Keyboards Piano on a budget

[Two Voices]

Yes, but eventually the keys will crack.

I suppose that's to be expected for the price. As long as they are readily available and cheap enough it probably won't matter. Maybe I should ask them to give me a set of keys with the Piano as part of the deal. You said in an earlier post that they are easy enough to replace.

 

[kevgermany]

They just clip out/in, but some dismantling is necessary first.

 

[Two Voices]

Thanks Kev! Good to know!

 

[VirusKiller]

How's the MK VI?

Smokey! ;}

 

[Moz]

Thanks Martin! That's the kind of thing I'm after. The YDS-161 has the same graduated hammer action. I've heard that the damper pedal can be a little bit of a hit and miss. How do you find yours?

Not a problem although I'm not such a pianist that I use it a lot so my opinion is not worth much.

 

[kevgermany]

On the graduated hammer actions - lots of differecnes between the different brands, and different ranges within the brand. Best to try...

 

[Two Voices]

Smokey! ;}

 

[Two Voices]

On the graduated hammer actions - lots of differecnes between the different brands, and different ranges within the brand. Best to try...

Vaild point! At least they have some of the Yamahas in a my local music shop that I can test play! They don't seem too bad compared to the real Mc Coy at a fraction of the cost!

 

[JCUK]

I've got a Clavinova, and it's fine for keeping your piano chops up. It definitely feels different from a 'proper' piano (we've got a baby grand at work I get to play on too, though sadly not a Steinway), but it's not hard to adjust to the difference. It also has the advantage of being playable with headphones, so reducing the complaints from neighbours already driven demented by my playing sax (very badly). I think it's good value for the price, and worth trying out if there's one in a shop near you. I love mine!

 

[sonicapogee]

hi

This is gonna sound weird probably but ,a long time ago a friend of mine that owes a digital piano ,was playing my keyboard with E-mu's Emulator X Grand Piano, and he had being Dazed of its sound.And Emu also have a dedicated Steinway piano library...
My point is this...I do understand the simplicity of pressing the On button & play on electric piano ,and sometimes,feels great...
But
I would go for a great midi piano controller and Emulator X.Don't get me wrong ladies & gents ,after all I AM an E-mu fan.But ,if you decide to buy an electric piano avoid the E-mus ....because you would be disapointed.You just cant cant compare a 2gb+++ Digitally sampled piano to ANY Electric piano.
Bottom line :Emulator X and a great midi weighted controller,is simply the best advice I could give.
Its in front of me as I speak ,so trust me ,I DO know what I'm talking about. [Not to mention I ve tried many electric pianos....].The only downside is you need a computer to run Emulator X ,current version of it is 3 I think....

I would love nothing more than to have a Steinway Baby Grand in my music room plus the space required but I’ll save that for when I win the lotto ))

I’ve been hankering for a piano for a while now and wondered what everyone thinks of these cheaper digital pianos? I’ve been looking at a Yamaha YDP161 Digital Piano as it has 20 Watt speakers apposed to 6 Watt on the cheaper Yamaha YDP141.

It’ll mainly be for practice as well as recording some backing tracks for me to play along to.

My local music shop has a good deal on one with a free stool thrown in as well as installation.

Any other pianists on this forum?

 

[sonicapogee]

Oh ,I will behave and say nothing about what you can do with a monster like Emulator X...
Because,have no doubt ,this IS a monster...

 

[sonicapogee]

I am not sure if a like to a commercial product is allowed ,so to respect this great forum & all people here I am not going to provide a link ,but google this
E-MU Platinum 88 Sample Library

 

[Pete C]

I have a Yamaha NP-30 I want to sell if you are interested Paul. I also bought a soft cover for it to keep the dust out. There is a pedal too. You can have the lot for £140 plus postage. 5% to Pete's Charity

I bought it because I wanted something portable for my workshops, but not doing so many of those these days. I have two acoustic pianos at home.

Pete

 

[Two Voices]

Thanks for the offer Pete but I've already organised something with my local music shop. If that doesn't happen I'll PM you

 

[TomMapfumo]

Whenever I see the thread title "Piano on a Budget" I start singing "Girlfriend in a Coma" - "....Piano on a budget, oh yes, oh yes, its really serious.....":shocked:;}

 

[Two Voices]

I thought that I would conclude this thread for those that are interested.

I started doing some immense research into digital pianos and finally came to the conclusion that I needed to fork out some serious dosh in order to get something half decent that I could compose on! Then I started looking at Acoustic Pianos as second hand they work out cheaper than higher end digitals. Not too mention that they sound and play better.

So a ‘Piano on a budget’ just wasn’t working out for me! Go figure!

I’ve been looking and waiting for a nice piano to come up in my local shop as bringing one from across (the UK) would be expensive plus I wouldn’t have the chance to try it out. Pianos are more individual than saxophones, each having their own voicing! Anyhow a lovely white Yamaha Disklavier came up for £5,000. Played beautifully. I mean literally )) I did an extensive research of the piano and discovered it was a MX100B built between 1990 and 1992. To cut a long story short its true value was probably more in the region on £2,800 to 3,000 inline with a U1.

I became desponded and wondered if an acoustic was the right thing for me! The hassle of tuning it twice yearly the space it’ll take up in the studio and all the other things one worries about with these works of art!

I found that an acoustic loses half its value as soon as bought, where as a digital will still fetch 70% of it original price 5 years later! So it was back on the digital trail and in the end I looked at a Yamaha CLP-480PE.

It has so many features it hard to list them all here, so here’s the link if you’re interested!

Link to the Yamaha CLP-480PE

The most important features you need to look at with any digital piano is:

1/. The feel of the keys (weight and graduated is best)
2/. The speakers (the smaller they are the tinnier the sound – the bigger they are the cleaner than sound)
3/. Polyphony (more the better)
4/. The number of voices (again more the better)

Other makes such as Kawai and Roland are all good contenders!

Anyhow if you got this far your probably a sleep ))

 

[Two Voices]

After all that I forget to actually say that I have purchased a Yamaha CLP-480PE and will be here on Thursday / Friday

 

[jonf]

Thanks for the update Paul.

For me, I ended up with an acoustic piano, but it was on a very small budget - I was given it, so the only cost was a couple of hundred to get it moved.

Nice having a piano in the house.

 

[old git]

enjoy!

 

[Gallen]

Cool! Hope you have fun with the piano. I went the el-cheapo midi route - Akai LPK 25 hooked up to garageband. Post some tunes when you get some