Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Kawai announces ES920 and ES520 portable digital pianos

Yes it can, emotions aside, the goal is to get the sound you want out of the machine using the LEAST possible input force. That's the whole premise behind good technique.

So hit the keys Faster until you hear that twanging sound like the strings being whacked, that's the clipping point, you never EVER need to hit the key any harder than that.

Part 2, DO NOT Squish. what does that mean. when you get to the bottom of the key, by design the system must allow you to compress further, for cushioning. But at this point, the system already read your input bout 1-4 millimeters BEFORE the bottom point. So when you hold down a chord, there is NO REASON to hold really hard, use the minimum force needed to keep the chord going. You don't have to consciously hold it to any position above the base, but you do need to be conscious not to tighten your hands applying severe/unnecessary downward force once you're past the read-point.

The F-302 pedal does not use blue-tooth (it's attached to the instrument via a cable), so I'm going to guess "no." You'd need a dedicated BlueTooth enabled page turner pedal.

I’m sorry, but I only deal with mindless pounding; for mindful pounding please refer to CG, for he is the preeminent mindful pounder.

Well, doesn't that depend on the "bluetooth page turner" whatever that is?

I suppose you mean some score viewing app that can receive MIDI events over Bluetooth.

The piano (having Bluetooth MIDI) will send key/pedal MIDI events over Bluetooth and it's then up to the receiving end to do something with them. If it can be configured to turn the page with a soft pedal or sostenuto pedal event then it should work.

Thanks Jeff, will try to be a bit more mindful!




Sorry, I didn't word it well! I have the page turner below, which connects to bluetooth on my Tablet, which uses Mobilesheets for PDF music and turns the page great. Given that the ES920 had bluetooth I had been wondering would the F-302 pedals fulfil a similar function.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thunder-Bluetooth-Turner-Tablet-Rechargeable/dp/B06XRTTTCX/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=sheet%2Bmusic%2Bturner&qid=1608038017&sr=8-1&th=1

First and foremost happy new year to everyone.

Some of you may remember my bad experience with my ES-920. I had to sent it back due to bad speakers and a faulty action.
In the meantime I've owned a P-515 and an FP-90.
After a couple of months of testing, I sent them all back and I ordered another ES-920 with all my finger crossed, hoping I received a REAL faulty unit the first time.

Result: my new ES-920 is far better than the other one. Still not perfect to my taste but another planet compared to its faulty brother.
In my opinion, after spending a lot of time with all them three the DP, the KAWAI is the best all round digital instrument. The Yamaha is the closest one but the action is a total nosense to me.
I'll look forward when YAMAHA releases a P-615 or whatever they'll call it to see if they can solve the static weight issue of the keys keeping all the other good aspects of the instrument, that is otherwise a real good piece of hardware.
In the meantime, I'm satisfied with my ES-920 and I know that (to my taste at least) I've got the best option available in today's market.

Hello All. I'm the proud owner of a new ES520 received this week. First electric piano and '21 is to be the year I learn. I don't have much by means of comparison but it is a thing of beauty and feels lovely to play. I say play... I mean stare at and hit keys like a neanderthal!

The documentation is a little on the lean side and being new there isn't much online. I have managed to connect up the Bluetooth MIDI by ensuring the keyboard itself is connected to one of the Kawai apps in the first instance. Opening up Piano Sessions (don't shoot me) then happily shows as connected. None of that is explained anywhere in full but putting 2 and 2 together eventually worked.

What I'm a little mystified about is Bluetooth Audio. When I am playing, the speakers on the keyboard give me what is played on the keys. The iPad also does that which, whilst there is no latency, is a bit annoying. The iPad provides the audio for whatever lesson/ practice tune or video the app is playing... Maybe I'm mistaken but isn't there a way of having the iPad sit there as video only with the keyboard providing all of the audio?

From reviews lots of people state that you can play your own music through it using Bluetooth Audio.. They don't however explain how and I'm at a bit of a loss. Apologies if this is in the wrong thread. I couldn't see an ES520/920 owners thread and didn't think it was my place to start it....

I have never used Piano Sessions.

However, there may be a setting in the Piano Sessions software which allows you to turn off the piano sound within Piano Sessions.

If not, you can always turn down the sound on your computer. Of course, then you will not hear any accompaniment provided by Piano Sessions.

+1. Look for a setting named "Virtual Piano" or something similar in Piano Sessons software and disable that setting.

Osho

@ Dmmeys,
Congrats! I just picked up an es920 today! Am thrilled!

You's a lucky one, starting out with a board like the es520. Piano technology has come a LONG ways, you get a pretty sweet piano-oriented board for $1200 these days. Just count yourself lucky, the sound quality and keyboard action are just fantastic, once you get up to speed you'll realize what a great board you have.

I started with the es110, which I loved, esp for the action, but it was missing some key features, which the es920 has in spades, including aux in and BT music streaming. It feels so 'luxurious' under my fingertips (Roland market-speak for their Fantom G boards). Will report back when I've gotten some time with it.

Hi Dmmeys, best of luck with your new Kawai and learning to play. I sometimes use Bluetooth audio to aid learning new pieces. I pair my phone with the piano, and then play the song I'm learning on my phone and it comes out of the speakers (or headphones). There's a section in the instruction book about pairing for the first time.

Glad to see you've left the dark side and come back to the light dp7. How did you find the Roland FP-90? What was the main reason you finally settled on the Kawai after all?

Thanks @dmd. I had a look in the playground sessions software... Settings pretty sparse but there is an option to turn down the piano sound only so I've done that for the time being...

Only piano sounds is through the ES520 speakers. Lessons & accompaniment remains on the iPad so less distracting...

I found what I think is the way to use Bluetooth Audio. Once I had connected my iPad to the keyboard using any one of the Kawai apps it automatically connects me in the Playground app. If I then go into Bluetooth setting on my iPad there the keyboard is 'connected' AND a Bluetooth Audio option which I can select/ connect as well. Not the slickest/ smoothest/ most obvious of workflows...

Connected Bluetooth Audio in iPad settings. Works. Awful latency though. Mucked about with it. Couldn't get happy so will live with Piano from ES520 and lessons/ accompaniment from iPad. Might be my 8 year old iPad.

Can live with that for the time being until I find a way of sorting out the latency on Bluetooth Audio.

Thanks @Osho. I found a setting within the app that let me turn down the piano audio only.

Thanks @Randyman. As usual I researched myself into ever more expensive options. Had actually bought the ES920 but some warehouse problem resulted in a call from the retailer... Took that opportunity to realise that I was maybe running before I could walk so I pulled back to the ES520. I was looking at the ES110 as well. Lovely piece of kit but I can see that being replaced by a 120 later this year and as I have ZERO patience I decided to go for the recently upgraded and higher spec option so I could start learning.

Was not what I was expecting in terms of the feel. I know there is a lot of debate over what is good/ bad etc. but from my newbie perspective it feels remarkably good. I may upgrade myself in a few years time when I have graduated from 'Mary has a little lamb" lol.

Thanks @Adem. It was actually your reply that made me look at the bluetooth setting on the keyboard itself then go into the iPad to connect. That worked but I have latency issues as mentioned previously.

I wonder if my problem is simply trying to play the iPad tutorials to the keyboard, which then processes and sends back my keystrokes to the iPad, which then sends that back to the keyboard? I can see why that might be causing me latency issues... I've got audio speech for tuition, keystrokes and then piano all playing slightly off from each other but everything is bouncing back and forth several times...

I can imagine in your scenario you are simply playing audio to the keyboard from your phone and then accompanying it... I guess there would be zero latency there.

Anyhoo. thanks for turning a lightbulb on so I could work it out even if it doesn't work for me how I thought it would.

Has anyone got any ES920 or ES520 videos on how they're getting on?
Just sharing what I've been practising this week by Philip Glass.

Inexperienced folks often make the mistake of over-buying. Myself, in 2007 with some inheritance money in hand, I got the best workstation at the time, the Yamaha XS7. What a waste!!!!! Not having bought a serious keyboard in ages, I just went for the most features, and by the time I was all-in for all the various accesorries and software needed, I was in for over $4k!! Some years later I sold it for $1,400. And even worse, I didn't like the sounds all that much, though the action was lovely.

My main mistake, other than overbuying, was not knowing what I really needed/wanted. Turns out all that endless fancy tech and thousands of voices is a HUGE distraction from actually playing. Years later I now know: I need a stage piano! With good speakers and light enough to carry easily.

I feel very fortunate that Kawai has made the es520/920. A reasonable price for top notch action, sounds, portability, IMO the best piano-oriented boards out there at these price points.

I think the feel on these boards is fantastic, and you may find that even years down the road when you've gotten much better, that the action is just great. The es520 would be my top recommendation to a beginner, and I was goinng to get one myself because of the price. You did well and should be glad that piano technology has finally gotten affordable for some really decent sounds, action and portability.

While the es110 is quite the board for the money, I feel strongly that if you can afford it the es520 is MUCH more future proof, with its aux in, BT audio and other niceties that are important to many of us. I also found the lack of a screen and the lack of viable options to be overly limiting- for example, you have 2 choices of reverb, with no control of how much is applied. And, I found the reverb to be somewhat low quality- not noticeable normally, but playing one note at a time you can hear the tell-tale sound of a poor diffusion.

So, once again, you done good!
Randy

What do you all think? I'm considering starting an ES520/920 owner thread.

With the lighter weight and additional features, and with the es520 being even more affordable, I'm convinced Kawai will have a strong seller on their hands, so plenty of folks to join us.

I think that's a good idea. Just now the only forum that I could post on was this one but it's a long way from page 1 and not really related to the announcement of the product but more about the features. 520/ 920 owners three would give us a place to look for solutions to particular issues/ answers to questions now that it is fully out there... I suspect that the 120 would be added to the mix in the not too distant!! lol. As I said before... I'll leave the starting of new threads to those who know better/ have been here longer...