Aidan

. Sorry Mark, yes me the grumpy git and our young YT pianist friend the victim of head in rectal insertion syndrome.

I hate to come over all grumpy old man, but I think the guy is up his own ass, tbh.

I note that in his second video, he admits he is deleting critical comments because they are 'spreading misinformation', i.e. disagreeing with him. That seems a very unhealthy state of affairs to me. I posted the comment below on that, but I'm not sure whether that will see daylight. A fellow KCer informed me he couldn't see the comment even though I could, so maybe it was in pre-moderation and will eventually bite the dust like the others. However, this is the gist of my observations... I am a classically trained, professional pianist (though no longer of conservatoire standard, for sure). My degree is in music. I am also a PX-S1000 owner. Before I am accused of being a fanboy, let me say I'm not going to pretend it's perfect (the mid range of the sample bothers me more than the action ever has, to be honest). However, for a £450 piano, you're getting a lot for your money. For pianists of a certain standard and above, ALL digital pianos (and upright acoustics, truthfully) are a compromise. Beside possibly the Kawai MP11SE (which weighs 34kg), I can't think of a DP I'd want to play high end classical repertoire on. Secondly, black keys tend to be lighter than white ones because there is less material in a black key â they are physically smaller, as they are narrower and don't extend to the full depth of the keybed. This can be equalised in grand piano mechanisms with various adjustments (and denser material, i.e. ebony). But you're realistically not going to achieve this in a cheap to mid-range digital instrument, where basically the entire mechanism is plastic. Furthermore, adding more weight to the black keys, much of whose area is closer to the common pivot point, can actually make it more difficult to depress the key towards the back of its length. I'm sure this is a problem many of you have come across yourselves in keybeds â I know I have! This was a common complaint I believe Casio were aware of during the design process and the weighting of the black keys was probably chosen with that in mind, particularly given that the depth of the instrument itself means the pivot point is closer to the key ends than in some other DPs. As I say, there are compromises at work here. But c'mon, it's a £450 electronic piano! Would I play Chopin Etudes on this? Not really. Is it a modestly-priced, nice feeling instrument that is a joy to haul to gigs due to its very low weight? Definitely, in my opinion. As I say, I don't count myself as the best pianist in the world but I am able to play with accuracy and nuance on this keyboard, despite its compromises. I ended by suggesting to James that he reach out personally to Casio on this. I have never found their levels of service and responsiveness to customer feedback to be anything other than exceptional, and what I really do dislike about some of the comments James chose to leave visible here is the inference that Casio is trying to be deceptive or dishonest about one of their instruments, an inference I believe is wholly unfair. In short, it was the typical music snob Casio-bashing. In my opinion, the company deserves far more respect than it generally gets from the musical community.

Bad things should happen to anyone who sings the passing note in the 'born the King of Angels' line of O Come, All Ye Faithful.

Fruity. Not Dirty. I was on the fence about it at first but it has definitely grown on me.

I also use the PM351 as David describes. Also, if you're in a really low-grade mixing situation where you can't get a monitor feed back from the board, simply stick a dynamic mic into the 'Mic level' channel (I use a battered old SM58) and point it at the nearest wedge. Not perfect but good enough for most occasions. Good that they've updated the jumpers for switches. I travel with a pair of tweezers for that reason!

Thanks James, I forgot about formatting on the piano. Even works with my Toshiba 3.0 64gb now.

I'm trying to use the audio record function on my CP4 so I can take the direct sound and sync it with video. However, I'm getting a whole boatload of errors on the three USB drives I have currently available. Any CP4 owners out there able to suggest specific (and currently available) models they know definitely work? Looking for the max capacity here, too.

Frank, while I'm sorry to hear of your own experiences, I'm glad it's not just me! I'm guessing the whole uncertainty over Brexit isn't exactly helping, either. Re: the CP88, it's important to remember that I'm happy with the option of either the Casio or my MODX for gigging, dependent on the setting and sound palette needed. If I replaced the CP4, it would be with a 'nicer' straight digital piano for home practice. Perhaps a lightly-used Clavinova might serve the purpose. However, it looks like the state of the second-hand market, for now at least, might be imposing the status quo, and that's not necessarily a reason to complain. The CP4 and all the others in my stable are nice instruments, and I've been fortunate enough to have been able to to afford to buy them in the first place, and having the option of keeping them in the second.

Although I've done that with vehicles, I've never come across anyone offering such a service on keyboards in the UK.

Some time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (all right, just the 'old' forum), I mapped out a plan to buy a Kawai MP11SE for home and use the Casio PX-S1000 as my gigging piano, saying sayonara for the third and last time to Yamaha's CP4. Well, it's not happening. While I'm very pleased with the way the Casio is working out, the market for second-hand keyboards here in the UK appears to have utterly stagnated. Of the four keyboards I put up for sale at the time of that previous post, only the Hammond SK1 sold eventually. I had only two ultra lowball offers for the CP4, some seriously deluded offers for the Tyros 5 and no interest whatsoever (and for about the third time of advertising) in the Kurzweil PC361. So it has been borne upon me that it's just not worth selling the CP4. Instead, it lives to fight another day as my studio piano and who knows, it may yet get the odd shout out on the road. At least I have that flexibility in keeping it. The Tyros has also been taken off sale; it's unique and fun. Again, I decided it wasn't worth selling at any cost. Which leaves the Kurz. Oh boy...

The answer to your question, from my perspective, is absolutely yes. I bought my MODX8 mainly to cover my Joni Mitchell tribute shows, where piano is dominant but I also need to cover quite a few other sounds. As organ isn't one of those, though, I really wanted to (and believed I could) cover it with one board. Yes, the MODX8 keybed isn't the best I've ever played, but for me, it IS good enough to play expressively, even in the cut down sections in the show which just feature voice and piano. It's certainly a huge leap from the MOXF8 predecessor. Balancing that out are: a) The weight. 13kg is ridiculously light for a keyboard of this calibre. b) The A/D inputs. This means that on the times when I DO need to use a second keyboard, I can feed it into the MODX, which means I can still use my Rolls PM351 to feed FoH, again saving weight and hassle. c) The 'Live Set' feature. Not an original idea, but very welcome. I have a set up for each song in the Joni set and I can go from song to song smoothly and with no hassle.

Dave, it'll be worth waiting for, I promise! Very happy with my S1000. Incidentally, which of the 'small islands' are you on?

Good point, Rudy. Yes, I'm sure that there is the feel of a 'unified' instrument has something to do with it as well.

I've been meaning to post about this for a few days, but EscapeRocks' comments on his encounter with the Casio PX-S1000 have reminded me to do so. Since acquiring my own S1000, I find myself returning to play it again and again each day. Not because of the novelty of having a new keyboard around, nor (with the greatest respect to Mike Martin and the team) because it's the most knockout piano sound I've ever encountered. No, I believe it has a LOT to do with the way the inbuilt speakers offer haptic (touch) feedback to your fingers. I noticed the same effect about a week before I got the Casio. I was called upon to accompany a choir in a church and the place had a Kawai ES7 lying around. Of course, that's a nice piano to begin with, but again, it was that haptic feedback which gave something close to the impression of playing an acoustic instrument which appealed to me. All of which has kind of got me thinking. I was, as you know, pondering acquiring a Kawai MP11SE for studio use. But now I'm wondering whether I would be happier with an ES8, for all that there is obviously a big difference in the action. But on the other hand, it would also be cheaper and more compact, and light enough (relatively speaking) to be occasionally used portable if absolutely needed. I may add that for the full experience, you do need to pair the piano with an external speaker system. But the combo of my S1000 with just a touch of QSC K10 added is a revelation, I have to say. I know other forum members have had similar experiences/thoughts over the years. You may wish to add your own to this?

Just couldn't part with your Bentley I guess. Actually, it was letting the butler go which proved the sticking point. Seriously, you guys need to let go of those English stereotypes.

For the record, nothing that either my parents or my 14 year old self could have sacrificed in 1976 would have bought me a CS80.

I also played the original, in Woodroffe's music shop in Birmingham (UK), and I also couldn't afford it, as I was 14. Actually, I don't think anyone other than superstars could afford it, it was the equivalent now of around £33k. However, every time I went in the shop, the nice guy in the keys department let me play it and talked with enthusiasm about it. His name was Dave Bristow, who eventually became a major figure in the development of the DX7.

You don't need to plug a cable into the headphone jack. Function + F7 will turn the internal speakers on and off, at least on the 1000. As for the Kawai ES110, I really like Kawai's piano samples (I'm actively considering an MP11SE) but that one is an absolute miss for me, it's far too bright and thin on every YouTube video I can find of it.

I've had two K&M 18880s and they've always gone rogue on me after a while, buckling and seizing up. Think I'll order the Jamstand C version from Andertons...

I asked Mike Martin what stand he would recommend (I have several K&M 18950s but they seem like overkill in terms of depth) and he specifically mentioned this one: Ultimate Support JamStands JS-MPS1 I'm having difficulty sourcing one here in the UK, though there are a couple of others which look similar and appear to have roughly the same dimensions, branded as Stagg and Neewer respectively. This side of the pond, Andertons carry the JS-MPS1C, which looks pretty much the same but with a more 'closed in' top.

To be honest, I'd just get the Casio triple pedal set it's not a huge amount of money, compact, light and doesn't move around.

Yes, definitely. I was worried it would be quite spinet-ish like the MOX8F, which I tried and didn't like at all. The much improved sample set probably helps a great deal too, though.

I've tried it with an expression pedal and it works! But its quite odd to use an expression pedal rather than a more standard style sustain pedal - takes some getting used to. But sustain pedals like Yamaha's FC3 (which comes with the CP series) are essentially a continuous controller, so I'm guessing this is what Mike was getting at? That said, I'm using the Casio triple pedal unit and haven't noticed anything too horrible going on.

I don't think there's any difference in weight between the two models, or if there is it's trivial. No, I just needed an instrument for solo piano jobs, whether cocktail stuff, accompanying a choir etc. Anything which takes me beyond that, and I already have the MODX8, which is more flexible anyway. Also I liked the slightly cleaner stylings of the 1000, and I saved a couple of hundred pounds in the process.