Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Just Got My KORG LP-380

I just wanted to give a quick review of the KORG LP-380 if anyone is interested.

This is the new version with USB midi. I managed to get it for decent price £649 from Andertons. Most other places sell it for £100 to £200 more, so it was a good deal.

Keybed is amazing. It is slightly clicky when you press the keys. Slightly annoying if you play at low volumes but nothing too bad. I tested the velocity with Pianoteq. It is almost a straight line and can play very low and very high velocities very well. That was my main concern, because I mainly want to play with VST instruments.

Has very powerful speakers, but because of the placement of the speakers under the piano bed, some of the high frequencies are getting lost.

Built in piano sounds are average. Nothing spectacular.


I have been playing around with it and found the perfect sound. Its easier if you see the picture

[img]http://ibb.co/ZHxRgSh[/img]

Basically I loaded up Garritan CFX on my monitor speakers. But becase the piano is between my front monitor speaker and my surround monitor speaker, they are facing each other.
You would think that this is is a bad thing, but it's actually not. It is creating a cool effect like the sound is coming from everywhere and nowhere in particular.
This is creating a very realistic piano effect. I also added the sound of the KORG piano to create at the same time the effect the the soundboard sound coming from below.
What's also especially important about turning on the volume on the KORG piano is that you can feel the vibrations on your fingers while playing the piano.

The combination of all that create a piano sound that you wouldn't believe possible. It's just amazing.

You cannot use the link directly to post(it does not work, as you can (not) see ). You need to pick the BBCode to incorporate in a post.

Nice (fire)place, BTW.

Enjoy you new piano.

Direct sound speakers just don't work for me. The sound should not be directional at all so forwards or downwards speakers should be ok in practice if you turn up the treble a tad.
But if you, in addition, add the VST through a different set, you'll get an amazing combination. Even if both pianos went through the same spekers it would sound amazing.
Nothing like any piano I've ever heard or played though!
Enjoy it.

Very attractive set up! How do you hide the cables so discreetly? And the computer too?

Glad you like the new LP-380U. I got the C1 Air last fall & love the keybed too. It just feels great to play. No clicky sounds with mine, though. And yes, the on board piano sounds won't fool anyone into thinking it's a Steinway grand, but they're enjoyable for my purposes. I envy you having USB midi/audio! Such a convenience.

What a cozy piano/music room with warm lighting! Enjoy the LP-380!



I still have my few years old D1 which I believe is the same keybed and sound engine as the LP - and I agree with those assessments of yours completely!

One thing I forgot to mention that if a good plus is that it has built in USB Audio.
What this means is that you can use ASIO4ALL and use the piano speakers to play VST Instruments.
I tested with Pianoteq and it works very well.

How exactly do you achieve this?

Connect the usb cable from piano to the PC, install usb drivers, Install ASIO4ALL on PC. Start the software on the PC. Select ASIO4ALL as output device. In ASIO4ALL select KORG LP380 as audio device.

That's it

That means you own the LP380U karoloydi, the original 380 did not have usb. Why did you lie to us karoloydi, joke.

Have you tried heavier vsts which use alot of CPU+I/O ?

hahaha. Yeah. It's the LP380U.
I tried Garritan CFX. It works fine, until you play very fast. Then its a bit hard to keep up.

I found a new way to use my setup that is even better. It improves the dynamics a lot.
I load 2 versions of pianoteq:
One is the standalone version playing through my LP-380 speakers with the microphones set to be close together (like a middle speaker in surround 5.1)
The other version I load as VST from Cubase and I setup my 4 monitor speakers to be the surround speakers.
It works amazingly well with Steinway D. The other pianos have some phasing issues with surround.

Hello everyone !

I was planning to buy Korg D1 and use it with a set of monitor speakers and Garritan CFX. But D1 is not available right now in my country. My purpose is home use and I wanted to get the RH3 action. Do you think that I should buy the LP380U ?

I read in the comments above that it is indeed possible to send MIDI data through the keyboard to a VST and play the output from the speakers of the piano itself while turning off the local sounds of the LP380U. I am wondering if the speakers onboard are adequate enough to express all the different nuances of the Garritan CFX especially the Bass and how would they compare against a D1 + VST + Monitor speakers setup ??

The speakers on the LP380U are 22W + 22W and the monitors will be 25W + 25W (Mackie CR3X 3 Inch Reference Studio Multimedia Monitors - Pair).

P.S. Absolutely love the room setup in the picture above.

For me it's not the bass that's the big issue. It's the high frequencies. Because of the placement of the speakers, some of the high frequencies are lost. Bass frequencies are quite good at travelling through solid objects. High frequencies, not as much.

3" woofer on the Mackies would also have trouble to produce bass frequencies. You would need at least 5". A good middle compromise would be the CR4X, if you can't afford the CR5X.

I see your point.
Thanks for the information

I wanted to know the velocity curve of Garritan CFX when used with Korg LP380U. I am a beginner pianist and currently use the default setup but sometimes I feel that I need to press the treble keys more aggressively in order for the treble to sing on top of the bass. I would love to know a general velocity curve which is comparable to what any pianist would expect from an actual acoustic grand.

go by feel, there is no general curve.