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Dexibell....does it get any love?


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They are off to a good start. The audio engine and hardware is impressive. The acoustic piano sounds are competitive. They need to work on the rest of their sample library. They're using Fatar actions like plenty of other MI manufacturers.

 

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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Briefly played P3. Decent if unspectacular action (TP100, newer 3-sensor version), AP seemed fine, other sounds were no great shakes, really disliked the EPs. Above average speakers and ergonomics/interface.

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I've been posting here about my experience with the Vivo S3, which I auditioned for about 10 days. Really liked the APs, both in sound and playability. Organs sound great tone but are just samples. Everything else kind of meh. Most brands would include a broader palate of synth sounds in a board like this, but the S3 just has a few pads. The unknown to me is sample downloading, because I didn't attempt it. I liked that it's got fully weighted action in a 22 lb package. The action is not the best but I far prefer it to anything else in the 25 lb and under category digital piano category.

 

Bottom line, the Vivo might be a good choice for someone for whom APs are the primary focus.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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Agree w Adan and Scott.

 

Demo'd the Vivo S7, I thought it had a superior AP, liked the faux ivory key surface and thought the finger-to-ear connection rendered it playable and a gig candidate for acoustic piano focused gigs.

 

There aren't a lot of other programs built in, and what's there is all pretty average and unexciting. EPs aren't going to get anyone to write home to mom, especially with so so so many different options out there these days.

 

However, I A/B'd the acoustic piano between the Vivo and the new Korg Grandstage (sitting three feet away) and felt the Vivo's acoustic piano was head and shoulders more playable.

..
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I played two of them ( different models) at Sam Ash in Los Angeles at the end of June. I also played the Dexibell organ.

 

I walked away thinking that it was not superior to something like the Yamaha CP4, which definitely has better EP's. The acoustic samples were not earth shattering.

 

The basic sound of the Dexibell organ with CV was actually pretty good, though the leslie sim was not. I wondered what I would do with a 76 note organ. The single manual was priced at about 2400 dollars... about the same price as a dual manual Key B or Mojo.

 

It had automated drawbars. Who cares?

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I have the Vivo S3 and really enjoy playing it, at first I was having problems with the midrange sounding distorted when I played it, someone else was reporting the same problem with his S7 and he got rid of his but I thought I,d wait it out and hope they'd come out with an update which would solve the problem . The 4.01 update helped it out a lot. The distortion seemed to only come from the speakers , it sounds good on the headphones . The piano sound on the Vivo Grand is full and smooth and would be great playing solo or with a singer , in a band context I'm not sure how it would hold up to the guitar players , in a Jazz group it would sound great . I wish they would have a reprisenative from Dexibell come on the forums to discuss any issues buyers are having with there pianos. You can email them and they do answer their emails I would just like to know how other players are getting along and if or what problems they incur . I'm having fun playing mine .
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I bought the P7 for $1499, right before it went up $400. Its one of the best keyboard purchases Ive made. There are a lot of details put into the APs that make them more realistic than comparable products from Korg, Roland or Yamaha. I was surprised at how much I like the action. They have better actions on their S series I hear. All the modeling tech theyve put in with the samples really adds greatly. The long 15 second samples really add to the realism. I downloaded several sounds from their site, which is free btw. I have the German and Japanese grands along with Organ pad and some others. The pads are rich. The bass and ride sound very in the room with me. Hearing the soundboard noise and sympathetic strings when Im holding down the sustain pedal brings a smile to my face. The two Rhodes sounds are very much like ones Ive owned in the past. The tack piano and ragtime piano are stunningly real. You cant do better without spending a lot more money. Getting the SX-7 rack unit and a Kawai VPC1 would be an amazing combination.
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The piano sound on the Vivo Grand is full and smooth and would be great playing solo or with a singer , in a band context I'm not sure how it would hold up to the guitar players...

I briefly played one of the older models at NAMM (I forget which) and this too was my impression, and the online demos havent done much to move me away from this position.

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

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Just to give you a comparison with the YouTube videos, there was a sales rep demo-ing one in a shop I was in, I stood and listened for 10 minutes, the ap was VERY impressive. Didn't hear any other sounds, as my better half needed a coffee!
Occasionally, do something nice for a total stranger. They'll wonder what the hell is going on!
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The piano sound on the Vivo Grand is full and smooth and would be great playing solo or with a singer , in a band context I'm not sure how it would hold up to the guitar players...

I briefly played one of the older models at NAMM (I forget which) and this too was my impression, and the online demos havent done much to move me away from this position.

 

It has several variations on AP. Some are much brighter than others. It can also be edited to make it brighter.

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New video of flagship S9

Their spokesperson and performer is very impressive.

Thanks for sharing that, listened to nearly the whole thing. Impressive indeed, best video they have come out with to date. Dexibell is becoming a formidable contender. I hope they continue to refine their sounds and expand their libraries. Im definitely recalibrating my opinion regarding the APs.

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

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Do those motorized faders make anyone nervous, from a reliability perspective? I know the technology has been around for some time, Im just not used to seeing them in a keyboard. What if one of the motorized faders stops working? Does it remain stuck in that position or can you override the motorized function somehow?

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

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Do those motorized faders make anyone nervous, from a reliability perspective? I know the technology has been around for some time, Im just not used to seeing them in a keyboard. What if one of the motorized faders stops working? Does it remain stuck in that position or can you override the motorized function somehow?

 

I can imagine having presets snap into position and then being able to adjust live is very cool. Would there be a risk of fighting the motors? Maybe, but I think minimal assuming they only engage when you recall a preset. What quality or longevity the motors can be at the price point of the Combo J7? Well, it's not cheap at $2k.

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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I looked at the J7 combo. Like roland and the VR series there were a couple design f ups. The leslie is subpar and you could not pan the voices left/right. I believe in one of their releases they introduced voice panning, allowing organ to one out and everything else to the other. I don't believe that you can introduce a 2nd keyboard to play a lower organ manual instead what they do is split a single keyboard between upper and lower. It just doesn't functionally work the way I need it to to be useful for me.

57 Hammond B3; 69 Hammond L100P; 68 Leslie 122; Kurzweil Forte7 & PC3; M-Audio Code 61; Voce V5+; Neo Vent; EV ELX112P; GSI Gemini & Burn

Delaware Dave

Exit93band

 

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Respecting yor opinions,

but if I browse through this thread, I cant escape the feeling, that Dexibell would not have a chance, and you all would be dammend to deal with the mainstream manufacturers from Indonesia till doomsday. ;)

 

 

I don't know... Dexibell is getting the same critical treatment every instrument gets from the the KC crowd. You should read the Crumar threads. ;)

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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Respecting yor opinions,

but if I browse through this thread, I cant escape the feeling, that Dexibell would not have a chance, and you all would be dammend to deal with the mainstream manufacturers from Indonesia till doomsday. ;)

 

 

I own not one but two Crumar keyboards, so no one can accuse me of bias against the Italians (full disclosure: I'm half Italian which, in the Italian tradition, probably predisposes me to have a bias against them).

 

I've been going out of my way to say positive things about the Vivo because I feel it hasn't been getting the attention it deserves. It's a worthy competitor in the digital piano realm, mainly due to its excellent APs. The APs sound great and are responsive and inspiring to play. In that sense, they've already grasped the brass ring. But imo Dexibell needs to up its game in the non-AP departments and fix that silly tremolo leslie on the J7. This should all be doable for them.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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Just received the S3 from Sam Ashe. Havent been able to spend but a few minutes with it. Esthetic and build quality are very nice.. The first thought that came to mind was white end caps look perfect, why would you change them? Ill have more later.
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Okay, I need to post this.

 

I spent an hour this afternoon with the product specialist from Dexibell on the Vivo S9:

 

42616169155_5894b2297b_c.jpg

 

If anyone has specific questions, let me know and I'll do my best to answer; don't have time to do a full write-up at the moment, but I'll have some more time with it today (note that it's a pre-release prototype, the actual units won't be shipping until late August/early September).

 

Apparently the Dexibell website will have S9 info a few days from now. :2thu:

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how is that new fatar tp400 hybrid action?

 

While Action is a very personal thing (read any of the thousands of threads about the various Fatar actions around here ;) ), Ill say this.

 

Its amazing. Weighting feels really good, and its nice and responsive. Add to that the velocity curve options (7 different starting weights - 3 light, 3 heavy and normal - and a 5-point editable curve from those starting points) and it was amazingly playable.

 

While Im far from the most amazing piano player, Ive been playing weighted actions since my Roland A-80 in the 80s, and Id rank this up there with my current favourite portable action, the Roland RD-2000.

 

(redacted info about the Fatar model, it's not 100% "official" yet) ;)

 

Long story short I think the action is a real winner! And look forward to seeing it in other products as time goes by.

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How are the MIDI controller functions?

 

Pretty good; 4 zones, each with their own assignments (pedals, wheels, faders, key range, etc). The motorized faders on the left side are all CC (assignable), velocity curves (I think per zone? Don't remember 100%).

 

The amazing part of this, is the USB supports MIDI + Audio both directions... we had a laptop connected and Ableton Live 10 showed roundtrip latency of 4.8ms at 128 samples. :o

 

 

 

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As I posted before three just received the Vivo S3 two days ago but really havent had time to play with it yet. It has amazing build quality beautiful AP piano sounds which I am most interested in and its amazing light weight.

 

Dexibell is on Facebook messenger and does respond to questions fairly quickly. Yesterday I even emailed a gentleman at DB regarding a question and it turned out it was the president of the company. He emailed back within a few minutes with an answer to my question. I think I will enjoy dealing with this company and the board is definitely a keeper from what I can see so far. Absolutely love the touch, feel and sound.

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