Category: Jam Session
Hi peeps,
I'm looking to take piano lessons in the near future, and I need something to practice on. Does anyone know of any good keyboards I could buy? I would like one of those electric keyboards that also have different instruments that you can use at the press of a button as well as piano. Thanks in advance,
Leslie
Well there are lots of those out there. Could you be more specific? Are you able to be? Do you want something with the full 88 keys? DO you want something that has different types of effects? Or are you just, as you say, looking to learn. I haven't used many, but I have a Casio right now and it's pretty good. Hopefully someone else can be more helpful.
I just want something with the 88 keys. I don't necessarily need the ones with the effects, but it would be cool to have.
Leslie
I have always been a fan of Korg keyboards, especially the older ones from the 70's.
If you would like a korg, get an accessible arranger such as one of the pa models (pa88 or I think) the big workstations such as the KronosX, M3, M50 etc are pretty much inaccessible due to their touchscreens.
Are the PAs accessible? I think I remember the newer ones having touchscreens too. Anyway, if you're looking for something to start with, I would recommend one of the Casio Privias. I got to play an older Privia at a music program I was in over the summer and I really liked it. The keys were alright but what I really loved about it was its expressiveness. I've checked out the newer ones and they definitely sound and feel even better and they're still accessible. And as for the specific model, it really depends on how much you want out of it. I know they range anywhere from not much more than a digital piano to ones that have a lot more sounds and some decent drum patterns and accompaniments.
What about weighted keys. Do you want a keyboard with keys heavy like a real piano or you just want a keyboard. And the main question: how much more or less, do you want to spend on it?
Cheers
Weighted keys are the best. Don't like the spongy feeling of a lot of those electronic keyboards. A friend from high school had a synth that was all metal and wood casing, weighted keys, no speakers. If I could afford one, I would want a Mini Moog synth or an Arp Odyssey. They were both analogue and can be heard on lots of 70's rock songs.
After talking to some of the fine folks on the Teamtalk server this vacation, I am again inspired to get a piano, a digital one this time round. I used to love Korgs back 20 years ago but they said Yamahas are really quite nice now. i wonder if any keyboards have iOS apps for controlling them from the iPhone. Just a weird sort of thought.
I thought it was funny talking RAM on these things, when the Mirage only had 4 megs of RAM I think it was, and of course now things are way better. If you're like me and have not sampled any of this stuff for awhile, log into the Zone's Teamtalk and ask nice and maybe a couple of the guys will play through some things. What you can do now with the velocity sensitivity, way more than just dynamics, is really amazing.
Hello! I actually spent last year nine month searching a digital piano for myself. The point was that I am a classical pianist so I wanted to find a digital piano where I could get as much as I could a similar sensation while playing. So condition number one for me was to find a piano with weighted wooden keys and there are not many available. For me this was more important than sound itself for two reasons: the first is that nowadays the majority of digital pianos sound quite well and the second is that you can use softwares to improve through midi your piano sound on recordings for example. So I was extremely picky and I had a limited budget so I spent nine months trying difrent pianos. So my conclusion was that if you want a piano with similar sensations as an acoustic piano, you probably want to go for a company which is used to produce acoustic piano such as Yamaha and Kawaii. Those know what they are talking about when producing great keyboards with piano sensation. For myself I wanted a portable piano because the idea was to have an instrument when I play in places which don't have acoustic pianos. So I went for stage pianos. After all of this, I came with two options: Kawaii Mp8 II, great piano sounds, great wooden keys, excelent price around 1500 Euros but heavy: 35 kgs. So for me the winner was the piano that a purchased: Yamaha Cp5 stage piano. A great sounding instrument: incredible piano sounds that you can customize and create your own piano. You adjust things like the shape of the hammers if you want more sweet or metallic sound etc. The sounds were created from the Acoustics Yamaha CF III concert piano and the S6 handmade grand piano. So the Cp5 has a great sound but the keyboard is simply unbelievable. The keyboard has great wooden piano keys with synthetic ivory tops just like the real thing. The Cp5 has less 10 kg whichh makes 25. It has 305 sounds and two great features: one is that you can just connect a usb stick, press record button and here you are, recording a CD quolity piano sound and a mic input connection which means that you can connect a microphone, process the sound like adding reverbs and just sing with the piano or record all of it in a usb stick. For me this feature is great because I work often with a singer. We connect her microphone, we process the sound and we give the concert, all recorded in a cd quolity on the usb stick. I paid about 2200 Euros for this instrument: well woth the money. If you are searching for great sounds but don't care about the keyboard, you probably could go for the Nord Stage 2. I hope it helps. Cheers