Thinking of buying a keyboard/digital piano

[bastiegast]

Hi, let's talk about piano's!

Any musicians with experience about this? I'm looking into buying a digital piano. My budget is limited (< 1000 euro) and so is my space. I would like to have something I can use for playing and composing music in combination with my computer. Keyboards usually have MIDI connectivity but they also tend to have plastic keys which don't play very comfy.

So I'm looking for something:

- Not too big.
- Not too expensive.
- With midi connectivity.
- With weighted keys for realistic feeling.
- With velocity sensitivity
- Sounding realistic.

Do you have suggestions? Or can anyone help me choosing?

[fuscia]

i've had two kurzweils in my studio and thought both were great.

[Dimitriid]

Midi is fine but I do not think your budget is limited at all, you can get a very good one under that price. You also need to be looking at more than just midi connection, Firewire or usb 2 if possible there too. Granted midi is designed to interact with the PC.

Honestly, i am a Guitar player myself but what I would definitely recommend its setting 200 Euro aside specially for a good videocard that is nicely supported in Linux. Good speakers for the pc and amplification for your keyboard are also pretty much a requirement, and I dare to say that all those elements can have a bigger impact on your sound than the actual keyboard because if you get a 1000 euro keyboard without a very good amp or sound card, the sound quality of the samples of the keyboard would be wasted in crap speakers and a bottleneck bit rate.

For the actual Keyboard I really dont know :confused: guitars here. Im sure somebody else can make a comment however.

[bastiegast]

Dimitriid, Thanks for your advice, I assume you mean sound card? My video card is quite OK but I'm still using my embedded sound card on my Motherboard, it is connected to a vintage philips tuner/amplifier with and two decent speakers.
Do you have any recommendations on a well supported sound card for linux?

[stmiller]

The plastic keys on midi controllers are for such things as velocity, aftertouch, and other things, where the keyboard is more of a controller to send very various midi signals to the software. This is actually a good thing, if you are into computer music and soft synths.

The Yamaha digital pianos are considered very good, but not cheap.

M-Audio sells a digital piano/weighted keys model that is also an excellent midi controller. But I've heard bad reviews of latency problems with that model...

The M-Audio PCI sound cards are excellent in Linux, I have read.

[mister_doctor]

I don't know what the cost of these is in Euros, but a Korg Triton LE might be right up your alley. I've seen them used for well under $1000 CAD.

As for sound cards, I've read RME makes units that have good linux support, but that was a few years ago.

[happy-and-lost]

You can't go wrong with a Roland. Yamahas are cheaper though, sound pretty good and are generally tough and reliable.

[bastiegast]

1 Euro is like 1.2 dollars. I think I've gotten a little further.
At least I want to use the keyboard as a regular piano and not just for midi sequencing(is that what it's called?) so that means the keyboard should at least have 7 octaves.

I think I am going to pay a visit to a local piano dealer and try out a few models. I found a very useful site for judging the piano's (http://www.allaboutpianos.com/digitalfaq.html).And I will go there with your recommendations in mind :)

M Audio claims they only support PC(they mean Windows) and Mac, but Ive heard of linux drivers too.

I do want to dive into digital audio but I'm not very experienced yet, I've read it's better to use a low-latency kernel and I've looked at some audio software(installed ubuntu studio) but as with all new things, so far it looks like the controls of a space ship:).

[Dimitriid]

Yes I do mean soundcard sorry and No im not sure about good soundcards that are nicely supported on Linux, need to check on that myself.

[stmiller]

M Audio claims they only support PC(they mean Windows) and Mac, but Ive heard of linux drivers too.

The drivers for their PCI cards are developed by ALSA. There won't be any information on the m-audio page, or pages of any vendors. Look here:

http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page

[bastiegast]

Ok I think I'm going to buy a Roland, because they generally seem to have:

* Realistic samples and feeling
* More features than for example yamaha's
* Because a local store sells a few of them.

I tried a few ones: The FP-4, the FP-7, and the RD-700(xs?) The RD700 beated them all by far but it costs about 1900 euro the FP-3 and 7 were nice to and are priced respectively 1095 and 1300 euro's

I would like my piano to be configurable and usable for making digital music with mu computer. But in the first place it should be a good sounding digital piano as playing/practising piano will be my primary use for it. Any specific features I should look for?

[Overbyte]

That budget is okay, I think you can go for those arranger keyboards since it seems you like to make music and you want to use it with a PC.

Buying a keyboard also depends on your style. Classical? Jazz? Pop? Rock?
Sampling and synth capabilities will push the price very high, watch out for them.

Remember digital pianos are just that. Pianos. They sound good, look stylish, but lack the versatility keyboards have, which can sound like a piano and more.


Any specific features I should look for?

- Weighted keys (very important!)
- Aftertouch
- High polyphony
- Layering and multi-timbral capabilities (if you want to "stack" sounds/patches together)
- Keyboard split ( if you ever need to play brass in your left and strings on your right ;) )
- Reverb
- An organ model (makes the keyboard sliders work like drawbars if you play organ)
- Capability to plug in pedals
- Arpeggiator
- EQ
- Some interface that lets you transfer stuff between PC and keyboard (e.g. USB cable, floppy, CD-ROM, etc.)
- Decently-sized flash memory (to place all your MIDI files on the keyboard and play along with them)

You don't have to have all of these though. I would go for weighted hammer-action keys, polyphony, a pitch wheel and reverb if my budget is tight.

I believe MIDI can work through USB. So you plug the keyboard to the PC through the USB cable (like a flash drive) and MIDI signals come through it.

If you can get your hands on the Fantom-X, I will bow to you my friend. Why not try Korg? Kurzweil keyboards sound the best to me, but the price is sky-high.

[bastiegast]

If you can get your hands on the Fantom-X, I will bow to you my friend. Why not try Korg? Kurzweil keyboards sound the best to me, but the price is sky-high. I've looked at the Fantom-X it has an overwhelming amount of features. I've also seen the Korg Triton LE which seems nice too. I like that it has many features AND weighted keys, it also has multiple piano samples which not all digital piano's seem to have.


Buying a keyboard also depends on your style. Classical? Jazz? Pop? Rock?
Sampling and synth capabilities will push the price very high, watch out for them

At the moment I'm into latin music, I play jazz too and classical music. About the samples that's what I was afraid of, paying hundreds of euro's extra just for slightly better samples which could have been loaded into that cheaper piano too.

And what about second hand? Is it wise to look into used digital piano's?

EDIT: The Roland RD-700SX http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=666 looks very cool but costs almost 2000 euros, I found one second hand for 1700. I played at it in a store and it sounded and felt excellent. But is it worth the money?

[Overbyte]

With the budget of yours I would certainly go brand new, as you get support from the company as well if something goes wrong.

The RD-700SX...the grand piano sound is a monster but...too expensive for me :)

I originally wanted to buy a Roland arranger (I think I have something like just a $300 budget lol), but I wanted good-sounding samples from the start, nifty features that won't make it outdated, a pitch wheel (I need it) and the ability to stick MIDI files in the keyboard. The price of most Roland gear is way out for me, so you are the lucky one. Just don't go rushing out buying them, test all samples and features, and make sure it's what you really need, it fits with what you really want, and you don't have any regrets/compromises having it for a long, long time.

I had the same problem as yours, but I have a lower budget, so my searching led me to the Yamaha PSRE403...got 2 programmable sliders, arpeggiator, eq, and a programmable pitch wheel plus midi/usb connectivity to boot. It's not much, but I can live with that. Has exactly everything I need. For around $300 it's a joke :) But you might not like it having just 61-keys though.

If you absolutely can't find another better keyboard for the same price, then go for it.

Try scanning through Zzounds (http://www.zzounds.com) if you want a general idea of the price of keyboards. Be warned...they beat other stores at the price, so it might be lower there than expected.

Here's the Yamaha PSRE403: Link (http://www.zzounds.com/item--YAMPSRE403)

[bastiegast]

With the budget of yours I would certainly go brand new, as you get support from the company as well if something goes wrong.

The RD-700SX...the grand piano sound is a monster but...too expensive for me :)

I originally wanted to buy a Roland arranger (I think I have something like just a $300 budget lol), but I wanted good-sounding samples from the start, nifty features that won't make it outdated, a pitch wheel (I need it) and the ability to stick MIDI files in the keyboard. The price of most Roland gear is way out for me, so you are the lucky one. Just don't go rushing out buying them, test all samples and features, and make sure it's what you really need, it fits with what you really want, and you don't have any regrets/compromises having it for a long, long time.

I had the same problem as yours, but I have a lower budget, so my searching led me to the Yamaha PSRE403...got 2 programmable sliders, arpeggiator, eq, and a programmable pitch wheel plus midi/usb connectivity to boot. It's not much, but I can live with that. Has exactly everything I need. For around $300 it's a joke :) But you might not like it having just 61-keys though.

If you absolutely can't find another better keyboard for the same price, then go for it.

Try scanning through Zzounds (http://www.zzounds.com) if you want a general idea of the price of keyboards. Be warned...they beat other stores at the price, so it might be lower there than expected.

Here's the Yamaha PSRE403: Link (http://www.zzounds.com/item--YAMPSRE403)

Thanks, I think will go for a Roland FP-7 since it's piano samples are nearly as good if not better as the RD 700 sx and so is the keyboard. It is also quite a bit cheaper (1400 compared to 2000) it only has not as much features as the RD 700 sx (no pitch wheel but I don't think I would use it much since I'm mainly into piano) and BIG min for the RD 700 it doesn't have something to put music sheets on :s

[Overbyte]

Happy playing! :)

[bharani]

Hello There,
Can somebody suggest a way to connect yamaha psr e403 to the pcx86 with ubuntu studio 7.10 loaded.? Like this keyboard come with a USB interface. Do i still need to buy Yamaha UX16 or Edirol to connect my PC..? I am planning to buy this one..but if i have to switch to windows because of this I may change my mind...somebody please tell me i don't have to change my mind..:(

Thanks,
Bharani.