This is supposedly an "unbiased" comparison between keyboards.
It's sponsored by Kurzweil, which makes it a little suspect, but the claim is it's completely on the up and up.

Compares Kurzweil, Korg, Nord, Roland, and Yamaha

http://listentokeyboards.com/

Anyone tried it?
Opinions?

BTW, so far...

I liked the Roland piano best, sounded most like strings to me (this from a Yamaha P-80 owner),

favorite B3 sounds... The Korg M3 B3, and the Kurzweil SP2X B3 (of course, they didn't have the Hammond XK-3 to compare, which I own and love).
Rhodes sound, toss up between the Kurzweil and Korg, with the edge going to the Kurzweil (yes, I've owned a Rhodes, wish I still did).

Wurlitzer?
Tough one, the top row of samples all sounded better than the original. I'd give a very slight edge to the Korg Odsys Wurly 2 (it picked up the blat you used to get if you used to sharp an attack).

And yes, I've owned a Wurlitzer EP (and used to sell them), along with a Clavinet, Farfisa (a couple of them), Hammond, Moog, Aarp, and others.
And I wish I still had them all :-)


Of course, all the above is just my opinion, I'd like to hear yours.

Well, it looks like a terrific website, however I am unable to listen to the samples correctly with either Firefox or Opera web browsers, while Internet Explorer produced multiple ActiveX error pop-ups and then crashed.

A real shame, as I have heard great things of the Nord's Rhodes/Wurlitzer/Clavichord samples, and would love to compare them with the competition.

Kind regards,
James
x

EDIT: Ah, trying again with IE did the trick - what a great site!

I like the Roland piano sounds the best too. For everything besides piano, I thought the Nord was best. That Nord clav is FUNKY!!!

The presentation seems unbiased but they only offer a limited selection of competing keyboards (for example, only one model Roland and no Kawai at all).

It doesn't work for me in Firefox either. The samples play in Flash, and I've had sporadic problems with Flash in Firefox, so I don't think it's entirely the site's fault (although that interface where you have to leave the mouse over the thing while it's playing is just lame).

Now they just need to set it up so I can hook my keyboard into my computer via midi, and play each of the keyboards in real time :-)

It is a cool site though, and I did enjoy hearing the different versions.

The B3 is a tricky one.
There is no one "B3 sound", it's a matter of what B3 "sound" you like.

Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Greg Allman, Jimmy Smith...

Still, some of the samples were pretty thin, where others got closer to the meaty sound of a true B3 through a couple of Leslies.

Why do these guys turn their noses up at Kawai? Nor nearly as good as ANY of their chosen comparables???

Agree with bachmaniac. I would have liked to hear Kawai. I recall the one Kawai digital upright at my local dealer sounded quite different from the Yamahas and Rolands. It would be nice to hear it in this side-by-side comparison.

According to the article I read, they intend to add more keyboards and more sounds.

I'd like to hear the Kawai keyboards too.

Well, KAWAI MPs do possess an excellent selection of sounds, however these are primarily stage pianos, while the review site appears to be geared more towards keyboards.

It would be rather interesting to have access to the MIDI sequences utilised for each demo, allowing users to compare the samples with their own instruments.

Cheers,
James
x

I have a Kawai ES4 which has a proper sturdy wooden stand, home made. I use this for practice when my wife is using the lounge where the Bose' lives.

I am very satisfied with the ES4 although it's possibly over-taken by superior Kawai models. It suits my pocket and with stereo head-phones is very pleasant.

I have said before that digital keyboards are so much easier to play and I use none of the speciality sounds, just the best set-up for the piano.

I can see a great future for digital pianos but the acoustic ones are something else, they give live vibrations through the feet on a wooden floor. They exude air carried vibrations and you feel sometimes your are playing almost a complete orchestra or a lovely jazz trio. Such is the real live acoustic air waves. Sorry to drift off the topic.

Alan (swingal)

check out http://www.purgatorycreek.com/
it is strictly a digital piano site with lots and lots of digital pianos tested and recorded. there is a sample midi file that everyone has used that fully exploits the range and dynamics of each instrument. it's nice to hear them all play the same thing. i do think that one misses out on the effect of actually sitting next to the piano and hearing it through it's speakers though because Yamaha for example has the iAC or something speaker system that i believe offers alot if you are in it's proximity. others, like my old Oberheim mini grand piano, I believe really sound better recorded than when hearing live or playing them. it is an interesting site though.

I like the Yamaha Motif's piano sounds better. But the Roland X8's sounds are far worse than my Roland HP-207's in a low-end headphone, but may not justified to compare since they are playing through from different audio systems/formats.

I got a reply from Jimmy at the www.listentokeyboards.com site early this month and he said they are talking with various manufacturers to continue and expand the site. Maybe we will see some more keyboards and additional models to compare.

I dont know about you guys but I felt that the very first song was quite moving. I must learn how to play it!!!

regarding the first song, what was its name????? anyone know?

+1 on that. Maybe an EASY piano version for a newb like me to enjoy.

Just found the answer to this one right on my very own piano.
"La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin" by C. A. Debussy.
Yamaha was nice enough to include it in the 50 Piano Greats that came preloaded on my YDP-223.
So at least I can listen to it as I try to learn to play it.

I found both the Roland and the Yamaha grand piano sounds to be very easy to listen to and could be happy with either. The Nord was too muted to hear very well. The Korg and the Kurz were too harsh and metallic in the upper registers to be very enjoyable.

Yamaha Kurzweil, and Roland in that order though I bet Kawai would give them a run for the money.

anybody got anything on casio px 200

I believe the PX-200 was included on the purgatorycreek.com digital piano shootout. It isn't on listentokeyboards.com though.

That could explain why several merchants have marked down the PX-200 to clear their inventory for the newer models.

- Mark

I cannot enter the site they ask for a username and a password?! any clue?

can't get in.....

No candy for me... i don't have that password...

Can't get in as well. Password anybody?

Last night I was downloading and checking MP3 files from http://www.purgatorycreek.com/. This site is where anybody need to check it before going to waste his money on Yamaha, Roland or Korg, etc. I mean all models. Last night I really disappointed about their sounds. I think they sound terrible. The only sound near to a piano was from Kurzweil models but even those not comparable with a Virtual Piano like Reason. I am using Reason Virtual Pianos for almost a year with my old Roland Synth as a midi keyboard. But I thought these new DPs from Yamaha/Roland can do the same. I was wrong. And I made my decistion. As long as I can not have an Acoustic piano, I am going to get a DP with good action. Connecting it to my computer and using it only as a MIDI keyboard. No DP from Roland, Yamaha, Korg sound even like a piano.
I really wonder why they only don't insert a laptop Main board into their keyboard and acquire licenses from Reason? In theory, it is not possible to create real sounds using Wave ROM less than 500MB. These models are using 64MB wave ROMs at most. Then what you can expect?

It's almost impossible to tell what a piano sounds like from just hearing an MP3. You have to play the actual piano to make an informed decision.

I agree with you YabbaDabba but the great thing about these MP3s are that they are all the same song that have recorded with various DPs. I hope they do that honestly but you are right, may be I was too harsh about poor Yamaha and Roland DPs

One thing is for certain reza - dp manufacturers really do need to step up and make decent sounds come out of these boxes! It's the era of multigigabyte everything, you would think they could make it all work!

This is a great site for some MP3 samples:

http://www.e-muzyk.net.pl/content/blogcategory/24/36/

The site is not in English but easy to figure out.