REVIEW - Kurzweil MP10 Digital Piano - Sounds good, but not good key action

UPDATED REVIEW - July 10, 2013 - Kurzweil MP10-Not Recommended - I have been playing Kurzweil pianos and keyboards ever since the introduction of their famous K250 digital piano in 1984, which had the first Steinway piano sample (incredible sound at the time in a real musical instrument), and I still really enjoy the Kurzweil piano sound to this day. The Kurzweil digital piano sound technology has always been advanced over some other brands throughout the years and they still put out some great instrument sounds, although other brands have caught up to and surpassed them in many areas. In fact I still use one of the Kurzweil midi sound modules to add a variety of instruments to other digital pianos in my studio.

Kurzweil digital piano technology was created and introduced many years ago by the the well known American inventor Ray Kurzweil (pictured left in his younger years - the pianos are named after him). The Kurzweil company is now owned by the South Korean company, Hyundai. Kurzweil piano's big claim to fame in the beginning days of that company was the fact that Ray was able to reproduce the sound of the grand piano, concert strings, and concert choir in a way never done before in digital keyboard instruments back in the '80's & '90's. The Kurzweil sounds have been used extensively in movie & TV music production and are used by popular bands and musicians around the world. In fact, when you hear grand pianos, full concert string symphonies and choir/voice sounds in various movies & shows, it's likely that they used a Kurzweil piano among other things. 

One of the reasons Ray Kurzweil created his new digital piano technology was at the request of Stevie Wonder many years ago. Stevie wanted a digital instrument that had the highest quality piano sound possible based on technology in those days, along with a a more realistic piano touch and a few other high quality instrument tones. Stevie already had an association with Ray Kurzweil because Ray invented and produced the acclaimed "reading machine" for the blind, which Stevie Wonder was using. Ray Kurzweil is known in music and scientific circles around the world and in fact, Ray even predicted the rise of the Internet back in 1988 before it was here.

The Kurzweil company has been bought and sold a number of times in the past couple of decades and as I mentioned earlier, is now owned by Hyundai. Approximately 3 years ago, they came out with a lower priced home furniture cabinet digital piano called the MP10 and at that time I did a review of this model. It is still available at a internet discount price of $1499 in a satin rosewood (pictured left) and $1799 in a high polished black ebony (below left). Yamaha, Roland, Casio, Kawai, and Korg also make some lower priced digital pianos (around $2000 or less - I have reviewed some of those pianos on my blog) and overall they are very nice too, especially the Kawai CE220. Kurzweil uses proprietary digital sound technology derived from their PC3 professional portable piano keyboard played by musicians around the world. Some of this same digital piano and instrument sound technology has been put into the Kurzweil MP10, and based on my experience with the Kurzweil pro keyboards which I have played for many years, the instrument sounds are more authentic than many other digital pianos. Creating a great piano tone in a digital piano is very difficult to do because the acoustic piano sound is so complex and requires a great deal of computer memory in the piano. The MP10 has a pretty good piano sound but it is lacking in some aspects and there are better digital pianos out there for piano sounds in my opinion for around the same money, including Yamaha & Kawai.

However, the bottom line is that a person has to be in a position to recognize that difference in tone quality and authenticity between different brands and models and some people can and some cannot. Many of the other instrument sounds on the MP10 are fairly realistic and clear and I really like some of them more than other digital pianos in their price range. Strings, synthesizers, choirs, bells, guitars, etc, are fun to use and sound great. However, the all important key action movement and piano sound response from the keys is a big disappointment to me and needs some definite improvement. The initial touch on the keys when you press the keys down, especially when playing lightly, is rather stiff and physically resistant to a light finger touch. This can create bad playing playing habits and the key action is not near as enjoyable as it should be. It is easy for someone who plays the piano to push the keys down with some force, but for subtle, softer legato music passages, the key action is not as it should be compared with the other more popular brands including Roland, Kawai, Yamaha, and Casio. The keys are also somewhat noisy as well as plasticky feeling when they are going up and down. Although key action and touch is one of those subjective things based on a person's expectations & experience, it is the most essential part of any digital piano and can be compared to a transmission on a vehicle; if it doesn't run and move smoothly then you probably won't like it much. I personally do not enjoy the key action on this model and as I said, any of the other brands in this price range would be better. I have found that some people enjoy a lighter touch, some a medium touch, and some a firmer touch. In fact many acoustic grand pianos differ in this way and even some pro players disagree with each other as to what is a "proper" piano keytouch. But I would say one of the weak points in this piano by far is the key action, especially for beginners or students, but for players like me too. Kurzweil is not the only brand with some key action issues, so this situation is not exclusive to this brand, but to me it has one of the most noticeable problems in this area and it's probably because Kurzweil does not make this key action themselves but has another company do it in Asia. The MP10 is the only home cabinet piano that has this key action as the other Kurzweil models have upgraded key movements, but they do cost more money.

The Kurzweil MP10 has a wide selection of quality instrument tones using 64-note polyphony (total of 88 sounds) including Fender Rhodes (and other popular electric pianos sounds), Hammond B3 organ tones, bells, synths, and string symphonies, etc, along with 78 realistic drum rhythm patterns to add some fun in the mix (which helps with timing and tempo education), split and layer functions with relative volume control, 1-track 9-song digital recorder, MIDI & USB connectivity, audio ins & outs, and a  built-in 4 speaker 30-watt sound system all housed in an attractive looking cabinet. The MP10 also has an fairly easy to understand user interface with buttons on the left side panel (pictured above left), although I always prefer buttons to be in front of the player across the front of the piano. Overall this is a nice piano in many ways and looks attractive, but could use some very big improvement in key action. I mentioned the word "polyphony" earlier and that translates to piano note memory. Most new pianos these days are using a minimum of approx 128-note polyphony which is very good. However 64-note memory is fairly low, especially on a name brand like Kurzweil. Although the polyphony may be fine for a solo piano and some instrument sounds and layers, it is not near enough polyphony memory when combining with some of the more complex higher quality instrument sounds on the Kurzweil MP10 because some of the notes start dropping out and will not continue to sustain due to low memory. However, I am told by reliable souces that Kurzweil will come up to today's standard of 128-note polyphony with new models in the near future.

Kurzweil has a two upgraded versions of the MP10 called the MP15 and MP20 as I mentioned earlier (left pic). I have played both of these models and they're  improved over the MP10 although they are significantly more money at $2499 and $2999 respectively for the basic rosewood finish. Unfortunately the upgraded models still use 64-note polyphony and have somewhat noisy key actions, but nevertheless the sound of the piano and instrument tones are quite good. These new models do have better sound speaker systems, better and more user friendly control panel layout, upgraded cabinet, and more useable functions. However when compared to many of the new pianos from Yamaha, Roland, Casio, and Kawai, they are overpriced in my opinion as compared with some of the new models in other brands having 128 note and 256-note polyphony and more realistic key actions in my opinion.

Some people are looking for a good high polished ebony digital piano in a nicely designed furniture cabinet for under $2000 so the MP10 does deliver on that point. However, when it comes to bang for the buck for piano playing realism, there really are other pianos that do a noticeably better job of that in this price range even though they may not offer their models in a polished ebony finish. With regard to a new lower priced digital piano that offers the biggest bang for the buck in my opinion, you should take a look at the 2013 model Casio PX780, PX850, Kawai CN24, Kawai CE220, and Yamaha YDP162. They are all very nice digital pianos and outperform the Kurzweil pianos in many ways including key action and piano sound. Go to the following link to take a look at one of reviews of the PX780: Casio PX780 Review

The bottom line is, I do not recommend the Kurzweil MP10 at this time because it has (in my opinion) a low quality, stiff & unrealistic key action. Any buying decision is up to you and if you can be happy with this model then you should buy it. But I would personally not recommend it to my students or people I know. So no matter what you may read and hear about this piano model being a great value and a great piano, go and play it before you buy and you will see and hear what I have reported on this piano. This MP10 piano is already more than 3 years old as a model, and I suspect there will be an a new model upgrade very soon and hopefully this upgrade will take care of the issues I mentioned here. I do like some of the Kurzweil piano models and sounds, as well as some functions and cabinet design, but the key action on the MP10 is sorely lacking in the way I have described and I bring this to your attention because without a smooth playing and functioning piano key action, at the end of the day, nothing else on the piano really matters.