Tips for buying a digital piano

Hi all... Sorry if that question have been treated many times ago...

I study piano since many years at local musical school, and I own a Schimmel gran piano (174cm). I study classical music, from Bach to Rachmaninov, through Beethoven and Chopin. Now I'm on a market for a digital piano to practice (only technique and few studies, not pieces, like Beethoven's sonatas) late in the evening. I searched around for information and found that top models (Roland/Yamaha/Kawai/...) has wooden keys and progressive weight. Some models have a simulated escapement too. The problem? Simple? What to choose...

I tried the low-class Yamaha Clavinova (130-150 models) and I found the keyboard too light, for me.

Those light-class pianos are simply 'toys', for me....

(I play on a grand piano, as I've told). That's my primary goal. Find a digital piano with the most realistic keyboard-action (and weight). Sound quality is not top priority because I'll use for technique purposes. Polyphonic voices, memory, and high-priced LCD display and functions are unusefull, for me.

I'll play it with headphones, so the natural sound provided directly by the piano with their diffusors is not important.

Is the simulated escapement on some models equivalent to the 'double-escapement' found into grand pianos or similar to the single one of the upright ones? Should I go for a model with progressive weights on keys? Wooden keys or plastic?

Please help me...

Perhaps Roland HP-7E or Yamaha 970 could be the right choice? Or even the Kawai 1000-1200 (no escapement, as I've read).

Please reply.

Thanks again

Sounds like a tough task. I use to say that digitals are good enough compared to the pianos the 'average citizen' usually allows himself (about $5000) for his home. I guess it is hard to find a digital that can really compete with a Schimmel grand. Good luck anyway.

Considering that you study classical piano and are used to play on a concert grand, I wonder how you want to practice advanced techniques on a digital without getting the same 'acoustic response' you get from a grand. Or did I get the meaning of 'technique' wrong - what do you mean by 'technique'? Do you mean doing the 'gymnastics part', e.g. Czerny and other's exercises?

Yes, I was referring to technique for Czerny, Clementi's gradus ad parnassum, scales in double thirds and sixths, and so on.... I can't pretend to have a schimmel grand piano, I know it... It will be usefull during the first part of the study of every piece too, when you read notes one hand at a time, for example, slowly. Not for advanced training and touch/dinamic research...

Are the Roland HP7 or Yamaha CLP 970/990 good?

In the end, as with acoustic pianos, the decision is so personal that you really need to try the things out yourself to discover which feels most pleasing to *you*.

As far as technical specs go, though, I think you are misunderstanding what is meant by polyphonic voices. This is defined simply as the number of notes that can sound at once. A real piano, of course, is capable of sounding 88 at once (floor the sutains pedal and then play a chromatic scale all the way up or down). So anything more than 88 polyphonic voices would be irrelevant for piano playing. Realistically, many digitals have 64, which is probably good enough for most people's purposes - you'd almost never need to have more notes than that sounding at once. But try playing music of any complexity on a keyboard with only 32 voices, and you *will* notice places where notes are dropping out on you.

Also, even though you are treating this as mostly for technique practice, I wouldn't completely discount sound quality. Most important is how well the sound responds to the action. For instance, an instrument might have the world's most realistic action, but if it only plays at one dynamic level, that action will be next to useless and in fact potentially harmful for practice purposes, as you won't be getting the proper feedback on dynamics. Also, the sustain and resonance qualities of the instrument will affect how you use the pedal; if the instrument is unnaturally dry sounding, you'll tend to compensate by over-pedalling.

I don't see any reason to avoid this feature, but I'm not convinced it makes as noticeable a difference as other factors. But it's easy to explain and sell, and of course trivial to implement, which is why I think it gets as much press as it does.

Dear Andrea,

I am from a classical background (diploma ottavo anno di conservatorio al Rossini di Pesaro, siamo Italiani entrambi), and, even if I play mainly jazz, I have been around looking for a reasonably good digital for practicing in the late evenings and also for gigging.

I tried many digitals, but in my opinion the best two are P250 from Yamaha and MP.9500 from Kawai. I would say that I found the first one a little bit better in terms of sound, the second slightly better in terms of keys response.

Even if you will find may others having very different opinions, the other digital pianos are, as you correcly say, 'toys'...

I would say that beside a 'silenced' piano, these two I mentioned are the closest you can find. The price of a Yamaha P250 here is around 1,800 euro. I do not know the price of the Kawai but I think it is in the same range.

Ciao,

Yamaha action light? Are you sure you're lifting the keyboard cover when playing the Schimmel? :o)

You might want to look at the Grantouch series, which have an acoustic piano keyboard action. No LCDs, but not cheap.

AFAIAA, all the current Yamaha's have the same action, except the grantouch and the models that say they have a GH3 keyboard - I've never played a p250 but it'd be the most dumb marketing in the world to shout about the fact that the P60 has the same keyboard action as found on more expensive models yet silently say nothing at all about the P250's different action if it indeed exists.

I thought the GH3 was just extra sensors, to make it faster / more responsive, in some cases wooden keys rather than a different weight?

Folk rave about the MP9500 too, but then again the general consensus, if there is such a thing, is that the yamaha action is on the heavy side - so you're probably on your own unless by 'light' you meant something else?

Yamaha's 'natural' keyboard has a different feel from their other digitals - wooden keys and a totally different hammer mechanism. It's found on the CVP900, CLP990 (no longer a current model) and the CLP175, all top-of-the-line instruments. You might give one of them a try to see how you like it. In the end, though, it's a personal judgment. The Yamaha Grantouch models have a real grand action, but they are very expensive and their electronics are quite old.

Those two are probably the best choices (the Yamaha is actually the CLP-170). The Roland has escapement, the Yamaha does not.

I don't know how it is in Italy, but it is very difficult to purchase Roland digital pianos in the U.S. because they have big distribution problems. I tried to buy a Roland and gave up in frustration. So Yamaha is what most people end up buying if they want the high end in digital.

There is a Yamaha model called CLP 970, it's from Yamaha's 900 series. Very good instruments but the 100 series is more recent and 'should' be better. The 970 is not so different from the 100 series, it has frontal speakers and a large sample memory (which is not necessarily better). It has the same keyboard as the 100 models below the CLP 170. Personally, I would compare the Roland HP-7e to the Yamaha CLP 170 and not the CLP 970. It is possible that the 970 is no longer produced (I know for sure for the CLP 990, not for the 970). If you can still find a CLP 990 somewhere, be sure to try it, that's what I call a heavy action Or the CLP 175, if you don't mind the grand case, and that's a brand new model so that should be easy to find Like Jim said, beware of the GranTouch series, they feel very realistic but play something very fast and you'll hear the sound fall behind (which is pretty irritating :-S). Kawai's CA 1000 and 1200 keyboards are pretty 'heavy' as well, and realistic enough.

Rgds,

Based on the discussions & advice in this group, I recently purchased a Yamaha P-120 digital piano.

I absolutely love it. It is far superior the QW-8 that I traded-in.

One of the features that I never heard mentioned here...a real boon to those wanting to study some of the standard piano repertoire...is the 50 built-in presets. These can be played back at any tempo...and each hand can be muted. This is a great way to work hands-separate early on. These preset range from Bach's 1st 2-part Invention in C, to Chopin Etudes.

Thanks to ccChang for letting me know that it's OK to practice HS!

I own a very good acoustic piano (Sauter), but I also cannot not practise in the late evenings. It took me months of thinking what to do: building a 'still-system' in my Sauter or buying an digital piano. I tried the Yamaha Clavinova's (120 -170), but didn't like the 'plastic' and somewhat 'light and keyboard' feeling of the touch. My conclusion was (and is), that the touch is the most important thing if you normally play an acoustic piano. After having done some research on the internet I found out, that the Kawai CA1000 / 1200 could solve my problem. However, in the shops where I tried some instruments, there was no Kawai shown. So, I took the risk and ordered the CA1000 through the internet without having tried it. Well, I am very happy with the Kawai! The touch (it has wooden keys) is of course not ecxactly as my Sauter, but good enough for practising and in my opinion a lot better than the Clavinova 170. After practicing on my digital, I have no problem with the action on my acoustic nor on the Yamaha grand of my teacher. To bring your feeling into a digital will allways be difficult, on an acoustic piano you 'feel' the strings. Therefore, I consider my digital instrument as an expedient to improve my technique on playing Bach, Albeniz , Cramer-Bulow and so on.

marjati pratomo