Best piano sound

[Chkurgrnd]

Which keys have the best piano sound? Our WL leads from the one we have now (Alesis QS8 and it's electronics are going). I am not a player but am looking at finalizing a budget for next year.

Looking beyond the Triton, Motif or Fantom... the samples I have heard on those are amazing but probably outta our league right now. Hopefully $1K or less please... we're portable, or else a controller and MIDI might be an option (would like it to be in one box though)
Thanks in advance!

[Chkurgrnd]

Bump.

[SamG269]

Nobody has responded to your question. Im not either. But I would love to hear an opinion. I do hear that going MIDI is the next big thing though. Especially when I see how many they are selling at GC.

[rePete]

This may sound like a joke but I am absolutely serious. Look hard and long at the Casio Privia PX-3. GREAT action, lightweight at 24 pounds and many useful sounds. Also I think you can get it for around $700!

Disclaimer: I own a Kurzweil K2000, PC3, a Roland VR760 and a Korg Triton. I don't own a Privia but it's on my wish list.

Pete

[SamG269]

So... The Casio PX-3 has the best sound? Or do you mean just look at it for bang for buck?

[waynehoskins]

Originally Posted by SamG269

I do hear that going MIDI is the next big thing though.

It was the next big thing 25-30 years ago.

But as pop music goes we're in the new '80s, so expect more MIDI stuff happening again over the next few years after a decade and a half of dormancy.

As to what has the best piano patch out there, I'd say look at the tours that feature piano prominently -- Diana Krall, Norah Jones (though Norah plays Wurlitzer and guitars on her new album), etc. -- what are they taking on the road? I was looking at a Sara Bareilles clip this evening from a tour where she plays a synth built into a baby grand body.

At my church we have a Yamaha electronic piano keyboard -- no idea what model or anything, but from about 5-6 years ago, and it sounds good enough. It's a basic job with piano, Rhodes, Wurly, B3, etc. patches. The internal speakers in the thing are my biggest problem with it, people keep turning them back on.

[rePete]

Sam,

For your budget I don't think you can beat the Casio, especially if you are portable AND their action is hard to believe.

Kurzweil is known for their pianos and there are a couple of excellent ones in my PC3. If you had a larger budget a controller, laptop and Ivory vst plugin is probably the best right now but that would easily eat up all of $2k just for the piano sound!

Pete

[raweber]

I've played a large variety of digital pianos in live situations, and I've never come across a better live sound than Yamaha. The P-95 costs less than the Previa and I really don't think you will regret it.

Now, in the store most digital pianos sound just fine when I sit down and play them. It's not until playing in a large space in a band context that the strengths and weaknesses become apparent. If it is possible for the music store to short-term loan you several pianos one at a time to try them out, then that's the best option.

But, for my money, you can't go wrong with the Yamaha.

Rob

[Gracetech]

I'm with Rob on this one. I don't think you will ever find a better sounding digital piano than a Yamaha. The action and multi sound strikes and tones vary with your playing strength so it truly responds like an acoustic piano.

BTW welcome to the forums Rob

crt

[bradneal]

I'm in the same boat. My wife play's a QS 8.1 and we hate the piano samples on it. I really want to get her a Motif, but I just purchased a PreSonus 24 channel digital mixer, so the Yamerhamer will have to wait (sorry dear).

Not to steal the thread here, but we are considering picking up a virtual piano and midi to a laptop for the interim. What's the general opinion on that approach if one sticks the the higher-end samples, like Symphony II, Alesia Keys, Eighty Eight, etc?

Thanks,
Brad

[raweber]

Brad - a little fiddley, but absolutely no reason it wouldn't work. I'm thinking about doing that with the Garritan Steinway on a laptop when I start playing at the church we just began attending (since my only axe is currently an M-Audio ProKeys 88 which I've regretted since the first time I played it live).

Rob

[liko81]

Originally Posted by waynehoskins

It was the next big thing 25-30 years ago.

But as pop music goes we're in the new '80s, so expect more MIDI stuff happening again over the next few years after a decade and a half of dormancy.

What you're also seeing is that the people coming into leadership roles in mainline churches (generally members between 30 and 60 years old) are the people that grew up listening to music from the 60s, 70s and 80s. So, even in denominations that are well-known bastions of "traditional" church music i.e. pipe organ, you're starting to see people leading the worship and music ministry teams that grew up listening to Hammond B3s and synthesizers in pop music (as well as guitars and drum kits), and see nothing wrong with including them in worship (these people being the children and grandchildren of the generation that decried rock as devil music).

One more point is that traditional instruments are expensive. My church just bought a new grand piano to replace our aging, degrading Kawai. The Yamaha C3 6' grand we bought was $13,000, used. At my previous church, back in the late 80s a wealthy member family donated the $125,000 to buy a real tracker pipe organ for the sanctuary. That instrument is now worth almost three quarters of a million dollars, and in the grand scheme of things it's not that ornate or complex as compared to some of the famous cathedral organs in Europe or even on the East Coast. Contrast either of those with a modern MIDI console plugged into the sanctuary sound system. If the sound system can handle the power, you can get much the same volume of a real pipe organ, and to the uninitiated (or if you spend a few hundred extra on a good SoundFont), it will sound much the same. These systems are sold to churches of all sizes all the time; there are in fact some pretty ornate MIDI organ systems with dedicated amplifier/speaker setups that even an experienced listener would mistake for real pipes.