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It seems quite ridiculous that in 2012 musicians are still hoping that a new model of piano will have a decent sample memory. I'm still in the market for a DP but I am having trouble parting with my money when they generally still sound nothing like an acoustic piano.

Seriously, stop drip feeding the improvements in technology!

Tragically that is an early English Sandwich Toaster, from about Queen Anne, I'd say.

I completely agree with you.

However, Roland SN is fairly realistic sounding, with none of the compression artifacts you hear in Yamaha, Casio, Kawai, etc. Pretty good sympathetic resonance too.

+1 on that. its amazing that my iPhone has 13.6 GB of memory and we all go "oooohhh" over Nords onboard 500 MB. i know not all memory is the same. But this industry is dragging its feet on this issue. the Kronos seems to be breaking to the lead on this, if they can get the complete package together.

Correct, apples and oranges, except Nord oranges are red.

The iphone 4 has the most memory of any iPhone... 512 mb of volatile RAM. Nord has 500 mB (or whatever) of more expensive non-volatile RAM (using a kind of flash). Separately, the iPhone has 16 gb+ of offline storage (another kind of flash). The fact that iOS devices have so little real RAM is why apps run out of memory, even though there is plenty of free storage space.

Kronos leads on the idea of using SSD streaming for pianos, probably because Korg has been building on the Linux foundation since the 2005 OASYS.

It's all about their profits, which is completely understandable in many ways, and also why it will never change! Unless we start an Open Source Digital Piano Project. I'm going to go get a start on whittling my keys ;-)

This just appeared on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmFACTiuh7s

Cheers!

K.

great post.

go Kronos.

Thanks!

And is it me, or do the upper mid notes (that his right hand spends so much time on) sound kind of bangy, like the velocity curve is set too soft?

Sounds like a bright jangly attacky digital piano! Could be the patch/settings/recording though.

Great find on You Tube. Casio, like the other manufacturers seem to believe the best demonstration possible is a meandering dirge of trendy, go nowhere, "jazz" chords.

Perhaps one day a manufacturer will actually use real music to demonstrate their instrument.

I must say though, I did like it... thought it was a Roland RD 700 NX at first glimpse.

One thing I notice from the clip is they've changed the text on top telling you what the buttons are - that looks rather more legible in low light conditions than on the 330.

Will any of you who currently own a PX-X30 series piano upgrade?
I did find the tone a little more natural than the current series. The attack on the demo did seem high, and it would be nice to hear a full song

I don't suppose there's any chance we're hearing the onboard speakers on that?

On the Keyboard Corner Forum, Mike Martin of Casio said he ran the output through the line in of his MacBook laptop. He claimed the audio was not clean due to some interference he could not specify. He also said the PX-350 at the Casio booth was a prototype and said the non acoustic sounds were not finalized and that more tweaking would be done before they are released. I am guessing these might start to show up in stores in late September or mid to late October.

That was Tom Brislin playing. Perhaps you've heard of him, he actually substituted for Rick Wakeman on tour for Yes. I don't know of too many people that have the chops or the courage to be able to handle such a gig. He's also toured with Meat Loaf, Marshall Crenshaw, Debbie Harry (Blondie) and countless others. He writes part time for Keyboard Magazine and also has one heck of a solo album about to come out (he's a great singer too). Frankly he's one of the best musician's I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Tom worked with Casio to demonstrate the XW-P1 synths at Winter NAMM and at this show the new Privia digital pianos.

I'm not sure how many of you have worked a NAMM show before, but it is exhausting. It is 8-10 hours of nearly continuous playing for 3-4 days straight (depending on winter or summer NAMM). Demos with dealers tend to come in waves and I took a moment between dealer demos to grab my camera and get a few moments of Tom just relaxing at the Privia and improvising for a few minutes. Yep it was informal and perhaps you think it was "meandering dirge of trendy, go nowhere, "jazz" chords". Needless to say, I look forward to hearing and seeing videos of your work very soon.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of my own and do not necessarily reflect the official position of any company that I work for.

Hi Mike!

Many thanks for posting the demo video of the new Casio PX-350 at summer NAMM. When will these new Privia models be available for purchase in the US? Also, will the wooden stand and triple-pedal unit of the PX-330 fit the new PX-350?

Cheers,

Kevin

I have two answers to this

(1) I recently sold a way-old Roland to a guy who makes his living playing in public. He thinks the sound is fine when you put it in a mix with others. People are making money with entry level or worse DPs while us play at home types complain about all kinds of technical stuff.

(2) you CAN have all that technical stuff, multi-gigabyte non-looped samples, layered sounds and studio quality impulse response reverb and you name it if only you connect a computer. The little Mac Mini only costs $600 and is the size of a large power brick. Sound is so good using a computer that most home users will make better recordings using MIDI than if they mic'd their acoustic grand piano.

Mike,
You are missing the point. I am not in any way criticising the musician, I am not on any ego trip, I am happy to admit he is, (like many demonstrators) better than me.

I am not criticising the instrument, NAMM, workers/staff or anything like that.

I am criticising the manufacturers. Why, when so much great music that we can all identify and relate to, is in the public domain do companies think we all want to hear this stuff?
OK, this IS the first upload and yes, certainly, anything is better than nothing. Perhaps Casio will mix styles in their official output.
But many, many, videos DO use this sort of music to demonstrate a product.

Here as an example is a previous Casio video... it starts so well too (well, about 18 seconds in)....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kfcz2YIgIY

I don't care how good a musician is, I (personally) hate it, I am sick of it and I stand by all I said.

Good thing we aren't all alike and please don't waste your time waiting for anything I may produce, even if I did it is quite obvious we probably have wildly differing tastes, despite the fact I do play Meatloaf, Blondie and Yes, along with the attempts at Chopin and Bach.

But, as I also said in my first post, I think it sounds like a great piano, I would just have liked to have heard it play something I know to give me a real reference.

As a Roland fan I have regard for John Maul and Scott Tibbs and am envious of ANY musician who works with these companies. It is a great honour to recieve the trust of people with so much to lose. That doesn't mean that I automatically love the choice of music, I (very) often don't.

Slipperykeys,
If there is something stylistically that you'd like to hear, then why not simply say what that is? I had nothing to do with the video you referenced but again instead of offering a suggestion of what kind of music you'd like to hear, you simply say what you don't want to hear. I'm not sure why you'd assume that we have different tastes in music, I don't think you know anything about me other than an assumption based on what Tom happened to be playing when I a quick moment to grab a camera.

The reality is during a NAMM show and an instrument like Privia we try to cover all styles of music and we played everything from classical, rock, jazz and everything in between.

Have a nice day,