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Ok, this is goofy but fun to play and sounds pretty darn good on the ES7:

I was cleaning out some stuff (mostly Christmas) and came across Vince Guaraldi Trio Charlie Brown Christmas. So I was semi-inspired to procrastinate and play some of it the piano one last time until next year.

This is what I did that was a little different and fun: I played "Christmas is Coming" with these settings:

- layer Concert Grand (at 6) with W.Base & Ride (at 4)
- EQ=OFF
- Touch Curve=Heavy

Try it! (ok, so I had a lot of idle time today on my day off. Just roll with it and humor me.)

Here you are, a couple of songs recorded via USB in wav.
I think I put some 4db gain on one of them, not sure though.
¿How do you find the sound? (and I mean THE SOUND, lol).

https://soundcloud.com/mabraman

I am wondering if any of these ES7 Users have been working with the Rhythm section and if so ....

Do you have a specific rhythm suggestion for a nice slow jazz tune in 4/4 time. For example, MISTY.

I have been through all of those rhythms and none of them stand out to me as appropriate.

That probably is my biggest disappointment with this instrument. However, that might be partially dependent upon my lack of experience with that type of background stuff.

A song like misty would need something unintrusive from the drums, maybe just brushes on a snare drum or a simple ride cymbal pattern - e.g. struck once on every quarter note - would work. Anything tricksy or dancy is going to sound weird and even simple patterns with bass drum and snare are going to sound too driving. Pre-programmed patterns don't usually offer anything basic enough.

I don't have the ES7 and I've not laid hands on one but I downloaded the manual a few weeks ago when the piano was on my contenders list (I bought the casio px-150 instead on impulse and to save some money - I'm beginning to regret that). From what I see, there are no brushes available but you have a collection of different ride cymbals on the notes D#2 and B2, the best would probably be from the analog set. I haven't looked at the record feature so I don't know how it works. Can you record a simple 4 to the bar ride cymbal and set it up as a song? If you've got a loop feature that would make short work of it otherwise you're going to have to spend 3 or 4 minutes robotically tapping it in.

If that's possible you could also try, in later choruses, adding a closed hi-hat (F#1) on beats 2 and 4. You'd need to experiment with the level.

The pattern may seem a bit dull almost pointless but it should provide a kind of ether to support the piano. A real drummer would punctuate with fills here and there. You could improve the cymbal motif by adding an occasional quieter tap on the 1/8 note triplet immediately preceding the quarter note strike on beats 1 or 3. A string bass would help as well - I guess you could layer that?

Thank you for the suggestions.

I was hoping for a little more "plug n play" type of thing.

This machine has dozens of rhythms and not one for something as basic as Misty. That seems ridiculous to me.

But what do I know ...

That's understandable. A suitable drum groove for misty or any jazz/standard ballad is of its nature going to be fairly skeletal. I suppose when these drum patterns are being programmed they don't want to give the impression they've been slacking on the job so value for money means throwing in the kitchen sink (I don't think you've got a midi note for that).

OTOH one of the other owners may know of something tucked away in the presets.

If not, on the upside, if you can program this in for yourself, you've got a groove that will work with almost any slow or medium tempo jazz tunes or standards.

Well, you apparently know more about my instrument than I do.

I have gone through the entire manual and I see no mention of anything like that.

- drum sound mapping list, p124 of the online pdf - I don't know if it's the definitive pdf or if there are inconsistencies.

I prefer to use the pdf version always to do a rapid search for keywords, in this case 'ride' and 'hhc' (closed hi-hat)

dmd, Im not around my es7 at the moment but I have used the rhythm section on the es7 while playing Misty and it sounded nice to me.I can,t remember which rhytym I used but Im sure that there are a few different one,s that will work. Sometimes I take a faster rhythm and cut the speed in half. I think I played Misty around tempo 68 or 70. When I play using the rhythm section I use the base and drums and put in my own left hand piano parts. I have a roland gx piano with the nx piano card and also the nord ex stage and I like the kawai better than both of thoes. Its a great sounding piano at a lower price.

I probably am just not experienced enough at playing with those accompaniments. I have been trying some of them now and I have found one that would seem to work (Fast4beat). I dialed it down a bit.

dmd, I was just playing Misty with the es7 rhythm sections , I used ride beat #58 at tempo 64 and then jazz rock , 8 beat 3 , ballad 2 and 3 they all work just decide which rhythym you like the best, there are probably alot more that will work I just didn,t go through all the rhythms. I see you Live in Pa. , I live in Cecil county Maryland.

Thanks, Mike. I will check those out.

Just knowing that someone else thinks they work will help me work with them.

FYI:

http://www.directpianohire.co.uk/ka...r-andrei-gavrilov-pre-concert-rehearsal/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Gavrilov

Hi mates, today I tried to test some new sounds and uploaded four songs: https://soundcloud.com/mabraman

Settings:
-Concert Grand1/Mellow Grand1 layered 2:8.
-String res. 10.
-Mech. noises off.
-Touch normal.
-Voicing Mellow2.
-Layer dinamics 7.
-Reverb room D2/T2.
-Rec. gain +5db and then +13db via Audacity.
-EQ: honestly, I think it was off but won't bet one of my arms on it . I've been playing with midcut for a while (and the hiss has almost gone!!) and then with some bass gain.Who knows wich one I recorded.

I think this layering is a little strange, but interesting. The bass is sometimes muddy, isn't it? And maybe the mids sound metallic. The recorded sound is not exactly what you hear when playing, it lacks some brilliance and I'm not sure the decay is well captured, too.
Please try to ignore my faults (it's been a loooooong afternoon playing and tweaking) and just listen to the sound, any comments will be appreciated.
By the way, the recording of the Bach's one failed and I uploaded on purpose for you to listen to it. It´s the second time it happens. I guess it's normal, just a corrupted file. Has anyone ever experienced the same issue?
And another question: what is Layer Dinamics for? I can't hear any difference when I change the settings.

Thank you in advance,

Isra.

South "yugoslawic" dance is a piano piece from Microcosmos Book 2 by Bela Bartok (not Dvorak).

True! I'll edit it. Thanks.
...and about the sound?

Recent review on the ES7 from AZ:

http://azpianonews.blogspot.com/2013/02/review-kawai-es7-digital-piano-this.html


.

Very enthusiastic.Talks like a salesman.

Last night I played with some sounds and made comparisons between them, in order to determine which one is more useful for different kinds of music. I like the layered sounds of CG1/MG1 and CG2/MG2 more each time, though I still haven't been able to get a perfect setting.I tend to charge the weight on the mellow side (8 to 2). Everything that you touch has pros and cons. At least, I realized that some -1/-2b in the mid range, along with a little more bass,works fine for me. Layer Dynamics set to low value.
What I don't know, and here I'm asking for some help, is what to do with:
- Studio Grands. I find them very strange, whining to say something. Has anybody found a good setting for them?
-And Rock piano...I just don't understand that sound, though I figure it must be useful cutting throug a pop mix or something. By itself, it sounds like a toy to me.
What I do with these two sounds is: when I get tired of Concert Grand or whatever, I play with Rock or Studio for a while and then go back to the main AP sound, and...wow! I love it!


-Mellow Grands : If I was able to make them sound a little clearer and less boomy, these would be my favourite APs (here it is why I layer them with CG). They are so warm! And choosing bright2 voicing you can hear those nice strings.

And finally, reverb. Yesterday something strange happened: I liked small hall along with bright voicing and a confident touch. Perhaps I'm understanding something, after two months of work.

...out of the box, they say...

I usually just use Concert Grand all of the time but your posting has me looking into some of these options. Thank You for bring this topic up.

BTW ... I am unfamiliar with the phrase . Could you explain please ?

Yes, I wrote it bad. I meant lowering mid low/mid high at -2db. I do it with every AP sound, 'cause my ears can't stand the default settings and they start ringing as soon as I play forte.
But every little change in a frequency, though producing a better or more pleasant overall feeling, affects to individual notes that begin to sound weird.I'm closer to my sound, but damm, still can't get it!
About layering: I find that equally layered pianos don't work (weird, not reallistic sound), so I set them at 7:3 or 8:2. Do you think the same?

Cheers.