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Sunday Edition


02
Jan
2004
The Sound of Southern Gospel - Jan 2004


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This month, let's tackle the question of digital pianos. I'm briefly going to compare a couple of keyboards that are more road worthy than others in my opinion. In this industry, to me, the quality of the digital piano is extremely critical. This will be one of those very few exceptions when I will mention actual brand names. I bet some eye brows just rose!

First things first. Is your keyboard player comfortable playing the keyboard you have for him? This is extremely important. I know how this feels, because if I have to mix on stuff that I just simply don't care for or is hard to work with or I don't think sounds good, then mentally, I have to work harder to get past that to get done what I need to get done. It's the same thing for a musician. If your piano player doesn't like the "feel" of the way the keyboard plays or sounds in his monitor or many other things about it, they have to work extra hard to get the musical effect they're looking for.

The sound. The sound of the digital piano from an engineer's point of view is critical. For instance, we usually use a Yamaha P200, which works really well to blend in with the rest of the mix, yet it's easy to get to "cut" through the mix, without having to push it too hard or do any crazy EQ work. Recently, after many years on the road it decided to sustain for the remainder of its lifespan. So, we've been using a replacement keyboard, which is a Roland model. The piano player has mentioned how hard it is to play because of the feel and the way it sounds in his monitor. I told him it's not any easier on me. This particular piano, for our applications, is not as easy to mix with the piano sounds that are on it. This changes the entire way I mix my instrumentation. Now, I'm not saying that this keyboard would not work for certain applications, but with a live band, it doesn't provide the combination of a good blending sound with good cut like I prefer.

So what's the difference? Well, certain companies simply put more into getting a good piano sound. Some of the newer Roland pianos have some really good sounds, but I still prefer a Yamaha or Kawai in the digital world. Of course as with anything in this world it also comes to dollars, cents, and application with a pinch of preference.

How do you find a good digital piano? Try them out! Don't just go to the store and listen to them through headphones or the built in speakers. Find a place that will let you take one for the day or better yet, a weekend and use it with your sound system and your pianist. See what it sounds like with your trax and/or band and vocalists. So you say you already have a keyboard and you don't mind the feel of it, but it could use an upgrade in the piano sound area. Have no fear, there are some decent half rack modules out there you can use to upgrade your sound without buying a whole new piano.

I have to give Roland credit for the more recent digital, I think it's the FP9. The piano sound are very good for the price ratio and the vocal samples are the best I've heard.

Happy piano playing, listening, and mixing

Josh Hoevelmann

Reader Comments

When I compared all the decent brand names that sold in the $800-$1000 price range, the best keyboard I found was a Kurzweil.

As Josh said, the two most important elements are how well the keyboard player likes it and the actual sound of the keyboard in the mix. A third issue is portability. If you have to lug the keyboard to gigs yourself, this becomes a major factor. I used to play an old Korg SG-1, and while it played great, that thing weighed a ton. The Kurzweil I have now is about 25 pounds lighter, but it still has a weighted piano touch and a full 88 keys.


Commented by On 01/02/2004
Kurzweil pianos are ok, but my experience with them is that the bass end, especially on the cheaper models, doesn't tend to have enough resonance. That's important to me, especially in the times where I have to make due without a bass player. I love the new General-Music stuff, and of course, the Yamaha P200/250 are the best workhorses out there, in my opinion. This would be a great discussion for piano players, as long as it doesn't heat up too much. Everyone has his/her own preference.


Commented by On 01/03/2004
Yeah, as far as sound goes, everyone has a different opinion. I play with tracks, so I don't really need the bass on my keyboard to be louder than normal.

I want the piano sound to be bright enough to cut thru the mix from middle C on up for my fills. The Kurzweil seems to work well for that. It has several patches to choose from as well as options for fine tuning the sound to your personal taste.

The other reason I prefer the Kurzweil (and again, I'm talking models in the $800-$1000 range), is the touch. I like a digitial keyboard to feel like a Kawai or Yamaha baby grand. The Rolands, Korgs, and Yamahas that I tried felt mushy to me. I wish I could remember the exact model numbers of the instruments I tried. I think the Yamaha P100 was in that price range, but I didn't care for it.

If your budget runs more in the range of $2000, all these manufacturers make some great sounding instruments. The Yamaha P250 you mentioned, for example, runs $1899. I was speaking from the perspective of someone trying to get the best sounds and performance quality for the least amount of money.

My Kurzweil is an SP88X, which recently dropped $100 in price to $799 at http://www.musiciansfriend.com


Commented by On 01/03/2004
As a piano player, I am VERY picky about how my keyboard mixes in with our tracks, especially the monitor mix. And I'm very picky about what brands I play (Yamaha only). If I had my preference in acoustic pianos, it would be, you guessed it, a Yamaha.

I am so glad the Yamaha P250 was mentioned in this article because, in my opinion, there is simply no other digital piano that compares to this one. The all new and improved piano tone samples and improvements in the AWM section makes this piano come as closely as possible to the real thing. Everyone that has heard it agrees 100% that it sounds like a real piano.

Ok, enough about my rave review of the P250. I have to admit that after I played it in the store, I didn't have to wonder how much the price tag was. I knew it was close to $2000 and really I didn't care. It really impressed me that much to buy something like this and I have never regretted it since.

As far as the mushy feel in some keybords mentioned by David Bruce Murray, I agree some out there do feel that way, but I have never experienced that with mine. The only thing I have found so far that I don't like about it, is some of the sound effects samples sound like they were sampled at a very low bitrate. On some of them, you can hear the digital filtering overtones associated with low bitrates. The best sound effect tone bank I have heard is on the Roland console workstation.


Commented by On 01/03/2004
I have been playing a Roland RD 1000 for 18 years. Played a lot of others also, but I still like the sounds that this keyboard produces on my sound system. Sounds like a grand piano. It is no longer manufactured, but it's the best thing I've ever played. Easy to mix

thanks for this space


Commented by On 01/05/2004
I am also a Roland Fan. I looked for a keyboard for years, bought some of the cheap ones, never could be satisfied with those. Then I began seriously looking for our group and now have the Roland kr-3. Oh yes it is heavy, matter of fact it was made to be stationary piano, not portable. But I turned it into one, had a special pedal made for stand-up. What I found in this instrument compared to others was the full sound and different instruments. As well as weighted touch which was a must (going from a grand piano to digital with out the same touch can be annoying), this instrument provides our rhythms and has the capabilites of playing background soundtracks off 3.5 floppy disk. Recording your own soundtracks plus gives an arranger for back up music as you play. The main reason this instrument was important to me, I am the only musician used in this group. I am a Roland Fan!!


Commented by On 01/22/2004
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