Conference napalm::commusic_v1

    There's *lots* of info in this notesfile about electric pianos.
    A "dir/title=piano" will give you a listing.  A partial list follows;
    I left out the ones with only a few replies or that didn't seem
    to deal with what you're interested in:
    
    271       	811	1297
    440		896	1742	
    631		1119	1760
    724		1183	1810
    763		1238	1870
    
    If you've already checked this stuff out, then obviously you can
    ignore this.  I just thought I'd point you to some info and save
    some other folks from typing redundant info.  
    
    Good luck and and happy Piano hunting,

    	Rodney M.    

    one of the inputs you should be looking for is for MIDI
    Tom

    
    Ok let me try this one. At J.Daddy's they want $1600 for the KORG
    800 and $2500 for the KORG 5000. Can I do better any place else?
    
    						Thanks Scott

    Ok, no answers on the last question. Let me try this one. This weekend
    I tried Roland,Korg,Yamamha,Casio, and Kawai. I am so confused now
    I don't know what to do. I found my self getting caught up in how
    may bells I get. I really liked the yamaha CLP 500, But then I liked
    the Roland at the high end of the keyboard. IT sounded like the
    hammer was hitting the strings. Then I liked the Kawai for the price
    and all the bells you get with it. Does anyone have a kind word
    to say to help me out.
    
    						Confused
    						Scott

RE < Note 1931.5 by WORDS::HARRIS >

	I think you probably didn't get too many responses on pianos because
there's not too many people here who have spent a lot of time with pianos
other than the Roland and possibly the Yamaha.  This file does not frequent a
lot of Korg enthusiasts (although I think Korg has put out a few good products
in the past).  I know of no-one that writes in this file that knows much about 
the Kawai and Casio piano units (I could be wrong).

	My experience has been that if you want reliability and support, stick 
with Roland or Yamaha.  Korg puts out instruments that are good, but they seem 
to change their market strategy so often that you don't know whether they'll 
take care of you in the long run.  Kawai has some good affordable units on the
market, but I'd say they're not as reliable in the hardware side of things.
Don't get me wrong, they sound really nice, but you just don't know how 
dependable they'll be.  Casio is a funny company - or rather, people's 
perception of them are funny.  They have been trying to break through the Pro
market barrier for some time.  They started with the CZ series which was the 
first affordable digital synth ever.  But the sound was a bit cheesy.  Still, 
I have some great albums at home that use the lowly CZ101 and sound very nice.  
I don't know much about the Casio piano units.

	The strength of the Yamaha units I've tried is that the type of sampling
they use (Advanced Waveform something-or-other) produces a good acoustic piano.
But it suffers in the electronic piano sound.  This is surprizing coming from a
company that literally revived the 'rhodes' electric piano sound in its FM
synthesis series of synths.  The PF85 also suffers a bit from a sparse MIDI
implementation (so I've heard).

	The Roland piano (which I own) has a better set of electronic pianos,
which are further enhanced by Rolands chorus circuitry (considered to be the
best available).  The acoustic piano sounds are said to be not as good as other
sampled pianos (although Roland's are not really sampled at all).  There seems
to be some lack of punch in the midrange (which is where its needed the most).
Still, it is said that they cut through quite well in a mix and are good for
recording.  It has a very good midi implementation, able to control two midi 
channels simultaneously, sends volume data, program change, etc.  

	So, you see, there are trade-offs.  For my taste, I'd go for either
Roland or Yamaha, or perhaps even the Kurzweil K1000 (which is said to have
one of the better pianos, and you get a lot more).

	Dan

RE: .5

1. Please list the model numbers as well as the brands that you heard. 
These brands make a lot of keyboards and it is hard to tell just what you
were listening to.

2. You yourself have to determine just what features you require and which 
ones are gravy.  Is exact "piano" sound the most important?  Is a close
approximation to piano feel the most important?  What's your real price
range (actual maximum and desired range)?   What do you mean by bells--do
you secretly want a synthesizer?

Also listen to some Technics models.  Some people have really liked those
models.  

For what it's worth, some opinions at the under $2k range:  Casio's most
expensive piano is in the $700 range.  I don't think it is serious
competition for the others you mentioned (but it is available cheap out of
NY).  Roland makes some very nice sounding models (to my ears, second only
to Kurzweil), and so far the Yamaha strikes me as the most realistic
action.  I heard the Technics before I was into commusic and liked it at
the time.  I have not heard the Kawai electronic pianos, but they tend to
squeeze a lot of features into their synths for the price.  Korg also has
a surprisingly good sounding model in the $700 range, although I tend to
prefer Roland or Yamaha over Korg in most cases.  

If I were you, I'd shop a few hours at Yamaha/Kawai/Steinway *acoustic*
piano shops and decide what you most like about them.  Then decide on the
electronic piano that best suits your needs. 

But if you secretly want a synth, forget all I said above!  This whole
notes file is almost entirely about those issues... 

Alex

    
    Thanks for the comments. I have looked at the Yamaha CLP 500,300,200
    and there new 550,350. I liked the 500(big bucks..but I can get
    it for around $2500 it's a demo. That's really much more than I
    want to spend. I have looked at the Casio CDP 3300,light feel to
    the keyboard. The Roland I think 3500 piano. The Korg 5000,3500
    and there new 800. So theses are all in the $1500 dollar range.
    I guess I have been caught up in the bells and whistles that each
    piano has. Which starting out I don't need, but I don't want to
    be locked out. I'm getting the feeling I'm spending to much. Boy
    this is tuff.
    
    						thanks for the replys.
    						Scott

    For $2500 you can get the Kurzweil K1000.. 76 keys, the best piano
    sound in the business (my humble opinion only), and 127 other world-
    class sounds, strings, organs, choirs...
    
    karl

    the keyboard is pathetic.

-b

    
    Well I took the big step last Friday. I'd like to thank all the
    people that added notes. 
    
    The one thing I'd like to pass on to someone in the same shoes as
    I was is TAKE YOUR TIME... I saved $1450 off of there list. Go to
    as many places as possible. Each sales person would drop something
    new on me and I'd end up asking the next sales person. 
    
                                              Love my Piano
    			   			Scott

< Note 1931.14 by WORDS::HARRIS >
                              -< Roland HP-3500S >-

How about a review please?

dave
    

   A review from someone that has only touched (notice I didn't say played) 
a piano for three months?   Well here goes... 
   It has piano 1,2,3, E.piano 1,2,  clavi, vibraphone, and harpsichord. It 
also has brilliance slide control, and reverb slide control. With the 
reverb there are three other buttons called "ROOM", "STAGE", and "HALL". 
The hall sounds great... It has transpose key and Tremolo slide
control.  For pedals, it has the damper,soft and Sostenuto. 
	The above stuff wasn't what sold me because I could have gotten 
the above plus much more from the Kawai P-360. The Kawai had split and you 
could transpose on the fly. The Kawai also had strings and I love the strings 
sound with a piano; but, the keyboard seemed light to me. I liked the Korg 
but the power output seemed to me too low.  I like the Yamahas, and I had two 
dealers saying they would each beat the other's price.  I could have gotten 
a CLP-300 at last phone call for $1800. But to me, when I hear the name 
Yamaha, I think of motorcycles (I know, I know, they make good pianos). 
	Finally, I got the Roland for two reasons. I love the sound of it, to
me (again I've only been touching a piano for three months), when you hit a
key you can hear the hammer hit the string. I also noticed that when you
strike a key and hold it down, the note will last longer than the same note on
a Kawai. Lastly, the keyboard feels like a real piano. Actually, they all felt
like a piano but I liked the Roland best and the Kawai the worst. The Roland
was the only piano that I tried that wasn't sampled, the Kawai,Korg,Yamaha, and
Casio were. So, as you can tell, at this point I'm very happy with Roland. 
	This is again from a beginner's view and if you're a beginner and 
looking at any kind of a piano, whatever you do, DON'T PAY LIST PRICE... 
they are laughing all the way to the bank. I bet they didn't pay over $1000 
for the HP-3500S.
	Well, back to a different keyboard.

						I'm Roland Happy..
						Scott

    
    Well It's been a little over one year now and we are still beating on
    the keys. I still like my Roland the best of the keyboards. But
    I do wish I had a REAL piano...8v).. Boy and people complain about
    a little CW... Try learning piano... Hopefully before I turn 50
    I'll be able to play with a little ease. Wish I had done it when
    I was younger. How do I get that across to my little girl( who is
    doing very good,but you know...) tuff sometimes to get her to practice.
    
    
    						See you next year
    						Scott

    > How do I get that across to my little girl?
    
    Make sure she finds out that music is FUN!!! My parents sent me to
    lessons whence I was a lad. Should I act up at any time it was WHAM!
    "You can practice for an extra hour tonight as punishment!" What was
    supposed to be fun wasn't...
    
    I avoided keyboards like the plague for 20 years. Now look what
    happened...
    
    Edd

        uh lessee - controlled voltage spikes to the finger tips when
                making an error on a steely dan number?
                
                special sysex messages to activate a mechanized slap in
                the head?
                
                oh that's right, your the guy who spends 10+hours per minute
                sequencing the sh*t out of things. Is this association of
                pain to music permanently ingrained - midi has become the
                big hand-slap of your existence?
                (gee, i know len's excuse is he's a drummer and we all know
                about drummers, but do you step enter everything too?)
                
        ^8^8^8^8
        
                sorry, couldn't resist, merry xmas...
                
                        bs
                        

    
    Time to check in again. It's been two years today that I started
    beating on a piano. Still having a great time and still progressing
    forward. See you next year....
    
    Scott