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Ok so I am supposed to be getting my first digital piano tomorrow. I'm not even sure the model names... but the one I was going to get was a Yamaha, without weighted keys. However, I've played on real pianos my entire life, and don't want to regret not getting one with weighted keys. Will it make that big of difference? The one with weighted keys is $300 more... which is a lot for me. On another note... there is a Roland, with weighted keys... offered for the same price as the Yamaha without. But apparently the Roland has a lot less features.

I cannot decide!! Ahh. Also... some of them have the regular 3 pedals attached, and some just have one plug in pedal that looks like an on-off mechanism... any thoughts regarding that kind of pedal?

Thanks for any insight you may have!

when you say digital piano, it would refer to the keyboard with weighted keys. otherwise, we would just call it a keyboard. the touch difference between weighted or non-weighted keys is huge. just so you know what you're getting.

if your goal is playing piano, then get a digital piano not a keyboard. if i were you, i'd return the keyboard and get a real DP.

home DPs have built-in pedal, usually 3, and most of them support half-pedal on the sustain pedal (right one). but most stage DPs don't usually have more than 1 pedal, but some provide more than 1 jacks for additional pedal connection. some cheap pedals are basically on/off switch, but some would look like real piano pedal and support half-pedal functionality as well. however, if a DP doesn't have half-pedal capacity built-in, then half-pedal will not happen even if you use a pedal that supports it. so, be sure you know what you want and what you're getting with the money you could spend.

You won't necessarily need Graded Hammers but if you want the Feel of an acoustic, I second the the above post: You want weighted keys. You can get weighted keys in a stage piano or portable digital piano or the furniture-piano.

Do some homework first before you you take out your wallet.

You haven't gone into the shop and played any of those instruments? You'll be able to tell instantly what the difference is.

Personally, I can't stand weighted keys. But I've never played acoustic, so whatever your used to is probably your preference.

If I were you, I would return the keyboard and get a DP.

I have both types of keyboard for different purposes. Both are high quality Kurzweil instruments.
The K2661 is unweighted, and the SP88X is weighted. While I can play organ parts, bass parts, simulations of orchrstral instruments quite well on the unweighted; it is quite difficult to play typical classical piano music with good expression on the unweighted. Getting a true pianissimo is very hard, the keys just go down too easily.

The difference in types: all of my keyboards are stage piano type - they are like a slab, designed to sit on some type of stand (I do not use the X shaped stands, stuff gets in the way of my feet, I use stands that allow me to set up pedals and reach them well).

A single pedal instruments usually is set to act as a sustain pedal. Some types of keyboard allow what is called "half-pedaling" which is depressing the sustain pedal only partially (the idea on an acoustic piano is that the dampers make very light contact with the strings, not enough to damp them almost instantly, but enough that the sustain time is greatly reduced).

Instuments with two pedals typically operate with one pedal providing sustain, and the other providing either an electronic duplication of a sostenudo pedal (which - on a quality grand piano - will sustain only the notes that are depressed when the pedal is depressed, other notes played afterward while the pedal is held down will not be sustained. On most uprights, the function is that of kind of a bass sustain pedal, only holding the dampers away from the strings on the lower notes)

The third pedal typically has the effect of the una corda piano on a grand (or "soft" pedal on an upright). On a grand piano, this results in a different sound, because it shifts the keyboard sideqays so that the hammers only strike one string. This both reduces volume and also changes the timbre of the sound somewhat.

Most electronic instruments that allow significant MIDI control of the instrument functions can change the function of each pedal.

The "digital piano" (as opposed to the "stage piano") is built to LOOK more like an acoustic piano. Normally, the stand for the instrument looks somewhat like a spinet piano (or on the more expensive instruments, it can be built into a grand piano shape - the high end Kurzweil stage piano is actually built into the body of a Young Chang grand. Amplifiers and speakers are usually included in the instrument. Pedals (whether 2 or 3) are usually permanently mounted instead of being connected by a cable (they don't move around on the floor that way - I have a custom built triple pedal that fits my Kurzweil weighted keyboard - it is heavy enough not to move about)

It is difficult to be absolutely sure, but my belief is that you will find that spending a bit more for a weighted action will be worthwhile, especially if you intend to use this instument primarily for piano sounds.

HTH,

Jim

No I haven't seen or played them, haha. Just heard from what my parents told me when they looked. It's going to be a Christmas gift, even though I have to pay half. And it was just decided, so I don't have much time. Hopefully I will get to go with them tomorrow when they buy it so I can play a few before I decide for sure.

They said the first Yamaha was a digital piano, it had the touch response keys and everything else that digital pianos do, except they aren't weighted. But I am sort of new to this stuff.. so maybe it is just a keyboard. But I think it's $800 - is that too much for something without weighted keys? Haha!

I just don't want to be really disappointed if I don't like the feel of unweighted keys. But at the same time I don't really want to put out 300 more dollars just to have them. :p

Thanks so much for the responses!

It is heck too much for unweighted keys! It must then been bloated with features - which you perhaps will never use to the full extent. You will benefit much more from getting a fully weighted hammer keyboard, which you can in fact do for _less_ than 800$!

Casio Privia PX-110 should be around 500$, Yamaha YDP-131 should go for around 700$ easily I guess.

It depends on what you are going to play. But if you wanna play piano, don't bother with unweighted keys - it's a no-no!


Regards!
M.

Yeah, I really don't even care for using the "features" that much. I just want something in tune (my piano is horrifically old and even after trying to get it tuned still sucks) and something I can play with headphones at 3 AM! :p

Hmmm.. my parents checked every music store here, and there were absolutely none for less than $800. =\

Where do you live Spazactaz?

Also, what types of stores were they going to? Regular piano dealers or stores like Guitar Center?

Spazactaz:

I would highly recommend looking around for a second hand digital piano. I know it's not really a "Christmassy" way of buying a gift, but the value you will get far outweighs the negative.

I kept an eye on CraigsList for about two weeks, and quite a number of decent quality 88 key pianos came up for sale. I looked at a Korg SP-200, a Roland and an Alesis. I just bought a Yamaha P-60 for $225 last night.

I live in Alberta, Canada.

I'm not even sure.. they said they checked every music store though! :p

If I would have had more time to look around and stuff it would have been better, this was WAY too rushed. I was in the store today playing around on some... and could NOT decide! I ended up buying a Yamaha DGX620 though, for $1200, which is way more than I wanted to spend. The other one, P-70 or P-60? I don't know.. anyway, it was about $900, and thinking back now, I don't even know why I didn't buy that one instead. Because this DGX620 has wayyyyyyyy too many features and buttons that I will NEVER use, haha. But whatever, I hope I'm happy with it! :p

The DGX620 is a good digital piano. I think you will be very happy with it.

Rich

Signa......what is the Yamaha dgx620/ydp625 in your opinion?.....I say....evidently.....a piano..... what a sound and what a feeling.....

:DJohan B

There could be a problem with terminology here, and it's kind oh hard to help you unless we know the model of the yamaha youre talking about. Whatever you do, make sure youre not sending back an instrument that may be having 'only' a 'graded hammer action' and getting one for 300 more that is advertised as having a 'weighted' action

Yeah the Yamaha p70-DXG620 has Graded Hammer Action Standard keys, and these are weighted too.
Lovely feel Some of Yamaha's pianos are too heavy for me, but the Yamaha p-70 feels great with the fingers.

it's not bad and decent i could say, when i tried it at GC. but i still prefer GH action on mine rather than that GHS action on YDP625 or P70. it's subjective though. the only thing i complain about those entry DPs of Yamahas is low polyphony, which becomes a problem once you pass the beginner stage or lay more voices together. to me, it makes no sense for Yamaha to still continue to make low polyphony DPs, even Casio new entry DPs all have 128 polyphony now.