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Hello everyone,

I'm interested in a stage-piano with 88 or 76, weighted or even semi-weighted keys. I usually play acoustic/electric pianos and sometimes use some strings or synth-pads. I also like to have some good organ sounds on board, but the board shouldn't look like an organ (waterfall creamy keys and dedicated drawbars). Extensive tweaking is not my thing either, but the ability to load new samples is desirable...

Along the sound related experience which a expect that you will share, I would much appreciate your opinions about the actions/keybeds. Besides KURZWEIL, I can't try/feel any of them because they are not available near by. I very much like the FATAR T/P40L (light) on Forte. I even prefer T/P8PIANO on PC3K7 against T/P100LR on Artis for exemple. YAMAHA's BH (MOTIF XF88), GHS (MOXF8), KORG's RH3 or NH also seem too heavy, slow and un-articulated if I may say. Cheap keybeds as GHS or NH gets noisy in time as I saw...

Does anyone know the difference between GHS and GH on YAMAHA's? NW-GH is even better than those? I'm interested in how they feel, regardless of double or triple sensor system. This "wood trend" seems a little fancy to me...

The nord piano 2 HA88 has FATAR T/P40GH (graded hammer), as Chris Martirano advertises and stage 2 EX 88 probably has T/P40M (medium)... I really don't understand why this should be secret...?!

Another interesting keyboard would be KURZWEIL PC3A8, or even PC3A7. The 88 version is cheaper (2.666 €) than Forte 88 (3.090 €) and for me looks even better...

So, what do you all think?

The big improvement of the Forte over the PC3a series is the huge sample flash memmory in the Forte it is a whopping 16GB versus a few 100MB in the PC3A series..

Thanks,

What about my other concerns? Anyone...?

NW-GH is basically GH3 with wooden keys. Not sure how it differs from older GH3 actions because I've never played them. The CP40 has GH action, which is quite playable, but the NW-GH is perceptively better. I've played both the CP4 and CP40 a lot, mostly as a pianist and not an organ or synth player. I often use the CP4 with Pianoteq and it compares favorably with my baby grand, although without all the little quirks and randomness of an acoustic action.

I really don't know what the wooden keys do for the NW-GH action. My gut feeling is GH3 without the wooden keys would be mostly the same - it seems like the balance of the action is far more important. On an acoustic you get an entire (mostly) wooden action - not just wooden keys. It's a moot point, though, because if Yamaha decides the GH3 option only comes with the wooden keys you can't really mix and match.

I like the CP4's piano sounds better through good monitors, and I believe that was Yamaha's intention. Through headphones they sound a bit dry, and if I try to goose the dryness out changing the settings, then it sounds a bit synthetic. That might be mostly my problem and not the piano's, as there about a gazillion ways to tweak it. I still use the built-in sounds when I get bored with Pianoteq. I'll put it this way - I could live with the CP4 alone, but it's nice to have options.

Thanks, but let me rephrase:

- Is there anyone that felt (with their own hands), side by side (or for a long time), Forte vs. NP 2 HA88? What about Forte vs. CP4/40? Or Forte vs. MP7?

If you don't know Forte, replace it with Artis, MOXF8 or MOTIF XF8/S90XS in the same comparison. I only felt these ones...

Try to describe, let's say, heavy/hard/slow/tiring/unarticulated vs. light/soft/fast/springy/articulated or whatever... Words like "excellent, love, fabulous, like/dislike" or "try for yourself" doesn't help at all. Otherwise I wouldn't be here...

I'm used to real acoustic pianos (12 years of music school) and the keys aren't so heavy and unarticulated as GHS, BH, RH3, NH, TP100, but on digital I won't play AP only...

If you want a piano weighted action that still feels light and responsive and reasonably usable for organ, I think the contenders are the 88-key Kurzweils with the TP40L, the Nord HA models with slightly heavier versions of the TP40, and the Kawai MP7 (or presumably other Kawais that use the same action). I don't think any of the other hammer action boards (anything from Roland, Yamaha, Korg, Casio, or Fatar TP100, or some of the heavier Kawai actions like the MP10) are nearly as suitable for organ playing.

Other piano actions you might like, that are lighter/quicker feeling than the models you mentioned not liking, would be the Yamaha action in the CP1/CP5 and the Roland action in the FP80/RD700NX... in fact, I'd say these are better piano actions than any of the ones I mentioned up top, but are probably not as suitable for organ playing (due to sharper edges to the keys, IIRC).

I also have little-to-no experience with some of the newest high end actions, i.e. Kawai MP11, Roland RD800, Yamaha CP4. From what I can tell, these would also be worth a serious look for piano, but again, from what I have gleaned, would be less amenable to organ playing.

Going the other way, finding an un/semi-weighted action that is not terrible for piano, I think the Numa Compact is pretty good, it's a pretty minimal board in terms of sounds and features, but might just manage to do what you need, and it's cheap. Also the Roland VR700, but that would be too organ-like for you. The Roland Jupiter 50 and Jupiter 80 could also be worth looking at. (And yes, the VR700, J50, and J80 actions are all different from each other... and all better than the action in their low end boards.) If you like the PC3K7, they use that action in numerous other boards, including the Artis7. I personally find that action a bit too highly sprung. I really like my Artis7, but I have an aftermarket set of springs in it, which are no longer available.

Thanks,

I've touched Numa Compact and I think that it's an honest keyboard. Its sounds are usable and the keybed (TP9 probably...) is OK for that price level. It's too bad that it can't split... The thing is, I already have a KURZWEIL SP4-7 which has a pretty similar cheap keybed (MEDELI), and I'm not so satisfied with it. We might blame the key length, hinge position and lighter black keys etc. The piano sounds are also "way out of date"...

Sound-wise, as we can evaluate on youtube, CP4 seems very "well-balanced". My second option remains the nords - stage 2 EX or piano 2, though the sound appears to be a little too "up-front", or even "harsh". Probably that's why they go so well in the mix... Another problem would be with piano 2's limitations. I don't need all that stage 2 EX can do, but how can I play some organs on piano 2? Will "sample player" section do it?

Not really. In a pinch, there are some downloadable organ user samples (which I haven't heard) in the Nord User Forum, but it's just the wrong board for the job. No rotary speaker emulation, no organ controls whatsoever. You'd be bettr off with the NS2 (don't nec essarily need the EX, but it's fine too), or one of the Kurzweils mentioned, or the Kawai MP7, all of which include real organ functionality.