David Barrickman

KORG Kronos replaced by Nautilus Kurzweil Forte 8/7 discontinued K2700 is a bit of a drag IMHO Edit: also CP4 as Dave F reminds vs CP88 totally agree

The Yamaha forum experience was at times not very good, I frequently lurked there (never joined) but would quite often see posts complaining about forum issues along with out of control strange spam threads and advertisement posts polluting the forum…not sure how secure it was despite Yamaha owning it...certainly appears Yamaha outsourced to an incompetent company…my experience here at MPN Keyboard Corner and at other independent forums like KORGforums and YamahaMusicians has been way better (not as much or no spam, down times non existent or very occasional, etc) 😎🤗

Not on Facebook it was/is independent of KORG…run by Irish Acts by a person with an username of Sharp.

Can’t believe how long Yamaha’s synth forum has been MIA, now Irish Act’s KORG forum is down once again Uggh I hope they can be retrieved and return somehow, both have been a great source of help to me over the past several years, along with MPN/keyboard corner forum here!

When the restaurant is not packed I use just the internal speakers and am very pleasantly surprised at the sound quality and volume level. When more patrons are there I supplement the internal speakers with an old Yamaha Stage Pas 500 mixer/amp w/2 2-way speakers stereo. (This system refuses to die after many years and sounds better than it should 😂… I formerly had 2 QSC K8.2 speakers but I was forced to sell them due to pandemic related economic hardship). I think the internal speakers would suffice for small to medium size gigs or rehearsals for sure, not hearing any “buzzing” yet supposedly this is a potential issue but so far so good here 😎👍🏼

I in late Nov took delivery on Kawai E920, with some adjustment of the velocity curves (several options are supported including custom) I would call it a lighter action than most other slab DPs…wish the action in the lower mid and bass register wasn’t graded as much, I think Kawai overdid it a bit…been a little fatiguing in my left hand at times, the ES520 has a different action may not be as bad…the 4 band EQ sliders come in handy though. Much tweaking is possible with the “virtual technician” menu, I’m really enjoying playing it as a 37.5 lbs gigging DP 5-6 days a week at a solo restaurant gig. Tried Yamaha P515 P525 CP88 Kurzweil Forte 8, Yamaha Montage M8x and Nord Stage 3/4 before taking a chance on the Kawai (wasn’t able to audition before ordering ES920) in the past had Yamaha CP30, CP70, CP300 then Roland RD800 and RD700 GX (don’t like the RD2000 heavier feeling action, much prefer the 700/800 personally) but of course all of this is highly subjective! Good luck in your search!

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPcTOx34g9XT_abTmLQS3PJTbOCJlKaX_

Very glad to see Jacob still at it!!! Best wishes to him and all who will be able to afford this, sounds awesome!

https://www.musicradar.com/news/korg-grandstage-x-stage-piano A little more info here fwiw, nice surprise 😎

FWIW my digital piano journey has been Yamaha CP300, then Roland RD800 (had it and a CP4 for a few days to play/compare, bought the RD800) and fast forward a few years later I recently have taken delivery on a Kawai ES920 I’ve had it for a couple of weeks now. Considered Yamaha P515 P525 CP88 and the Studiologic Numa 88 X and GT models, only got to actually play 515 & CP88 before pulling the trigger on the Kawai…you might want to consider it vs the 515/525.

Kawai ES920 GC, 20% off current MAP was hard for me to resist very recently…so I decided to go for it…my initial impressions playing it tonight on a solo restaurant gig are very positive! This forum has been a huge help for researching and narrowing down options for a new slab 88-key for mostly gigging and practice…considered a Nord Stage 4 88 or a Yamaha Montage M8x against the (much less $ and weight) ES920 this past week, definitely all 3 had my attention! Looked at and read about quite a few other brands/models too! Decided to try to spend less on the Kawai vs M8x/S4/etc. and work towards integrating an iPad into my rig. My previous gig setup was a Roland RD800 bottom tier Yamaha Montage 6 top tier…like many of ya’ll, I’m now trying to get my gigging rig down to just one keyboard! 😎

You’re welcome, sorry to have to share, it’s a shame indeed!

No the M7 and M6 both don’t have it unfortunately…uggh…and the M8x still weighs over 60lbs… However the 6 and 7 WILL respond to P.A.T. from an external keyboard controller/synth which supports it (ASM Hydrasynth and the new KORG keyboard controllers are two examples of what’s available now).

Long time lurker here, registered awhile back but this is my first post in KC. I’m so very grateful for this community and forum! I was one of those who passed on the Montage 8 due to weight, went with Roland RD-800 with Montage 6 top tier (prolly would have done the 7 instead if keyboard was C-C instead of E-G). Later when the MODX dropped I purchased the 8 model the day it came out, once again trying to reduce weight. After over a year of trying to make the MODX 8 work for me I sold it and later decided to sell my Montage 6 and RD-800 too. Currently gigging with a Roland RD-700gx (on kind loan from a church I play for) and have purged all the hardware I bought in the 2010’s (RD-800, Montage 6, MODX 8, original Kronos 61)…will be watching what Yamaha does this time around in the fall for sure…like others have mentioned, VRM for the pianos; ANX w/poly aftertouch, VL engine (?) and a weight reduction for the 88 key model (69lbs Montage 8 uggh my RD was 50lbs) might push me over the edge to purchase in Oct. I’ve had back problems since age of 12 so reducing the schlep is a priority for me. Hoping to integrate a very recent iPad purchase into my music work too! edit: forgot the mention the YC organ and updated rotary effect, if they include that in their new flagship (as Roland did with the Fantom) it would make this hard to resist for me in the fall…wonder how much the price will increase…