First impressions with VPC1

Hello,

To continue the story:

Today I went out and double-checked the VPC1. It bounces a little as well but much more within what I consider normal and acceptable. It also has a bit of that black key texture that, for me, would take some getting used to but isn't a deal-breaker.

I also paid some more attention to Grand Feel III in a CA79. Now that action (again apart from the black key texture) I find really well done and, budget allowing, would be my clear preference as a digital action. I felt well at ease/comfortable playing it and had a good connection with it. Of course the furniture, sound engine, amps and speakers are overkill in a way, the price (therefore) too rich for my budget, so here I am still undetermined.

A VPC2 obviously should not get GFC as is often rumored, but the GFIII instead. Then we'd be cooking on GAS for sure.

Cheers and happy actions,

HZ

HZPiano A VPC2 obviously should not get GFC as is often rumored, but the GFIII instead.

The vpc1 looks exactly like a mp10 without sounds, lauched when the mp10 was being replaced by the mp11. So, if tradition holds, we will see mp12 one of these days (2022?2023? 2024?) and the vpc2 3 years after that...

vagfilm lauched when the mp10 was being replaced by the mp11.

Is the MP11 (non-SE) 9 years old (as the VPC1 is)?

Cheers and happy model history,

HZ

vagfilm It is difficult to extrapolate the releases of VPCx, since there is only one. If we had a VPC0 and a VPC1, we could do a linear regression and bet on the release date of a VPC2.

Linear regression works very well with Yamaha CLP since 2002 (CLP1xx)

Kawai does not follow time (or model names...) very well... Nonetheless, mp10 was launched in 2010, vpc1 in early 2013, and mp11 in early 2014.

vagfilm mp10 was launched in 2010, vpc1 in early 2013, and mp11 in early 2014.

I see. And the MP11SE is available since November 2017 (or so says the Thomann product info). If we take the liberty of calling that 'early 2018', then we have nice four-year intervals. And thus an MP12 should be here now. But things aren't normal at the moment (well, in fact, are they ever?) and so now such extrapolations need at least two years' worth of extension, I presume.

Cheers and happy forecasts,

HZ

The dates above are of the press releases of product announcement. Shop availability is delayed by a few months. MP11se was announced on october 2017 (almost 5 years ago, and more than 8 for the MP11).

Hey @Gamma1734, after listening to your latest wonderful recordings on youtube I wonder if you are still pleased with your VPC1? Anything else you noticed in the behavior/properties of the action you like/dislike, especially in combination with all the different VSTs you have?

After letting the subject rest for half a year I also purchased a VPC1 with the K&M 18810 stand again as an upgrade to my Roland FP-30 - the VPC1 has something addictive to it. If my last unit hadn't these two quality issues I described back then maybe I would't have returned it. It will arrive next week and I just hope the QC is fine this time. The price here in Germany is still very low compared to the US, it was 1400 $ for VPC1 and the stand.

Edit: Wow, I thought the price for the VPC1 in the US was 1900$, but its 2400, more than 1000$ more! That's crazy.

porco_rosso letting the subject rest for half a year

Thumbs up for actually doing that!

Hope you'll be happy with your new(est) VPC1 instrument now.

Cheers and the happiest playing,

HZ

HZPiano Thumbs up for actually doing that!

It was very helpful. Thank you for suggesting it. I also didn't visit the online piano communities. Either the VPC1 will do it now for me, or I will have to wait for the VPC2 with GF3(/4?) and optical triple pedals. No need for a big heavy furniture piano with samples and low quality speakers I will not use for a few thousand additional Euros and so on.

porco_rosso Edit: Wow, I thought the price for the VPC1 in the US was 1900$, but its 2400, more than 1000$ more! That's crazy.

I just want to say 1) welcome back and 2) off-topic as this may be ( this is part of testing my new OT-early-warning-system) , no matter where in the world you may be, you are probably required to pay way too much for certain things you may want or need.

Two weeks ago i tried a DGX670 priced at 799 dollars. Later that day i looked at some homegrown strawberries for 5.5 dollars per quart which then reminded me gasoline here was currently selling near 5 dollars a gallon. I wanted the 670. I really wanted some HG strawberries. I really needed about 7 gallons of gasoline……. maybe you can’t always get what you want, but if you try some time, you might find, i got all of them 😲.

Drew-r i got all of them

😃

Cheers and happy 670-ing, meanwhile munching great strawberries,

HZ

But then again, how's your VPC1 holding up, @Gamma1734 ?

Cheers and happy playing,

HZ

It's fine, it has better and worse aspects compared to the hybrid piano I had before, but it's really only a fraction of its price, portable (sort of) etc. I'm really happy all in all. I'm fiddling around recently again with velocity curves because I just feel that I have to adjust them per piece.

Glad that you like your VPC1.

I received mine yesterday and it has major quality issues again - more than the other I had:

• right pedal squeaks and doesn't work at all
• the keybed is misaligned again and touches the case on the left side
• there are a handful (!) of "hot" keys: the MIDI response is uneven, it's easy noticeable
• it doesn't work with USB-Power only (the other had), why?

What the hell is Kawai doing? I immediately packed it back in the box.

porco_rosso ,

Sorry to read that, best of luck!

HZ

porco_rosso Glad that you like your VPC1.

I received mine yesterday and it has major quality issues again - more than the other I had:

right pedal squeaks and doesn't work at all
the keybed is misaligned again and touches the case on the left side
there are a handful (!) of "hot" keys: the MIDI response is uneven, it's easy noticeable
it doesn't work with USB-Power only (the other had), why?

What the hell is Kawai doing? I immediately packed it back in the box.

Dang! That doesn't sound good. I'll have to admit that I had quality control issues with my MP11SE back in the day and it required replacement. Sorry for the hassle.

God Bless,
David

porco_rosso Glad that you like your VPC1.

I received mine yesterday and it has major quality issues again - more than the other I had:

right pedal squeaks and doesn't work at all
the keybed is misaligned again and touches the case on the left side
there are a handful (!) of "hot" keys: the MIDI response is uneven, it's easy noticeable
it doesn't work with USB-Power only (the other had), why?

What the hell is Kawai doing? I immediately packed it back in the box.

Wow, that is incredible!. My now 6 years old VPC1 works lots better than that!. I bought it used 2 years ago and the only thing I noticed is that the spacing between keys is not perfectly similar, but it is just a cosmetic thing and could be fixed (I plan to do it if I ever open it). Even the infamous right pedal behaves nicely, with not squeaks.

It is really pitiful to have two bad experiences with same model in your case 😕

Jose

Hi, here's a small update on my experience with VPC1. I have the feeling it is particularly worth adjusting the velocity curves for this piano controller. No, it's not a 50k or even 100k grand and I think it is not immediately a sign of "weak technique" to alter the curve depending on the style of composition and VST instrument used. For example, the 280VC feels better to play with a rather exponential curve (luckily in FL Studio I can adjust that directly, but we have a new mapping control there too as you probably know). The reason for that is that every piano is mapped differently, and the 280VC for example has strong focus on the piano-mezzoforte range. If we have a piece that barely uses mf though and is quite loud, a more linear curve will do. I find that the slightest adjustments to the curve have significant impact on the playability and so I tried to gather experience over time to be able to set the curve pretty quickly, but I always play some notes while I do that to figure out if they suit my taste for the composition. In the Garritan I use for example a slightly exponential curve, but that instrument feels to me to have more expression variability in the louder register. The downside of an exponential curve is of course trills and repeated notes, so sometimes I simply edit these couple of notes to not lose a beautiful piano sound which might be present throughout a composition. I still think it's one of the best choices for a piano controller and I'd love to try something like the NX10 in comparison. As always, the difficulty of such a plan is that I always need at least a month and many different styles of pieces to be able to form an opinion. With the VPC1 I never had the feeling that I can't play a piece at all because of how it behaves, which is a good sign. I can put the latency to as low as 1ms on my PC, and that's probably due the internal programming which is just suited for VST's. Let me know if you have other questions or experiences.