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I'm playing mostly through headphones (I'm an "afterwork evening player"). But even through loudspeakers the setting is fine, I then just turn off the reverb completely on the CA63, the Pianoteq reverb is sufficient then.

This patch could be quite comfortable for quick live demonstrations, because matching timbre variations are possible by simply changing the layered voice.


EASY GRAND SLAM

Dual Voice: Concert Grand, volume 5 + Concert Grand 2 / Mellow Grand / Studio Grand / Pop Piano / Modern Piano / Rock Piano

1. Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +2, mid -3, high -5

2. Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: dynamic
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 10
2 - 3 String resonance: 5
2 - 4 Key off effect: 5
2 - 5 Touch: heavy

Reverb: Hall 1 / Stage

About improving the factory user memory settings:
Thanks a lot for your on/off-line feedback and suggestions on the 'BRILLIANT CLASSICAL PIANO R1.0' patch, guys!

After some further finetuning, my wife also had a close listen. That could be considered an essential quality assurance step, with her very critical ear for anything classical.
@KAWAI James: the only issue found is that there's some nasty phasing going on at the lowest note A (not hitting that one frequently though). Another remark is that damper and string resonance seem to be weaker at setting 10 than at setting 9 when using dual voice. Some minor firmware tweaking could probably solve that (or is it just perception? Please verify).


BRILLIANT CLASSICAL PIANO R2.0 - optimized for live playing (EQ and reverb can be adjusted for use with specific headphones)

Dual Voice: Concert Grand, volume 5 + Studio Grand, volume 5

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +3, mid 0, high +6

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: dynamic
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 9
2 - 3 String resonance: 9
2 - 4 Key off effect: 8
2 - 5 Touch: heavy

3 Key Settings
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 9

Reverb: Stage

Effect: Delay 2, time 3, depth 2


Now, I'm even more convinced of the classical qualities of this second release: Piano resonances are more pronounced and dynamic timbre changes are just incredible.
@Mucci: personal preferences left aside (e.g. huge reverb), I would be really surprised if you could approach this level of timbre and sheer sound quality with a combination of the standard factory user memory and pianoteq (but please prove me wrong in a side by side comparison). By the way, I've tested pianoteq a while ago, so I know quite well what it sounds like separate from a DP

TADutchman, thanks for the new release! I'll check it when I'm back home! I would love to prove you're right that this is even better than V1.0! It'll then get a special place on my register! Maybe this can even improve the Pianoteq layer sound, let's try...

I tested the new release 2.0 of your custom setting Yesterday - well it's not that much different to the first one, but still it's great and provides lots of variations in your playing. I'll keep it!

Expanding dynamic range + richer variation of tone colours is what I was looking for, so thanks for the compliment, mucci.

General note: so far, I could not check any tonal differences with a CA63 myself. Live experiences may vary between CA63 and CA93, because of technical differences in the speaker-system, sample signature is identical though. Using similar headphones (excellent Sennheiser HD595 in my case) should at least yield a similar soundstage. Nevertheless, a CA93 sounds superior live compared to any pair of headphones I have auditioned until now (would be nice to try an HD800 though).

I still think the main piano sound is the most realistic approach to a real grand piano (if you have to use only the CA63 and not external software). Maybe it depends on what people are looking for and whether they have played extensively on acoustic pianos. I find most of the combinations here interesting and a fun to play for few minutes but whenever I need to just enjoy playing Chopin, Debussy (even Bach whose music is not that demanding in regards to the sound) I prefer the main Concert Grand with no tweaks at all, except for heavy touch (and Hall 2 reverb if on headphones).

That doesn't mean I don't appreciate what you've done TADutchman Congratulations on the good work!

Thanks for your comments, CyberGene.
Indeed, it's all about people's preferences and past experiences. Some of the combinations here are even geared towards what some latest generation Yamaha or Roland owners may find very attractive in a piano sound signature, and in some cases may even exceed that. This is possible because of the exceptional tweakability of the CA93/CA63, but most of us did buy a Kawai for the excellent acoustic like action and involving Concert Grand sound signature, right?

Oh yeah, give me that big fat funky bass, mamma!


FUNKY GROWL SOLOING

Dual Voice: Classic E-piano, volume 5 + Clavi, volume 5

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +6, mid +6, high 0

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: dynamic
2 - 5 Touch: light+

3 Key Settings
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 9

Reverb: Room 2

Effect: Chorus, rate 1, depth 10

Here's a slight tone control tweak to my previous user memory setting BRILLIANT CLASSICAL PIANO R2.0. By the way, some people only familiar with AP's were visiting yesterday and they were checking whether there really are no real strings inside my CA93, which was quite a funny experience (they needed quite some time to understand and figure it out, still being surprised by the full sound):

1. The settings below are for playing live and for using headphones (HD595 in my case) with the same standard user setting, which is quite comfortable in practice! You'd better choose upfront which type of reverb you prefer and store that with the rest of the custom user settings: either the direct player's approach with Stage or the more ambient Hall 2.

2. With this user memory setting, I don't need to make any changes to the Master Volume when switching between playing live and headphones anymore, which again makes life easier. Don't know if this works out the same for the CA63 though and it also depends on your headphones' response of course.

3. For the finishing touch, I moved my CA93 a tiny one inch further away from the wall. This has the noticable positive effect of a surround sound equalizer (in lack of a better word). Reminds me of the expression that photographers tend to use: the difference between a good and a bad picture is just one inch (the effect is less dramatic here though).


BRILLIANT CLASSICAL PIANO R2.1

Dual Voice: Concert Grand, volume 5 + Studio Grand, volume 5

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +3, mid +1, high +3

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: dynamic
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 9
2 - 3 String resonance: 9
2 - 4 Key off effect: 8
2 - 5 Touch: heavy

3 Key Settings
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 9

Reverb: Stage / Hall 2

Effect: Delay 2, time 3, depth 2

Here's a trick that does work with E-piano (and maybe more, not sure yet about acoustic piano voices): layering the same voice with slightly different layer dynamics keeps the timbre the same while getting a fatter and more dynamic sound experience:


WARM RHODES OVERDRIVE

Dual Voice: Classic E-piano, volume 5 + Classic E-piano, volume 5 (this is no typo)

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low -1, mid +6, high -3

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: mellow 2
2 - 5 Touch: light+

3 Key Settings
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 9

Reverb: Stage

Effect: Chorus, rate 1, depth 10

Interesting! I never thought to try layering the same sound ontop of itself.

I'll have to give that a try.

Cheers,
James
x

TADutchman; The presets you have posted are good. I have tested a lot of them and I'm very surprised that it is possible to create so many different sounds. I also have to say, the CA93/63 is the best digital piano I have ever played on. I'm very satisfied.

/Andrée

Glad you like it! Tweakability of the CA93/CA63 is (unexpectedly) excellent and there's so much more to explore. Other contributions are welcome as well

Apparantly, I'm running out of preset space: USB load/save preset or bank functionality would be a nice addition to the firmware, also for file sharing here...

What happens when you mix a piano with the essence of guitar, organ and synth choir? This moving patch sounds incredibly wide!


HEAVENLY NEW AGE (CA93 only)

Dual Voice: New Age Piano 3, volume 5 + New Age Piano 2, volume 5

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: treble boost

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: dynamic
2 - 5 Touch: light

3 Key Settings
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 9

Reverb: Hall 2

Effect: none

Here's an undocumented trick, assuming that every Kawai CA93/CA63 has a built-in compressor/limiter (with no exposed parameters).

Spice up your factory standard piano sound by applying the Equalizer-function as follows:

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +x, mid +x, high +x

Starting with x=6 you can boost overall levels and make your piano sing: its timbre becomes warmer by way of saturation.

If that's too much, especially when not using 'heavy touch', just lower the value of x until you're satisfied with the results...

This trick may even help to improve the quality of your MP3 recordings!

Have fun!

"Not as tinny as Yamaha, not as muffled as Roland"
"Many pianissimo tone colours possible"


BRILLIANT CLASSICAL PIANO R2.2

Dual Voice: Concert Grand, volume 5 + Studio Grand, volume 5

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +3, mid +1, high +2

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: dynamic
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 10
2 - 3 String resonance: 8
2 - 4 Key off effect: 9
2 - 5 Touch: heavy

3 Key Settings
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 9

Reverb: Stage

Effect: Delay 2, time 3, depth 2

Lol this is excellent, I'm definetly gonna try this when I get home!

I hope you like it, Victor25!
If not, here's something completely different:


BRIGHT CONCERT HALL GRAND R1.0

Dual Voice: Studio Grand, volume 5 + Concert Grand, volume 5

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low 0, mid -1, high +2

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: dynamic
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 10
2 - 3 String resonance: 5
2 - 4 Key off effect: 7
2 - 5 Touch: normal

3 Key Settings
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 10

Reverb: Hall 1

Effect: none

I must say that I am thoroughly enjoying this thread and have the strange urge to print the thing out and spend the half day that it takes to trudge my way all the way to a Kawai dealer who will only have the CA63 if anything in stock to actually try some of these out.