Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards My Kawai MP11 just arrived - Unboxing Video!

(Markarian) You should do a recording with those sometime

Thank you KawaiJames, Markarian and LarryMan.


Markarian, that would be very nice if you have the time.

Markarian, your tag says you own a 2002 NY Steinway Model B?

Could you comment on the realism of the Grand Feel action compared to an actual grand piano?

Is there anything that immediately gives it away as "just" a digital piano?

I think the biggest thing that gives it away, if anything, is how much force is needed to play each key before the escapement catches. On the Steinway it travels down smoothly as if you are not exerting any force. On the Kawai, you can feel a certain pushback, like the key is providing some resistance. I am not an expert, but I would guess this has to do with key weight. If you put weights on each keyboard to determine the force required for it to go down I think you would find the Kawai wants a lot more force. Adjusting "touch" and velocity curves only goes so far to mitigate this.

You know, with all this real wood piano action the Grand Feel has, I wonder if there's some way to have it regulated?

I think the biggest thing that gives it away, if anything, is how much force is needed to play each key before the escapement catches. On the Steinway it travels down smoothly as if you are not exerting any force. On the Kawai, you can feel a certain pushback, like the key is providing some resistance. I am not an expert, but I would guess this has to do with key weight. If you put weights on each keyboard to determine the force required for it to go down I think you would find the Kawai wants a lot more force. Adjusting "touch" and velocity curves only goes so far to mitigate this.

Most new digitals I play are just very heavy. Don't get me wrong, if I wanted a looser action, I would buy a Kurzweil, but forget any kind of realism or dynamic response. You know, with all this real wood piano action the Grand Feel has, I wonder if there's some way to have it regulated?

That being said going between the Kawai and the Steinway is not terribly jarring and both are a joy to play. I still love the MP11 and am glad I replaced my Korg with it. Though lately I have been eyeing the Physis from Viscount...I highly doubt their action measures up to Kawai's, even though it's tempting to think about owning a slab that has something like Pianoteq built in.

Acoustic pianos all feel different from each other, too. I've played Steinways that were really hard to play and others that were not. Also, the larger the grand in general the heavier the keys - all other things being equal.

For me, the MP11 feels lighter than my Petrof, but quite a bit heavier than my Yamaha. Like with acoustics, you adjust to the instrument you're playing. I think the things that make a digital harder to adjust to are feelings that you don't often find in acoustics of varying types: sponginess, springiness, hard bottoming out.

So true Morodiene, and in my distant past I can recall having to lift the odd sticky key whilst playing too... not only do all acoustic pianos feel different, they're not always meticulously maintained!


Interestingly, when I tried the CA65 last weekend to get a feel for the Grand Feel action, I thought it felt lighter than the Yamaha uprights (and AvantGrand N1) on display, whilst the older RM3 Grand action subjectively felt a touch heavier.

I left the store knowing that I would adjust to whichever action I end up choosing – it's currently a toss-up between the MP10 and MP11 (the older display model is available at a nice price). Despite knowing that both are significantly more authentic than what I have now (and I'd be happy with either), Markarian's unboxing video really does make me want the shiny brand new model!!

While always trying to be conscious of my budget, I generally shy away from buying the older model of a keyboard. The technology progresses fast enough to make it a better long-term investment in terms of resalability and having more current samples, etc.

Thanks for the video, really enjoyed it!
As for the pedals: The MP11SE will get new ones, so probably they fixed that. Still courious about the price, though.

I thought we were told the SE would be the same price as the "older" versions...?