Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Some more help needed!! kawai es7 or p255

I've made my decision, it is Yamaha P-255!!!
Placing order tomorrow.

Congratulations Andrew. Hope that you love your new board. It looks like a beauty!

Want to hear it . . . and see it!

Hi ,

Can I ask how you came to your decision?

I have jet to try either but hopefully this week I can try the yamaha.

I am also curious how he came to his decision too since I am still deciding between the ES7, P-255 and FP-80/50

Is it exclusively for the iPad connectivity you mentioned earlier?

$900 cheaper (when purchasing furniture stand and 3-pedal unit);

iPad connectivity ( there are more and more apps like iGrand and Garageband that will give you additional sounds);

ability to record Yamaha's sound + line in;

several dealers in my city that used to carry Yamaha and Kawai, do not carry Kawai pianos anymore;

had before Yamaha P-120 and was happy with it.

ES7 has triple sensor action. That would be a decisive factor for me.

Yesterday I had a go on the es7 so now I just have to track down the Yamaha!!.

What can I say the difference in the keys between the casio and even the es100 was amazing. The keys were so much harder to press down ( in a good way). the speakers were a 100% better then the casio and the instrument just felt so much more better quality. Saying that it is double the price so I have to decide if it worth double the price!!! Sound quality wise i did not have a casio by the side of it to compare it too, and I do think the casio has a good quality piano sound. But the kawai does have an excellent piano sound. The only problem I had was dynamics = does any one know how many levels the kawai es7 has? I know when I had a cvp407 yamaha stated it had 4 Dynamic Levels. I don't know what the levels are on casio and Yamaha or Es7. Does anyone know what they are?

When I was playing it felt about 3 or maybe 4 but it could be my playing!!!

So now I need to track down the p255 and I should be bale to make my decision and maybe try a Roland as well.Then that should have all the bases covered.

So overall I really the Kawai it felt very well built the keys were very solid and the speakers good and the sound excellent. It was just the dynamics that worried me a bit.

So long as the sound grows in presence and harmonic (overtone) content as you increase velocity, and that there is a development in tone colour & character as well as high frequencies and volume, then it shouldn't matter how many layers there are. One layer, with sensitive processing/ modelling would sound much better than 10 layers, inexpertly managed and blended.

One would hope that there was an amazing difference between an $800 DP and a $2000 DP. But it's instructive to see even the difference between brands at the same price, no? If you're looking at the $800 level don't forget the Roland F20.

If you're seriously looking at spending $2,000 you have a different group of pianos to compare to, and more consideration.

Kawai doesn't reveal this information and their method for encoding/processing it makes it not show up very easily in tests like the DPBSD. Sometimes people guess but it's a shot in the dark.

Casio might be a different story. For some reason I had the impression that I knew how many it was but I can't find the source so I won't tell you what I think it is lest I lead you astray.

Hi,

Just a quick question on page 123 of the manual for the es7 it lists the sounds that are used in the style section is it possible to play those sounds on the keyboard?

Also what happens when you play a midi file on the keyboard if it does have the sound used in the midi file?

Any examples of midi playback on you tube? I can't find many demos showing the different styles on the keyboard of the different sounds?

Thnaks

I don't know much about Kawais, neither ES7 nor others, but I'm pretty sure the piano uses it's own tones when playing MIDI files. Judging from my experience with this on my DP, which is a Casio, a MIDI file, when sent to the piano, includes messages about so called channels the tracks of the MIDI files are using. Usually the tracks are on channels 1-4 but can make use of up to 16 channels.

In my piano, the voices are on so called zones and the zones reside in channels 1-4. So if a MIDI is fed to the thing, and it's tracks are on channel 1, it plays them with the tone on zone 1.

You might have to experiment with some settings to get this right. I had to change my settings, to filter out MIDI messages like program and bank change, because the MIDI programs I was using always changed the tone to the horrible GM Piano 1.

Edit: I see from your previous posts you haven't purchased the ES7, so you'd probably be best off to ask a salesman about the piano's MIDI features, unless Kawai James or someone who owns the ES7 will answer this question.

Not directly from the instrument's control panel, no. However it should be possible to select these sound via MIDI.



The instrument used in the MIDI file will be remapped to a sound available on the ES7.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
James
x

Yes -- there's a Casio PX-350 review in the "DPBSD" thread.

There seem to be 4 "blended" dynamic levels. So the change of tone quality, with increasing MIDI velocity, is pretty smooth.

It's here:

https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1966202/Re:%20The%20DPBSD%20Project!.html#Post1966202

and the relevant section:



Note that the number of "layers" is _not_ the same as the number of "loudnesses" the piano can produce. I'm pretty sure the Casio keyboard will produce every MIDI velocity from (nearly) 1 to 128, and the sound generator will increase the volume appropriately. 4 "layers" were sampled, but they're blended together when the sound is generated.

We need to get Dewster to stop whatever he's doing to earn a living, and get back to the test bench!

. Charles

Hi James ,

Thank you for your response.
Sorry just to clarify the sounds listed on page 122 and 123 list all the sounds the es7 can produce so in total it can produce 74 sounds?( plus the drum sounds listed on page 124- can you play them on the keyboard?)

Just out of interest why can't you access them all from the panel?

I have an old Yamaha psr70 my first keyboard in the 1980s and still works great. It also had sounds that was used in the styles and could only be selected by MIDI so I connected the midi out to the midi in of the Keyboard ( so connected to itself) and I could use the hidden sound on the keyboard!!
For some reason I get great satisfaction of doing something on an electronic device that is not might to do. Maybe I am just sad.

Hi,

Another quick question would this pedal work with the es7

http://www.thomann.de/gb/fatar_vfp215m_pianodoppelpedal.htm

It has the right connector. Or this

http://www.thomann.de/gb/fatar_vfp2_10_stereo.htm

Here are the electric diagram of the pedals

http://www.synthax.de/media/files/studiologic/Fatar_sustain_pedal_foot_switch_user_guide_V1.pdf

Also looking at this stand

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tiger-Music...fRID=03HGE641BNVYBJC5AKQJ#productDetails

They are over half the price of the original kawai pedal and the Tiger is cheaper then an K and M stand.

Anyone has experience of these?

Thanks

Yes, although some of these sounds such as 'Guitar Cutting Noise' are more like single samples, and therefore not intended to be 'played' in the same way as other voices.



Again, not directly from the panel, however it is possible to access these sounds via MIDI.



That's a good question, however I'm afraid I do not know, however I expect the point about single samples mentioned above may be have something to do with this decision.



That's an interesting trick. I've never tried this myself, however in theory it should work (with 'Local Off' set to disable the internal sound connection and use MIDI only).



Nope, I think this is pretty cool too.
It's completely unrelated to MIDI, however back in the day when I owned an Amiga computer, I got great satisfaction out of 'ripping' the sound samples and music used in games and demos, then re-using them in my own (simple) music projects.

The cheaper stand will obviously work, although I cannot vouch for its quality compared to the K&M.

Regarding the pedals, I'm afraid I do not know. I would recommend using the Kawai pedal unit to ensure it works correctly with the ES7.

Kind regards,
James
x

Hi James,

thanks for the reply.

Again off topic do you Ski- its one of my passion snow and skiing. Just wondered if you have skied in Japan?

Thanks

Nigel