After researching extensively (including a lot of reading of these forums), I decided to buy a Kawai mp6. I know I'm taking somewhat of a risk by not having actually playing it first, but from what I can tell, it has all the features I care about at the best price for me. I have a couple questions about accessories though.

It comes with a "free" Phonic MK50 Keyboard Amplifier. Is this a good speaker for home practice use, or should I invest in something more expensive? When I think of "amplifiers" I think of super-loud rock guitars; but this is just a sign of my lack of audio equipment sophistication. Will this speaker perform well at lower volume levels, or is it mainly designed for filling a huge room?

Also, it comes with only a sustain pedal. I would like to have 3 pedal capability at some point. Do you know if there are any 3-pedal attachments that are compatible with this piano? I know there is the Kawai F20 two-pedal attachment that retails for $130ish. If there's no 3-pedal piece out there, I'll get the F20, but I thought I'd check whether anyone knows of something I missed.

CCM Stephen, I'm not terribly familiar with keyboard amps, however if it was thrown in as freebie, I wouldn't be expecting too much.

Regarding the pedals, unfortunately Kawai has yet to produce a proper 3-pedal unit, and accessories from other manufacturers (Roland, Yamaha, Nord) are sadly not compatible. I believe there is a 3-pedal MIDI-based pedal unit produced by CME, however I'm not sure how easy this would be to configure for use on the MP6.

The 'official' Kawai recommendation for MP owners wishing to use three pedals, is to use the F-20 in conjunction with another pedal (I believe the F-10H that the MP6 ships with should do the job). I have an illustration on my work PC that shows how to connect the different pedals for a 3-pedal setup. I'll post it here tomorrow.

I hope this helps, and that you enjoy your new MP6!

Cheers,
James
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thanks!

CCM Stephen,

The MP6 sounds much better in stereo than mono. If you have the budget, I'd invest in a pair of decent monitor speakers (search the threads for others' recommendations) or something like a pair of Roland CM-30s, which I think make great hybrid monitor/small-PA speakers. Alternatively, a good pair of headphones is a worthwhile addition.

When you get the piano, IMO it would be well worth installing the latest firmware (very easy to do), and playing with the user velocity curve, piano settings and envelope until you get a sound you like. The default settings may not be to your liking; if so, tweaking makes a world of difference.

Good luck!

Those amps work well enough for practice in that you can hear if you play a wrong note and so on. And the sound is even good for e-piano tones and you can put guitar pedals between the MP6 and that amp. But for grand piano tones the sound is far from convincing. It is not even stereo.
If you want the best simulation of an acoustic piano for use at home buy the largest home stereo speakers you can tolerate (Yes in this case physical size is what matters) and run them through a stereo amp. If you want to most convient home practice setup use studio monitors. they have an accurate headphone-like sound or just buy some good headphones

About the pedals. I'm curious, Is there is any piano music that actually requires three pedals to play.

Thanks for all the advice. As far as getting a stereo sound, would it be terrible to just get another one of these MK50 amps and put them on either side of the keyboard?

Re: 3 pedals--yes, a lot of Brahms, Debussy, Ravel, and even Prokofiev require all 3 pedals to play exactly as written (sometimes in Debussy, you even need all 3 at once). Of course you can really "get by" with just the sustain pedal, but it's not the same.

Here's the triple-pedal setup illustration I mentioned last week.
Apologies for the delay.



Cheers,
James
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Thanks for the illustration! Do you know if you absolutely have to use the Kawai F20 for this configuration? The F20 just seems so much more expensive than other two-pedal combinations.

Brahms could not have notated for three pedals. Pianos in his time had only two.

True, he didn't actually "write" for three--I don't think anyone really notates the middle pedal; it's usually just implied by writing that is unplayable as written without the middle pedal, unless you muddy it all up with the right pedal. I've certainly used lots of middle pedal in Brahms though, where it was the only I could sustain the bass without lots of pedalled dissonance.

Is that supposed to work on the ES-6? It has the same plugs setup, and I have both units. I just tried it, and it doesn't seem to, I just get two sustain pedals and a "soft" pedal.

Good question.

I'll found out after lunch.

James
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Dang you're fast. I just tried it, it just gives me two sustain pedals.

Well, it's relevant to something else I'm currently working on, so...

Sorry to hear that it didn't have the desired effect, although there's always the separate 3-pedal unit (for the stand accessory) if you require a sostenuto pedal.

Cheers,
James
x

Does anyone have any idea whether this--

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessori...485834000901000

would function as a sostenuto/soft pedal on an mp6?