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Wooden keys on, under, or around on a digital are bad news. Remember wood changes shape due to temperature and humidity fluctuations. A digital is not like an acoustic where you can lift up the front and start tweaking actions. Anything that has wood in their actions or on their keys will change and it is a lot more difficult to work on.

Personally, I prefer Di-Lithium Crystals.
They last longer and they don't talk back.

Technically correct, but in reality the wood and size of the wood pieces you are talking about are so small they are going to experience almost immeasurable movement. And of course this applies to traditional pianos, too. On a digital, its unlikely to affect the overall action simply because the upper main key component is based of wood. Now if you spill your coke on it, that could be a different deal.

To Lisztener: Your recording is excellent.

If you use Audacity or other software, you can try to add reverb to simulate a concert hall.

Serge

gyro...type anyhow you want.. i'm so with you !!
Lisztener..on my 3rd listen and sooo loving it !!
You have the "essence" of that piece down pat.

I have a modern twist on the beginning part of the sonata, also on a DP....but using some of the features never available to an acoustic pianist...

http://media.putfile.com/moonlite

frankly my dp allows me to feel like i am rich guy, i play all night sometimes, and bring it to gigs, never tune it, even dropped it once..

I try to play acoustic piano whenever it is feasable, including my little ole spinet, but the digital sounds like the seven foot _________ grand of my dreams..sometimeswith an orchestra and drummer.

Alpha-CentaUrI:

My first impressions are that I am quite glad that I went with this piano. The sound is beautiful, the feel is terrific and it looks good in the room!

I also looked at the CA51...which was very nice, and then I saw the CA91 and heard the difference in speakers, which made it feel to me more piano-like...etc...it sold me.

Good luck in your quest....

Suzanne

Thanks for your input Suzanne.
I think i'll stay with the CA51 (because of budget..), but i know the CA91 is very nice too, or even beter!

Hi!
I'm professioanal pianist and piano teacher educated in Russia. TOday I tried the instrument KAWAI CA 51. I liked this digital piano. The sound is good, the feeling of wooden keys is pleasant. My first impression was positive, but I wish to have at list an hour to practice to feel better the piano. I've read the russian musical forum, there are very good reviews for Yamaha 230,240 that you tried. I believe both of these pianos are a good choice for a digital.

I also would like to express my opinion about acoustic and digitals.. You can not compare apples to oranges. The main difference is still the sound. To play on digital is easy:D you just need to learn notes of music piece. Playing acoustic takes much more work. You learn how to control and produce the nice sound,you have much more interesting things to do. The best way to start learning piano (and continue:) to develope creative ability is using a real acoustic instrument. I wish to have more English to explain all its advantages.
Sincerely,
Katia

The Kawai sound has a digital keyboard sound, if you listen closely the Yamaha clp 240 upward has a really authentic ppiano sound and the pipe organ is excellent.

Dear Suzanne -and also Claude and rest of the forum-,


I am very interested in the CA91 and am strongly considering it for our home. My other choice, let's say the standard, sure one, would also be the CLP280.


I am basically focused in getting the best and most realistic sound coming from the piano -not headphones- for classical music play and playback. Keyboard is not my main concern due to my just student level.


It's a pity that I still couldn't find a retailer in my area who shows them. The two issues where you could help me are:


- The soundboard on the CA91 compared to the iAFC feature on the CLP280. I understand they're both really different technologies, but don't really know which helps the sound authenticity better. Is the CA91 soundboard making the sound fuller, richer, or just vibrating for a warmer feel? Also, is the iAFC as good as I have been reading? Does it add dimension to the sound?


- My second and less important concern is design, and I know the clavinovas textures quite well, but haven't experienced the Kawai CA live..... As it must fit a contemporarily decorated living room with a black glass table and some chrome metal furnitures, I must ask if you opted for the rosewood, cherry or mahogany finishes and if it looks too classic with accented wood drawings or is quite suitable for my situation. Maybe a real life picture of the piano in good lighting conditions would help me the best to figure. If you're so kind to make it my email is ariveraquero at yahoo.es


Receive my best regards, and eternal thanks in advance.

Best,

Andrés Rivera.
SPAIN.

Wonderful play, but I don't like the sound at all.
Is it because of MP3 encoding ?
It sounds so electronic. Especially, upper mids
when it emulates hammer's hitting the grand piano
string (prominent later part of the play), which
is really annoying.
It almost sounds like a poor quality electric
piano. Other parts are ... just OK.
I think that I'll stick to Yamaha.

Rainy Window,

Stick to whatever makes you happy.

Thanks for the compliment on my play.

You must have quoted me without reading my post. I was so eager to record that I ran a thin cable from the headphone port to the computer's line-in port. The recording was not intended to produce the best sound capabilities of the MP8.

Now that I have an audio/MIDI interface box and the connections are much improved, the sound quality is much improved, too. Just this evening, I got it configured to record digital audio. I'll post a new recording, soon, with the new setup. I believe that no matter how the new recording will sound, you will, no doubt, find it of lesser quality than a Yamaha. Until I post a new link I'm going to disable the current one by deleting it from my original post and deleting the recording from box.net

To each his own, but if I were to choose again I would have an MP8.

Good luck,

Lisztener

Hi, Lisztener. Thanks for your reply.
I am in the market for a new digital piano to replace my old yamaha digital keyboard. I am not inclined to any specific brand. I just want the good keyboard feel and the sound.

It is great that Kawai is actually trying to produce (emulate) the sound of hammer's hitting the grand piano string. My old Yamaha does not. It just produces mellow piano sound. But if Kawai wants to emulate the sound of hammer's hitting the grand piano string, it might better do it right. From your recording, I found that it sounded rather electric, and was very annoying.

But since I did not hear directly from the Kawai, I am not sure whether the Kawai is the problem. Maybe it could be your recording and/or mp3 encoding process. I would appreciate if you could provide a better recording. I wish I could find a Kawai dearler near Seattle area. I don't find one.

Thanks again, for your kindness.

--
I'll be bach'ing ;-)

Rainy Window,

Here is another recording I made, yesterday (Friday) evening.

This recording was made using an E-MU 0404 audio/MIDI interface and Sonar LE software. I've had a couple days to play with different dynamics of the MP8 and I believe this is an improvement over the first recording.

http://www.box.net/shared/vt7les5z5b

I still have much to learn about the MP8, but I like the sound of this recording.

Good luck with your search for a replacement keyboard. I know there is one that will suit your preferences just as the MP8 suits mine.

Lisztener

Thanks, Lisztner.
I think that the previous problem was in recording.
In your new recording, I cannot detect any such annoying articiality.
The sound is great ! It's really tough to tell
whether it was recorded from acoustic piano or
from digital.

I have a Kawai ES4 which is about half the price of the MP8. My Grandson has just got a Yamaha 520 which is about half the price of the ES4 and about 1/4 as good as the ES4. I advised him to get the Yamaha 620 which was only 25% over the 520 price but with better weighted keys.

I played the 520 today and maybe it is not set up correctly but it sounds awfully clattery like the keys are hitting something. Is this a problem with the keys hitting an unpadded part of the action casing? You need a very light touch indeed to prevent this.

The instrument is brand new. And my grandson plays very lightly.

I think the acoustic piano is much, much more difficult to play than digital. But more of a challenge with profitable results for ones energy and technique.

This debate will run and run I guess.

The digital certainly saves on the tendons and repetitive finger strains. Mind you I worry not about strains as they seem to recover and are not serious.

I just cannot believe that anyone who has never played an acoustic piano could play one easily, for the first time, having been only playing on a digital to a reasonable standard.

Just a thought!

Alan (swingal)

Hello, Lisztener.

I wonder if the sound generation in this second take is done by the Kawai MP8 or if it's just sending the midi information for the Sonar LE software to achieve the final sample.


Can you tell me?


Anyhow I really enjoy your playing.


Thanks,

Andrés.

andgold,

I'm a novice with digital pianos and all things pertaining to how the sound is transferred from the DP to the computer.

Here is how I made the recording:

I used the Mellow Grand piano with a reverb setting of 30. My L & R cables from the DP are connected to the A & B jacks on the front of the E-MU 0404 by two mono plugs.

I chose new "audio" (not midi) track to record using Sonar LE. Input was through E-MU using one track in stereo. Output was routed to my computer's on-board Santa Cruz sound card. After recording I used Audacity to normalize and convert the .wav file to an .mp3.

I believe the sound would have been the same regardless of the software used as I didn't choose any sound enhancements in Sonar LE.

Given my limited knowledge, I hope this makes sense to you.

Thank you for the compliment on my play. This movement, though probably the most played piece of classical music in the world, has been my favorite since I learned it in my pre-teens. I'm truly amazed that a digital piano can reproduce the beauty of this piece with such fidelity.

Regards,

Lisztener

Hi, I have a question for Gyro. I am under the Celviano series. But, I read more people preference for brands as Yamaha, Kawai or Roland. Why did you change your Ap-24 if you were happy with it? Wasn't in good conditions after the years?

Also a user said talking about the Ap-33 that "the black keys tend to stick when I first start playing." Do you have any problem with yours?

Thanks in advange.

Jorge

Dear Lisztener,

Accoridng to your description I must agree that you're using the MP8 for sound generation. And again please let me compliment your performance.


It is due to skills like yours that a piece of music becomes beloved my many.


Best wishes,

Andrés from Spain.