Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Buying first EP - need advice

hello, first post here

I am buying my first electric piano and would love to hear the opinion of the more experienced about the choice.
I play guitar and bass, I have had few keyboards several times in my life, but for the first time I started learning more seriously a year ago.
I bought a used Yamaha Motif XS7, otherwise a very good instrument, but I realized that 90% of the time I use the sounds of an acoustic piano, with keys that don't suit me.
I have big fists and on Yamaha I can’t play between the keys.
I found on the net that the keys on Casio electric pianos are more suitable for big hands and that is really true. I tried the Casio px-s3000 in the store, without turning it on.
I have also tried some Kurzweill, Roland, Yamaha and Studiologic electric pianos but apart from the Casio, the only one whose keyboard suits me is the Kawai ES520.
In fact, it’s just as comfortable for the big fingers as the Casio but with the Casio I feel more weight at the root of the white keys.
Now, the Kawai in my place is almost twice as expensive as the Casio, with more than twice as expensive triple pedal that I also plan to get. I like the Kawai sound, the built-in speakers give some immediacy when playing, I haven't tried Casio yet.
I don't necessarily need speakers on the piano since I have active monitors, but they are not out of the question.
For the price between the Casio PX-S3000 (or PX-S1000) and the Kawai ES520 i can get a used Kawai MP7 which should have the same keyboard as the ES520 and MIDI keyboard functionality.
How good is the acoustic piano sounds on MP7, and how good they are compared to the new Kawai and Casio keyboards. Is it worth buying a used MP7 because of its usability or are today’s piano samples really much better?
Any advice is welcome

mp7se and mp11se should have the same great piano sounds (SK-EX and SK-5), the mp7se has tons of other sounds, though. If you got issues with large fingers, you should probably focus on that. All modern DPs (digital, not "EP", that's a different beast) have MIDI OUT and allow using VST software to add more sounds, so sounds aren't really the limiting factor. Maybe try VPC-1: with its wooden keyboard, there is a last effort possible: get it to someone who can modify the keyboard to fit your finger geometry better (grind down the sides of the black keys maybe?).

I was probably not clear, English is not my language.
I try to avoid connecting to the computer to play the piano.
Anyway, I might need a MIDI controller to use VST synths.

My question is the Kawai MP7 too outdated when it comes to acoustic piano sounds compared to the new Kawai and Casio models?

For my needs, the keys on the Kawai and Casio models are reasonably good.

Thank you for your reply

the MP7 (without SE) piano sounds are outdated, yes.

And the MP7SE sounds will be outdated in short time... Best way to deal with top-quality, last generation sounds is to use VSTs. But it may not suit you

This tells me that the Kawai ES520 is probably your best option.

Yes, I have a lot of computers at work, I try not to turn it on at home.


Yes maybe
Anyway thanks for the answers

What do you think about Casio PX-S models?
Are the new 1100 and 3100 on par with Kawai in quality?
There are a lot of complaints about the keys on the net

Buy some of the cheapest ones. At least, you'll have space to move upwards. My first DP was Casio PX-130, and by that time I found it adorable. And I sold my Nord Piano 4 recently cause was not completely satisfied with it. Imagine I had NP4 as my first piano... I would have found it's not perfect almost as soon as it happened with PX-130, but where would I move from it? There still are a couple of options, but it's much less than when you start with cheap piano. So, buy that cheapest one and slowly level up