Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards My Journey to Guitar Center to Scope out Digital pianos

I just started posting the first of many videos detailing my
trip down Guitar Center aisles with camcorder this morning. It was an ear opener to be sure.

Part one was just posted and I will be uploading a bunch more segments this evening that relate to each digital I detailed. I covered all the hammer weighted pianos available at Guitar Center, Fresno. (makes me want to know what else is out there)

http://arioso7.wordpress.com/2011/0...ation-at-guitar-center-fresno-ca-videos/

lol that sound from the 33 would drive me nuts. It's like a swish swash sound.

Thanks for the on site reviews.

Aaa, this is so cool! I was always curios about how piano teachers would evaluate digital pianos and being recorded inside the store [I didn't know they allowed that!], you captured your genuine, on the spot reaction. I've read reviews of piano teachers on this forum, but it's always the conclusion they reached and not the actual tests they performed. And I remember when I shopped for my DP, it's a different feeling you have in the shop vs coming home, trying to remember the experience, analyzing some more and then writing your opinion on a forum.

It's a pity the camera/sound is not HD, like in some youtube video reviews, but those unfortunately are made by shop assistants and they never reveal any bad parts or things they don't like about the DP.

Keep'em coming!

Any Kawai love at Guitar Center?
Will you be visiting any pianos stores in the future?

Cheers,
James
x

KJ: I've never seen a Kawai at Guitar Center. Not one.

The closest thing they have is a small display box with the sample, one-key Kawai action mechanism. Impressive action ... but no pianos!

Yes, it's a shame. I'd love to see Kawai DPs in more of the larger high-street music retailers (as opposed to being sold exclusively through acoustic piano dealers), however that's obviously not my decision to make.

Cheers,
James
x

Thanks, very interesting to see your interaction with and response to the various digital pianos!

Please don't think that I'm trying to detract from your efforts, but I'd like to make a couple of points:

1. One should do a factory reset before trusting anything on almost any keyboard, synth, DP, etc. Most manuals are on-line, and a bit of studying beforehand can go a long way.
2. Internal / external speakers can have as much or more to do with the sound than the internal sound generator itself. I'd suggest you use a single pair of high quality headphones that you are very familiar with (own, use a lot, and so are familiar with their sonic coloring) for all tests, and judge any internal speakers separately.
3. Hammer action keyboards placed at an angle could behave differently than when they are placed horizontally as the designers intended. The angle might make the keys feel lighter / more sluggish to return to the top.
4. Not having a pedal is a problem. To me, sympathetic resonance is perhaps the main thing that makes the piano sound so beautiful. Almost none of the low end DPs like those you have tested have good sympathetic resonance. Kawai and Roland generally do this well, I'd be interested in your response to any Kawai, and to the Roland RD-700NX (you may have to increase the effect and turn off the reverb in order to fully evaluate it on any DP).
5. IMO, a lot of what you are perceiving as bad regulation is transition between stretch groups.
6. Long sustain isn't necessarily good sustain (I can hear the looping in the P155) though it is better than short sustain.
7. I'd suggest you turn off any reverb when evaluating the piano sound. It is often poorly done and can mask any sympathetic resonance effects / sampling issues.

If you can find a Roland RD-300NX or FP-7F (same keys and sound generator) I'd be interested in your reactions, particularly the key feel compared to the RD-700NX.

Again, thanks for your videos, they are quite interesting!

You're right on the money describing the "swash" sound of that CP33 stage piano.. The word stage puts the digital into better perspective, and gives it a status of its own based on genre.

Thanks for your comments. I got permission from Guitar Center corporate to do the reviews and bring the camcorder. Luckily, there wasn't much consumer traffic yesterday morning in Fresno GC and the one fellow holding the fort helped me connect two digitals that weren't plugged in. The truth be known, more and more piano students own digitals even if we as teachers favor acoustic pianos. It's just a fact of life, and where some students would never be able to take lessons, otherwise, having a digital makes it possible. Hopefully the choice of digital will include research, and side by side performance comparison.

There were no Kawai digitals and this was a bit disappointing as I wanted to sample some. I think they might have the bell and whistle, attenuated keyboard variety, but no hammer weighted.

Thanks for this input. I will do more quality controlling next time around. I really should post all the out-takes where I was banging my head, looking for plugs, and overstepping cartons and tripping with the tripod.. Lots of extraneous noise from the hardware. I felt like I was on rocky terrain, being one of those photographers braving and avoiding a few land mines. Any puns welcomed.

Shirley,
Enjoy hearing your perspective on the pianos you are testing. I suspect your opinion could change on the characteristics of some of these listening through a good pair of headphones. On board speakers don't do some of these any justice. I'm surprised Guitar Center is allowing you to record footage of your impressions.

All Kawai DP actions use weighted hammers.

Kind regards,
James
x

Any chance when you embed youtube videos in your blog, you could do so using the following

http://apiblog.youtube.com/2010/07/new-way-to-embed-youtube-videos.html

It would make it possible to view the videos on computers that don't have flash installed (such as iPad) as well as those that do.

Yes, the headphone perspective is another universe, and would be hard to share on video.
Re: Guitar Center, I think they knew that the El Cerrito branch had no way to sample their keyboards because of fear of stolen transformer, and I was not happy about not having a way to try some out for a student over there who was interested in buying one. So it was a redemption to let me scope out ones here in Fresno, where there has never been a problem with access.

Then maybe they were just the 61 key models, and I am not sure of playing those, though I think along the line I have over there.

I am so new to this technology it's a wonder I have been able to get anything up. My daughter used to do all my videos. Now I'm on my own, crawling along the ground to my destination.
Thanks for the link.

If anyone has any connections to getting into stores with Kawais, and other Yamahas, and more, let me know.

You might try plugging one of those inexpensive audio recorders into the line-out or headphone jack, and do a bit of audio mixing later. That's the only way anyone watching your videos will be able to hear what you hear through headphones.


Is the El Cerrito GC by any chance managed by Nigel Tufnel?

Nigel Tufnel: Don't touch it!
Marty DiBergi: We'll I wasn't going to touch it, I was just pointing at it.
Nigel Tufnel: Well... don't point! It can't be played.
Marty DiBergi: Don't point, okay. Can I look at it?
Nigel Tufnel: No. no. That's it, you've seen enough of that one.

[video:youtube]g7-5io1muSQ[/video]

It's famous for it's sustain. You could go and have a bite and you'd still be hearing that one.