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AZpianowholesale's price was $1675... I believe musicians friend can sale it for $1599 based off what someone posted in the prices paid section. I think musicians friend would be hard to get that price though as they list it for $1999 and big box stores usually dont discount as much. Tim at AZWholesale was really helpful over the phone and all I paid upfront is $200 and pay the rest after delivery after I make sure its what I ordered. The only catch I found is that with AZ the sales are final once item is shipped so there are no returns if you decide you dont want it. It still comes with the 3 year warranty from Kawai. The way he works, from what I can tell, is he doesnt stock anything on hand. He drop ships the order straight from Kawai to your door. Kawai is out of stock but should fulfill the order within the week. I cant wait!
EDIT!! I did the online chat with musicians friend and asked what their best price was on the ES8. They replied back with a %20 coupon code with would make it $1600. $75 cheaper than AZwholesale but then again Id rather support a smaller business to begin with. Note to self, always contact the store first to get pricing lol, dont rely on the posted price!
I have an ES8 on order through AZPianoWholesale... I couldnt find much about them but the transaction seems pretty safe to me and he offered the best pricing. I can't wait for it to arrive! Ive researched just about everything there is online about the ES8 and it totally is a winner! For me, if I ever want more sounds, I will just use my laptop and the ES8 as a midi controller at that point! I am looking forward to playing around with the new SK sounds! OH this is my first DP away from an upright!
The relative lack of sounds is the only real thing I would like to see more of. I'd be very interested what you would use for this, in terms of software. Cheers
I use FL Studio and there are TONS of vst voices available to plugin for it.
AZpianowholesale's price was $1675... I believe musicians friend can sale it for $1599 based off what someone posted in the prices paid section. I think musicians friend would be hard to get that price though as they list it for $1999 and big box stores usually dont discount as much. Tim at AZWholesale was really helpful over the phone and all I paid upfront is $200 and pay the rest after delivery after I make sure its what I ordered. The only catch I found is that with AZ the sales are final once item is shipped so there are no returns if you decide you dont want it. It still comes with the 3 year warranty from Kawai. The way he works, from what I can tell, is he doesnt stock anything on hand. He drop ships the order straight from Kawai to your door. Kawai is out of stock but should fulfill the order within the week. I cant wait!
EDIT!! I did the online chat with musicians friend and asked what their best price was on the ES8. They replied back with a %20 coupon code with would make it $1600. $75 cheaper than AZwholesale but then again Id rather support a smaller business to begin with. Note to self, always contact the store first to get pricing lol, dont rely on the posted price!
It looks like ES8 price going down? I spoke with Tim at AZpianowholesale second week of Nov and the price was 1,815. Is this due to Kawai holiday sale?
EDIT!! I did the online chat with musicians friend and asked what their best price was on the ES8. They replied back with a %20 coupon code with would make it $1600. $75 cheaper than AZwholesale but then again Id rather support a smaller business to begin with. Note to self, always contact the store first to get pricing lol, dont rely on the posted price!
Maybe you should have done a deal with the store you used to try out the ES8 in the first place? Don't you think you owe them something for using their stock and showroom to make your online purchase? Your talk of supporting small business sounds a little hollow in this context.
EDIT!! I did the online chat with musicians friend and asked what their best price was on the ES8. They replied back with a %20 coupon code with would make it $1600. $75 cheaper than AZwholesale but then again Id rather support a smaller business to begin with. Note to self, always contact the store first to get pricing lol, dont rely on the posted price!
Maybe you should have done a deal with the store you used to try out the ES8 in the first place? Don't you think you owe them something for using their stock and showroom to make your online purchase? Your talk of supporting small business sounds a little hollow in this context.
I tried negotiating with the store and they didn't want to bargain. Plus they weren't very local to me and didn't have stock except for the showroom unit.
Finally got the ES8 set up First impressions... wow, love everything about it. Can't wait to have more time with the different samples and rhythms happy bunny..
I have an ES8 on order through AZPianoWholesale... I couldnt find much about them but the transaction seems pretty safe to me and he offered the best pricing. I can't wait for it to arrive! Ive researched just about everything there is online about the ES8 and it totally is a winner! For me, if I ever want more sounds, I will just use my laptop and the ES8 as a midi controller at that point! I am looking forward to playing around with the new SK sounds! OH this is my first DP away from an upright!
The relative lack of sounds is the only real thing I would like to see more of. I'd be very interested what you would use for this, in terms of software. Cheers
I use FL Studio and there are TONS of vst voices available to plugin for it.
I like this sound of a Shigeru Kawai more than Kawai's own recreation....with the goalpost of a STAGE piano in mind... (has to cut through the band mix easily without adjusting to much) Therefore i cannot fully understand that the MP11 / ES8 and CA series have the same onboard main grand piano sounds......they should sound differently for different purposes instead of having basically the same sound. My MP8 had way to much bass response live, that wasn't solved by simply cutting some low eq it sounded a little static, mushy and dark...okay for playing at home but not so much on stage.
Kawai has made sufficient progress of course , but since the MP8 / MP 9500 I still hear the same basic sound, maybe it is their way of close sampling in an unechoing chamber ?
How do those guys at Nord without a real piano history and second tier Fatar actions know how to sample a piano for stage usage while maintaining such an organic and lively sound that every other major hardware company seems to lack ....more or less ?
Kawai actions are the best, I personally prefer them over the Avant Grands for several reasons, I still feel Kawai should use another approach when sampling their own instruments instaed of adding another layer after a few years, increase the decay time with a second before looping etc.....(hypothetically speaking..) Of course Nord isn't perfect in that perspective, but the basic sound is such a big plus that the i'll take the rest.
AZpianowholesale's price was $1675... I believe musicians friend can sale it for $1599 based off what someone posted in the prices paid section. I think musicians friend would be hard to get that price though as they list it for $1999 and big box stores usually dont discount as much. Tim at AZWholesale was really helpful over the phone and all I paid upfront is $200 and pay the rest after delivery after I make sure its what I ordered. The only catch I found is that with AZ the sales are final once item is shipped so there are no returns if you decide you dont want it. It still comes with the 3 year warranty from Kawai. The way he works, from what I can tell, is he doesnt stock anything on hand. He drop ships the order straight from Kawai to your door. Kawai is out of stock but should fulfill the order within the week. I cant wait!
EDIT!! I did the online chat with musicians friend and asked what their best price was on the ES8. They replied back with a %20 coupon code with would make it $1600. $75 cheaper than AZwholesale but then again Id rather support a smaller business to begin with. Note to self, always contact the store first to get pricing lol, dont rely on the posted price!
Hello,I did indeed use the 20% coupon which to my pleasant surprise worked online. I decided to get the gold coverage because in my opinion had I brought locally I would have ended up paying $1,814 at least anyway, and Musicians Friend was very supportive and helpful when I had a problem with some different units in 2012-2013. Some of the other advantages for me personally were, using my Amex, a return period to January 31st (not that I would be planning on returning it) and no sales tax. I ordered online 9PM Sunday and had it 3PM Wednesday-
I prefer using Amex for purchases as well and my dealer would only take checks or cash.
As a Nord owner, I've obviously tried the Shig... 'Silver Grand' sound, and like many others find it to be very clear and expressive - the team that recorded and produced this sound did an excellent job at capturing the original instrument's recognised characteristics. However, I'm not sure I necessarily like the Nord sound any more or less than the SK-EX and SK-5 sounds inside the latest Kawai instruments - it's just different.
As I'm sure you're aware, there is a world of difference between the legacy piano sounds of the MP9500/MP8 and the more modern 88-key sampled Kawai EX sound introduced a few years ago. The latest 88-key SK-EX and SK-5 sounds are different again, so I'm afraid I do not share your opinion that they share 'the same basic sound', however these things are obviously highly subjective.
May I ask if you have been able to play-test the CA97/CA67 or ES8 for yourself, in order to compare the contrasting characteristics of the core EX, SK-EX and SK-5 sounds?
Your suggestion of preparing sounds with different characteristics depending on the form factor (and assumed intended use) is quite interesting. However, I would argue it's best to include the same sounds (and the same quality of sound) in both home and stage-oriented instruments (as we do with the CA97/CA67 and ES8), while also providing alternative variations that may be more suitable for different kinds of music.
I agree with James that I want the best samples on whatever keyboard I buy. The variations (modern piano, clean jazz) I'm guessing are for times when you need a different, perhaps exaggerated timbre for live band situations, then there's always the Dynamic voicing in the virtual technician. My local store still doesn't have the ES8, but I definitely need to try it out before I buy. Although I love the ES7's Concert Grand for solo work, for playing dance music I like the concert grand 2, a sound that has been discontinued. I need to make sure that at least one of the sounds will work for that before I get an ES8.
I found there is one of the sounds perhaps rock piano or pop piano that more likely focuses on volume which is nice for certain rock songs. Then of course you can edit the lid settings, eq setting such as bass boost, loudness or custom eq to tweak as well.
As a Nord owner, I've obviously tried the Shig... 'Silver Grand' sound, and like many others find it to be very clear and expressive - the team that recorded and produced this sound did an excellent job at capturing the original instrument's recognised characteristics. However, I'm not sure I necessarily like the Nord sound any more or less than the SK-EX and SK-5 sounds inside the latest Kawai instruments - it's just different.
I too like the new Kawai offerings (what i hear online), but the ''difference'' in my opinion is that the Nord silver grand cuts through the band mix like nothing i've used before, while maintaining the warm and full SK character albite being on the bright side. The Nord vid i posted showed that in my opinion...even though it was a classical piece. Many sampled stagepiano's aren't that usefull right out the box on stage. I used Roland, Kawai and Yamaha and all of them were ''soso'' in a rock/pop band...while the Kurzweil's i used in the past all sounded terrific, despite a very small footprint memory wise.
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As I'm sure you're aware, there is a world of difference between the legacy piano sounds of the MP9500/MP8 and the more modern 88-key sampled Kawai EX sound introduced a few years ago. The latest 88-key SK-EX and SK-5 sounds are different again, so I'm afraid I do not share your opinion that they share 'the same basic sound', however these things are obviously highly subjective.
I think they sound far better....so we agree. What i meant is that Kawai still uses close sampling in an unechoing chamber, harmonic imaging.....the result is a very direct and perfect sound. All of the above ES8 vids sound that way to me. Far better than the MP8 i still have, but still the same sampling methods ?? If you compare that to all sorts of software piano's or Nord than it is more polished, direct and less ambient without adding reverb.
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May I ask if you have been able to play-test the CA97/CA67 or ES8 for yourself, in order to compare the contrasting characteristics of the core EX, SK-EX and SK-5 sounds?
I played the CA95 quite often....but does it have the new SK samples....i guess not I will not judge anything on internal speakers, because i always find expensive studio monitors or headphones better than what digital piano companies offer in their style cabinets. Last week I played again on the Yamaha N3 and still the speakers are not good enough. Remember our discussion about the DP1 ? Now that was set up with the right amaount of proiper speakers to truly shine.... So no I didn't hear the new samples under better conditions than online examples....they sound very good though....
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Your suggestion of preparing sounds with different characteristics depending on the form factor (and assumed intended use) is quite interesting. However, I would argue it's best to include the same sounds (and the same quality of sound) in both home and stage-oriented instruments (as we do with the CA97/CA67 and ES8), while also providing alternative variations that may be more suitable for different kinds of music.
Kind regards, James x
I think here we disagree....of course stage and home shoud receive the same quality, but not the same sample sets per see. See it this way.....some grands sound terriffic on their own, but when properly miked it sometimes doesn't work out all to well, do to specific characters that are lost on high volumes and/or other qualities that could get in the way (thunderous bass register)
I think Nord is doing the right thing, sample all sorts of grands and uprights, close miked, ambient and everything in between. The small footprint is still a shame, but you should also know as a Nord owner that some signature piano samples are great at home, others for jazz and others in a rock band with crunch guitars.
Kawai , Roland, Yamaha and Korg used to have ONE sampleset that was used for the rock grand, bright, pop and a mellow grand too ! Nowadays they have more different samplesets, but the ''sameness'' apart from sounding darker, brighter, mellower is still there due to sampling methodes and using only one brand to sample (Kawai and Yamaha)
Bottom line, I think Kawai sounds very good, but on stage i wonder if i could make it sound as usefull as all the Nord different pianos for different purposes. Of course i could be wrong, but i'll be the first to admit it !!
I am going to a musicstore soon and bring my headphones to check Kawai's new SK samples in person...promise.
I tried something different today- it was kind of neat. I linedout the piano to my Bose mini Soundtrue or Soundcolor bluetooth speaker and placed it either next to me or actually on the X-crossbar. Up unto a certain volume on the piano it blends in nicely and created a small spacial effect.
I am thinking this could be somewhat of a start for me, in other words I have X amount of sound coming from the ES8 and just want a little more space an volume- I might look at the bose soundbar mini or even an altec lansing lifejacket- this might actually even fit on the piano itself.
