Hey, im looking for a durable stage piano. I've compared all of them in a shop, and found the rd300sx has quite a light touch but lots of functions. The CP33 on the other hand has a nice and heavy klavier touch, and an excellent grand piano sound. The FP-5 is a home/studio piano with some pretty good sounds. Which one would u advice me?

Thanks alot:)

I bought a CP33 after comparing it with the RD300SX. I thought being happy with the touch was more important than lots of functions. I've had it for a little over a week now and I've been using it extensively during that time. Despite some minor flaws (search the forums for more info), I'm very happy with it. In the end, go with your gut.

I forgot, but has the CP33 got a layer and dual function?

Yes, both. It may be a smart thing to download the user manuals from the Yamaha and Roland websites, and read through them before you make your decision.

Of course, a lot depends on your needs. Do you mainly want it for acoustic piano sound or will you be using the other sounds/functions? I own the RD300SX and have a love/hate relationship with it.

The RD's grand piano sounds are very good. I really enjoy playing them and they also cut through well in a mix. As time goes by, I like the electric pianos less. EP 2 is good if you're playing in a jazz combo but the other offerings are pretty synthetic and not very inspiring. The organs are passable and there's a choice of two Leslie types. Strings are OK. I don't really use the other sounds.

I think the 300SX weighs about 33lbs and that's a real benefit. It's also sturdily built and completely reliable (for me, at any rate). There are useful registration memories, instant access to a compressor/EQ function, and a huge bank of effects. For live use, it's very user-friendly.

The action is so-so. I find that it's quite easy to mis-trigger notes when playing piano, due to the very light action. For organ it works pretty well, and I think it's set up to trigger organ notes at an earlier point in the key-travel than for piano.

In summary, very nice grand piano sound - other sounds OK. Action is the most troublesome aspect, although it works as a hybrid action for a range of sounds/techniques. Well thought-out design and lots of functionality. Robust and easy to move around. If I were buying again, I'd likely check out the new Yamaha P-155, the Kawai MP5/EP3, the Kurzweil SP3X and the RD300GX before deciding.

I have a CP 33 and so far I like it. The action is reasonably close to that of an actual piano so it is easy to switch between the two. It also seems to be very solidly built. It only has 5 piano samples and about 24 others including electric piano, organs, bass and strings so you have to make sure that it has all the sounds you need. One nice feature is that if you split the keyboard or blend two patches you have separate volume control for the two sounds. You even have a choice of tuning modes so if you want to record with it you can optimize the tuning for the key you are playing in.

Do you guys realize that you're replying to a thread that's been idle for over two years?

Perhaps you have the same problem that I do ... the default sort order for threads in the new forum is different than the old one. You have to click the "Posted" heading to sort by date, newest ones first. Otherwise, the first threads are the very **old** ones.

I didn't originally notice that, and more than once I've started to reply to a very old inquiry ... until I looked at the posting date and realized my mistake.

(OTOH, maybe you really intended to reply to that old thread?)

Oops! I'm getting too old. Why do people keep changing things?

Thanks for pointing that out L Horwinkle.