keys are properly weighted and graded in weight from bass through treble. There are actual physical weights in each key so that the bass keys have more weight as opposed to the middle octaves and upper treble octaves which have less weight, just like real acoustic upright and grand pianos. Also, unlike plastic key actions in digital pianos, each key in the NU1X is cut, installed, and operates independently of the keys next to it so that every key has an independent see-saw movement and is also more stable because each key is placed over an individual center metal pin so that the motion of that key can be isolated from any key around it plus that type of construction and key installation allows each key to function in tight formation one after the next without the lateral key movement that can occur in some non-wood digital piano key actions. All of this is to say that the key action in the NU1 is the "real deal" and the only other digital piano key actions made like like out of any brand are the much higher price Yamaha AvantGrand "N" series which go to the next level in replicating full size grand piano key actions.

As for the piano sound chip and the dynamic tonal realism that people are looking for, in my opinion the NU1X does not disappoint. In the prior model NU1, I was not very happy with the piano sounds because I felt they were just too artificial relative to what I had expected and what a good acoustic piano actually sounds like. However, in this new improved model NU1X, Yamaha completely redesigned their piano sound technology by using upgraded sound samples coming from the top Yamaha acoustic concert grand and the top European Bosendorfer (from Vienna Austria) concert grand combined with a new physical modeling process which Yamaha calls VRM or Virtual Resonance Modeling. VRM allows for more organic elements of a natural piano sound to be incorporated and mixed into the actual piano sample so that you will hear vibrations and tonal reproductions from the wooden cabinet of a real piano, from the soundboard of a real piano, from extra long natural sustain decay time using pedaling like a on a real high quality piano, and even from sympathetic overtones and resonances you would hear in a real acoustic piano. With this Virtual Resonance Modeling technology combined with Yamaha's new higher quality piano samples in stereo with a maximum 256 notes of polyphony and having all this sound come through a new improved internal sound system (which it needed), the NU1X rises to the occasion in my opinion of producing possibly the most natural feeling, natural sounding acoustic piano playing experience from a digital piano in any brand under $6000US internet selling price. It is interesting to note that the piano sound chip in the NU1X are the same sounds that are in their CLP Clavinova series digital pianos. So should you want to spend a bit less money but want a quality piano playing experience with those same upgraded acoustic piano sounds from the NU1X, then definitely check out the Clavinova series, especially the CLP645 in polished ebony cabinet which sells on the internet at $3999US discount price.

One more important area of the piano with regard to piano sound are the three pedals which include damper-sustain, sostenuto, and soft. Without good responsive pedals that also physically operate properly, your piano music especially for those who play at an intermediate through advanced levels, will be noticeably less realistic, have shorter sustain-decay times, and your music will sound more artificial. The pedal system that Yamaha is using in the new NU1X also has the new GP (Grand Piano) Responsive Damper Pedal which the previous NU1 model did not have. The most important aspect of the pedals is the damper-sustain (the right pedal) which should enabls the piano sound to sustain at proper levels so it won't be choppy and therefore will have a more beautiful tone. On digital pianos when playing a note and holding the right pedal down, the damper-sustained piano tone will be heard and then eventually fade out over time which is commonly called "decay time" or how much time it takes for the sound to fade away. On real acoustic pianos that decay time is relative to how large the piano is, the size of the strings, and which notes are being played including bass notes, middle octaves, or upper treble octaves. The fade-out time for the piano sound while holding down the pedal can be anywhere from about 10 seconds or slightly more on the higher treble notes up to about 30 seconds and more on the middle to lower bass notes. That's a pretty long time but is necessary to achieve good harmonics, overtones, sympathetic vibrations, and resonances and to make your music sound fuller. On many poor quality digital pianos the sustain decay time can be anywhere from 3-10 seconds total sustain time from upper to lower octaves on the keyboard. That kind of poor response makes the digital piano sound very artificial as well as sounding like a toy. The NU1X is up to the standards of a real acoustic piano in this area of sustain-decay time with very long fade-out times on both the upper and lower notes so your music can be more natural and that's something which is personally important to me when I play piano. Not only do the physical pedals work well on the NU1X going up & down because of the new GP response, but they do what they are supposed to do in replicating a high quality pedaling experience that you would get on a real high quality acoustic piano. The pedals are made of brass, are spaced out correctly, and are the proper size. It offers the grand piano damper pedal experience along with different levels of physical resistance in the pedal as you press down on it. Beyond that, the NU1X also has a half-damper sustain function which enables the player to have a variety of sustain levels from short to long depending on what position your pedal is in when it is depressed, and will give you a lot more control over the music. So when it comes to pedaling, in my opinion the NU1X pedals feel good without being too heavy and those pedals (including sostenuto and soft) respond well in giving the playing the type of control over the music that advanced players look for.

There are piano shoppers out there who tell me they don't need much more functionality and features in a digital piano other than they really just want the piano to just be a great piano and technologically maybe offer a few more things such as some additional piano and instrument sounds, a bit of recording capability, an electronic metronome, and some device connectivity to interface with a computer, iPad, etc. Basically that is what the NU1X is all about...a minimalistic approach to technology but in a way that still offers enough useful features for most people but not much more. The control panel is to the left side of the keyboard and has 9 very small hard buttons on it to control the user interface. The control panel uses a small LED display screen which displays numerical numbers and very basic letters to signify what functions or features you have selected. As someone who likes and appreciates digital piano technology, I personally do not like the user interface experience in the NU1X and it was pretty much the same thing on the previous NU1. In my opinion the buttons are much too small, to hard and firm to press down easily, and the LED screen is using old technology in trying to get you to understand which feature you are actually using. With all the technology, buttons, and display screens that Yamaha has at its disposal in other digital piano products, you would think that they would have done a better job in this area with the new NU1X model...but they did not.

With regard to pressing buttons or having display screens on the piano, I know that some people will say..."I really don't care about the user operational experience of the piano because I just want to play the piano and not much more. But in this higher price range and given where we are with improved technology these days, in my opinion there really is no excuse why Yamaha could not have devoted more attention to the user control panel and maybe just put in the same, more advanced control panel they already have in their new Clavinova CLP series of digital pianos, which is very nice and easy to navigate (even if Yamaha had to modify it just a bit). As far as I am concerned, that would have been a perfect solution in allowing the user to have a more intuitive and satisfying way of using the features of the NU1X as opposed to making it more difficult to use and also making the piano look "old & tired" with regard to regurgitating old control panel technology because it was cheaper or easier to do. Yes, I know...Yamaha probably wanted to make this piano look as "minimalistic" as possible like they did in their previous NU1 model. But they could have also accomplished this task in a different and more updated way that would have been a lot more satisfying. The piano already costs big dollars so how much more could it have been to update the display screen, buttons, and user interface?...definitely not much more and it would have been worth it because once a person buys this piano it's not likely they are going to buy another piano for a very long time...if ever again. When I see so many good improvements in this new model when it comes to the actual piano playing experience and then Yamaha has to stick in its old, unintuitive technology when it comes to the control panel user interface, I just don't understand why they would not want to update it but still keep it minimalistic in appearance? Yes, you can still access the features of this piano using the controls they have now, but that is not the point. Oh well, I guess you can't have everything but I was really hoping Yamaha would come out with an impressive change to that area of the piano because they already have the newer technology in other models, but they did not include it in the new NU1X.

OK...so now on to some other features of this piano which includes having adjustable touch sensitivity, reverb/echo effects to add more of a large room or hall effect on the piano sound, a 1-track 10 song MIDI recorder although I wish it would have been a least a 2-track MIDI recorder for separate left & right hand recording, a useful 1-track wav file audio recorder (which was not on the previous model) so that you can take a recording of yourself and transfer it through a USB flash drive inserted into the piano to then play on your computer or convert it to an MP3 file to play on your iPhone, iPad, etc. There is also an adjustable digital metronome for help with rhythm and timing along with tempo control, the ability to transpose electronically to any key, intelligent acoustic control, a stereophonic optimizer, and having a total of 15 instrument sounds 5 of which are acoustic piano tones, 3 electric piano tones, 2 different classical harpsichord tones, 1 celeste, 2 pipe organs, 1 pop/jazz organ, and a piano-strings layered combination sound which is very nice. The prior model NU1 only had 5 total instrument sounds so the NU1X is definitely an improvement over the prior model in terms of the total sounds as well as the quality and authenticity of those instrument sounds. The master control volume is located just underneath the front of the piano on the left side so that you don't see a big knob or slider control on the control panel itself which is a nice touch.

On the NU1X as in the previous model, you can use stereo headphones to practice in privacy. But in the new NU1X as well as the new Clavinova 600 series,Yamaha has developed a new headphone technology called binaural sampling which simulates an audio multi-dimensional effect in which the result is like hearing the piano sound all around your head (as if you were not wearing headphones) rather than directly into your ears like normal headphone sound. This special effect is the result of Yamaha using a variety of specialty microphones to record the actual piano sound experience coming out of their top CFX acoustic grand piano and then processing that sound in a way to where you hear it through stereo headphones (any brand of headphones) like it would sound in an acoustic environment. It a very cool listening experience and only applies to the CFX piano sound and not to any other sounds in the NU1X.

As far as connectivity goes, the NU1X has USB output to external device (computer, iPad, etc), USB flash drive memory stick input, 2 stereo headphone jacks, MIDI in.out connectors, stereo mini audio input jack, and dual auxiliary audio output jacks. A new feature on this model is audio Bluetooth connectivity. There are a few different digital pianos offering this feature these days including all off the Yamaha CLP Clavonva pianos with the exception of the first two models. Bluetooth audio connectivity enables you to run your iTunes/ Google tunes through the piano speaker system wirelessly without need for cables so that you can hear your prerecorded audio song files coming through the piano speaker system. This is a very impressive feature because then you don't have cables connected to or on the piano to get in the way of the cabinet and the internal speaker system in the NU1X really makes the songs sound great and you can play along with them live on the NU1X or through the headphones too. So when it comes to connectivity this piano has what most piano shoppers want...lots of flexibility.

The quality of the internal speaker system in the NU1X is far superior to the previous NU1 in my opinion. In the past model I did not particularly like the sound coming through the speaker system because it sounded artificial to me and not at all like a real piano. In the NU1X Yamaha really improved that part of the playing experience with a more robust speaker system offering better components, more audio power with 4 speakers going into 180 watts of power. There are speakers at the top front of the piano pointing out to the player as well as large speakers below the keyboard inside the piano coming out down by your legs as you're sitting down. I really was surprised how clear, lifelike, and encompassing the piano sound was when I played the NU1X through its speaker system as compared to the older NU1 and I believe the piano sound coming from this piano will be more than enough to fill a big room without any problem.

Speaking of sound, in an acoustic piano there are sound vibrations which come through the body of a piano coming up through the wooden keys when the hammers strike the strings and all those piano sound vibrations can be "felt" by your fingers as you touch the keytops. In other words, the keys themselves in an acoustic piano actually vibrate just a bit because of the strings causing vibrations throughout the body of the piano which can be felt by your fingers as they sit on top of the keys. All those organic wood parts that connect each key to the hammer in a regular piano are resonating when the strings are vibrating and being heard which gives the player a much more organic connection to the piano. So not only can you hear the piano but you can feel what you are playing through the keys. The NU1X actually duplicates this experience because of the authentic wood key action and how the speaker system resonates the piano sound through the body of the piano. I never did get that tactile feeling from the Yamaha Clavinova digital models because their key actions are completely different, but I do get that feeling through the AvantGrand pianos including the new NU1X.

I really do like the design and look of the NU1X cabinet at approx 40" tall x 60" wide x 18" deep and this new model looks just like a real acoustic piano although the weight of this model being only 240lbs is definitely lighter than an actual acoustic piano of the same height which weighs approximately 350lbs. I think the design of the NU1X is quite elegant with its contemporary lines combined with a few nice curves along the outside of it. In my opinion the NU1X is an outstanding mix of just enough features to keep most people very happy who like technology along with a cabinet design and finish which offers an expensive look to it while keeping the measurements and weight in just the right place that work for most rooms. The back of the piano has a full complete back to it so that you cannot see through the piano from the front of it so it does not give off the appearance that it is really a digital piano. Other than a few buttons and a simple LED screen on the piano which goes dark in a few seconds after you select a function button, the piano takes on an acoustic look to it and can fool someone into believing that the NU1X is really just a nice looking, great feeling, beautiful sounding acoustic piano which is always in tune. But for its $6000 price tag, it better be nice and do something special because you can buy some pretty nice new acoustic pianos and other digital pianos for that money! So why would someone want this piano when there are so many other options? That's a pretty easy question to answer because the NU1X is the only digital piano on the market in its price range which has an authentic "complete" (except for the felt hammers & strings) acoustic piano key action inside of it along with being able to produce a very impressive grand piano sound with traditional full pedaling with no tuning ever and the ability to be played quietly or silently. Being able to connect with external devices is also a big plus for many people. You cannot do any of that with a regular acoustic piano in this price range and other digital pianos such as Yamaha CLP and CSP models are great as are some Roland, Kawai , and Casio digital pianos, but those models are for other purposes and are different in a number of ways. So if you want something simple to use that is very attractive and closely approximates a real upright acoustic piano key action that can produce a grand piano sound experience, then the Yamaha NU1X may be the perfect piano for you.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

REVIEW - Casio AP470 Celviano Digital Piano - Recommended - The Casio piano company has just come out with their new 2018 model AP470 digital piano ($1499US internet discount price offered in matte black, matte walnut brown, matte white) which replaces the previous model AP460. The AP460 was a very popular model for Casio because it offered many of the features and functions that piano shoppers are looking for, but at a lower price than their competition. The AP470 goes a few steps further in upgrading the piano sound chip, key action, pedaling, and speaker system along with adding some new, impressive interactive features and all of this at the same price as the previous model. Some times upgrades are not very noticeable in new models and sometimes they are. In this case as compared to the previous AP460, the upgrades make the piano playing experience even more enjoyable, and that's what really counts. After personally playing this new model many times, here are some of the main reasons (below) why the new AP470 digital home piano is, in my opinion, one of the best digital pianos under $1500 that you can buy if you are looking for a very satisfying piano playing experience from beginner level all the way up to advanced playing levels along with having a beautifully designed furniture style cabinet.

The piano key actions in Casio digital pianos are very consistent in being able to replicate a nicely balanced and piano weighted key movement with very good response under the fingers. I have always liked the way the keys move in terms of weight and speed and I know that many people at all skill levels agree with me. There are 3 key sensors under each key which allow for better key repetition recognition than some other digital pianos along with a more natural graded weight as opposed to brands that have keys that are either too light or much too firm. One of the new improvements on the AP470 is the new proprietary synthetic ebony and ivory keytops that are smoother and more lifelike as compared to real ebony and ivory. This improved synthetic material allows for the fingers to move even more quickly and have a better feel under the fingers than previous models. So when it comes to the physical keys themselves along with the way they move, the AP470 is a pleasure to play and most people will like it very much. I will also say that all piano keys exhibit a bit of noise when the keys move and this is certainly true for the Casio AP470, especially if the piano sound is at lower volumes. But real acoustic piano keys are a bit noisy when they move up & down, but because real pianos are always so loud and there is no volume control to play acoustic pianos quietly, the loud piano volume covers up the key noise and you won't hear it. This is a same thing that happens in digital pianos only digital pianos can be played quietly so then you more easily hear the keys move, but that's fairly normal. With a full 256-note polyphony piano processing power so notes don't drop out when playing many notes and instruments at one time, and a fast action 3-sensor responsive hammer weighted & graded key action, overall I believe the Casio key action in the AP470 is more natural than ever before.

The Casio AP470 has a brand new piano sound chip which is improved over the previous AP460 in a number of ways. They added a new custom made New York Steinway concert grand piano sound sample which is quite unique to find in a digital piano and definitely different than the more traditional Casio acoustic grand sample they have been using in their digital pianos. Not only is the New York Steinway piano reproduction a very good one with lots of expression, but the tonal consistency and dynamic tonal nuances of that sound is quite impressive and I believe those people who play at higher skill levels will really appreciate that. There are many more elements of a natural acoustic sound in the AP470 sound chip than can be found in many other brands and models of new digital pianos in this price range, especially as compared to the Yamaha Arius pianos in this same price range. But Yamaha has not upgraded their piano sound chip in a number of years so they need to come out with something new to compete with the new Casio Celviano pianos. The acoustic piano sounds have even more natural expression with a wider dynamic tonal range for an evenly balanced transitional tone from mellow to bright when playing any notes from low octaves to higher octaves. A lot of digital pianos have more compressed piano samples so that the tonal expression when playing different notes are not very good and have a narrow range of tone from mellow to bright as a person play lightly and then increases velocity and playing harder with more force. Tonal and volume expression is what music is all about and the musical expression you get from that is extremely important. The Casio AP470 is quite impressive in this way and goes way beyond most digital pianos under $2000 when it comes to playing with expression and putting out many more "musical colors" than digital pianos normally can do.

In the AP470 there are other piano and instrument sounds giving it a total of 22 sounds including 9 different acoustic piano sound variations, 4 different electric pianos, harpsichord, 2 string symphony variations, 4 organ sounds, and a string bass to be used on the lower part of the keyboard. But it's the piano sounds that most people focus on and want to play. Casio has 2 distinct sound samples which include the New York Steinway grand and their traditional European grand (which is quite nice and very expressive) along with variations of each of those sound samples giving you nine piano variations total as I mentioned. The other non-piano instrument sounds are actually very realistic and in my opinion all the sounds that the AP470 offers are more authentic than what Yamaha or Roland has to offer with those specific sounds in this price range.

Another part of piano playing that is sometimes overlooked but is essential to any piano are the pedals. Although there are 3 pedals on a regular piano, it's the right damper-sustain pedal that is used 95% of the time by most people playing piano and the other two pedals are seldom used although the left soft pedal is used in playing piano some of the time depending what your piano playing skill level is and what song you are playing. When you press down the pedals then those pedals need to respond correctly in terms of how much weight from your foot it takes to press the pedal, how the pedals move, and on the right pedal, how is triggers the damper sustained tone. Also, when it comes to the right pedal and the sustained piano tone, when you hold down the pedal and play a piano sound in the middle of the keyboard, that piano sound should fade out on its own after a little while when you are holding down the pedal. On a regular piano it may take 15-20 seconds or more before the piano sound fades out when you hold down the sustain pedal. However, on many digital pianos, especially the "cheap" off-brands, that piano sound may fade out after only 4-6 seconds which makes the music sound choppy and not at all like it is supposed to sound. Unlike other brands and models or digital pianos from the past which had short decay times, the new AP470 has noticeably longer sustain pedal decay times for its acoustic piano sounds which can be as long as 15 seconds or more of sustain-decay time. This is due to a big increase in the power that comes from the new digital piano sound chip in the AP470 model. The increased piano sample memory is a significant improvement and really shows up especially when you play at more intermediate or advanced levels where you will be expecting and needing a better performance from your piano. The Casio AP470 is the first model in the 400 series that has this improved performance and something that I was personally excited about. Now instead of the music coming out with less character and less resonance, the new AP470 brings out more tonal character through the new sustaining ability and allows for much better sound reproduction along with being able to apply better playing technique with your music so that the result is a more natural, more organic piano sound experience that is very satisfying. In addition to that, The AP470 also has the "half-damper" feature allowing for a variable amount of pedal sustain depending upon how far down you press the damper-sustain pedal. So unlike some other brands & models out there which only have on/off sustain, the Casio AP470 has the realistic half-damper feature which is similar to the way real pianos do it. So when it comes to pedaling, sustain-decay time, variable sustain time (half-damper), and resonance, the AP470 really hits a home-run. Plus, the full length brass pedals on this model reproduces what real piano pedals feel like which is helpful in replicating the real piano playing experience.

When it comes to extra features, the AP470 has no shortage of other things it can do. It has a key transpose function, touch response control for hard, normal, of soft, octave shift for instrument sounds, brilliance control to apply brighter or mellower tone to the piano sounds, a digital metronome with tempo & time signature control, layer & splitting any two sounds, chorus effect to add to electric piano sounds to give them more body and presence, relative volume control between layers or splits, and a duet mode allowing for two people (parent-student, teacher-student, siblings, etc) to play the same song with the same notes simultaneously by electronically splitting the 88 notes into two separate 44-note keyboards independent of each other, the Casio AP470 offers some cool features but these features are also typically found in other brands and models of name brand digital pianos in this price range.

The unique proprietary features offered on this model include having a "Concert Play" music library incorporating 10 fully orchestrated popular classical songs in audio wav files built into the piano for playalong where the songs can be controlled for speed to slow it down without affecting the pitch of the song, part mute, separate volume control to balance the song playback with the live play volume of the piano, and 3-step learning in a way that makes even a pure beginner sound great. I have personally used this concert-play system and Casio did a great job of offering beautifully orchestrated music in a play-along learning format that you just do not get on other digital pianos, especially in this price range. Another exclusive feature is the Hall Simulator which allows the piano to resonate just like it would be heard in specific buildings or structures like a large Dutch Church, A old French Cathedral, or Concert Hall. These special "hall" effects give the piano sound a rich tonal quality to them like you would hear if a grand piano was playing in those actual buildings...big, reverberation, resonating tone that make the piano sounds on the AP470 bigger than they really are. Sometimes these type of effects really add "presence" to the piano sound and other times they are not necessary depending on the type of music you are playing. But either way, this feature can be useful and enjoyable to have.

The AP470 also has two digital recorders; one being a 2-track MIDI recorder allowing for independent recording of left and right hand for practicing songs and then playing them back one hand at a time. This is a very useful technique for properly learning a piece of music and being able to actually listen back to your left and right hand part separately and see how it sounded and then also play both parts back simultaneously to hear how both parts sound together as they should be. This is a great feature and I use this type of recording method when teaching students how to recognize their mistakes while they were playing the lesson song. The 2nd recording feature is a 1-track audio wav file recording which allows you to record the song in one "take" or track with that song being recorded in CD quality as a audio wav file. Once this recording is done and you like it then you can save it on a USB flash drive that you can plug into the piano. You could then take that audio file and play it through your computer to hear how you sounded "live" or even make an audio MP3 file from it to play on your personal iPhone or iPad mobile or tablet device. You can also save a library of audio wav file songs that you recorded on the piano to a USB flash drive so that you can create a library of recorded songs for playback at a later date. This is also true of the 2-track MIDI recordings which can also be saved on the USB flash drive.

For 2018 Casio has done something quite special for their new digital pianos and designed their first "controller" app for digital tablet (iPad, etc) called Chordana Play so that you can control the functions and features of the AP470 through a USB connection from an intuitive user interface on your iPad color touch screen instead of needing to always rely on less intuitive controls on the piano itself. For many years Casio and other digital piano companies have stuffed all kinds of sounds and features into their digital pianos which required a lot of buttons, sliders and other hardware on the piano to operate correctly. However, because of consumer demand, digital piano companies wanted to reduce the physical and electronic "clutter" on their digital pianos so that the cabinets would look more streamlined and minimalistic to give those cabinets a more natural piano look to them. To accomplish this goal the manufacturers put many of their functions and features in a menu in the piano accessed  by a single function button and pressing a specific key on the piano to trigger that function. Some other functions were accessed by pressing a button multiple times to get the function you were looking for. To really know what feature you were selecting you needed to sometimes go into the owners manual to find a chart for these features and look at that somewhat cryptic chart to see where the functions were located on the keys. There are certain digital piano companies that still do this on many of their models and some shoppers don't care but many shoppers do care about getting a digital piano which is easier and more user friendly to operate and maintains a minimalist appearance. To balance out making the digital piano look nice along with having fewer buttons but still offering many cool, useful features that need to be easily accessed, a few different digital piano manufacturers have recently come out with proprietary "controller apps" designed to let you access and interact with the controls of the piano through your iPad tablet. If you don't have a digital tablet then you can still certainly access all the cool "extra" functions on the AP470 but you just have to work a bit harder to find and use them 😀.

After testing this Casio Chordana Play app out in person on the AP470, in my opinion Casio has really done a spectacular job designing this new multi-use controller app for tablet because not only does it offer very nicely laid out and engaging controls for the functions on the piano, but it also offers additional interactive technology including Music Score & Piano Roll with follow-along songs for learning and music fun. For the AP470 you can select all the instrument sounds with the Chordana Play app, control the volumes of different set-ups, use the special 2-track recorder and talked about earlier and operate it much more easily, easily change transpose key, change touch sensitivity control, octave shift, select and play the music library and Concert-Play songs, and so much more. You can even bring up music notation to read on your tablet while playing the songs from it and there's so much more you can do as well...all from the large color touchscreen on your iPad. If you don't already have a digital tablet (ie: iPad), buying this new Casio AP470 is a very good excuse to go get one. You don't have to buy the latest greatest iPad (tablet) to use with the piano...even some slightly older models will work just fine as long as the operating system is brought up-to-date.

With regard to the internal speaker system and internal sound projection, the AP470 really shines in this area based on my personal experience with it. First of all, it has stereo amplification of 40 watts going into 2 speakers which offers a good amount of power and 2 more speakers than what most digital pianos in this price range offer. Beyond that, the AP470 offers a unique piano sound projection system by designing this piano with a top lid that can be propped up and kept open to more easily project the sound towards the player rather than have the sound contained and boxed into the piano where the speakers are only underneath the piano pointing down which is the case on all the other popular digital pianos under $1500 out there. With this speaker projection "open lid" feature, the piano sound has more presence coming out more clearly towards the player to enhance the listening experience. This kind of thing works well and puts the Casio AP470 above just about any other digital piano brand and model under $2000 as far as the internal speaker system goes. Casio also has a special new feature called "headphone mode" which allows for a headphone listening experience than other digital pianos do.

As far as digital and audio connectivity is concerned, the AP470 has two 1/4" stereo headphone jacks for playing in privacy with up to two people using headphones simultaneously with on of those headphone jacks that can also be used to connect the piano to an external sound system if you are playing in a big venue, church, school, etc. When normally connecting any device through a headphone jack, the internal speakers are cutoff and muted. However, with the new AP470 there is a mode that can be set to turn the internal speakers back on so that the player can monitor their playing through the internal speakers while the external speakers are also still on. This is a nice feature for digital pianos that have no separate audio output jacks which is the case with the AP470. This piano also has a USB/MIDI out output jack to connect to external devices such as computers, tablets, etc to use interactive music programs and apps which are now widely available. There is also a built-in USB flashdrive input for saving both 1-track audio wav file and 2-track MIDI recordings that you can do on the piano and then storing them on the flashdrive for later playback from a custom song library you the user can create. Along with this feature you can also download regular MIDI piano song files from the internet, load them into a flashdrive and then play them back on the piano so you can play along with those songs. This is a very useful way of learning new songs as well as having fun playing along with other music.

The cabinet design, structure, and appearance of this new AP470 piano definitely has the most "furniture" looking appearance of any digital piano under $1500 that I know of given that it has an attractive, sturdy cabinet offered in 3 distinct matte color finishes with front support legs for extra cabinet stability and a more formal look to it. Along with the lid that raises up, a full size music support rack, a built-in metal sliding key cover, and a high quality height adjustable matching padded bench, the AP470 is a "total package" with functions and features that the vast majority of piano shoppers seem to be looking for in the lower price range under $1500. Beyond the appearance and style of the cabinet, the Casio company offers the longest US factory warranty in the digital piano industry for new digital pianos under $1500 with a full 5 year parts & labor warranty for manufacturer defects along with in-home service. Although other digital piano companies have some good warranties, the maximum labor warranty in any other brand is 3 years whereas Casio offers 5 years which says to me that Casio must be confident that their pianos will last awhile and they are willing to stand behind their products.

To sum it all up, given what the new Casio Celviano AP470 is all about and what it offers, I definitely recommend this model to any family who is wanting a piano with a big, full realistic acoustic piano sound going through a fairly powerful internal speaker system housed in an attractive, durable cabinet with functions and features that puts it in a class by itself for digital pianos under $1500. There is really only one thing I wish it had and that is Bluetooth audio and Bluetooth MIDI for wireless connectivity with external devices. The MIDI thing can be taken care of by connecting a USB cable from the piano to the device so that is not a big issue. However, I do like the idea of being able to remotely and wirelessly control music that can be played through the piano speaker system from a tablet such as an iPad and play iTunes or other audio music through the piano and not needing to connect by audio cable. As Bluetooth technology in digital pianos becomes more common then these limitations won't exist anymore. But for now in this AP470, you can pretty much get what you want in terms of connecting devices to it but you need to use the proper cable to do so. Other than that, for the money the AP470 is clearly a winner:).

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

REVIEW - Korg G1 Air digital piano - Recommended - The new Korg G1 Air ($1399US internet discount price) is Korg's first serious entry into the home digital piano market over $1000 in many years. The Korg company is based in Japan and they were founded way back in 1962 and ever since then they have been designing and producing some of the top and most popular professional stage digital pianos for many, many years. I have personally played on Korg pro digital pianos including the latest Kronos models and going all the way back to the T1, Triton, and M1. Back in the 1980's Korg was actually a leader in the digital piano home market producing some of the best home furniture cabinet digital pianos in the business and I have played many of those pianos. However, some years later Korg basically got out of the home furniture cabinet digital piano business (I really don't know why) and focused on their pro keyboard division while also offering some very basic low priced Korg digital pianos under $1000, most of which I did not like so much. So I had pretty much given up on Korg to come out with anything "serious" when it came to a high quality, higher priced home style digital piano.

The G1 Air is really Korg's first attempt at trying to come back into the home digital piano market in many years with a piano that can keep up with and perhaps surpass its formidable competitors, and the question is...did they do it? I must confess that I really had my doubts that Korg could offer a home digital piano that could compete with the likes of Yamaha, Roland, Casio, and Kawai which are the other Japanese piano companies. But at the same time, Korg produces such awesome professional stage digital pianos with amazing piano & instrumental sounds and features that I thought how hard could it be to put some of that technology along with great key action, great sound system, and other features into a home furniture cabinet model and sell it for a relatively low price? Well, I am happy to tell you that after personally playing and analyzing this new G1 Air, in my opinion Korg has  managed to surpass some of top name brands in this price range for a home digital piano (around $1500-$1600) including Roland and Yamaha. So instead of only having 4 very popular Japanese brands with competitive quality products selling for between $1000-$2000, I must now add Korg to the mix as they definitely deserve it this time.

It is important to note right now that Korg has been selling this model for a special introductory discount price at just $1399US internet price, but the introductory time period is nearly over according to the factory and the G1 Air is set to go up to its regular $1599US internet discount price within the next 2-4 weeks. So if you like what you read here about this model and you think it fits your musical needs and budget, then jump on the $1399 price while you can because it's going away. In fact, contact me before you buy from anyone as I can tell you how to get one for even less than Amazon, etc!

OK...so what makes the Korg G1 Air so good and why do I like it? First of all the piano key action is amazing but that should come as no surprise to me because it is the same key action that Korg uses for their top of the line professional Kronos stage digital pianos. A key action needs to be properly weighted, graded, and responsive not only in touch but how it triggers the piano sound from a light gentle touch to a hard touch, and for a fast movement of your fingers across the keys. As I have talked about in my other reviews, the quality and movement of the key action is 1st and foremost when shopping for and considering a digital piano. The Korg RH3 key action is outstanding in just about every way, but especially in this price range, and the RH3 key action does not feel like any other brand of home digital piano under $2000. It's very unique in that it has a natural, organic piano feel to it and it is incredibly responsive regardless of the type of music you are playing or whether you are a beginner or very advanced player. You can really pound on this key action or play it lightly with subtle finger movements and the G3 Air responds accordingly like a real quality acoustic piano does offering lots of expression and great balanced weight on each each key so that you can really connect the keys you are playing to the music you are wanting to make. In other words you can put a lot of feeling into your music and this RH3 key action will keep up with you and not disappoint. I would consider the touch weight on this key action to be "medium" meaning not too firm and definitely not light. When you press down on the keys it feels like you are pressing down on acoustic piano keys in terms of key weight whether they be white or black keys. Also, just like on regular acoustic upright and grand pianos, the white key tops are made of a synthetic white acrylic and the black keytops have a matte black finish on them which is nice so that you could more easily transition from this digital piano to a real acoustic piano without noticing much of a difference at all, especially when comparing the G1 Air to a fine upright acoustic piano.

I will also mention that when shopping for a new digital piano there are a couple other things that want to consider with regard to key action. You will notice that many of the other brands have key actions with "synthetic" ivory and ebony keytops. What that means is that the feel of the keytops are trying to simulate what real ivory and ebony feels like to the fingers because many decades ago older pianos were able to use real organic Elephant ivory and African ebony wood to make their key tops. Within the last 10 years or so a few digital piano manufacturers thought it would be a good idea to try to create a synthetic version of those organic materials and put it on their digital piano keys. Depending on the proprietary chemical makeup of this "synthetic" material, the result in the beginning was pretty bad and the synthetic material did not hold up well at all. Although it has gotten much better, it is still synthetic and in reality real piano keys don't feel that way. So when it comes to the keytops of the Korg G1 Air, the keys feel like real acoustic piano keys and are not synthetic versions of keys that were out decades ago. In reality, you can play on any of the keys of the major brands and be fine, but the synthetic nature of the keytops is ultimately a mute point in my opinion when it comes to playing a piano. The final thing I will mention about key action, and in this case I mean any key action on any digital piano, is the build quality and the noise level of the keys when they move. The Korg RH3 key action has been out for many years and is nearly "bullet proof" based on all my experience with this particular RH3 action. It is solid with little lateral movement or wiggle, all 88 keys are well aligned and mechanically move up and down uniformly, and just as importantly, this is a (relatively) very quiet key action when it comes to the keys moving up and down. In other words, on every digital piano brand and model, there is mechanical key noise and depending on the brand and model, that key movement noise can be very loud and irritating or relatively quiet. This can be especially noticeable when playing the piano while wearing stereo headphones when the only thing a person can hear (other than the player wearing the headphones), is the sound of the keys going up and down. On some digital pianos the key noise is incredibly loud and can be a distraction to others in the house or even to the player. Sometimes the noise happens when the keys go down and sometimes it's when the keys come back up. I can tell you from experience that the G1 Air key action has very quiet keys regardless of what direction they are moving or how hard you are playing the keys. There will always be some key noise because keys are mechanical just as they are in real pianos. But it's really all about how the key action can be made with as much key noise reduction as possible and the developers at Korg knew what they were doing because this is right at the top when it comes to quiet key actions...my hat is definitely off to Korg on this one 🎩😃

The next important thing that people are looking for is accurate, natural piano sound...but what does that mean? Piano sound can vary in a number of way from one piano to another, one brand to another, and one model to another when it comes to real acoustic pianos and how they sound. They can have a bright, medium bright, more mellow, very mellow or delicate tone with dynamic tonal expression, or without dynamic tonal expression. The main aspect and goal of a great piano sound is...can it play music in a very delicate and mellow way all the way to big, bold, and dynamic tone while offering a great amount of musical color and expression all in one piano? The answer is "YES" but as long as it is a great big and super expensive 9' grand piano such as the ones played in symphony concert halls of by famous jazz or pop piano players such as Billy Joel, Elton John, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, etc. Ultimately, music is about passion & expression and the piano sound being able to come out of (in this case) a digital piano with a wide range of musical colors depending on how hard you strike the key, how many keys are being played simultaneously, coupled with using the damper-sustain pedal and how all that interacts together. At the internet discount price of just $1599US, the Korg G1 Air really surprised me with all of the musical colors and dynamic tonal range that it has. It's one thing to have a really good key action but it's an entirely different thing to also have a satisfying acoustic piano sound experience but the G1 Air delivers on that point too.

Almost all of the digital piano companies out there claim to copy or sample a full grand piano sound and put it into their digital pianos...but that is easier said than done. Copying or sampling a piano sound is just the first step of the process, but then that digital piano company needs to have copied that sound from a real piano with the proper microphones, the proper technology and put all that into their digital system which can then hopefully correctly translate it into the digital piano so when you play it then that sound comes out sounding real and natural rather than fake and artificial. In my opinion the Korg G1 Air gets extremely close to sounding like it is not a digital piano but instead a real acoustic piano, and that is really hard to do, especially in this price range under $2000. The G1 Air has 7 acoustic piano sounds which are accessed on the control panel with a row of three buttons. The first button accesses what Korg calls "G" grand piano sounds and the "G" stands for a German Steinway grand piano. Each button has 3 variations of piano so every time you press that button the sound advances to the next piano sound in that sound bank. The next Button is the "A" grand piano sounds which stand for an Austrian Grand Piano otherwise known as Bosendorfer and there are variations within that button of the Bosendorfer grand piano sound. The next and last piano button is the "J" grand piano sounds with the "J" standing for Japanese grand piano and in this case is a Yamaha concert grand piano. Since Korg does not build acoustic pianos then they were free to choose any of the famous grand pianos out there to be included in the G1 Air. For instance, you would never see a Yamaha grand piano sound in a Kawai digital piano because those two companies are fierce competitors in the acoustic piano world. Likewise, you would never see a Steinway grand piano sound in a Yamaha digital piano because those two companies are fierce competitors in the acoustic piano world. Korg does not have that issue because as I said, they don't build acoustic pianos.

Since Korg does not build real acoustic pianos then how come their piano sounds in the G1 Air is so realistic with so much tonal color and expression which all great pianists seek when shopping for a piano? We'll, just because you don't build real acoustic pianos does not mean you don't know how they work and what goes into them. Korg has a big staff of professional pianists along with outside professional tech support from top rated concert piano technicians/tuners who are advisers to Korg piano division. Beyond that, Korg has digital music technology that is so advanced that they have won many awards throughout the world for lots of years from big name industry leaders for their advanced proprietary sound technology. Given Korg's expertise in this area and my long time experience playing many of their previous stage and home digital pianos, I still was blown away by how much "presence" the G1 Air had when playing it. I have played it in a small room, a big, room, and a really big room and it did a excellent job in all venues. But when you put it in a regular size room in your home, studio, etc, then you can really hear it come alive when playing on it. The stereo tonal expression of those grand piano sounds are all so different with the German Steinway stereo sound being mellow on the soft end but also big & bold when really putting some force into the keys. The Austrian Bosendorfer stereo sound is more delicate (a bit more mellow) but at the same time the bass frequencies really come through to make it a big resonate tone. Finally, the Japanese Yamaha concert grand stereo sound is brighter and more distinct and the clarity cuts through with a more metallic tone just like Yamaha grand pianos can be (Elton John is famous for being a Yamaha grand piano artist), but there is still a nice bassy tone as well. Then when you mix two different stereo acoustic piano tones together which you can do on this piano, then you can have the best of both worlds in terms of the personality and character of that mixed stereo piano sound. As an example you can combine Austrian Bosendorfer with German Steinway or Japanese Yamaha with Austrian Bosendorfer and you can select which version of each piano to combine with the other one. When you make those combinations it really is like hearing both pianos playing at the same time mixing their unique stereo tonal qualities qualities together in a way I have not heard before on any digital piano in this price range. I can tell you by experience as a long time piano teacher and pro musician that different people like the sound of different pianos. A piano sound that I may like, another person may not personally like that sound as much...and that's OK because we all have different ears. The point is that at least on this Korg G1 Air piano you have 7 different acoustic piano tones coming from 3 distinct grand pianos to choose from so you are likely to find a piano sound that speaks to you. When it comes to a natural, organic acoustic piano sound in this price range, this G1 Air is pretty amazing and if it impresses me (which it does), it should also impress you. 👍😊

One thing that is especially important for me to mention here is the polyphony specification of the G1 Air. Polyphony is a number that a lot of digital piano shoppers don't really understand at all or maybe they think they understand it but they really don't. Either way, the polyphony number (amount of maximum notes that can be heard playing simultaneously) of a digital piano can play an important part in the ability of the piano to play the piano and instrument sounds in a way that sound good and natural. A few decades ago it was not uncommon to see 12-note polyphony, then 24 note, and then as the years went by and digital piano technology got better you would 48-note, 64-note, 92-note, 128-note, and now today it is not uncommon to see 256-note polyphony. However, here's where it gets complicated; polyphony is rated in mono, not stereo. Piano sounds in older digital pianos could only be heard in mono, not stereo. But for last last number of years piano sounds are recorded and heard in stereo which is great because they sound better that way. However, just because they are in stereo does not mean that's the only thing that has changed. Some of those stereo piano (and instrumental sounds such as string symphonies, etc) are so complex that they include more organic elements in the piano sound which makes them sound more natural such as string resonance, sympathetic vibrations, overtones, and other natural sound recreations through new digital piano technology. Some of the non-acoustic piano sounds such as electric pianos, guitars, etc are normally recorded in mono, not stereo. Then there is something called "dynamic voice allocation" which allows the computer chip to allocate certain additional notes that you are playing to remain being heard even when you are supposedly over the maximum notes of polyphony. Are you getting confused yet? Don't worry....you should be!

Here's the bottom line concerning polyphony, the way I judge a digital piano's ability to have enough polyphony is to play the best stereo piano sound using complex classical music playing as many notes as I can while using the damper-sustain pedal. Using this method will quickly tell you if you can hear any detectable "note drop-out" while playing the digital piano. With low polyphony, when you play complex music with lots of notes using lots of damper-sustain pedal, you normally and eventually will hear sustained notes abruptly stop playing even if you have those keys pressed down..you just won't hear them anymore because you have out-played the polyphony. The computer chip just won't play any more notes until you release most of the other notes being played (which resets the polyphony) so that you can play new notes and hear them. Yikes...sounds crazy but that's the way it works!

So why am I going into so much detail about polyphony here? It's because the Korg G1 Air polyphony specification says 120-note maximum polyphony which seems low by today's standards compared with other digital piano manufacturers having 128-note polyphony, 192-note polyphony, and 256-note polyphony...so people would normally think more is better and less could cause playing problems, right? No, actually not! The bottom line is this; if you play the piano well and try to out-play the polyphony like I did to the G1 Air and you cannot hear any note-drop-out even while playing full glissandos and arpeggios and using every piano sound and pedaling technique you can, then the polyphony number is completely irrelevant. It's all about what you hear and not what the polyphony specification might suggest. The Korg G1 Air sound like is has almost unlimited polyphony because of how good the sound was without interruptions no matter how I played it. When I layered (mixed) a stereo symphony strings on top of the piano sound then occasionally I would hear a few notes drop out when I was playing a ton of notes and holding the damper pedal, but they were the string sounds and it was quite subtle when they dropped out due to dynamic voice allocation system. Plus there are few people, other than myself, who drives a digital piano that hard. So under normal playing situations, even when layering two sounds together (piano + ?), you won't hear note drop-out and that's what polyphony is really all about. So just don't get hung up on polyphony specs...it's really all about what it's like in "real life" and I can tell you by experience the G1 Air can keep up with any of its competition in actual piano playing when it comes to the polyphony issue.

OK...so what is next?  It's got to be the pedals. There are 3 pedals that come with the G1 Air and they play like a real piano. All 3 pedals will do what they are designed to do including soft, sostentuto, and damper-sustain. Since the damper-sustain pedal (the right pedal) is by far the most important pedal as it is used probably 99% of the time, then that's the one I want to talk about. On the Korg G1 Air, all of the pedals including the damper-sustain pedal have a good amount of resistance when pressing down the pedals and the pedaling mechanism overall is very quiet unlike some other digital pianos which have noisy pedal movements. In other words they don't feel like cheap keyboard pedals and  other digital pianos that have pedals that are much too light and noisy and offer little resistance when you press them down which is not good. So the G1 Air pedals definitely feel more realistic. The damper-sustain pedal part of the 3-pedals is important because it controls how much sustain is coming from the notes you are playing. The damper pedal needs to offer the half-damper mode which allows for a variable amount of sustain instead of just on & off. Fortunately the G1 Air does offer this feature and it works fine and allows you to do your pedaling as you would on a grand piano. Speaking of grand piano, when you press down your damper-sustain pedal while playing some notes in the middle of the keyboard for example, the notes should sustain over a period of time before they naturally fade out until you cannot hear them. On a regular grand or tall upright piano when playing notes in the middle of the keyboard and using your sustain pedal, the amount of time a note takes to fully fade away with natural volume decay time as well is about 25 seconds or more depending on the size of the acoustic piano. The bigger the acoustic piano, the longer the strings and the longer the decay/sustain time will be. That's why when you hear a ginormous 9' grand piano sound it's so beautiful because there is so much tone and sustain going on in the piano. Long decay/sustain time is very important in creating beautiful, resonate music with the piano strings vibrating and resonating together over time.

OK, now that you know all of this detail about pedal decay/sustain time and sustained note volume, here's why I brought it up; many digital pianos have very little pedal decay-sustain time for their piano sounds. In fact some digital pianos fade out in less than 6 seconds of time, which is terrible. One of the big reasons for such poor pedal sustain is because they use a cheap piano chip with small memory that cannot hold a note for more than a few seconds. Other digital piano are much better and can go up to 10-15 seconds of time which is fine if you are a beginner or low intermediate player. But if you are a better player or even very advanced player you definitely want the digital piano to have sustained piano sound like a real piano. The Korg G1 Air has an incredible amount of pedal decay/sustain time across all 88 notes and way more than I thought it could have. In fact in the middle of the keyboard the decay/sustain time with sustained note volume was a whopping 25 seconds until it fully faded away. It was even an even higher amount of time of the bass notes (as it should be) and a slighter lower amount of time on the treble notes (as it should be). In other words, with regard to piano decay/sustain time, this G1 Air absolutely outperforms any other furniture cabinet digital piano under $2000 that I know of. I was very impressed that it could keep up with the demands I put on it when it came to sounding beautiful regardless of whether I wanted quick staccato notes or long resonate sustained notes over time. My hat is definitely off to the Korg company for being able to accomplish this task particularity in this price range... that certainly got my attention. 👍

The Korg G1 has 32 total instrument sounds which are located inside of 4 instrument sound buttons on the front control panel with 7 of those instruments being the acoustic piano sounds from the 3 piano sound buttons as I mentioned before. The non-acoustic piano sounds such as electric pianos, organs, strings, choirs, harpsichord, bass, and other tones are found inside the "others" button and are exceptionally realistic as compared to many other digital pianos in this price range including Yamaha, Roland, etc. Those instrument sounds I mentioned are very dynamic as well which means they change tonal character as you play the keys softly or play the keys with more velocity and more strength. The sounds really come alive as you put more expression into your music and those sounds are not just static like they are on other digital pianos. Also, there are digital pianos whose instrumental sounds really come out like toy sounds and it's easy to hear that as compared to this Korg G1 Air.. These extra sounds that I mentioned really are professional in quality especially the electric piano sounds, strings, and the organs including pop, jazz, classical, and church. Korg did a great job including quality sounds instead of just quantity with low quality. However, there are no brass, woodwind, synthesizer, and or other similar sounds in this model so if  you think you want those tones for some reason then the G1 Air does not have them. For the majority of piano shoppers out there I don't think this is an issue at all. I did want to mention that when you press any button on the piano, if you were playing a previous sound and wanted to switch sounds in mid-stream or use an editing function to make a change to the sound, the previous sound immediately cuts off and stops playing. In other words, you cannot manipulate sounds in real time as your are playing your song. You basically have to set up the instrument sound the way you want and then play your song. I am definitely not fond of this system and in fact most digital pianos don't have this limitation. The only other brand I know that does is Roland on all their new digital pianos over $2000, but that limitation is only on their piano sounds and not on every button and every sound. So I am disappointed in the G1 Air for this limitation and hope that Korg can improve upon this in the near future. Perhaps it is an issue because of this new piano technology they are using to get their new piano sounds...I don't know. But I hope they come up with an improvement soon in this area. If you can be happy picking your sound, function, feature, etc and just playing your song and then change settings in-between songs then the G1 Air can do that well and I think that's what most people tend to do. But if you want a digital piano with quick real-time performance changes and sound manipulation capabilities, the G1 Air would not be for you. Keep this in mind when considering this model.

Within the front control panel which is conveniently placed up and behind the keyboard just below the sheet music holder, there are a few other useful buttons, two of which are called function and select which allow you to quickly access some of the other useful features in this digital piano including changing the reverb effects, chorus effects, brightness control (which can bright or soften the overall piano sound), transpose key for automatically playing or singing in a different key, touch sensitivity of the keyboard to adjust for the way you play the keys, relative volume controls for sounds, layer controls, and many other features. On the control panel there are 2 more buttons next to the instrument sound buttons called favorite and split. The split button allows you to put one bass instrument sound on the left hand and one on the right hand to be played independently but simultaneously, such as a string bass player on the left and a piano on the right light a jazz trio might do, minus any drums because the G1 Air does not have any percussion/drums in it other than a preset bass/cymbal sound which is nice. You can determine where the left and right hand separate by holding down the key on the keyboard where you want the separation to happen...easy to do. Also, within the others button there are a lot of sounds that you need to scroll trough to find. It's not the best way to find sounds as I would have preferred more sound buttons instead for direct access. But, you can save your favorite sound in the others button (strings, organ, electric piano, etc) by actually loading it into the favorites button for instant recall. That works good but I wish there were other sounds that you could put into the favorites button, but it's only one at a time. If you want to layer (mix) two sounds together to play at the same time you just press two sound buttons together at the same time and you'll get an instant layer. One quick comment worth mentioning is that the function button features are not convenient to use as well as being somewhat cryptic to find. You have to scroll through the function button and the editing features inside to find what you are looking for. There is no direct access button or easier way of selecting the function. For instance, if you want to to transpose the key you need to go into the function button and then scroll through a few settings until the the transpose mode comes up and then you can select a key you want to be in. A couple other digital pianos, particularly the new Casio AP470 now offer an iPad/Android app so that you can easily and intuitively control these features with an proprietary control app from your device color touch screen...it makes the whole thing sooo much easier, assuming you have an want to use an external device to do that. Otherwise you need to reply on the piano operating system to get around and through the functions which is always a bit more challenging but certainly doable as it is on the G1 Air. I am hoping that Korg can come out with a device controller app for the G1 Air which would make things so much easier to navigate.

On the right side of the control panel there are some other buttons which control the digital metronome and the 2-track MIDI recorder. The MIDI recorder is useful, especially for students because it allows you record your left and right hand independent of each other and then play them back that way so you can hear how your right and left hand parts are doing by listening to them apart from each other. Then when you have done that you can play back both recorded parts at the same time to hear how the song is doing and to see if you need to make improvements. You can use the digital metronome and set it to any time signature and tempo you want which helps with rhythm and timing training while you are learning your songs. In the recorder section you are able to play and save up to whopping 99 individual songs on the the piano and each song can consist of 45,000 notes or 1000 measures. This is way more internal song memory than most digital pianos in this price range which may have the capacity of 1, 2 or 3, or 10 songs at most. The G1 Air does not have audio wav or MP3 recording as a few other pianos have not does the piano have a USB flash drive input to load or save songs. But I have found that most people just want a capable 2-track MIDI recorder-player on the piano to learn songs and have fun. Plus, if you record 2 separate parts with 2 different instruments and play them back together you can even play "live" on top of that with any other instrument you choose. So basically you can play along with your own recorded song and set the playback speed at any tempo you like...pretty cool. Beyond that, when playing back a practice song you recorded, you can set up a specific passage or part in the music where you may be having a few playing problems and just have that part play over and over at a slow peed so while you play along with it (either right hand, left hand, or both) so that you can focus on just that set of measures rather than the entire song. The G1 Air is capable of doing that too and it does help in a number of ways and you will become better more quickly. As a long time teacher I know this works because I've used this technology many times with students.

Speaking of lesson practice, the G1 Air also has a Piano Partner mode which allows 2 people (siblings, friends, parent-child, teacher student) to practice the same song at the same time using the same notes in the same octaves. This is by the piano electronically dividing the 88 keys into two 44-note keyboards so that one person plays 2-hands on one side of the middle C and the other person plays 2 hands on the other side of middle C. The piano automatically adjusts the left part of the keyboard to sound identical to the right side of the keyboard. Other digital pianos have this mode too and it can be called duet mode, 4-hand mode, twin mode, etc. It's a cool practice feature but only useful under the conditions I mentioned...same song, same notes with same sound, at the same time for 2 people using one or both hands depending on whether you're practicing treble, bass, or both clefs.

The connectivity available for this piano is pretty much what most people are looking for which includes separate line audio output jacks, MIDI in & out connectors, USB to device connector, and 2 stereo headphone jacks. The only thing missing that I would have preferred to see for an additional connector is an audio stereo line input jack to connect outside audio to go through the G1 Air speaker system. This would be great to hear your music coming from your external personal device and being fed directly through the piano speaker system. I say that especially because the G1 Air speaker system is by far the best, most powerful speaker system of any brand or model under $2000 that I know of. The G1 Air has 4 speakers, 4 amplifiers putting out 80 big watts of total power being dispersed and diffused through a very impressive system of fully enclosed box housing 2 woofer speakers facing the player (just below the keyboard) and high frequency top speakers dispersing the sound upward into the air and deflecting towards the player just below the music rack pointing upward. When I played this piano for the first time I was almost in shock because of how powerful, full, and yet clear the piano sound was coming out of this internal speaker system...yikes! For a minute I thought I was playing a grand piano...seriously. I experience very little if any distortion on full power and the dynamic tonal range and expression of the stereo concert grand piano sound was amazing. It's one thing to have an impressive key action and piano sound chip in or around the $1500 range. It's another thing entirely to have a great internal speaker system to play it through and the G1 Air was just over the top good and your can even feel the bass notes hit you as you did in to the song to bring out the bottom end. Also being able to clearly hear the higher frequency range without the overall sound being mid rangy or muddy is no easy task in a small compact digital piano but in my opinion Korg has really nailed it. In other words, weather you play this piano at low volume levels, medium volume, or you turn up the master volume all the way, in my opinion the G1 Air sounds natural like a real piano and even at low volumes it doesn't sound "tinny." It doesn't loose that low end bass sound that real pianos have whereas on most digital pianos when you turn down the volume then the bass frequency tones just pretty much disappear and piano tend to sound like a toy. That's why a lot of people who demonstrate digital piano do so at loud volumes because anything loud will generally sound big. But it's at the lower volumes where quality piano sound reproduction gets much more difficult to achieve through a typical digital piano internal speaker system. Basically, I think a lot of people will actually feel like they are experiencing a real grand piano playing experience in terms of the piano sound and powerful speaker system in the G1 Air. Oh, and when you play it through stereo headphones for private practice, the internal stereo headphone amp is so good and powerful, it will also sound like you're playing a ginormous grand piano through your headphones, assuming you have a decent pair of stereo headphones. In terms of the headphone listening experience, I have heard more than a few digital pianos in the $4000-$5000 range that cannot keep up with this Kog G1 Air in that way. 

So, given that Korg has such an awesome internal speaker system in this model (I don't say that lightly unless I am truly impressed), what else can Korg do to follow that act? OK...here's something very cool (and useful) that no other major digital piano brand in this price range can do. The Korg G1 Air has built-in Bluetooth wireless audio. In other words, you can take your Bluetooth device such as an iPhone, iPad, etc (I use iPad a lot) and play your favorite MP3 song files on your device (iTunes) through the G1 Air speaker system. This is a very special bonus you get with the G1 Air because now your piano can become your in-home high definition, high quality speaker system to play your songs through. You can be quite a distance from the G1 Air in another part of your home from where the piano is and control the song volume and the songs that you are hearing right from your device without cables or any other wired connection. So even through the piano does not offer an audio inout jack, it really has something better...a full Bluetooth audio connection and it's so easy to use. As soon as you power up the piano the Bluetooth function automatically switches on and the G1 Air shows up on your device. Just touch the G1 Air name in your device Bluetooth list in settings and the piano and your device instantly connect (pair). That's all there is to it. Then you play your favorite song on your small device and hear it through the awesome G1 Air powerful internal speaker system your song will sound just as good through the piano speaker system as your live piano playing does. It's a win-win situation. On top of that feature, you can also play the piano live with your songs coming through the speaker system and learn to play your favorite songs on the piano while listening to your songs. If you want to that in privacy then just plug in your stereo headphones and hear your iTune, Google Play, etc songs and your piano playing all together through your headphones without disturbing any one else. There is no other name brand digital piano under $2000 that has this built-in capability. I have personally tried this feature many times on the G1 Air and it's really awesome, especially because if you want to be in another part of the room or house you can still control your songs (within reason as far as distance goes) and the lack of an audio input is also not an issue. Now don''t get this confused with Bluetooth MIDI. Bluetooth MIDI is completely different and you will find that feature in this price range on Kawai and Roland digital pianos. However, Bluetooth MIDI controls only Bluetooth wireless apps on your device so that the educational or instrument app can respond to the keyboard when you're playing it. But that's not audio, not playing music through your piano which is what most people are looking for.

Now we're near the end of this report...finally! I did want to talk about the G1 Air cabinet because it's impressive. For a small compact furniture cabinet digital piano, it actually has a nice designer look to it with its curved side panel legs, attached front support legs for extra front support and stability, and raised front header console where the control panel is placed. The piano cabinet is an "open-air" style so it may not appeal to some buyers, and that's OK....different strokes for different folks. If you want something more traditional looking with a full privacy panel in back then in this price range the new Casio Celviano AP470 would be a good option which you can check out here: Casio AP470 Review. Most compact open-air cabinets are just flat on the top with controls facing up from the flat surface and the music rack being on that flush flat surface in a limited space up against the key cover when the key cover is folded opened backwards. On the G1 Air, the higher raised surface and top of the entire front panel will support the sheet music so that you can put three times as much music on the G1 as you can on the typical digital piano in this price range and the piano will support it and has a long groove for the music to sit in. Not only that but the music itself is at the correct height for the proper eye position unlike some other compact digital pianos that don't have this extra height. The key cover on this piano is very special in my opinion because it's a "slower-close" key cover so when you drop the cover from its tallest open position, the cover has a slow-down breaking system in it so the cover more slowly falls to the bottom and closes up...it doesn't just slam down. So it you are a child in your home lets go of the cover while closing it, they won't get their fingers cut off and the cover won't slam down. Also, the key cover has a slow-open process with break system in it. This means that when the cover is opened and you let it fall backwards to stop, the cover won't just fall backwards and bang off the cabinet. It actually slows way down and softly settles backwards where it stops at its designated point. I don't know of any digital piano in this price range with such a nice cover that also works so well and is practical in these ways. When a company pays attention to cabinet details and offers more for the money, I am always impressed. The G1 Air also comes in three really nice looking colors including matte black, matte black, and a very attractive custom matte wood grain dark brown which no other piano manufacturer offers. The measurements of the piano is approximately 53"x 15"x 32" without key cover opened and with key cover fully opened the height measurement is 39" and the weight of the piano is only 90 lbs so it's relatively easy to move. The G1 Air has low power consumption, has automatic power shut off in case you forget to turn it off when you're through playing it, and Korg products are known to last not just years, but decades. The factory warranty is currently

One more thing that I nearly forgot because it is so rare to find on any digital piano at any price. Most of the Japanese brands including Yamaha, Casio, Kawai, and Roland design their digital piano products in Japan but have them built and assembled in other countries such as China, Indonesia, and Malaysia. That's fine as long as the manufacturer owns and runs the factory in that other country. Quality control in products is extremely important and all the strong, respected digital piano companies want their products to turn out good. However, having them build their products in Japan itself can be quite costly because costs of living and wages are so high as compared to many other countries such as China so that's why the actual manufacturing for these digital piano companies don't happen in Japan anymore, they just cannot afford it. But the upside in making things in Japan is that it is a well known over the years that the quality and longevity of the products built in Japan by Japanese people has been much higher than in other countries such as the ones I mentioned. Having them made in the US isn't going to happen because of distance, costs, and business restrictions, but having them made in Japan is the next best thing. Well, believe it or not, the Korg company makes their G1 Air in a Korg owned and operated plant in Japan. In fact the entire Korg G1 key action, pedal system, piano sound chips, speaker system, and cabinet is completely designed, engineered, produced and shipped from Japan to end users. I was very surprised to learn this and Korg even labels this info on their boxes and on the piano itself. So when it comes to being ahead of the crowd, I think Korg is showing they can do it even with where they make it and who designs it. No wonder their products seem to last forever...at least that's been my experience with them.

I believe that at the end of the day, if you cannot find something to like about this new digital piano model then you are not trying very hard! If you want a piano to primarily play piano on with fewer bells & whistles (but still a few cool ones like I described), and you're also wanting uncompromising grand piano playing sound quality and an exciting piano playing experience, then in my opinion you cannot miss with the new Korg G1 Air and I am personally happy that Korg has re-entered the higher quality home furniture cabinet digital piano market in such a strong way. By the way, here's an important fact about Korg that also sets it apart from its competitors in this price range. I have always liked the Korg company and it was just a matter of time until they decided to get serious like they have in their pro piano division for so many years. When this piano goes up to its normal $1599US internet discount price within the next 2-4 weeks or so, it will still be awesome for what it offers especially compared to its competition and still a great buy. But right now for $1399US internet price, in my opinion it's a steal if you're looking for a digital piano to be a great piano in this price range:).

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

REVIEW - Korg C1 Air Digital Piano - Recommended - Korg is a well known music products manufacturer which is based in Japan. They have been designing and producing a variety of pro and home music products for over a half century and continue to be a leader and innovator in the digital music world. With regard to digital pianos, Korg recently came out with an impressive model called the C1 Air home digital piano ($1299US internet discount price*) which incorporates all new Korg piano technology at a relatively low competitive price. Although Korg has been making digital pianos and digital music products for decades and I personally have played many of them, they have not been as well known to the general public (families, non pro players) as they have been to professional musicians. In the home digital piano market Korg has had some low priced digital pianos (mostly portable) available for quite awhile but they have not been near as popular as compared to the more well known brands like Casio, Yamaha, Kawai, and Roland and really not very competitive with those other digital pianos under $1000. But now with the introduction of a few new models over $1000, in my opinion Korg is finally showing they can make a very well built  competitive digital piano, especially in this price range between $1000-$1500.

The first thing that shoppers generally want to know concerning digital pianos is about the key action. How does it move, how does it feel, how will it hold up over time, is the key action quiet or noisy, will it emulate a real piano action, and most of all, is the key action good enough so I grow into it rather than grow out of it? Piano teachers, like myself, also feel the key action is the most important part of any piano whether that piano is acoustic or digital so it is the number one thing to be concerned about, especially if you are a piano student or someone who plays well. The Korg company basically builds two key actions for their home and professional digital pianos. They have their lower quality, less realistic key action and then they have their top of the line acoustic style key action called the RH3 which is what is used in the C1 Air. The best way for me to describe the RH3 key action is to say it's incredibly impressive given the low price of the C1 Air model. In my opinion the feel of the RH3 key action movement is so good, so organic, and so responsive you really get the impression you're playing a real acoustic piano. The RH3 action is balanced well, properly graded in down weight movement and is not too heavy and not too light. The overall movement of the keys really allows a player to connect with their music and feel like they can really express themselves. There is no other key action under $2000 in ,my opinion that feels quite like this Korg top-of-the-line key action in terms of the way it moves. Yes, their are other key action that are nice to play from Kawai, Roland,Casio, and Yamaha, but the Korg RH3 key action is really in a class by itself as far as I am concerned, plus, it's a noticeably quiet key action in terms of noise coming from the keys when they move up & down as compared to most of the other digital pianos out there.

However, there are two things about this key action that Korg does not offer which other key actions in this price range do offer and that is "ivory & ebony feel keytops" and "escapement function." many digital piano manufacturers are producing a special material that goes on the tops of the keys which tries to simulate the old ivory and ebony that regular acoustic pianos used to have many decades ago. Ivory and ebony haven't been used on regular piano keys in a very long time so what real piano keys have had for many years is the hard white implex acrylic key tops and black matte keytops. Ivory and ebony had a different appearance than they way acoustic piano keys are now and one of the properties of Ivory and ebony is that they were a porous organic material so they helped to absorb sweat from the fingers although the sweat discolored those materials after awhile. With regard to the "escapement" key function, this feature is found mostly on grand pianos when you press a key very slowly you would feel a hesitation or notch about half-way down key the key is depressed very slowly. If the key is depressed faster then there is no escapement feeling so the keys move freely. What some of the manufacturers have tried to is to recreate that escapement feeling in a digital piano key action. In this price range when it comes to both ivory/ebony imitation keytops and the escapement feature, so far only Roland has both features whereas Casio is the only brand with just the ivory/ebony feel keytops. Yamaha does not have either feature in this price range not does Kawai or Korg. The reason why in my opinion is that at the end of the day it does not really matter because these things are just an imitation of the real thing and for most people matter very little when it comes to the actual piano playing experience. A real upright acoustic piano does not have either feature because they have white acrylic keys and no escapement key feeling and yet most people who have acoustic pianos in their homes, schools, and other venues mostly play upright pianos. In other words on the Korg C1 Air, the key action emulates a fine upright piano key action along with moving quickly like a grand piano. So the bottom line is...I would not get "hung up" on features that may not improve the piano playing experience. I would much rather have a key action that moves very smoothly like the Korg RH3 rather than a heavy, fragile, or unresponsive key action that has the artificial keytops and escapement. That's how much I enjoy playing the Korg C1 key action over many other digital pianos, even some key actions in the $2500 price range!

Piano sound is a tricky thing because for many people who don't have piano playing or piano listening experience, they may not really know what a piano is actually supposed to sound like? In other words a piano shopper could mistake poor piano sound reproduction in a digital piano with something they think sounds OK or good. I see this happen all the time because a lot of people don't know what it actually takes for a areal piano to sound good and natural. There are so many organic resonances and vibrations going on in a real piano when it's being played and to reproduce all those natural organic piano tones, string vibrations, and cabinet vibrations is not easy in a digital piano. Some poor sounding digital pianos like some models made by Artesia, Suzuki, and others have very poor (almost embarrassing) piano sound reproduction and in fact a few of those pianos sound like toys in my opinion. Even some current model Yamaha digital pianos in the Arius series ($1100 - $1700) have piano sounds that are quite compressed in my opinion and they don't seem to offer a good expressive dynamic piano tone as compared to other digital pianos in this price range such as this Korg C1 Air. Good, expressive, dynamically exciting piano tone is important especially for students who want to grow in their musical abilities and for people who already play well and want a better, more natural piano sound experience. So when I played the Korg C1 Air I was not only impressed with the stereo piano sound itself, but was also impressed with how big and full it was. This piano may be compact in looks but it is definitely not compact in piano sound.

To help that piano sound chip along, the C1 Air has the most powerful internal speaker system in this price range (less than $1500) that I have ever heard. At 50 watts of power with 2 specialty speakers housed in its own speaker box pointing towards the player and the room, the fullness and big bass reproduction of the speaker system produces an impressive stereo piano sound that really does sound as big and full as an acoustic grand piano. I really don't know how Korg does it in such a compact cabinet footprint but if you had your eyes closed and heard this C1 Air piano sound you would really think the piano was three times a big as it really is...quite amazing actually. Also, because the internal speakers are not under the cabinet pointed down to the floor like so many other digital pianos in this price range including from Roland, Yamaha, Kawai, and others, with a powerful front facing speaker system this piano really does fill up a big room without a problem with a sound like a big grand piano. With sympathetic vibrations, pedaling resonances, huge decay-sustain time just like a big grand piano when playing any or all of the 88 notes and other natural piano tones that can be heard, the C1 Air internal speaker system combined with its impressive stereo piano sounds which include a European Steinway grand piano sample and a Japanese Yamaha grand piano sample, really put out a sound that in my opinion will make you say "WOW" I can't believe it! That's how good this piano sounds and in this price range (under $1300) for a self contained digital piano, there are no other brands or models that come close in my opinion. You can certainly spend less money and get a good piano playing experience in other digital pianos and you can certainly spend a lot more money and get an even more authentic piano playing experience. But if you want to keep the price between $1000 - $1500 then the Korg C1 Air should be a definite consideration.

OK...so how about polyphony...some people wonder if that specification really matters and if they should be concerned about it? The answer is...polyphony only really matters if when you play the piano the notes all play and sound normal and sustain properly without notes abruptly dropping out. If the piano you are playing can play normally without any issues then the amount of polyphony it has in it will be enough. If the piano sound has sudden interruptions of notes when playing the piano normally then there is not enough polyphony, otherwise known as piano processing power.  If you layer or mix two instrument sounds together then the polyphony needs to be powerful enough to handle the extra sound so there are no sudden note dropouts. If you are playing a digital piano where there is a multitrack (8-16 track) MIDI recorder-playback feature (which the C1 Air does not have) then added polyphony becomes more important to handle all the notes that are recorded or simultaneously playing on all those tracks and I would recommend getting a digital piano with the most polyphony possible in that case. This is when more polyphony becomes more important. In the case of the Korg C1 Air, it has 120 notes of polyphony processing power which is fine for what the C1 Air does...and that is mainly for piano playing, layering 2 sounds together, or recording and playing back a two sounds (left and right hand) maximum. I had no issues with 120 note polyphony when I was playing the C1 Air and the only time I heard any note drop out was when I layered the most memory intensive sounds which are the stereo piano and the stereo strings and played large arpeggios with lots of pedaling sustain. But few people will actually play like that because it's not normal. I only do it to test out the ability of polyphony to be uninterrupted and in the "real world" and under normal circumstances, few people will ever play the Korg C1 Air in that way. Although there are other digital pianos that have higher polyphony such as128-note polyphony, 192-note polyphony, and 256 note notes of polyphony in terms of their specifications, in reality the 120-note polyphony in the C1 Air is plenty for most people including myself and it will provide enough piano playing power to handle all your piano music.

When it comes to pedaling, that is a part of piano playing that can be easily overlooked, especially if you are a novice or have never played a piano. In the beginning using pedals, especially the damper-sustain pedal is not something that you do until you are well into your lessons and maybe not even until a year later will you need to put any emphasis on pedals and how they work and how you use them. However, if you keep practicing or you already play piano then having good working pedals that operate properly is an absolute necessity, particularly with the right pedal (not center or left) which is called the damper or sustain pedal. That pedal is what most people will use over 90% of the time as compared to the other pedals and if that pedal does not do its job, work and respond smoothly and quietly, and offer a good half-damper feature, then you will be sorely disappointed later on when you really need that pedal to enhance the music you are playing and make it sound good. Beyond that, the pedal sustain decay time and volume needs to be long and full for all notes and that is definitely something I find missing on many digital pianos because of using cheap pedal parts and limited memory for decay & sustain time and volume. In other words, if the pedals are not working like a real piano and the piano sustain tone is not sounding like a real piano then you will likely be very sorry later on when you discover it because there is nothing you can do to change it on the digital piano you have if its not good.

With regard to the pedals on the Korg C1 Air, I was very impressed with their ability to play responsively, feel like they are built well and durable with quiet pedal movement, and I was especially impressed with the sustain pedal piano decay time and volume fullness across all 88 keys. In other words you can hear the notes you are playing blend altogether in a natural way with no choppiness or quick decay time. The notes resonated for a very long time while holding down the damper pedal with lots or organic sympathetic string vibrations being heard. Also, the C1 Air produces realistic damper resonance when applying the damper pedal to give the piano tone, particularly in the upper octaves, a natural texture and resonance to the piano sound that is definitely heard on all real acoustic pianos but is missing on some digital pianos. Without these natural tonal resonances provided by the C1 Air pedals and the piano sound chip, a digital piano sound can be very artificial and fake, but in my opinion the Korg C1 Air really shines through and sounds much more like a real live piano. It makes your music become more expressive and allows you to get the kind of "feedback" from your music that is necessary if you want to grow as a player. The middle sostenuto and left soft pedals work properly and will allow you to use those pedals correctly when your music calls for them to be used.

There is a lot a person can do with the functions and features of the C1 Air and it offers a variety of different instrument tones from a total of 30 individual sounds with 26 of those sounds being non-acoustic piano instruments which include some impressive string symphony sounds, organs, electric pianos, harpsichords, and other usable tones. As I mentioned before there are 2 main stereo piano sounds including a German Steinway concert grand piano and a Japanese Yamaha concert grand. Korg also provides a few acoustic piano variations of those 2 concert grand pianos but I found the variations to be very similar to their original tone so I think Korg could have done a better job and offered more distinct and noticeably different piano variations of the original pianos, but they did not. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the tonality and dynamics of the piano sounds they do offer and in fact I definitely believe they are more natural and expressive than the Yamaha and Roland digital pianos in this price range, which is saying a lot. Any 2 of the instrument sounds can be layered together to mix those sounds when you are playing a song. So whether it's a guitar with choir or piano with strings, or even 2 different acoustic pianos mixed together at the same time, the C1 Air can do it well and very easily just by pressing 2 instrument group buttons on the control panel simultaneously. You can even use the 3 preset split sounds (located in one of the instrument group buttons).to have a convincing bass sound on the left hand and an acoustic or electric piano sound on the right hand to play a bit of jazz or rock which is fun to do and sounds great assuming you can play like that.

The C1 Air control panel is located on the top left hand side of the piano above the keyboard. It consists of a large, easy to use master volume knob and 6 direct access buttons  near the master volume know. Those 6 buttons consist of accessing the song playback system, transpose key, touch sensitivity control, brilliance adjustments, reverb echo effects, and chorus effects. Many digital pianos in this price range don't have all of these important direct access buttons to quickly use popular features so it's a lot less intuitive to find those features in other digital pianos using their digital piano operating system. It great to be able to change the tonal character of the C1 Air by increasing or decreasing the brightness or mellowness of the overall sound. The same is true for the reverb and chorus effects which also changes the character of the overall sound in a good way. Being able to quickly change the transpose key or the touch response is also useful especially when you want to do it fast. Next to those 6 function buttons are the 10 instrument group buttons with 3 variations (called banks) in each group for a total of 30 internal instrument tones as I mentioned before. There is a function button within that group of 6 direct access buttons and the function button allows you to edit a number of things within the piano. You just touch the function button and then the 10 instrument sound group buttons become the different function access buttons for those editing features. Included in those editing functions are master pitch change, 3 new temperament scales, relative volume balance when layering/mixing 2 instrument sounds together, octave change mode, and a few other useful functions. There is an LED display on the right side of the instrument buttons that reads out the various names of instruments and functions when they are selected. I would have preferred an LCD display which would have been more effective and intuitive to use but Korg chose the older style red letter LED display. It actually works fine because there really aren't that many functions on the C1 Air to figure out.

The C1 Air also has a mode called "Piano Partner" which allows two people to play or practice the same song playing the same notes in the same octave. This is good if there is a piano-student, parent-child, of 2 siblings who are wanting to play the same song. The piano electronically divides the 88 notes into two 44-note keyboards for each person to play. So two people play the same notes with one person being on the left side 44-keys of the piano and the other person being on the right side 44-keys and both can hear each other with the far left pedal being the sustain pedal for the left side player and the far right pedal being the sustain pedal for the player on the right 44-keys. It actually all works pretty easily but it's really only useful if you have 2 people wanting to practice the exact same notes at the same time with the left side keys being able to automatically convert to the same octave pitch/sound as the right side 44-keys. It's actually easier than it sounds but unless you have need of this feature then you'll likely never use it.

The 2-track (2-part) recorder/player on the C1 Air allows you to record a left and right hand part separately so you can play one at a time and then play them both back simultaneously or record one part/hand and then play the other part/hand live with the recorded part. This is really useful and practical when learning how to play a song using both your left and hand hand playing separate parts with bass clef and treble clef. It helps you hear how you are actually doing and it's also like having a teacher with you because once you learn and play one part and record it, then you'll be able to play that part back as often as you want to and then play the other hand/part against it so you have something to play with. It's like someone playing one hand while you play the other only it was you who played the first part...you just recorded it for playback so it could be heard while learning and playing the other hand. This is a very cool feature for any piano student, especially as you become a little more accomplished in your playing. The C1 Air also has an adjustable tempo digital metronome to help with your timing and rhythm which is very important, so that is good. Unfortunately the C1 Air can only save a maximum of 1 user recorded song so if you want to record another song you need to record over the previous song which is a limitation as I would have preferred there to be more user song space to save multiple recordings. Korg does have their upgraded model called the G1 Airwhich can save 99 recorded songs, so that model has no recording limitations in this way. The G1 Air also has other recording functions as well as other interesting features for people who want to upgrade and they have a slightly larger budget to do so.

When it comes to connectivity to the piano, the C1 Air has a stereo line output and 2 stereo headphone jacks along with MIDI in/out connectors. Unfortunately there is no USB to external device connector so the only way to connect with a tablet (iPad) or computer to use external software or apps is to purchase an adapter cable with MIDI connectors on one end and a USB connector on the other. This would allow you to connect the C1 Air to an external USB device with that adapter but it would have been a lot more convenient and intuitive if the C1 had a regular USB connector built in like just about all of its competition does. That's something which Korg should have done but for whatever reason did not do which is a disappointment to me. But at the end of the day an adapter cable will make things work but they will cost you approximately $40US. I will mention that when plugging in a pair of stereo headphones, the C1 Air has a special circuit built in called "sound optimization" which gives the headphone sound more of a surround sound effect kind of like you aren't really wearing headphones because the sound feels like it's going around your head and ears rather than straight into the ears as it would otherwise without that feature. Actually I do like it but not all the time as the regular stereo headphone sound can actually be more natural sometimes. Fortunately you can turn that "surround sound" feature on and off depending on what you want. Speaking of wearing headphones, the stereo headphone circuit inside the C1 Air is so good and so powerful that it literally sounds like you are hearing a grand piano in your heard when wearing a good pair of stereo headphones. The sound is loud and clear and very powerful if you want it to be that way. Some other digital pianos in a variety of price ranges that I have tried using headphones can sound under powered and small, but not the C1 Air. Playing in privacy using good headphones is really an amazing listening experience as far as I am concerned and those kinds of things do impress me.

When it comes to the internal audio sound system, as I mentioned earlier in this review, that's where the C1 Air is really impressive and makes the piano sound like it is a gigantic in size. The way the sound projects and the fullness and richness of the tone is really surprising given the smaller compact size of the cabinet. When it come to big piano sound that will give you the impression you're actually playing a real grand piano, the C1 Air really blows everything else away in this price range with its 50 watt powered sound system housed in its own speaker box chamber which helps the sound resonate more naturally. The sound also comes right at you instead of projecting away from you as it does in other digital pianos. It's immediate gratification and in my opinion that's what a lot of piano shoppers want...to be able to play a digital piano and have that piano really fill up the room like a real acoustic piano instead of sounding small and somewhat anemic like some other digital pianos can do. For instance, the Roland F140R compact digital piano which sells for $1199US only has just 24 watts of total power with 2 separate speakers. The Yamaha Arius YDP143 ($1099US internet price) has just 12 watts of total power with speakers pointing down underneath the piano rather than towards the player. The sound of that piano is definitely tinnier and thinner and it's due to the under-powered speaker system with speakers pointing down towards the floor. It's one thing to offer a reasonable good piano sound chip in a digital piano but if the internal speaker system can't put it out in a way that it sounds really good then that's a problem as far as I am concerned...unless the piano is in a smaller room or you generally want to play the piano quietly most of the time, then it's fine. But for me, I like like the piano sound to be able to be full and bassy, and resonate when I want it that way, and the C1 Air will really make that happen for you. I did notice that the piano sound could have been a bit more clear coming through the C1 Air speakers with more treble frequency response. However if you increase the "brilliance" control with a higher amount of brightness, then that livens up those higher frequencies a bit more which makes the sound clearer and more distinct. The upgraded and slightly higher priced Korg G1 Air has an even more impressive internal speaker system than the C1 Air so if you want to check that one out you can do it here at the following link: Korg G1 Air Review 

Now we need to ask the question...why does Korg call this piano C1 "AIR?" Well it's not because there is air in the piano or that the piano flys in the air. It's because the C1 Air has wireless Bluetooth connectivity to allow an audio song from an external device to be sent "through the air" to the piano speaker system so that you can play hear a song from your Bluetooth capable cell phone or tablet (iPad), or computer music library through the C1 piano without need of connecting cables. This is a very cool feature and no other top name brand digital piano under $1500 that I know of can do this. You can then take your music on your device and use the powerful internal speaker system in the C1, as I described earlier) to listen to your songs from another part of the room or another room nearby so you can play your music and hear it in a way you may not have been able to do before in your home, studio, school, church, or other venue. This type of wireless connectivity also allows you to play the piano live along with your pre-recorded music to learn the song or just have fun playing along with your favorite songs. Bluetooth audio is all about hearing your MP3 or audio wav file songs and not about Bluetooth MIDI connection or any other MIDI connection. I have personally tried this Bluetooth wireless audio through the C1 Air and it works great and automatically pairs (connects) your device with the C1 piano without needing to do anything special...it just works smoothly and easily and sound great. If you have never tried this type of thing before you'll likely be surprised just how awesome this technology really is and how much fun you can have with it.

The piano cabinet is a nice small size which can fit into many small spaces and it come in 3 attractive cabinet colors including matte black, matte brown, and matte white. With the piano key cover closed the C1 Air measures just 53" wide x 14" deep x 30" tall. With the key cover opened up then the piano height becomes 36" tall. The weight of the piano is just 77 lbs so it's very easy for 2 people to move it around. Another nice cabinet feature is that unlike other digital pianos in this price range including digital pianos for slightly more or less money, the C1 Air has front connected support legs built into the piano. This allows the piano to have more stability and keeps it from rocking back & forth as a few other digital pianos can do. Also the C1 Air includes a slow-closing key cover so when you lower the cover to close over the keys, the key cover does just come crashing down on your fingers. It has a braking system that more slowly releases the cover to come down more gently which is a great feature. When the key cover is open it has enough mass/thickness to support a music light which can attach or clip on to the top of the key cover. A lot of digital pianos cannot do this so that's a nice feature when you want to light up your music in darker places. Speaking of darker places, I like the fact that the buttons light up with a red light when they are depressed so you can easily see which function or sound you are using. There are quite a few digital pianos that don't have light-up buttons so you may not know what function you are using at the time. Another thing I appreciate about the C1 Air is that when you are playing instrument sounds (pianos, strings, organs, etc) and want to switch to a new sound while you are playing, the previous sound does not just drop out and stop playing. It keeps on sustaining until you press the keys down again and the new sound is heard. So this piano works well in that way for live performance playing as well as in your home for recreational playing.

All in all, if you are considering a digital piano in this price range (under $1500 down to about $1000) I would recommend you definitely consider the new Korg C1 Air as a very good choice, especially if your main goal is to play piano because that's what this piano is really all about. Although it does other things, has other functions, and allows you to play other nice instrument sounds, it's really all about the "piano playing experience" and not about having drum rhythms, hundreds of sounds, 16 tracks of recording, audio recording, or other "bells & whistles." The C1 Air has a very convincing responsive key action, natural stereo piano sound reproduction, and dependable pedaling with great damper decay-sustain time giving you the impression that when playing this piano you are hearing and feeling a big grand piano with 2 excellent sampled grand pianos at your disposal along with their slight variations. *One final thing...for a number of weeks, the C1 Air has had an introductory price on it from the Korg US factory headquarters of just $1049 which is $250 off of the upcoming regular discount price of $1299. I am told that this introductory price will end no later than by the end of this month or when introductory supplies run out whichever comes first, and then be up to $1299. A discount of $250 off is a lot of money so if you think this sounds like the piano for you then you may want to act on it right away before the price goes up. I can also help you save even more money off internet discount prices so please contact me before you by anything from anyone.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

REVIEW & REPORT - Kawai Digital Pianos for 2018 - The Kawai piano company was founded nearly 100 years ago in 1927 and its international headquarters is in Hamamatsu, Japan which is where it's founder, Koichi Kawai was born back in 1886. Kawai's US headquarters is in the city of Ranch Dominguez, Southern California. Mr Kawai got his start in the piano industry by working for the Yamaha piano company back in the early 20th century and was quite famous for his inventions and designs in the piano industry in Japan and was the first person to build a complete, quality piano action there. In 1927 My Kawai left the Yamaha company to start his own piano manufacturing company under the name Kawai Musical Instrument Company.  Kawai is a relatively small company in the manufacturing world as compared to other companies like Yamaha, Casio, and Roland because Kawai only makes pianos whereas Yamaha and Casio and Roland are more mainstream because they make so many consumer items like audio equipment, calculators, watches , and keyboards (Casio), guitar products, recording gear, keyboards, motorcycles & snowmobiles (Yamaha). But I think it goes without saying that even though the Kawai piano company may not be quite as familiar to people outside of the piano world, the Kawai piano company has a long, impressive history in the piano business and continues to this day to build not only some impressive acoustic upright & grand pianos, but also has a big selection of high quality digital pianos.

Currently the Kawai piano company has 23 distinct digital piano models (20 of them are for the US market only) which cover a huge span of digital piano technologies, price ranges, and sizes. From a low discount price of $729 ($1049 retail price) all the way up to about $22,000 retail price for a 5'3" full size digital baby grand called the CP1, Kawai has a digital piano that can fit the musical needs of most piano shoppers. In the US market Kawai has 2 portable digital pianos with built-in speakers which includes the ES110 ($729US internet discount price) and ES8 ($1999US internet discount price). Kawai also has 3 models of portable digital pianos (usually referred to as stage pianos) which include the MP7SE ($1799US internet discount price), MP11SE ($2799US internet discount price), and VPC1 $1849US internet discount price. The VPC1 is especially unique because it has no internal sounds or functions. It's designed to be a "controller" digital piano so that you would connect the VPC1 to your iPad or computer to "control" external piano sounds (software by other digital piano sound companies) that you can buy so your external device with the external piano sounds in it is "played by" the VPC1 piano keyboard. You would connect an external audio system to your computer or iPad to hear those pianos sounds you are playing. Some people may prefer this configuration who are comfortable with computers and are OK with always needing to use a dedicated computer with added sounds for their VPC1 piano rather than have the convenience of built-in Kawai digital piano sounds already in the digital piano such as the Kawai MP11SE.

Next in line of the Kawai US digital pianos are their home furniture cabinet models which include the starter model KDP110 ($1199US internet discount price) and also the CE220 ($1899US internet discount price) which can be purchased on the internet through on-line Kawai dealers or through local Kawai stores. All of the other Kawai home digital pianos beyond the KDP110 are NOT available for purchase at on-line US internet dealers or Amazon because those models are only available at local Kawai authorized piano stores. This type of limitation in not being able to purchase through on-line dealers is typically designed to give local piano store dealers an advantage where they do not have to compete with those same models on-line that may be sold at lower prices. This is not only true for Kawai digital pianos but also for many Roland, Yamaha, and Casio digital pianos. So if you don't see the Kawai digital piano you are looking for on-line at a US internet store, this is done deliberately to drive you into a local factory authorized Kawai piano store and it is there you will likely see these other models.

Kawai has 2 new home cabinet models for 2018 called the CA48 ($2099US internet price) and the CA58 ($2999US internet price) that just came out and are available at just 1 online US Kawai dealer but also available at all local Kawai store dealers. So with these 2 models Kawai has a unusual marketing promotion where you can buy them on-line in the US...but only through 1 authorized dealer at the moment, otherwise you need to find them at a local Kawai store. All of the other home furniture cabinet models are ONLY found at local Kawai stores which include the CL26 (1099US store discount price), CN27 ($1899US store discount price), CN37 ($2599US store discount price), CA78 ($3999US store discount price), CA98 ($5399US store discount price), CS8 ($5399US RETAIL price), CS11 ($8499US RETAIL price), Novus NV10 hybrid digital piano ($15,999US RETAIL price), CP3 ($5999US RETAIL price), CP2 ($8999US RETAIL price), and CP1 digital grand piano ($21,999US RETAIL price). The current CS series are housed in actual acoustic piano cabinets offered in polished ebony finish only which makes them unique for Kawai digital pianos because none of the other models look as authentic as far as the piano cabinet designs are concerned. However, because of the increased costs of producing the polished ebony cabinet, Kawai does charge quite a bit more money for them so you would need to decide if that is worth it to you or would prefer to save a bit of money and look at the more basic, although still attractive piano cabinets of  CA series instead.

When it comes to the prices I have just mentioned, it is important to note that some of them have already been discounted by Kawai and are indicated by the word "discount." Other models are listed as RETAIL prices and Kawai does not provide info on the discounts for those models. However based on the approximate discount percentage Kawai offers on their other models I think it's fairly safe to assume a 20% discount (approximate) off retail would be a good guess as to the actual selling price, although you would need to go into a Kawai store to actually get that information. Another thing to know about discount prices is that the discounts quoted are for the Rosewood cabinet color only for all models that offer "matte" Rosewood as a cabinet finish. For all other matte cabinet finishes such as black or white finishes you can expect to pay another $100 for those models. When you get up to the CP series in finishes other than rosewood, you can probably expect to pay another $200 for those finishes. Kawai has a few models that automatically come in a more elegant polished ebony finish only the that upgraded finish is already figured into the retail or discount price.

Most piano digital manufacturers have different piano sound chips depending on the price of the piano. As you go up in price the quality and authenticity of the piano sound (generally speaking) gets more realistic. The Kawai piano company has 4 different piano sound chips for their digital piano line. The way I categorize them is "good,""better," and "best," and then the fourth one which is at the top I refer to as "best plus." All of the piano sound chips are actually quite enjoyable to hear, but as you go up the piano sound chip ladder you get a higher degree of authenticity, and for more discerning players that extra realism translates to more sonic expression and enjoyment so that your piano playing experience can be even more satisfying. In terms of piano processing power, otherwise known a polyphony, Kawai offers in their US digital pianos either 192-note maximum polyphony or 256-note polyphony which is generally plenty of polyphony piano processing power to handle even the most sophisticated piano music without hearing notes abruptly drop out. Kawai does have an older model digital piano called the CL26 (and CL36 in Europe) with only 96-note polyphony which is fine for some situations but I would instead recommend you get at least 120 notes polyphony or above with full stereo piano sampled sounds as opposed to older digital pianos with 96-note polyphony or less which also may not have full stereo sampled sounds and therefore not near as authentic in tone as newer models. My favorite piano sound chip which reproduces the most authentic piano sound is found in their compact ES8 digital piano. Kawai uses that same sound chip in higher priced models which is good, but the ES8 is the lowest priced self-contained digital piano which offers this more authentic piano sound reproduction. I have done a review of that model so if you want more info on it please read my review at the following link: Kawai ES8 Review

For those people concerned with having good key action in their piano, Kawai currently offers 7 key actions (which is a lot) in their digital pianos including their newest and best which is an actual grand piano key action built into their all new hybrid digital piano called Novus (NV10). The Novus key action is called the Millennium III and is taken out of a top Kawai acoustic grand piano so that when you play the Novus the key action it will be the same as a fine Kawai acoustic grand piano selling for $15,000 and more because the Novus key action is a fully acoustic grand key action movement whereas all the other Kawai digital piano key actions are specifically made for digital pianos only and lack most of the actual parts of a real acoustic piano key action. Kawai has 3 different all-plastic keys that help control the key movements and 5 different all-wood keys that help control the key movement. In my opinion all of the key movements are satisfying to play depending on what your musical is and what your budget is. Also, just because the key has wood in it does not necessarily make it better or more money. For instance in my opinion the ES8 black with stand & triple pedal at $2427 and CN37 black at $2699 has a more authentic key movement with the all-plastic keys than the wooden-key CE220 although the CE220 key movement is still quite enjoyable to play. Ultimately when it comes to key action and they way they feel and move...the key to picking out the right one for you should be based on your playing skill level, type of music you want to primarily play, your expectations and desires for the way the key action actually responds and moves, and your budget.

Pedaling with the triple pedal system on Kawai pianos also varies depending on which model you choose. The primary pedal called the damper-sustain pedal can be lighter and firmer to press down depending on the model you choose and the sustain/decay time of the piano sound can be longer or shorter depending on the piano your choose. So even in the pedal mechanism there can be a difference among different Kawai models with some being more responsive than others. They all offer half-damper pedaling with controllable pedal sustain amounts to come out closer to what a real acoustic piano sustain pedal offers. The color finish of the pedals can also be different depending on the model with some pedals coming in a chrome plated finish and others in a golden brass. That kind of thing just boils down to appearance and whether you really prefer one over the other just as in cabinet colors and finishes.

Some Kawai digital pianos like the ES110, CN27 and KDP110 with all three under $2000US just focus mostly on piano playing with only a few "extra "bells & whistles" while other models such as the CN37, MP11SE, and ES8 have a few more "bells & whistles" but still primarily focus on the piano playing experience. The there are other Kawai models which are in-between or have even more extra interactive functions & features such as the CP series. Whether it's wireless Bluetooth connectivity, MP3/wav file song recording, 50 or more instrument sounds, 8-16 track multitrack recording, color display screens, or interactive accompaniment styles, the Kawai pianos cover a lot of ground and depending on what you want to do with your music and with your time, you can probably find what you want within the lineup of new Kawai digital pianos. Kawai also just came out with new color touch screens in their new model CA series and Novus digital pianos. Kawai has had color touch screens before which are on their CP models, but these new touch screens are android based, smaller and work in a different way with newer user interface technology. I have tried out these new touch screens already and although they are quite nice, they do take a bit of getting used to them and can be a bit needy in terms of how they react to your touch.

My suggestion for deciding on what model digital piano will best fit your piano needs is to decide how much the person playing the piano really likes music, how much they like being around music, and if they (or you) would actually like to play a piano along with what you are willing to spend to get the "right" piano for you and/or your family. If you already play the piano then you should decide, based on your available budget, how real of a piano playing experience do you really want to get? How natural and organic do you want the piano to be and also how much volume and richness do you want out of the digital piano for the room, home, an building that the piano is going in to? Also, a lot of people have different needs when it comes to the actual cabinet, cabinet design, cabinet color, moveability, and portability of the instrument itself. These are all important questions when deciding on the best piano for your needs and for your budget and the Kawai company with its 20 available current models for the US market should be able to cover most bases for most piano shoppers. However, one of the things about a single company offering so many models (Kawai is not the only one) is that it can definitely get confusing for the shopper (you) after a while because sometimes there is more than one model in the same price range and perhaps even 3 or 4 models in a similar price range from the same brand and you are left to figure out which one would be best for you...and that's not counting digital pianos in a much higher or lower price range that you might also like to consider.

At the end of the day it is still true that one digital piano company cannot cover all of the bases when it comes to musical needs and budget of the digital piano shopper. If that were the case then there would only be one car manufacturer, one truck manufacturer, one refrigerator manufacturer, one computer maker, one cell phone maker, etc. In reality one company cannot satisfy all the needs of everyone shopping for that type or product. That's why there are other top name digital piano manufacturers like Yamaha, Casio, Roland, Korg, Samick, and others out there who offer something different than Kawai which may or may not fit your needs better . There are also piano makers who make very poor playing and sounding product that I do not recommend and although they may look good on the outside, they are not necessarily good on the inside and can create more playing problems than a person realizes. I call that kind of a digital piano a "Piano Shaped Object (PSO) and I advise people to stay away from them if at all possible. They are pianos which have Made-up names that are really just cheap technology and construction in a cabinet that appears to be attractive but can cause long term headaches. I have seen that happen quite often so I recommend you go with the name brands that I mentioned above and you will likely be very happy for a long long time. The Kawai piano brand is definitely worthy of your attention and it is something that I recommend. If you want more info on them or even lower prices than Amazon, Internet, local store, etc, then please contact me before you by anything from anywhere...you'll be glad you did.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.