A digital piano with speakers *and* left-hand wheels

[marino]

Today, one of my students asked me to suggest a digital piano with good piano sounds and key weighting, some other good sounds, *pitch and mod wheels*, and built-in speakers/amplification.

He caught me by surprise; I couldn't come up with any model right away, and even after thinking about it for a while, the *only* instrument I could think of was the Casio PX-560M.

 

I visited the web sites of some manufacturers (Yamaha, Kawai, Kurzweil), and found nothing with *all* those features. Some workstations and digital pianos have wheels, but not built-in speakers; and many digital pianos have speakers, but not wheels. Some Casios come close: My PX-350, for example, have speakers and a pitch wheel, but not a mod wheel. And of course, the PX5s has both wheels, but not speakers. So the PX-560M seems to be the only choice in this case.

 

Can you think of any other digital piano with built-in speakers *and* two left-hand wheels? Even a discontinued model, just to have an alternative to present to my student. I'm an a hurry, because it's going to be a Christmas present from his parents....

[Jazz+]

I dont think there is any other

[AnotherScott]

Yamaha CP300.

 

Kurzweil SPS4-8 has pitch ribbon and mod slider.

[hardware]

Once you see George Duke bending EPiano chords and notes understanding the need for at least pbend becomes easier to understand.

We all owe KC & The Sunshine Band and Jan Hammer gratitude.

KCs Clavinet with Whammy Bar was ingenious..

 

Casio PXs are so worth their price.

I dont use them live because the visual feedback is non existent.

But what a great Axe just to play casual gigs.

[marino]

Thanks for you thoughts... I have researched a bit further myself, and all things considered, the 560 still seems to come closest to this guy's wishes. I'm going to suggest that.

[Bobby Simons]

. . . pitch and mod wheels. . .

Perhaps your student is planning some Garagebanding or iOS musicmaking on the side - I dont blame him and would be wanting the same. Hell also be needing a USB port, though I guess they all have one these days.

[AnotherScott]

Casio PXs are so worth their price....I dont use them live because the visual feedback is non existent.

Can you give an example of what you expect/need to see, that you can't?

 

all things considered, the 560 still seems to come closest to this guy's wishes. I'm going to suggest that.

Yeah, it's a great board. But yes, this has been a pet peeve of mine as well... almost universally, you get MIDI controller functions or internal speakers and almost never both. The MC functions being, not just the pitch+mod controls, but also the ability to do zoning or send specified Program Changes from the board's patch select buttons. This has basically been the general dichotomy between the Yamaha P series and CP series (like P155 vs. CP33), Roland FP vs RD series (like FP7 vs RD300), the Privia PX5S and other concurrent Privias (including the 560, which has the wheels but very limited MIDI), Kawai MP7 and ES8, Dexibell Vivo S3 vs P3. I don't understand why they all seem to feel that anyone who wants built in speakers won't care about triggering an external device, though that never stopped them from providing MIDI Outputs. Weird how nearly universal it is.

 

Perhaps your student is planning some Garagebanding or iOS musicmaking on the side - I dont blame him and would be wanting the same. Hell also be needing a USB port, though I guess they all have one these days.

Even if something has standard MIDI ports and no USB, adapting it to USB is trivial.

[The_Star_Guy]

Yamaha CP-300

 

clonk

 

Yamaha P-200 (discontinued)

[marino]

The CP-300 is a great instrument... just a bit on the heavy side.

[The_Star_Guy]

The CP-300 is a great instrument... just a bit on the heavy side.

 

Have to agree with that!