Which Electric Piano for an advanced pianist

[baadshah]

hi
im looking for a electric piano, due to space and noise constraints. It cant be a "silent" upright either because it will need to be moved regularly!

Can anyone recommend a top range keyboard? im not interested in multiple sounds or disco beats etc. Even the speakers are not vital, because it will mostly be played thru headphones.

I'm just interested in a fairly heavy, authentic and responsive TOUCH!!
Also, can anyone recommend a shop in London area with a decent range of Electric pianos?
Thanks very much

[xvimbi]

Check out the Yamaha CVP pianos with their Natural Wood Keyboard  (used to be called GrandTouch), e.g. the CVP-309GP. Kawai has a similar line. Those pianos cost as much as a decent baby grand, though. Check out the Kawai MP 9500. It's a lot cheaper and more basic. It has wooden keys. Many pianists like it a lot, although the key wobble is quite pronounced. Good luck!

[leahcim]

Also, can anyone recommend a shop in London area with a decent range of Electric pianos?
Thanks very much

They tend to be pack animals, so you might have to visit more than one shop to look across brands.

There's Digital Village https://www.dv247.com they've got a couple of London stores, I'd recommend them - but perhaps not for the "real grand action" digital pianos like the GrandTouch.

TBH I'd say, go and play the more typical stage pianos first and see if the action is ok before spending the extra. dv247 have roland, some yamaha, gem and korg.

In other words, I'd try the Yamaha p250, Roland rd700sx, Gem promega 3 or 2 and kawai MP9500 - if the action isn't good enough on any of those, you'll need to look at the Grandtouch Xvimbi mentions. I think digital village stock them all bar the MP9500.

If the action / sound is good enough on them, you might find cheaper models in the range, with the same action / sound, but you'll have tried the best of the most popular stage pianos around. Chances are the one you like the action on you won't like the sound and vice-versa

I don't think you're going to move a Grandtouch too regularly though - the GT20, upright style, is 100kg [though the price is far less than the CVP model mentioned] it fits the "piano, nothing else, just a piano" idea.

Lots of places on the internet selling the MP9500 though - Chamberlain music, reidys.com, google might find one local.

Depends what the timescale is and how keen you are on trying as many as possible - Music Live 2005 is on in November, should be plenty there, mebbe something new as well - but that's at the NEC.

[intermezzi]

Yamaha's new CLP 200 series has a much improved touch, especially the CLP-280, which has wooden keys but is much less expensive and has fewer bells and whistles than the aforementioned CVP-309GP. I do also like the touch of the Kawai digitals with wooden keys.

[pabst]

Ive been thinking of trading my old beat-up upright for a digital piano, is there one with adjustable key action?

[leahcim]

Ive been thinking of trading my old beat-up upright for a digital piano, is there one with adjustable key action?

Not for most digitals. Most of them allow you to change the velocity curve, i.e What velocity is generated when you press with a certain force. The link between action -> sound has quite a psychological aspect on how you perceive the weight of the action [apparantly] - so it makes a difference, but it's not the same as actually changing the physical characteristics of the keyboard.

e.g When you see folk talking about how the P250 or P90 had a better / worse action than the P120 etc - that's either that effect, or there's not much consistency in the manufacturing at Yamaha, because they have the same action.

The grandtouch digitals [I think there are other manufs that do them too] that have real acoustic actions in them, afaiaa those actions can be adjusted more or less the same as a real acoustic action can be - but the prices are approaching non beat-up uprights.

[pabst]

That's some damn good information, I had no idea about the curve thing. Thanks a lot!

[xvimbi]

Not for most digitals. Most of them allow you to change the velocity curve, i.e What velocity is generated when you press with a certain force.

I was exploring this aspect a while back: https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,5533.0.html

I wanted to design my own velocity curve, not just choose between two or three pre-set ones. The idea was to create a velocity curve that is more realistic when compared to acoustic grands. I was recommended to check out the Velocity Converter from https://www.midisolutions.com/prodvel.htm. I have not tried this gadget. I wonder if that would giver better results.

[leahcim]

I was exploring this aspect a while back: https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,5533.0.html

Yeah I read that - or perhaps another post asking for folk to test, but my current SFF computer has every connection under the sun except a game port, so the midi cable I had with an old soundblaster gold is useless - I need to get usb->midi.

Although, it's difficult to get an appreciation of what pp should sound like when you've got a volume control I guess it's more about timbre than volume per se? The P60's single velocity layer probably doesn't help in that respect though - it does sound brighter and louder with increased velocity, but not as significantly as better digitals.

I have not tried this gadget. I wonder if that would giver better results.

I'd try a computer first with the midi out / midi in idea in that thread.

[leahcim]

....one other thing I noticed the other day w.r.t the linked thread - I believe the CLP 970 that's mentioned has 5 sample layers - so that's probably why it does good PP compared with the other yamaha models....

I don't understand the logic of making a 5-layer clp model and then newer models after it that only have 3-layers, and now the newest of all have 4.