Welcome to the Piano World Piano Forums Over 3 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments. Over 100,000 members from around the world.
Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers
(it's free)
It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!
I do not see a title “Indoor/outdoor” 😐 , ive never played a 920, nonetheless i do say “no !, neither Indoor nor outdoor”, unless you intend to play live solo exhibition in a space .... like a 15 x 15 feet room (aka 5 x 5 meters) that is very small by typical live exhibition standards.... and i say “maybe” if you play live solo in a space like the one partially viewed in this example originally posted by KJ, which definitely sounds “exhibition quality” but leaves me wondering - what recording methods/tools were used?
Once I've used ES8 (920 predecessor) to accompany a choir in a small auditorium with around 50 people there. With maxed out volume, it was too loud. How 'clear' was the sound? Good enough, at least for the purpose of accompanying singers. For solo, high-quality performance it wouldn't be enough, probably. But hey, you can see people busking with cheap keyboards with cheap speakers and it's still sounds OK (ES920 has much, much better speakers than typical busking-keyboard). So it all depends who will listen to this, if you are paid for that etc.
...like the one partially viewed in this example originally posted by KJ, which definitely sounds “exhibition quality” but leaves me wondering - what recording methods/tools were used?
There appears to be a USB stick connected to the ES920 in this video, so I assume the pianist recorded their performance as a WAV or MP3 file, then swapped that audio into the video.
Absolutely. It's enough for plenty of applications without the use of external amplification. Of course, if good PA is available you'd want to connect to it anyway. I have been gigging with the internal speakers with and without additional external PA to great success. Both outdoors and indoors. Ideally you would want to know how many people are there going to be in your concert and what's the room/hall like (in terms of size, acoustics, etc.) in advance to deduce whether you can gig with only speakers or not.
Catch me on YouTube for 200 IQ piano covers, musical trivia quizzes, tutorials, reviews and other fun stuff... https://www.youtube.com/p1anoyc
Absolutely. It's enough for plenty of applications without the use of external amplification. Of course, if good PA is available you'd want to connect to it anyway. I have been gigging with the internal speakers with and without additional external PA to great success. Both outdoors and indoors. Ideally you would want to know how many people are there going to be in your concert and what's the room/hall like (in terms of size, acoustics, etc.) in advance to deduce whether you can gig with only speakers or not.
yup, next Saturday I got a date for a gig (gonna be using the internal speakers only. It's a small lounge in a nursing home , about 30-40 people) and for the first time ever I'm going to be using the built in rhythms (drums only!), some of the songs with LH bass, some not. I love the fact it has 100 patterns + variations... found some of them very useful for the stuff I need to do, in various genres...
Catch me on YouTube for 200 IQ piano covers, musical trivia quizzes, tutorials, reviews and other fun stuff... https://www.youtube.com/p1anoyc
After reading the opinions of others here, its clear my “no ! ....” opinion did not sufficiently consider the potential widths of “... exhibition .... indoor ..... outdoor.....” .... my bad but no offense intended towards the 920 .... and while ive somewhat regularly done the type of gig in the smallish nursing home “gathering room” settings, its been with their AP, not my DP..... it remains interesting to me to see how someone might hurdle the outdoor challenges, such as for busking.
- Kawai MP7 and LSR308 monitors - Roland HP-508 - DT770 Pro-80 and MDR-7506 phones
Yeah definitely should leave the advice giving to people who actually played and gigged with the discussed instrument, so as to help the OP and not confuse him or give false info. Nevertheless, no harm done whatsoever .Truthfully about the measurements you gave "5x5 meters" is too small of a room to fit 10 people comfortably even if at all , that is including you and your setup of DP + keyboard stand, bench, etc.. The speakers of the 920 can easily cover twice that size with ease. I had a gig in an outdoor yard of roughly 20x7 (thin rect. shape) not long ago and the sound was easily easily heard well in the crowd who was scattered in 3 sides of the rectangle. For busking purposes /street performing the integral speakers are way more than enough.
The one thing to look out for is drummers (or, big ensembles!). Since the OP is solo gigging as stated that shouldn't be a problem. I played a 4 piece band with a drummer who used a semi-hybrid latin percussion /drum set with a Cajon as a base drum, regular snare and cymbal. I used the max or almost max volume setting and it was exactly sufficient, had to up the lows in the EQ so my LH bass could get through just as well. However had he used a big "normal" base drum, more toms , cymbals etc. I wouldn't be able to contest his volume with the on board speakers, for sure.
It also is important to consider whether it is a concert or an "ambient" (background music) gig for places such as restaurants that are loud - a lot of people talking during the music, noisy kitchen, dishes, waiters, big background noise/hum.. usually it would be hard without a stronger PA whereas a "concert" where people are near silent during the music the likelihood of getting it off with only the internal speaker is more plausible.
Catch me on YouTube for 200 IQ piano covers, musical trivia quizzes, tutorials, reviews and other fun stuff... https://www.youtube.com/p1anoyc
Another variable to consider (as if there aren't already enough!) is distortion: if you push a speaker too hard, you can end up with clipping or other artifacts such that even though the sound is loud enough to fill the room, the quality of the sound isn't all that great. With a more powerful (and decent quality) PA system, this is usually less of an issue, since you don't have to push the sound enhancement beyond its comfortable limits.
But having said that, all will depend on your particular setup, your room, your crowd (which can affect the sound as well), and the expectations of the audience, and only you are privy to all the necessary details to make a sound decision (pun intended). If it were me, I'd rather have a setup that was a little over-powered rather than one that is a little under-powered, but YMMV.
Regardless, best of luck!
Keys: Yamaha GC2, Casio Privia PX-5s, Roland RD800, Alesis VI61, Yamaha YC61, Pianoteq 7.0, Native Instruments, Gig Performer My motto: Play and Let Play!
I have played with a chamber group for silent films in a theater seating several hundred people, and the ES8 speakers were fine for that. It balanced well with the acoustic sound from violin, cello, clarinet, and trumpet. I wouldn’t try it with rock drums.