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Morning everyone!

Here my interpretation of Schindler's List, it's not the cleanest version ever since I've added some slight modifications I liked.

https://youtu.be/CEihthY4a1M

Opinions are welcome.

EDIT: The sound has been recorded as WAV format on the CA97



Thanks James, your attempt is very appreciated and of course I'm not expecting any guarantee.

Cheers,
David

Very good playing David, thank you for sharing.

By the way, is there a reason why you selected the EX sound (rather than the SK-EX) for this piece? Note that this is not a criticism - I believe the EX is still a very impressive sound.

Also, less camera cuts, I notice.

Cheers,
James
x

Thank you James.

To be honest I firstly tried to play it with the SK-EX but I somehow felt the piece was lacking in life (think wasn't in the mood) so I tried the EX which has got a quite more brilliant timbre, added deep resonance on the virtual technician plus some reverb and voilà, the sound I wanted

BTW both piano sound are excellent, I'm playing it now on the SK-EX and it does also sound very beautiful. I'm thinking about recording the piece again this time with this piano.

Only two cameras have been used this time, less work for me and apparently more beautiful..

Cheers,
David

Hi David,

Would you be able to share the exact settings you used to create this sound?

Many thanks,

Hugh

Hi Hugh,

- Piano sound is EX Concert Grand
- Reverb set to Cathedral with depth and length to 6 (maybe 7 cannot recall well)
- Virtual Technician set to Deep Resonance
- Recording format is WAV

No further effects were applied.

Regards,
David

I listened to several of your videos and I think the CA97 sounds great!

The sampled pianos in your CA97 are being ported to the newly announced ES8 keyboard, so I wanted to hear those samples in a more raw, wav format.

Thanks David.

Hi AZ_Astro,

I also think the sounds are great and I'm still experimenting with the several customizable parameters and some of the results are awesome.

FYI the Prelude and the Schindler´s List theme have been recorded as WAV format, the rest of videos were recorded on MP3 256kbs (Kawai's enconding).

Regards,
David

You're welcome Hugh.

Thank you for your postings!

Recently I am experiencing the same thing with my CA67.
When the piano is not touched for some hours, many keys will click when pressed for the first time again.

There is even one key which makes a strong clicking sound (and it even feels like I have to overcome a resistance), when it has not been pressed only for a few minutes.

I am starting to get concerned about that.
Paradice, did you already contact Kawai and got an answer?
Are any other of you experiencing the same problems?

Nice videos David. Do you still use Pianoteq with the piano or does the built-in engine provide a similar feeling?

I'm torn between ordering a CA67 or a CA97. Apart from the soundboard it seems the CA67 has a better speaker system?

I've not actually tried either piano yet as my local Kawai place doesn't currently have any in. I did kinda fall in love with the action sample though. I went in wanting a VPC1 to use with Pianoteq and look what happened...

Hi Peter,

Well it hapenned something similar to me, so no wonder.

After some use and test I can hands down say that the CA97 offers a perfect solution pack for even the pickiest users. The action, sounds and speaker-system are most satisfying, though I was a bit eskeptic at the beginning but now all doubt's have been cleared out.

Now, you'll have to deal with the inconvenience of mobility since it comes as a single piece and cannot be dissasembled if moving etc.

I've had a quite long conversation with a german guy a couple days ago regarding the soundboard, he thought it wouldn't be worth the extra price paid for the CA97 over the CA67, specially as he would be playing mainly with headphones cause the neighbours. Conclusion, after I tried to explain how different the CA97 sounded compared to the conventional stereo systems because of the soundboard, he went and tried himself, wrote me back and confirmed what I told him, it sounds much better even at low volume (I usually play at 20% of its volume aprox), even his unexperienced wife had noticed it. If you can afford the CA97 then go for it doubtless, no matter what volume you play at or whatever the excuse is, that's my recommendation.

Now pianoteq, yes I still do play it for hours whenever I can, its sounds are way different from the onboard sounds on the CA97 and combines perfectly with the soundboard of the CA97. Better? I wouldn't say that, just different. Pianoteq sounds have a lot of presence, are more metallic but I feel like when sitting on the real thing. Customization is practically unlimited and there are excellent patches created by the users emulating other pianos like the Faziolli or the Bösendorfer etc. (they don't sound exactly the same but are interesting thoug). Side by side, I'd say the sounds on the CA97 are generally warmer, IMHO more "beautiful" and easier to the ear for those non experienced players, but too perfect (cannot explain it well), they are also very customizable.

To sum up, I already had Pianoteq (full pro bundle) when I bought my CA97, so I'm kinda taking advantage of the current combo BUT to be helpful, had I known how nice the onboard sounds on the CA97 sounded (although different), wouldn't I have invested the good amount of money on Pianoteq (not regreting it though). I can firmly say that having the CA97 there's no need at all of any additional software (and I own some).

I've not tried the VPC but after a long research it seems that it's the best key action available as for MIDI controllers. Combined with Pianoteq is another "cheaper" solution which should satisfy most pianists out there, Advantage: Portable and cheap. Setback: No soundboard. Bear in mind, stereo speakers will never give you neither that surrounding feeling nor the nice vibration on your fingertips.

Hope it helped and good luck with your decision.

Regards,
David

David is at it again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmlZckc8BBk

Sounds great!

Cool, I seem to come late

Thanks and regards!
David

Hi Folks!

Another SK5 here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4U4-JoISH8

Hope you like it.

Cheers!
David

Thank you for sharing your latest recordings David.

I liked the Moonlight Sonata very much - it sounds lovely with the smaller SK-5 sound. However, as I commented in the video, I found the 'fizz' of the Damper Noise sound a little distracting - this may be because I am listening with earphones, while the sound produced by the instrument itself is less audible.

The Chopin waltz is also very well played, however as much as I enjoyed some of the later passages, I think I prefer the moodiness of the Beethoven.

Thanks once again for sharing - you are building-up quite a nice collection of performances on your channel!

Cheers,
James
x

Ah, the ol' Waltz in C# minor... I was playing that a couple of years ago after seeing Valentina Lisitsa's version on Youtube. I would echo my preference for stricter time (particularly for dance music like this, where your dancers need a steady beat to dance to!), but it had some nice moments, and the video editing is definitely getting better! The Moonlight Sonata sounded very good. Are you going to have a go at the other two movements? The Presto is a lot of fun and sounds very impressive! Quite long though.

Thank you James, just noticed that you were the one on the youtube commenting the thing with the damper. Well, as I replied you over there, the damper level was the standard one so I didn't fiddle with that and to be honest it wasn't annoying while playing, but you're right since I listened to it again on the computer and it's too present but now it's too late to change it since I recorded it directly into WAV from the CA97..

It's not a big deal either cause I'll record it again this time complete with the 3 movements and I'll crank down the damper volume a bit.

I was curious too about the opinions regarding the tempo of the Waltz since I've found a lot of interpretations on the internet lasting from 3.30mins up to 4.30mins (or more..), I played it just like I felt to and it's rather in the fast group of performances (note it's not a dancing Waltz).

Cheers!
David



Thank you lolatu, I'm glad you liked the editing better, I've tried to keep it clear and simple. It's interesting that you watched Lisitza's performance of the Waltz since she plays it in a quite particular way, well actually I've not found two similar performances. She plays the faster passages really fast whereas some other performers do it in a quite relaxed way.. the older performers play the whole piece in a rather constant tempo giving the piece not more than 3.30mins so it's played quickly as a whole but with no big differences in passages. Strange, but interesting though.

Yes, I'll definetely give a go to the 2nd and 3rd movements of the Sonata, they're actually the reason I began with it, but as you well said they are "too long", so it'll take some time.

Cheers!
David

Ah... the damper fizz! That's one thing I turn down to 1 or 2 in the VT settings personally. It really doesn't sound that natural to me, that noise. The noise you get from a real acoustic when pressing the damper pedal hard is a much fuller resonant sound across all the strings and the cabinet, and much more subtle.

I've also noticed that the damper fizz noise is exactly the same, regardless of which piano sound you choose, which makes me think it isn't a properly modelled sound where all the strings vibrate, but just a standard "fizz sample" that is played when you press the pedal reasonably quickly.

Funnily enough, the first time I noticed it was when playing Moonlight Sonata through headphones and wondered what on earth was going on.

Sorry, I have to disagree. Besides it's played extremely strange, he completely lost the essence of artistic written dance, there are some major and base playing mistakes made.

To be honest, I do not know what he wanted to tell us by playing it. It's like serving pizza with beef steak. Each separate is very fine, but together are an horrible idea. To weird, to complicated, what is going on here? Strange beginning staccatos?




Please, do a favor for yourself and for your listeners and skip it for a year or even two, especially the last movement. You are, at that moment of time unable to to play properly far less complex pieces. If you want to do a favor to you and your listeners - please get a teacher for a year. Also, your hand movements are quite eerie... too much os something, but don't know of what yet.

Point is, I cannot find a thought in your performances. There is no leading, one parts to another, they are not flawing.

Also, your technical skills are not ready for #rd movement of moonlight.

I always wonder, why people are playing complex and hard pieces bad (or, in case of some youtubers, extremely bad, hopefully it's not a case here), instead of playing wonderfully simple pieces.

PLaying complex music bad, makes people off. PLaying simple music great, makes people on.

David Izquierdo,
It's not a point that you are playing very bad. It's good that you want to grow and so on, but, you need someone to guide you through your music journey, perhaps it will be helpful to do one or two steps back. Just get the proper foundation, technical and musical.

You have a good potential, but currently it is being wasted just because you do not know how and what to do. If you want to play a piece, you have to see the whole, and, I am hearing parts with no connection, or sometimes even bars, with no links to each other. If you can get a good (that's really important) teacher, who will really care for your musical development - that means theory, history, thousands of pianistic "secrets", that will skyrocket your pianism and make a really wonderful player.

I know people want to play faster and greater each month... but that's not a proper way, in anything you do (that's not personal, just general statement).

And, if you have currently a teacher and he/she is treating those recorded performances as finished... do yourself a favor and change the teacher asap.

Sorry for a bit of bittery, but while I love people playing well, I hate people going bad and being always tell how great they are, but, this is a today's YouTube curse, which is very sad.

All you need to do is to get some knowledge, be better technically, but this is coming with time, and have someone which make a one piece from your playing, currently it is like something here, something there. I just do not get the clue what you want to say to us through keyboard. It may be not your fault at all at the moments, because you may have not this knowledge, but you may pay someone to correct it. The are not tremendous things, but they can pump you up few levels up in the quality of your performances.

Good luck!