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Just rang those companies. No stock and no idea when they will get a kawai VPC-1. It is a real shame because you must admire Kawai for their innovation and gamble on this product. You can bet your life, as we speak, Yamaha and Roland will be busy developing their equivalents to compete with the VPC-1. This period should be kawai's golden time while they have this product niche market to themselves. Unfortunately you cant buy it.

To conclude this thread, I ended up going with the RD700NX – I compared it with the MP10 in L.A. and slightly prefered the RD700NX action, and the arguments for having an internal tone generator as a backup are convincing. Last but not least, I found a seller in L.A. who sold me the RD700NX $2200 new incl. tax.

Now I'll have to go search for a stand, but that's another topic.

@Kawai James: I actually called Kawai, and unfortunately they do not have any showroom or any option to look at instruments in the HQ. Even worse, she could also neither tell me any retailer in L.A. that has the VPC1 in stock, nor tell me the names of the biggest retailers in L.A. that carry *any* Kawai products. Basically, the Kawai helpline left me with zero information. However, then I called Pierre and he ended up having both the MP10 and the VPC1 in stock, so that was great advice! Thanks again.

Thanks everyone for their help!

dpk, that's a very good price on the RD-700NX - congrats!

Thank you for the additional information too.

Kind regards,
James
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Hi everyone -

I've had my VPC1 for about a month and I can happily report that my experience was quite enjoyable. Really solid unit, great action - totally worth the 4 month wait!

Until yesterday, I played it using Galaxy D and Kawai-EX-PRO libraries for sound, but after reading forum discussions about True Keys I have decided to give it a try and ordered the American Grand. I've had only a few minutes to play it but so far everything looks very promising! Might become my favorite...

I am posting it here because I have a few questions about touch curves. What touch curve do you guys use if you have the same setup? Do you modify the velocity curve in the app (I'm guessing no)? Will there be an "approved" VPC1 touch curve for VILabs?

Alkanaut, thanks for your post, and congrats on the purchase (and eventual arrival!) of your VPC1.

Additional touch curves for the latest software piano libraries is certainly something we're keen to pursue. Let's see what the future brings.

Cheers,
James
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Kawai James, thanks, I will be on lookout for the future VPC editor updates!

I have switched to True Keys for the most part and I have also found that the linear curve works for me a bit better than my former setting tailored for Galaxy D. I am surprised by the impact of changing the touch curve on the overall feel of the piano and I think Kawai made a really good call on implementing this feature versus, for example, adding the mod wheel which IMO would ruin the simplicity and elegance of this model.

Alkanaut, thank you for your positive feedback.

It perhaps goes without saying that I agree with you absolutely.

Cheers,
James
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At the risk of being labelled a fanatic of some sort I also agree!

I use the VPC-1 Ivory II curve for my MP-10. I'm glad Kawai made the software available to download and the velocity curves easy to copy even if I don't have an VPC-1.

I wouldn't agree that it's mostly linear. Here's what it looks like:



It's softens the dynamics making it require more force to play loudly. I'm not 100% sure if it's better or not, but it does allow me to play with greater "range" of mp - mf.

I think the VPC-1 has similar enough action to the MP-10 to allow using the same curve, although I know the sensor configuration is different. I do prefer playing with this curve though.

By the way, this is just a VST plugin called "midiCurve". It's easier to use than editing velocity curves inside the VST piano.

Allan, thanks for the tip about midiCurve plugin! I currently run True Keys standalone in UVI player as this gives my kid a nice one-click way to launch the VI and start playing. I might eventually place the UVI as a plugin to Traktion and chain it with midiCurve, but for now I am going to experiment more with the VPC touch curve editor. It is similar in functionality to midiCurve, less fancy looking I would say, but it works. I hope Kawai will continue developing this tool...

Thanks again!