locture

No. The board itself is excellent but it's such an omission not to include sympathetic string resonance. Nord has a completely different tone - a bit too punchy to my taste. I think both can cut thru a dense mix fairly well but yamaha is more crisp while Nord more of a full sound.

As far as I can recall, the FX on YC is actually damper resonance, not the sympathetic string resonance. It's only triggered when you have pedal down. The sympathetic string resonance happens, say, when you strike a key while holding another chord, and you only hear the resonance from the chord keys' corresponding overtones. It's called VRM and you can find it in Yamaha's digital pianos, but it does not present in the YC/CP series.

I've tried them both. The piano tones are the same. I mean, subtle difference if tested with similar effects. Very crisp, up-tuned but thin so every piano model sounds like a Yamaha, but not very detailed (no sympathetic string resonance). Clearly targeting stage performance to cut thru the mix rather than being a real acoustic piano for a player. I didn't play with the EPs on the YC a lot. IMHO the ones on Montage M sound generally better. I might be biased though because that one is $5000. The organs on Montage M are sampled. YC gets an individual organ engine and nine drawbars. So there is no comparison.

No such thing. Just go with the latest version.

My Nautilus and Yamaha U1 upright. Both are doing great job, although I occasionally miss the PHA-50 keybed on the Roland Fantom when I play my Nautilus.

For one thing which I don't really understand: Yamaha's real EPs are sample-based, Korg mostly modelded EP-1, but I have never fully got the idea of how Roland does their EP. The supernatural thing sounds almost like a mystery. But I don't like the Roland EP presets anyway. They all feel a bit too harsh. Maybe savable by some clever EQ but by default they just don't get my beloved warm sound from actual Fender Rhodes.

I think it's because Nord keyboards generally are made with very rich and punchy tones so they can cut thru the mix really well and can still sound huge in PA. I think Nord takes a lot of their samples from Sampletekk. I have a couple of their piano VIs and they do have the same character. As a classical trained person I don't really like that tone a lot. My Nautilus has more authentic Steinway sound. But I can definitely see Nord's use in pop songs or bands.

I have always been a piano lover and have also done my comparisons. Actually IMO the Nautilus has better stock piano samples - it's currently the only keyboard which offers 5 GB of samples for a single piano with 12 velocity layers and multiple mic positions, and the sound quality is up to par even when compared with many software VIs. However it is geared more towards a softer tone and it's very difficult to get a very bright sound (Korg should definitely do a close mic for this). While the MP11SE also sounds warm and mellow, the brilliance setting is extremely nice to work with and makes my life much easier. There are also a few artifacts and glitches in the Nautilus' stock presets that I have to put up a combi and do quite a few individual note edits while the MP11SE is well balanced along the keyboard. We are comparing stock presets here so my ultimate piano option definitely goes to Kawai. For the Roland, I actually played a Fantom EX earlier this week. While all their stock sampled pianos suck in one way or another (I just don't think anyone could get a nice sampled piano with only 4 velocity layers), the new German V-Piano sounds so much better than the old stage grand V-Piano and feels nice to play. It still lacks a bit on the timbre side but I think overall on the same level with the other modern keyboards now. I am not really a fan of Nord's piano sound but ultimately it's only personal preference and very subjective.

Well, many stage keyboards allow easy importing extra sounds today, and the workstations could even do sampling by themselves. That's the reason for me to put the limit of stock presets. Otherwise this poll would become something like "the best 3rd party audio engineer for keyboard X" and then no stage keyboard could fight the workstations because of their deep sample editing capability. That would be weird and meaningless.

Just trying to grab some thoughts from the keyboardist community. Which keyboard (say workstation or stage board, let's not do Rhodes for Rhodes sound or Hammond for organ) has the best stock piano/Rhodes/organ sound in your opinion? My preference: Piano: Kawai MP11SE Rhodes: Korg Nautilus Organ: Nord Stage 4

The best Japanese Grand I've ever played on the Kronos was the Acousticsamples C7 close mic. I'd not look for anything else.

My picks on action would be PHA50>RH3>PHA4. But everyone has their own opinion. But I definitely prefer my Nautilus's grand piano sound over Roland (and Yamaha and Nord as well).

I agree that doing those Rachmaninoff/Vivaldi exercises can be time consuming and boring. Not actually the best thing to do. I used to have a complete schedule for basic exercises when I was still practicing a lot: 1. Warm up. I use Hanon or Schmitt finger exercises as warm up. Pick a few exercises and play them at all 12 keys. 2. Diatonic scales. One key signature per day for both major and harmonic minor and play at octave, sixths and tens. Both hands together, four octave, starting with medium speed (usually 160-180 bpm 16th) and go as fast as possible. 3. Basic arpeggios. Same setting as scales. 4. Chords. I randomly pick a triad and a 7th types and do it on all 12 keys. Both hands, 4 octave. 5. Specific technical exercises of the week: chromatic scales, thirds, tremolos, trills, etc. The whole list could take about an hour or longer. But I did benefit a lot from these basic exercises.

People are told to start LH 7th arpeggios with index finger on black keys because this is usually the way to avoid thumb hitting black keys when playing LONG arpeggios, where you only use your 4/5 fingers (pinky not used). If you only do one octave, the rule of thumb is to use whatever fingering you feel most comfortable with.

I've got too many EPs in my pocket so I'll pass this time. But yea it sounds great.