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If you are a KAWAI CA93/CA63 owner and would like to talk about your favourite settings, you can do it here (in case you have already shared some relevant info before somewhere else and/or at this forum, please make a reference or briefly repeat it here).

Happy to hear your experiences while exploring the full potential of your CA93/CA63!

By the way, here you can find an in-depth review of the KAWAI CA93:
http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1492875.html#Post1493614

I'd like to perform the kick-off of this thread with my newly developed dual voice preset with tone colours mainly suitable for smooth but expressive pop music soloing (not for cutting through a heavy mix), with thanks to wower for testdriving:


SHIMMERING PIANO

Dual Voice: Concert Grand, volume 6 + Modern Piano, volume 4

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +1, mid -2, high -4

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: dynamic
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 10
2 - 3 String resonance: 10
2 - 4 Key off effect: 10
2 - 5 Touch: light

3 Key Settings
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 8

Reverb: Stage

Optional, for a love or hate spacey experience you could add:
Effects: Delay 2, time 1, depth 5



UPDATE: below you can find a direct link to the list generated by ripe_md containing all of my dual voice presets:
Kawai CA93/CA63 Custom Dual Voice Mode Presets Lists

My Ca-63 will be delivered to me in the next few days so I will be very happy if other people share their settings too I will contribute as well. I will really appreciate settings favoring Chopin piano music - mellow and woody tone.

I will see what I can do (or maybe somebody else will beat me to the punch). Anyway, listening to some vintage Chopin recordings could give the necessary inspiration

Most of the time I just use it on the default settings, Concert grand 1, volume about 3 quarters. With or without headphones.

That's one of the best recommendations for the Kawai I have heard yet.

My CA63 has arrived today and I am about to write a post with my first impressions but what I immediately realized was that the keyboard response was somehow too sensitive and fortissimos could be obtained way too easily. I was a little bit disappointed but I opened the manual and changed the touch response to "Heavy" and voila! It's so sweet and so realistic at "Heavy"! I have tried few times to switch back to "Normal" thinking it could be my touch is too rude but no, it's not working that way.

So far that's my hot recommendation - use "Heavy" touch!

I think the sound of piano it is a question of taste, but this thread is a very good idea to share the experience of the CA63 owners.

I have my DP only 1 month ago and I have not spent too much time to reach the sound that I like. I have also tried the demo of Pianoteq: it's another very good tool to ajust the sound, effects, and playability of the piano.

here are my settings, but I will search more combination to find what I really like:

with headphones (I'm using AKG K701 - few hours of utilisation):
----------------------------------------------------------------

Concert Grand 1

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +3, mid +1, high 0
1 - 5 Phones volume: high

Master Volume set to 2/3.

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: normal
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 8
2 - 3 String resonance: 8
2 - 4 Key off effect: 7
2 - 5 Touch: normal

Reverb: Room 2


with speakers:
--------------

Concert Grand 1

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +1, mid +3, high +1
1 - 4 Speakers volume: high

Master Volume set to 2/3.

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: normal
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 9
2 - 3 String resonance: 8
2 - 4 Key off effect: 8
2 - 5 Touch: normal

Reverb: stage

Sorry, the english is not my best...

Okay CyberGene, then try these ones: (and tweak the tone control to your own taste/speaker-system/headphones)


TWO CHOPIN PIANO's

Single Voice: Concert Grand or Concert Grand 2

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +2, mid -4, high -6

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: mellow 2
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 10
2 - 3 String resonance: 10
2 - 4 Key off effect: 10
2 - 5 Touch: heavy / heavy+ (in case of Concert Grand 2)

Reverb: Hall 1

Howdy folks, this one is really a lot of fun because of it's lively dynamics and not so subtle imperfections:


WESTERN SALOON (CA93 only)

Dual Voice: Rock Piano, volume 5 + Honky Tonk, volume 5

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +2, mid -3, high 0

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: dynamic
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 8
2 - 3 String resonance: 5
2 - 4 Key off effect: 5
2 - 5 Touch: heavy

3 Key Settings
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 10

Reverb: Room2

Effects: Chorus, time 1, depth 1

+2

Since the volume on the piano is represented by 10 sections with lines from 0 to 10, 3/4 would correspond to 7.5 which in my opinion is too loud I also use it with the default settings, Concert Grand 1, but with heavy touch and volume at 6. I played yesterday a little and realized something was quite unrealistic about the piano. Then I discovered it was the volume slider which was mistakenly put at 6.5 instead of 6. Even a degree of 0.5 makes such a difference to me! This should depend on the room acoustics as well. But you should really spend time determining the right volume with a great precision because that can be determinative factor for realism.

That's an interestiong perception and explains the findings of spanishbuddha for the CN33 in this post. And perhaps this is the reason, why Andree did not like the CA63 first in the shop (see Impressions of the Kawai CA63) but is enthusiastic at home after he bought the piano (see Impressions "nr 2" of the Kawai CA63).

If someone is shy to play the piano in the shop at adequate volume, it may not sound good.

I can't recognize any differences in sound representation regardless of what volume I play. I use it with loudspeaker on from 2 to about 5, depending on daytime, with headphones it's steadily at about 4 (with Beyerdynamic DT770pro).

Hi Mucci,

If I recall correctly, you are interested in spicing up the standard E-piano sounds. Maybe you've already found some great settings. Anyway, here's a resonant example (hit some bass notes and maybe the furniture will 'sing' along):


INVOLVING E-PIANO

Dual Voice: Classic E-piano, volume 5 + Modern E-piano 2, volume 5

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: loudness

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: dynamic
2 - 5 Touch: light

3 Key Settings
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 10

Reverb: Stage

Effect: Chorus, rate 4, depth 5

Recently, I was listening to an acoustic piano recording @ Classic FM radio and with this big and dynamic sounding patch I was able to blend in my live playing surprisingly well.

So, according to my ears, here's a candidate for really blowing the factory standard user memory out of the water (i.e. the settings when you switch on your CA93/CA63, which can be changed). Any feedback or suggestions are welcome, after testdriving I mean.


BRILLIANT CLASSICAL PIANO R1.0

Dual Voice: Concert Grand, volume 5 + Studio Grand, volume 5

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +4, mid 0, high 0

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: dynamic
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 10
2 - 3 String resonance: 10
2 - 4 Key off effect: 8
2 - 5 Touch: heavy

3 Key Settings
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 9

Reverb: Stage / Hall 1

Effect: Delay 2, time 3, depth 2


// see below for updated version(s)

I tried this, but I prefer Normal. But then, I have no experience with playing 'real' pianos and so I don't have a piano to compare it to. However, when I had a play on my folks' upright Bluthner I had no problems switching.



I do feel the keys vibrating if the volume is quite loud, which is a nice feeling. Whether it is realistic or not, I don't know :o).

Andy T

Yes, that's indeed realistic. I like it very much too. It's not a different sound though.

Let's do something else: why not mix a grand with an E-piano? Kind of tricky to 'pull it off' (string wise), but this combination seems to morph just fine...


DREAMY TREMOLO HYBRID

Dual Voice: Studio Grand, volume 5 + Modern E-piano, volume 5

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +3, mid 0, high +3

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: dynamic
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 10
2 - 3 String resonance: 10
2 - 4 Key off effect: 10
2 - 5 Touch: heavy

3 Key Settings
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 9

Reverb: Stage

Effect: Tremolo, rate 6, depth 6

TADutchman, thanks a lot for providing us with your custom settings! I like all of them very much, and have saved them as a patch. Keep up the excellent work!

BTW, the sound I play almost all the time is a blend of CA63 (simple Concert Grand with hall 2) and Pianoteq Player using my Netbook. This sounds so realistic and sweet with all the resonances, and with a realistic basic sound signature (unlike the native Pianoteq basic sound signature which is quite thin). That way the best of two worlds (great sounding piano sample from CA63 and superb piano resonances from Pianoteq) combines to a unique piano sound experience on a DP.

Thanks for your feedback, mucci.

Just wondering, are you mainly playing your CA63 with headphones? I'm guessing because combining a piano patch with the long (RT60) Hall 2 reverb doesn't normally yield the most direct 'acoustic like' experience over loudspeakers from a player's perspective...