Digital Piano/Keyboard

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Hey everyone,

My sister wants to get a digital piano or keyboard, so I thought I'd ask for advice on here since I know nothing at all about them- we both used to play acoustic upright piano, but don't know anything about the digital gear.

How much do you have to pay to get something which is "good enough" if you're used to a half-decent upright piano? We were hoping around sort of £300 to £500 might do it, because at that kind of money we could buy one and not worry too much about it, whereas with a more expensive one, we'll think about it for ages and maybe never get round to getting one at all :D

How important is having a weighted action? If it is important, what is the "best" version of it? (Since I see lots of different terms for it.) Can you turn off the weighted action if you don't like it?

I think it'd be better to get a more portable one which can be put away when not in use, but I think it's still best to get one with the proper 88 keys. (It's just for use at home, not gigging.)

Finally, what's the difference between a digital piano and a keyboard? I might be wrong, but to me it seems like a digital piano is maybe better if getting something as close as possible to a "real" piano is the aim, whereas a keyboard is better for more different types of sounds, having the ability to bend the pitch etc.. Do I have that right? Is either one considered to be a better idea, or is it just whichever one suits what you want better (I assume the latter)?

If you have any recommendations for brands which are known to be good and specific models, that would be great.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Dave.
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    Dave_Mc said:
    Hey everyone,

    My sister wants to get a digital piano or keyboard, so I thought I'd ask for advice on here since I know nothing at all about them- we both used to play acoustic upright piano, but don't know anything about the digital gear.

    How much do you have to pay to get something which is "good enough" if you're used to a half-decent upright piano? We were hoping around sort of £300 to £500 might do it, because at that kind of money we could buy one and not worry too much about it, whereas with a more expensive one, we'll think about it for ages and maybe never get round to getting one at all :D

    How important is having a weighted action? If it is important, what is the "best" version of it? (Since I see lots of different terms for it.) Can you turn off the weighted action if you don't like it?

    I think it'd be better to get a more portable one which can be put away when not in use, but I think it's still best to get one with the proper 88 keys. (It's just for use at home, not gigging.)

    Finally, what's the difference between a digital piano and a keyboard? I might be wrong, but to me it seems like a digital piano is maybe better if getting something as close as possible to a "real" piano is the aim, whereas a keyboard is better for more different types of sounds, having the ability to bend the pitch etc.. Do I have that right? Is either one considered to be a better idea, or is it just whichever one suits what you want better (I assume the latter)?

    If you have any recommendations for brands which are known to be good and specific models, that would be great.

    Thanks in advance for your help,

    Dave.
    Buying used is the way to go here, imho.

    Getting a Roland or Yamaha from Gumtree or Reverb should get you into sub £500 territory.

    You cannot 'turn off' keyboard weighting.
    It either has it or it doesn't.

    'Best' largely depends on your experience and your expectation.
    My main home (digital upright) piano is a Yamaha CLP685- I love the action but some people find them a bit heavy.

    You can spend a lot more than £500 for anything top shelf so under £500 you will get something good, maybe even 'very good'.

    If buying new then a Roland FP30 or a Yamaha P125 are worth a shot.
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  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14321
    Does your sister have any previous keyboard experience?

    Weighted keys are exactly that. Plastic, weighted by a small lump of metal and pivoting against a return spring. They are fine for polyphonic synthesizers but can feel “wrong” for piano, organ and, arguably, classic monosynths. 

    If piano is the aim, only 88 hammer action keys will feel right. Touch sensitivity is critical to dynamic control.

    Probably wisest for your sister to visit a music shop and get her digits onto a few different pianos to form an opinion on what will suit.
    Be seeing you.
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  • Dave_McDave_Mc Frets: 2324
    edited January 2019
    EDIT: ah, ninjaed. :D I'll edit this in.

    @octatonic : Thanks, that's very helpful I thought that might be the case with the weighting, useful to know for sure.

    We'd really prefer new- I know you get more for your money used, but it's riskier and (the main thing) if you know you don't like it as much...

    And yeah I realise you can spend a lot more money than £500- we were hoping for "good enough" (to be worth buying and not just be a waste of money) rather than exceptional. I'm guessing if you're used to your Yamaha that nothing under £500 new might qualify, though, lol.

    I'll look into the Roland and the Yamaha- I'd come across the Yamaha in my (very cursory) research but I didn't really want to list any examples because I had no idea if they were any good, plus I didn't want to skew the suggestions.

    Just out of interest, how much "better" is the P125 than the P45?

    And those two you mentioned are digital pianos, do you have any thoughts about any keyboards, or is that just a silly idea because digital pianos a lot better?

    Thanks again for your help.

    @Funkfingers : Thanks. We both have a fair bit of piano experience, virtually zero with keyboards (apart from a teeny casio we had when we were children, lol).

    So the hammer-action ones are the ones to go for (assuming a piano feel is the thing), right? I think both of those ones that @octatonic mentioned have that.

    We did try a few digital pianos a few months ago, but we hadn't really started looking then so we didn't really know the model numbers and stuff like that. I guess now we have a few more concrete ones to look at that trying them would be the thing.
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  • goldtopgoldtop Frets: 6101
    Pianos aren't "better", but they have the necessary action.

    On top of those mentioned above, the Casio PX-5S has a huge following. (Don't be put off by the brand name.) It's also got a pretty deep synth engine for non-piano sounds.
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  • Dave_McDave_Mc Frets: 2324
    Thanks, I'll check that one, too. :)
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    Dave_Mc said:
    EDIT: ah, ninjaed. :D I'll edit this in.

    @octatonic : Thanks, that's very helpful I thought that might be the case with the weighting, useful to know for sure.

    snip

    Just out of interest, how much "better" is the P125 than the P45?

    And those two you mentioned are digital pianos, do you have any thoughts about any keyboards, or is that just a silly idea because digital pianos a lot better?

    It is 80 better. :)

    Honestly, go try them.
    I've never played them side by side.
    If you aren't a pro player then you will probably be fine with either, but it depends on how nuanced your technique is.
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  • Dave_McDave_Mc Frets: 2324
    I'm not a pro player at all, lol.

    I just looked up the 2 main shops here and Northern Ireland's craptacular gear selection strikes again... :(

    The Roland is out of stock in both.

    No sign of the Casio either.

    But on the plus side, both shops have the P45 (and one of them has the P125). Because, you know, what I really need is to be able to get to try those two in both shops when i can't try the other alternatives at all. :D

    I actually quite like the look of the Casio because (and I could be wrong about this) the Casio is almost like a digital piano and keyboard in one, from the looks of it I wouldn't have to choose. However, it is a bit dearer, and also it doesn't seem to have built-in speakers so that would mean I'd need to get a keyboard amp (unless my little Vox Mini 3 would do the job on the "Line" setting? I'm guessing even if that would work that it wouldn't really do it justice, though).

    Considering it's a couple of hundred more, though, do Roland or Yamaha have anything around that price which would compete with it? I've come across the Yamaha DGX650 and 660, which look like they might be a similar idea. They also seem to have speakers in them, which is nice, though the downside is that they're super-heavy...

    I also came across the Kawai ES110, any thoughts about it?

    Thanks again for your help, everyone :)
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  • horsehorse Frets: 1562
    If it's just for playing piano at home then I don't think you can go too far wrong with anything from the main manufacturers from recent years, including Casio (who I think use the same hammer action throughout their range). Definitely try a range of options before you buy to see what you like though.

    If you might want to gig it then make sure you get one with proper outputs, not just headphones.

    If you want to connect it to other stuff then check the midi connectivity.

    I have a px5s as my only proper piano action keyboard. It's great but I wouldn't recommend it as a basic home piano as it has no speakers built in and their cheaper options would prob suit better. It's good as a light gigging piano though and the splitting / layering / realtime controls / synth engine etc are all great in that context.

    If it's broader than just piano, then there are other options, and I'd say don't get too hung up on 88 keys - I've played most of my piano gigging in bands and recording in the last few years on a 5 octave semi-weighted keyboard, albeit a nice one (and I say that as someone who first learnt on an upright piano as a kid). I sometimes have to compromise a bit, but think I'd be fine with 73 keys, and depending on your level and what you're playing you might only ever need 5 octaves.
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  • TimmyOTimmyO Frets: 7349
    octatonic said:
    Dave_Mc said:
    Hey everyone,

    My sister wants to get a digital piano or keyboard, so I thought I'd ask for advice on here since I know nothing at all about them- we both used to play acoustic upright piano, but don't know anything about the digital gear.

    How much do you have to pay to get something which is "good enough" if you're used to a half-decent upright piano? We were hoping around sort of £300 to £500 might do it, because at that kind of money we could buy one and not worry too much about it, whereas with a more expensive one, we'll think about it for ages and maybe never get round to getting one at all :D

    How important is having a weighted action? If it is important, what is the "best" version of it? (Since I see lots of different terms for it.) Can you turn off the weighted action if you don't like it?

    I think it'd be better to get a more portable one which can be put away when not in use, but I think it's still best to get one with the proper 88 keys. (It's just for use at home, not gigging.)

    Finally, what's the difference between a digital piano and a keyboard? I might be wrong, but to me it seems like a digital piano is maybe better if getting something as close as possible to a "real" piano is the aim, whereas a keyboard is better for more different types of sounds, having the ability to bend the pitch etc.. Do I have that right? Is either one considered to be a better idea, or is it just whichever one suits what you want better (I assume the latter)?

    If you have any recommendations for brands which are known to be good and specific models, that would be great.

    Thanks in advance for your help,

    Dave.
    Buying used is the way to go here, imho.


    I was all set to go that route too but tbh the more I dug about the more I felt that the only "bargains" were for stuff that was a couple of models (ie many years) out of date and even I could tell that some of the sounds and features coming in now on current generation felt worth paying a new price for (for me anyway) 

    When I heard them being played side by side in the shop I leant toward the Rolands (despite having gone in with a hankering for a more expensive Yamaha) and the Bluetooth controllability of the FP30/RP102 is fab (I went for the latter as I is posh innit) 
    Red ones are better. 
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  • Dave_McDave_Mc Frets: 2324
    edited January 2019
    Thanks everyone (Wisdoms all round, I forgot to do that yesterday D )

    @horse : Yep, some great info there, and a good point about the number of keys, which I'll keep in mind.

    I suspect you're right about the PX-5S- it seemed virtually perfect until I realised it had no speakers built-in. However, I've come across the PX-560 in the same range, and it seems to be broadly similar to the PX-5S (please correct me if I'm wrong!) except it *does* have speakers built in, and it's not super-heavy like the Yamahas I mentioned. I've even come across what I think is a decent price at Gear4Music for one at just over £700 (most places seem to have it for £950).

    Any thoughts on that one? It's jumped to the top of the heap so far, I thought we were going to have to choose between a digital piano and a keyboard, but those Casios seem to be the best of both worlds, so being slightly over budget isn't really a problem in that case- better to pay £700 for something which does everything we want than £500 for something which only does half of it...

    No dealers for it here, I even checked the Casio site. But we'd be happy enough to buy online and send it back if it didn't suit... not much point in trying stuff when, as I said above, the stores here only stock a teeny fraction of the available options...

    @TimmyO : Yep, very good points. We'd prefer to go new anyway, but as you said, if the used ones are out of date...
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  • TimmyOTimmyO Frets: 7349
    It’s not so much that they suddenly aren’t any good, just that the difference in price isn’t crazy (unless they are REALLY old) 
    Red ones are better. 
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  • horsehorse Frets: 1562
    Dave_Mc said:
    Thanks everyone (Wisdoms all round, I forgot to do that yesterday D )

    @horse : Yep, some great info there, and a good point about the number of keys, which I'll keep in mind.

    I suspect you're right about the PX-5S- it seemed virtually perfect until I realised it had no speakers built-in. However, I've come across the PX-560 in the same range, and it seems to be broadly similar to the PX-5S (please correct me if I'm wrong!) except it *does* have speakers built in, and it's not super-heavy like the Yamahas I mentioned. I've even come across what I think is a decent price at Gear4Music for one at just over £700 (most places seem to have it for £950).

    Any thoughts on that one? It's jumped to the top of the heap so far, I thought we were going to have to choose between a digital piano and a keyboard, but those Casios seem to be the best of both worlds, so being slightly over budget isn't really a problem in that case- better to pay £700 for something which does everything we want than £500 for something which only does half of it...

    No dealers for it here, I even checked the Casio site. But we'd be happy enough to buy online and send it back if it didn't suit... not much point in trying stuff when, as I said above, the stores here only stock a teeny fraction of the available options...

    @TimmyO : Yep, very good points. We'd prefer to go new anyway, but as you said, if the used ones are out of date...
    I've not played a px-560, but I do have also have a mxz500 which shares some similarities such as the touch screen. I bought it on the strength of the px5s, and that it offered a lot of flexibility in one package. The touch screen is a bit clunky to use tbh, but probably on balance more user friendly than the px5s which has a pretty primitive user interface. They are more recent products than the px5s too. In some ways the synth side is more powerful than the px5s, but in other ways less so...

    I think my honest view is that you do get a lot for your money with these casios, but you can kind of tell in that they don't feel like premium products in the same way a Nord does for example. Although to be honest when I had a Roland vr-09 its keyboard wasn't very nice to play, and my casio mzx500 is nicer in that regard, so building down to a price point isn't just limited to casio.

    I do have more posh kit too, but when I briefly played in a bon jovi tribute I used the px5s rather than my Nord electro as it was a better tool for that job.
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  • Dave_McDave_Mc Frets: 2324
    edited January 2019
    EDIT: Ah, ninjaed again! :D

    @TimmyO ; Yeah I get you, don't worry.

    @horse Excellent, that's the kind of thing I'm looking for, that's very helpful, thanks. That's sort of what I figured (from reading the manual) about the px-5s versus the px-560- they seemed broadly similar, but there were a few differences. That's a good point about the build quality- I read one review where it said they were a bit plasticky. Hopefully not a problem just for home use, but as you said, it does tend to give the thing not quite the feel of the genuinely high-end stuff.

    That's interesting you mentioned Bon Jovi- I imagine that'd be the type of thing I'd want the more keyboard side of the thing for, whereas with a digital piano, you don't really get that at all.
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  • horsehorse Frets: 1562
    Dave_Mc said:


    That's interesting you mentioned Bon Jovi- I imagine that'd be the type of thing I'd want the more keyboard side of the thing for, whereas with a digital piano, you don't really get that at all.
     It was the splitting / layering options which made it good for the bonjovi tracks - plus I really managed to nail the Wild in the Streets synth tone on it!
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  • Dave_McDave_Mc Frets: 2324
    ^ LOL, nice :D

    Been listening to some Youtube vids and starting to think the Yamaha DGX560's piano sounds might be better than the Casio's... I know it's only Youtube vids and there's only so much you can tell from them. But no dealers close by for the Casio at all... :(
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  • horsehorse Frets: 1562
    To be honest, I think that 'better' these days relates more to preference than anything objective, so go with your ears. The tone I like live for piano may differ from what I want to record with depending on the song, and is also different from what I want if playing solo too.

    As I say there are lots of good options, and most can cover different ground.
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  • goldtopgoldtop Frets: 6101
    I agree with @horse - don't trust YT videos on their own. "Better" can mean something as simple as the tone being slightly more/less bright and therefore suiting the musical piece. Or just better playing. In other words, the maker of the video may just be making different choices to those you would make sitting at the same keyboard.

    If you can't get to try enough of these in person, try specialist review sites, like this one: https://www.digitalpianoreviewguide.com/korg-b1-review/

    Get a rounded view by visiting more than one site (i.e. be aware of positive reviews/sponsorship) and look for a consensus.
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  • Dave_McDave_Mc Frets: 2324
    edited January 2019
    Thanks guys. Yeah I was coming round to that myself regarding the "better" sound of the Yamaha- we both suspected it was maybe just better playing (different person doing the review) on the video etc.. We'd be a bit miffed if we picked the Yamaha and actually didn't like how it sounded, because everything else (weight etc..) is kind of in the Casio's favour- plus it seems to be a much better deal, I could be wrong but it strikes me that it's kind of in the next price band up from the Yamaha (plus seems to be generally considered to be pretty good value even at that higher price band), just that deal price is bringing it down to roughly the same price.

    Yeah I'd already been hitting up those review sites you mentioned, I think my eyes are getting square from it D Thanks for the suggestion anyway, it doesn't hurt to know that they're at least worth reading.

    Apparently on that Yamaha, although it does have the weighted keys, it's the lowest quality version of Yamaha's "proper" weighting. Does that make any difference? Whereas the Casio has its best version of weighting, I think.
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  • horsehorse Frets: 1562
    This guy reviews (and sells) lots of digital pianos, and here's is px560 review

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  • goldtopgoldtop Frets: 6101
    Dave_Mc said:
    Apparently on that Yamaha, although it does have the weighted keys, it's the lowest quality version of Yamaha's "proper" weighting. Does that make any difference? Whereas the Casio has its best version of weighting, I think.
    Does the Yamaha include triple-sensor keyboard in the lower models? I know that Casio uses the triple-strike thing on all of the decent keyboards, including the PX-5S. There's some adjustability in it, too. All so that faster trills are not hampered by a slow return-to-rest action.


    (Frankly, the discussion did my head in, and in the end, I opted for a Roland FA-08 which hasn't really worked out, so I am keeping my old MC-2000 weighted controller!)
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