Thoughts after Sweetwater Visit

Nice report, thanks!

Matias You're welcome. I thought I'd make the most out of it as I seldom get the chance to travel far because of my disability.

David Lai Matias You're welcome. I thought I'd make the most out of it as I seldom get the chance to travel far because of my disability.

It's such a shame the world is the way it is. I have a friend who is a blind computer scientist. She has a brilliant mind, but so many ordinary everyday things are a struggle. She's a great musician too.

Johnstaf Blindness is probably the most difficult disability out there in the world, I certainly feel it, especially when you're like me, having no light perception. The eyes are just… up there…

The amazing thing is that in many cases, where one sense is reduced, or not there, then other senses become stronger. In this case, hearing and possibly memory gets developed, and touch etc.

For music, even if we can 'hear' music in our minds if our actual hearing is not there ….. being able to hear … and hearing satisfactorily … definitely helps.

Thanks for the report/review @David Lai this is all very good to know!

RIP Thank you for reading! A friend posted some videos of me playing, all clips. I was having fun with the internal sounds of the Yamaha P-525 and the Nord keyboards, among other things. Wish you could see them… 🙂

@David Lai May I ask you one thing? I was intrigued by your slightly favourable comment about the casio s7000 (apart from the absence of buttons). A few months ago I bought a casio s1100 because the action felt good enough to me as a beginner, and quite frankly I really don't mind the short pivot. But it does not have continuous pedalling (not that I really can use it). There is a casio s5000 that has the same action of the s7000 and is exactly of the same size of my s1100 and so fits well in my custom "cabinetry". How much did you appreciate that casio action?

vagfilm Personally, I enjoy the action especially for fast passages, and even my friend who doesn't play the piano much understood me when I said that the action was "buttery smooth." So I think it's a good action, at least of the limited time I was able to have on it. I think the longer keys made it felt a bit more comfortable than the StudioLogic, but both left me good impressions after testing, all be it not exactly back to back. Hope this somewhat helps. 🙂

i've said this for a long time, the pxs** actions feel fine. if you don't think about it, you can barely feel a difference in the key weight. that aspect has been over blown. the short pivot is only a big deal if you play higher up on the black keys, it feels really weird, but not so bad that you can't get around getting used to.

the comparison though is always well if something else with longer keys cost about the same, why pxs?😗

kawafanboi if something else with longer keys cost about the same, why pxs?

I have mentioned this before (even with pictures of how I integrated the slab into a bookshelf), but to be able to have my piano at an adequate height and still keep my bookshelf space, I need a piano that is less than 10cm to the top of the white keys. Not many fit this requirement: the pxs, fp90, fp60… There may be others that I have not measured (korg b2, studiologics…), but the majority of slabs are 12~15 cm in height…

vagfilm Then I think from this standpoint, it might work for you. Unfortunately I didn't test any Rolands, not sure if they carried them there, at least I wasn't informed of their presence. If I was told, I would have at least tested out the FP60X and the FP90X, among other things.

Re: Casio PX-S7000, I recently demoed this model and thought action felt quite decent - much better than some of the lower-tier Casios. However in comparison with the PHA-50 on the Roland FP90x and the TP400W on the Studiologic Numa X GT, the PX-S7000 exhibited more lateral movement within individual keys, as well as more bounce on the key return, which made it feel a bit less solid and stable to me. However, if those particular aspects don’t bother you so much, it is a nice feeling action.

jdg78 the PX-S7000 exhibited (…) more bounce on the key return

It is probably due to my poor technique and slow finger movement (I tend to maintain a lot of key touch and let the key push my finger upwards during release…) but I feel much less return bounce on my px s1100 than on the fp90x I tried (and MUCH less than on the es110 which was very annoying to me and is an action praised by many experienced players). The action with the best tactile feel and stability for me was the pha-4, but I did not like its lack of agility: if I tapped strongly at the key lip the pha-4 did not move a lot and failed to generate a note in half my attempts, while the same tapping consistently produced a note in all other DPs I tested.

vagfilm My memory of the PX7000 action is that it's easy to make sound with it, smooth like butter, and probably soft, too.

jdg78 Comparatively, at least from what I remember, I enjoyed the StudioLogic action a bit more than the PX7000. I think it's difficult to really compare this with Yamaha, but if I ever have to choose a Yamaha slab, I'll do the P-525. That's what I remember. The Nord keyboards generally don't have very good actions, but their sounds are better than what Yamaha, StudioLogic and the like have to offer.

David Lai Props to Sweet water for being willing to let you try out all that gear. In the UK some music retailers get a bit miffed if you want to try more than a couple of boards.

Jay Lane Yeah! The show room is basically a place where you can try out all that stuff! I hope to go there again when I'm free so I can try the StudioLogic midi keyboards. That's my next interest.

David Lai I'm looking into a Korg Nautilus 88 with the RH3 action. I read good things about it. Because I'm a synth/rhodes/piano guy who also does production I need a board with decent built in sounds and a good keybed.

I played my FP30X yesterday, when I add effects via my iPad it sounds decent. I'd say the supernatural pianos are very even and stable for practice but not that nuanced.