Thoughts after Sweetwater Visit

David Lai · 2024-03-12T14:50:36+00:00

Yesterday, I went to Sweetwater to play pianos and keyboards and listen to speakers. I'll talk about the various thoughts of my journey in this discussion, and I'll divide the sections into individual posts. 1. Pianos & Keyboards I only looked at the grand pianos in the show room, and none of them are concert grand size. There was Pearl River (a Chinese brand), and the GC series from Yamaha (the Indonesian Yamaha pianos). Their make have increased quality, as both models have working sostenuto pedals, and the GC2 has a warmer sound compared to the other times when I played the same model. I then looked at the portable slabs and stage pianos. I tried the Casio PX7000, and the keyboard action is as smooth as butter, with very little key noise. The touch screen interface wasn't friendly to my hands, and I didn't know how to turn on or off the instrument. Then I tried the Studiologic Numa X Piano GT, which they had to get from the warehouse and set up for me. The black keys are wider than the SL-88Grand, and the action has improved over that keyboard. The midi response was also very good. I tested on my laptop and Babyface Pro FS setup, running Ivory III German D and Garritan CFX libraries. I have to agree with David B, this action was a joy to play on. Then it was the Yamaha P525 and P 225, two latest portable slabs. The P525 action is heavier than the P225, and I feel it's generally like my C3 in China. The sound system on the P525 is very good, and its built-in sounds, although basic, served a convenient way for me to have fun with my friends. I think if my VPC1 breaks down one day, I wouldn't mind getting a P-525 from Yamaha, especially now the Yamaha is cheaper than the Kawai, especially when I don't have the space to put an NV10S or N1X in the room. I also played on the Nord Stage 4 and the Nord Grand, both have average actions, with the Nord Grand having the worse action in my opinion. However, the magical thing is that Nord has better samples than the digital pianos of Yamaha or Kawai, so I enjoyed it from that aspect. The Roland cube monitors mounted to either side of the keyboard provided an immersive playing experience, but I wouldn't have any of these as my daily driver keyboards. Also, the controls are too complicated, and I think for me, learning the panel would be a headache. My new blind friend who's a Fort Wayne local and went with us on this trip, got inspired and told me on the way back that she'd like to buy a digital keyboard or piano for herself next month, so I guess this self indulging trip to Sweetwater produced another sold customer. I didn't try any furniture style cabinets, but they do have Yamaha Clavinovas, which I stumbled across and bumped into when I first entered the showroom. Please see next post for my thoughts on studio monitors.

vagfilm

@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?

David Lai

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. 🙂

kawafanboi

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?😗

vagfilm

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…

David Lai

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.

jdg78

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.

vagfilm

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.

David Lai

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

David Lai

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.

Jay Lane

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.

David Lai

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.

Jay Lane

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.

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