I tried out some Rolands today. I liked the one with escapement better than the other (also found out today what that middle pedal on the piano is for!!!)
I was wondering though, I tried out some Kawais (LOVED THEM!!!) they're my favorites by far, plan on ordering a CE200, but I'm wondering, do the Kawai pianos have escapement or anything like it? He said that escapement is useful for playing many notes in rapid succession, would that be for like trilling or something? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Escapement seems to be a feature that is
unique to certain high-end Roland digital
pianos. This is an element of the action
on an acoustic piano, and as digital manufacturers
try to achieve an action that is identical
to an acoustic, it's logical that they'll
experiment with putting this in. But
note that the absolutely finest keyboard that
Roland offers, the one on the RD-700SX stage
piano, doesn't have this feature. So
its inclusion in a digital action seems
questionable.

The three digitals that I've owned since
1989 didn't have escapement, and I
never missed it. My current Korg
digital is close enough to an acoustic
action without escapement, and everything I learn
on it will transfer intact to any acoustic
piano at any time, so I'm not concerned
about not having escapement. You can
simply forget that you ever heard about
escapement on digital pianos.

The new RD-700GX comes with escapement though.

I was just wondering. I didn't know until yesterday what it even was! It was neat, but I still really like the Kawai. I have never noticed any other brand advertising it, that's why I was wondering how important it really was.

It's important if you are repeating a note extremely rapidly in succession. If you are doing a trill between two notes, unless it is a very fast trill, you probably won't "need" to have escapement. If you are adding a grace note, or hitting a note 2, 3, or 4 times very very fast, then often times without an escapement mechanism the first or second note won't sound. For example, the keyboard I am typing on right now doesn't have escapement, but I can still hit repeated letters very fast...ll ll kk w jj ee ee ff oo oo kkk jjj lll

On only one of them , the w, did the key stick. I never really notice that while typing at work, but if I was learning a tricky Liszt piece on a piano, that sort of thing could drive me insane, being limited not by my own technique but rather by the mechanical limitations of the instrument. Also, many acoustic pianos have poorly regulated actions, so you have the same difficulties of repeated notes not all catching.

So, unless I'm playing something like flight of the bumblebee or something like that (which isn't happening any time soon) it's not really something I need to worry about?

Ultimately, no. Though it is like growing in a neighborhood where you are never allowed to run...for most of your life, most days, you don't have to break into a sprint. But it is kind of weird if you had to, or wanted to, and you hadn't done it before.

Quickly repeated notes are fun, and escapement mechanisms in acoustic pianos allow the key to seamlessly return to "ready" position almost immediately, so you never have a lag.

But I would put many many other attributes of a keyboard instrument above it's repetition speed: tone, dynamic range, touch (ability to play short notes, longer notes, proper tone to match the speed of your fingers' attack on the key), aesthetics, pedaling functionality, recording ability, different tones, speaker options, etc.

Hope that helps somewhat

Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it!