Messe rumors and news?

[ElmerJFudd]

Looks like touch strips with lights, which I think is preferable to Nord's buttons. But yeah, I gotcha. Still not drawbars.

[brenner13]

Found this new-to-me manufacturer of digital pianos on a U-Toob vid from Messe then found this excellent in-store review of a console model. I have yet to complete the research, but 'wonder if there is a North America distributor for Dexibell Vivo? From the demos, this may be the sound I have been dreaming of. Ultra high-end sample/modeling probably commands a lofty price?

[brenner13]

Svengled forum search

 

Whoops, I must have been very busy late January when this subject was covered.

[Geoff Grace]

More Montage demo sounds:

 

[video:youtube]

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[vanderSchoot]

I played almost all the digital stage piano's at the Messe and the surprise package for me was the Numa Concert.

 

I personally liked it the best of all the compition using Fatar keybeds and even over some brands using their own developed keybeds.

For a little less than 1500,- it played extremely well.

The Nord, Kurzweil and Kronos were all inferiour keybed wise.

When i come to think of it, why should Fatar give their compition better keybeds than what they are using themselves ?

The solid feel, hand-ear connection was surprisingly pleasing to me....something no other stage piano gave me in the same amount. Kawai MP was very good indeed and capable of even more expression, but it was a little light.....when going over from the real grand SK series and the MP11 it was as clear as can be.......the MP11 is extremely easy to play....almost to easy.

 

I went from a Yamaha CP1 to the Numa Concert and back (little walk in between) and i prefered the Numa Concert by some margin.

The sound was also very good, althaugh a bit mellow (Steinway), but very warm, pleasing, accurate resonance and a very gradual increase of colour instaed of easy access to FFF which I believe most Stage piano suffer from in their default settings.

 

The SL88 grand was connected with NI the Grandeur and it also proved to be a similar and very good hammer action controler.

They are surely on my radar.....Fatar has gained a fan.

 

If only their marketing was a little better, then those boards would be worldwide hits !

[Aidan]

Yamaha are still touting the CP1? Wow.

[vanderSchoot]

Yamaha are still touting the CP1? Wow.

Yes and it sounded dated compared to what the compition offers now. Nord piano3, Korg Kronos2, Kawai MP11, Roland RD800 and the Kurzweil Forte are all ahead of the CP1 (all kinds of intergrated resonances are lacking which becomes obvious in the flattness of the CP1) when it comes to the main piano sounds. Highly subjective of course.....

[burningbusch]

Looks like touch strips with lights, which I think is preferable to Nord's buttons. But yeah, I gotcha. Still not drawbars.

 

Appears to be multi-functional. You can see control switch for ORGAN, KEY/LAYERS and EQ. Also note the legend above the strips. Besides this, you have the advantage of the "drawbars" matching the sound as you flip through presets. Seems like the strips could work better than the Nord method in that you should be able to "pull" maybe four with a single hand movement.

 

http://www.purgatorycreek.com/DL2/0121161123.jpg

 

Busch.

[burningbusch]

This makes no sense to me. So there is some new company that is calling themselves Vorg, putting out a Kox organ, and somehow using the Vox logo without lawsuit?

 

Or did someone use a photo of Korg's own occasional one-off Vox reissue to illustrate their mention of an unexpected new player that is doing a clone and playing anagram with the name so that people "get it" but they don't get sued?

 

The Korg Vox reissue was never for sale. Is this one? Way more interested in having a Vox reissue than a Mellotron, as it is my most-used alternate keyboard sound.

 

Mark, the product is from Korg. Korg owns the trademarks and all things related to Vox. The poster above was just messing around with the letters. All we know is that Korg has displayed this prototype at NAMM 2016 and Messe indicating it's a future product.

 

Busch.

[burningbusch]

Another view:

 

http://www.purgatorycreek.com/DL2/0121161038~2.jpg

 

Busch.

[Mark Schmieder]

OK, good to know, Busch, and thanks for clearing that up.

 

I don't normally expect serious topics like product announcement lists to get polluted by juvenile humour, so took the earlier post literally.

 

Interesting how it looks orange vs. red in these latest photos. I personally would not likely get on well with the touch buttons for "drawbars" but they do look more swipe-friendly than the old Nord Electro buttons.

 

I'm starting to sense that this is a "skin" around Korg's own electro line though, given the access to clav and other important gigging sounds.

 

And maybe that's OK, if it's got more hands-on controls overall.

[ElmerJFudd]

There is a market for the guys that get this right. The VR-09 has done really well in sales because the concept is right and the cost is down. But for me, personally they cut too many corners to get there. On the other hand the VR-700/760 were very expensive and you could get better clone wheels AND better do-it-all workstations for around the same price. Somewhere in between there must be a swiss-army-knife board that doesn't skimp on the clone and gives you enough bread & butter plus synth stuff... an organ-centric rather than piano centric Motif of sorts.

[hardware]

http://www.dasz.com/

 

[Robert Karasek]

"MPiano" by Alpha Pianos

 

Now, THIS could be something interesting for studio... but especially for live performances.

Loving the idea of changing the key action...

 

 

[marczellm]

The Korg Stage, finally. Though it still does not look like the perfect organ + VA top board.

[Kawai James]

Congratulations on this opportunity, James. I hope you are looking forward to the experience, and I wish you safe travels.

 

Thank you Elmer!

 

After Musikmesse had finished and round-up meetings at Kawai Europe were completed, I took the opportunity of being in Europe to visit my family in England for a few days. I returned to Japan yesterday afternoon, so am catching-up on everything I've missed while away.

 

I expect you may already be familiar with the Kawai-Onyko collaboration, but if not, here is a video of the full presentation, captured by one of my colleagues:

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_f_yCRxB8uZVUdFcGZic1MwZzg/view

 

(yes, I caught a cold while at the show, so was battling a running nose, cough, and sore throat...)

 

Here are a couple of shots of the booth, taken before Musikmesse opened:

 

http://i65.tinypic.com/ok41g.jpg

 

http://i65.tinypic.com/xas57t.jpg

 

Because of my commitments at the booth, I didn't have a great deal of time to look around the other manufacturers' exhibits. However, the hour or two that I did spend was really great! Lots and lots of awesome gear on show, including some very impressive offerings from Dexibell - definitely a name to look out for in the future.

 

Cheers,

James

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[stoken6]

Nice video James, and nice playing by the lady whose name I couldn't quite catch. A lovely light touch.

 

What struck me from the performance was the beautifully even tone. Every note spoke with authority but did not overwhelm the others. There's no hyped treble, or Nord-style lack of cut.

 

Cheers, Mike.

 

 

 

[Kawai James]

Thank you Mike.

 

The pianist's name is Ayano Entani. We were very fortunate to have such a talented pianist demonstrate and describe the instrument.

 

Cheers,

James

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[ElmerJFudd]

Yep. Nice presentation. Everything explained concisely. Techy enough for the discriminating nerds, and enough musical magic to appeal to the home piano hunters. I've felt for awhile the weakest link in digital pianos has been the 2x20 or 2x40watt amps driving a pair or 6 inch speakers squeezed somewhere inconspicuously in the case. Depending on position, maybe ok for player monitoring, but nothing like the strings on the harp resonating. Especially on a, full size upright. So good for Kawai to explore this. Because the sample recording has already gotten quite good, and smooth transition between velocity layers has come a long way as well.

[vanderSchoot]

Thank you Mike.

 

The pianist's name is Ayano Entani. We were very fortunate to have such a talented pianist demonstrate and describe the instrument.

 

Cheers,

James

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All sounded very good. I was present during a presentation and James gave very crisp and clear comments in alternation with short and beautifull pieces of piano.

I always dislike long and boring instrument presentations....this one was very effective for a change...!

 

I had the chance to briefly play one myself (really nice that Kawai was so easy going.....compare that to the rather ackward situation with the Hammond XK-5 on display......uh not on display....)

 

And yes it became obvious that speakers are the weakest link of the chain that needs to be improved upon. The Onkyo surround sound was superiour to any digital with onboard speakers.

Actually it sounded like our expensive headphones, which we never seem to really replicate through monitors or speakers.....this sounded like digitals should sound through speakers......

[Kawai James]

vanderSchoot, thank you very much for your kind words - you've made my day.

 

I'm glad to you appreciated the sound produced by the setup too.

 

Cheers,

James

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[hurricane hugo]

"MPiano" by Alpha Pianos

 

Now, THIS could be something interesting for studio... but especially for live performances.

Loving the idea of changing the key action...

 

 

just read a very brief writeup on this, came here to see if anyone else had covered it. what a truly amazing tech and design achievement.

[Chris Towns]

Thank you Mike.

 

The pianist's name is Ayano Entani. We were very fortunate to have such a talented pianist demonstrate and describe the instrument.

 

Cheers,

James

x

 

 

All sounded very good. I was present during a presentation and James gave very crisp and clear comments in alternation with short and beautifull pieces of piano.

I always dislike long and boring instrument presentations....this one was very effective for a change...!

 

I had the chance to briefly play one myself (really nice that Kawai was so easy going.....compare that to the rather ackward situation with the Hammond XK-5 on display......uh not on display....)

 

And yes it became obvious that speakers are the weakest link of the chain that needs to be improved upon. The Onkyo surround sound was superiour to any digital with onboard speakers.

Actually it sounded like our expensive headphones, which we never seem to really replicate through monitors or speakers.....this sounded like digitals should sound through speakers......

 

Hi,

 

Well done for Kawai's move towards improving the sound quality of their digital pianos, but this idea has been implemented widely by many home keyboard players. I have a Tyros 5 and a Casio PX5-S running through a Denon AV amplifier and Q Acoustic speakers. The Denon comes with a mic that equalises the whole system for optimum sound quality. Many Tyros owners have done similar set ups using their own chosen amplification and speakers. Where I really benefit is with the amount of power on tap (if needed).

 

My only question would be, 'What's taken the Manufacturer's so long to think of this ' ?

 

Chris

 

 

[Kawai James]

Hello Chris,

 

It's important to note that this CS-X1 utilises a separate amplifier and speaker to generate the concert hall environment independently of the instrument's main piano sound.

 

I'm not overly familiar with the Tyros 5, however I expect the sound produced by your amp and speakers will be the stereo output of the instrument, up-mixed to surround, without this unique piano vs concert hall separation.

 

That's not to say that your current setup doesn't sound great, however it's rather different to the CS-X1 concept.

 

Kind regards,

James

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[Chris Towns]

Hi James,

 

I think it's great what Kawai have done in conjunction with Onkyo in respect of improving audio in the new CS-X1, I just hope they implement it into a product for the market.

As you are probably aware, Onkyo have been around in the A.V. (home surround sound) market for a long time. Originally their products were more power and less refinement but over the years their receivers have become very desirable products. Also, just recently they bought out the Pioneer AV business. Pioneer AV receivers consistently win awards year in year out for their top end products. It should mean big things from Onkyo in the coming years.

 

Chris

 

p.s. I know the way I set my sound system up is more on the budget side of things, but I'm really happy with the sound quality of the finished product.

 

 

[Kawai James]

Thanks Chris!

 

Yes, when I was first introduced to some of the Onkyo engineers who worked with my R&D colleagues, it was interesting to see the Onkyo and Pioneer logos on their business cards.

 

I just hope they implement it into a product for the market.

 

Well, the CS-X1 was developed as a technology prototype, however I'm sure it's only a matter of time before this new hardware begins to arrive in consumer digital pianos.

 

Cheers,

James

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