My next piano??
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I tried whatever Roland was best back when I was shopping and greatly preferred the Yamaha.
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I got interested in Pianoteq software because Chris O'Reily and Hugh Sung both are big advocates for it. Having just started playing with it, I'm impressed with what one can do. One can change pianos - and even within a particular instrument, there's an incredible amount of flexibility in what one can do with temperment tunings, hardness of hammers, etc. They have a number of modern instruments plus 3 museum collections of historical instruments. I'm looking forward to trying an 1899 Bechstein concert grand - a piano which Debussy favored. But one can also play Mozart on a Streicher or Beethoven on a Broadwood. Prefer a Hamburg to a US Steinway - no problem. They even have uprights and square pianos to choose from. So....a long winded way of saying that keyboard action is king.
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I just downloaded this free VST plugin called Neo Piano by SoundMagic.
Using it with my Alesis VX49 Midi controller and MixBus32c DAW. It sounds great, especially for the price.
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Just played the Roland LX705. Really nice. Also tried the top of the line Kawai ca99 which was decent but I prefer the Roland. He’s the only dealer and he has exactly one in stock so not a great deal. We will see. I’m still going to play the Yamaha again.
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OK, the eagle has landed.
I played Yamahas at our local dealers and Roland/Kawais at the local Kawai/Roland/Casio dealer.
I literally was about to pull the trigger on a deal when I got a couple of calls in quick succession that changed and complicated the decision. The local Kawai/Roland/Casio dealer got "real" on the pricing for a Roland HP704 and about 45 minutes later one of the Yamaha dealers offered an incredible deal on a N1X that turned my head. It was still a bit more than 2x the price of the Roland, but the N1X has a real grand piano action and would likely last as long as I do. It's a lot of fun to play. The problem remained that the appearance just doesn't "fit" in our home. It would sit smiling and glittery across from a Steinway B that would be forever contemptuous of the new instrument to our home.
I want to thank LD who clearly knows the business inside and out - and was very patient with me in helping me to make the decision I did. As LD and others have noted, the HP704's strengths are not necessarily in the realm of sound, but rather in its action. While I would take the N1X's action over the HP704, the Roland action is quite decent. The Roland LX706 had a nicer cabinet - one of the nicest looking ones out there - but in playing both, I felt like I was paying for the cabinet and not getting a better instrument.
One thing I negotiated for with the local dealer was an artist bench which is more useful than the standard bench.
Attendees at piano gatherings are remarkably particular about the quality of benches..Aside from the piano decision stuff, one thing that was refreshing is that no one at any of the dealers hovered over me or did anything that resembled "selling". Perhaps it is because I'm old, brought in a stack of music and headphones, or it is a new a new world in which sales folks aren't pushy. It was quite different from back in the day. LD was far more helpful person in this enterprise.
3 person delivery..
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@kluurs said in My next piano??:
Attendees at piano gatherings are remarkably particular about the quality of benches..
Did they lend you a hack saw to cut 4” off the legs of this one?
Seriously congratulations!
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Very nice!
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@George-K said in My next piano??:
@kluurs nice!
Tell us more about the PianoTec stuff.
How, exactly does it work?
I'm still toying with Pianoteq - but it is fun. I'm not sure I have it set up optimally - but I can demo it for you tomorrow. Interestingly, the Rolands used modeled sounds - as does Pianoteq. One has to wonder if down the road, pianos may plan for add-ons like Pianoteq - i.e., an iPad sized screen along with native computer capabilities. It would enable one to read music, choose the piano one wished and obviously things like type of hall, voicing of hammers, temperment, etc.
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Congrats! Looks great, and thanks for the story. Also, good on you, @LuFins-Dad
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@kluurs Looks really really nice!! Congrats!
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@kluurs and I spent a couple of hours together yesterday.
The Roland HP704 is a very, very nice digital piano. Combined with Pianoteq and a set of headphones, it goes beyond "nice," and into remarkable.
I'm in the market, as I mentioned, and this will deserve some serious, serious consideration.
However, Mrs. George has decreed that a new sofa is important right now, so I've not broached the subject of a new piano....yet.
ETA: And, for the record, that is one of THREE pianos he has in his living room.
We were going to get together, talk, and have lunch. By 2PM, both of us had forgotten about food, and we continued talking about music, recordings, teachers and pianos (of course!).
He recommended I check out the Saint-Säens piano concerto #4, and we listened some of it yesterday. If you're not familiar with it...it's worth finding.
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A question about the Roland (or Clav) and Pianoteq.
Obviously, it's possible to take the audio from the piano, play it through Pianoteq and then take that output and feed it to headphones or external speakers.
Both the Roland and the Clavinova have a jack on the bottom called "Aux In."
If one takes the output from the computer, and plugs it into the "aux in" jack, does that disable the built in sounds? IOW, if I play a harpsichord using Pianoteq, will I hear harpsichord through the Clavinova/Roland speakers, or will I still hear the piano generated by the digital?
