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Has anyone played/bought Kawai ES520?


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I"m interested in a Kawai ES-520 and couldn"t find any owner or reviews here.

 

I am considering a solo piano gig that is available for me and I like the piano focus and 32 pound weight idea. About half the weight of my Fantom 8 and an attractive value proposition for its action compared to Casio, Yamaha, Korg, Kurzweil and Roland offerings.

 

Anyone played the new ES520 from Kawai? What do you think?

Yamaha U1 Upright, Roland Fantom 8, Nord Stage 4 HA73, Nord Wave 2, Korg Nautilus 73, Viscount Legend Live, Lots of Mainstage/VST Libraries

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I haven't actually heard one but here is a link to a thread on it and the 920 from Piano World:

 

http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/3023031/gonew/1/kawai-announces-es920-and-es520-portable-digital-pianos.html#UNREAD

 

The 920 dominates most of the thread but if you go to the last page there are a few videos on the 520 itself.

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I played one completely by accident about 2 months ago. I had a rare post lockdown gig accompanying someone and they said there was a piano available. Turned out to be the 520. I only got to play it for about an hour and didn't really get to dig into it much but here were my thoughts:

 

Action was really nice. Quite like the action in the ES110 but maybe a little heaver (but in a good way, more solid rather than fatiguing).

Main piano was lovely and I found there was a great finger to ear connection.

Only managed to scan through some of the other elec pianos and they were perfectly good. Would easily suffice for a gig if needed.

A proper sustain pedal that (and Im open to correction on this) that creates pedal noise upon depressing. I really like this as an option as I use it a lot on pianoteq though I keep it dialled down to a subtle level. Not sure if it's adjustable on the 520.

 

Looks wise it reminds me of the yamaha P515 or the Roland FP90 especially as its quite deep. I didn't have to pick it up or carry it but it seems quite portable but a little wide.

 

My experience with Kawai has been limited over the years and they were never on my radar until I got to play the ES110 for a week long musical a couple of years ago. I really liked it, an amazing piano for the price and the pedal noise was really novel.

 

That's about my experience with it. As I saidit was short but enjoyable so feel free to ask me questions and it might jog my memory.

Yamaha MODX8, Legend Live.
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I played one completely by accident about 2 months ago. I had a rare post lockdown gig accompanying someone and they said there was a piano available. Turned out to be the 520. I only got to play it for about an hour and didn't really get to dig into it much but here were my thoughts:

 

Action was really nice. Quite like the action in the ES110 but maybe a little heaver (but in a good way, more solid rather than fatiguing).

Main piano was lovely and I found there was a great finger to ear connection.

Only managed to scan through some of the other elec pianos and they were perfectly good. Would easily suffice for a gig if needed.

 

That's about my experience with it. As I said it was short but enjoyable so feel free to ask me questions and it might jog my memory.

 

Thank you so much for the great review. I have played the ES-110 several times before and while I really enjoyed its playability I thought that the action was a tad too light. If the triple sensor action of the ES-520 is actually heavier & more substantial that is a good thing, IMHO. My MP6 uses older but similar harmonic imaging samples and while the pianos are fine, the Rhodes samples need a bit of updating. Kawai James mentioned in a different post that the Rhodes samples had been updated and improved in the ES-520. Do you recall how they sounded? Were they Mark I, Mark II or Fender Suitcase style?

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Gig: Yamaha MODX7, NumaX 73 Piano  Studio: Kawai ES-920; Hammond SK Pro 73; Yamaha Motif ES7 w/DX,VL,VH; Yamaha YC 73; Kawai MP-6; Numa Compact 2x

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Yes the elec pianos are definitely an upgrade from something like the 110 series. As I said on that gig I was really only playing acoustic piano but when I played around briefly with the settings I found maybe 4 electric pianos covering what sounded to me like a mark 1 Rhodes, a Wurly type, a DX type. I think they were called Elec piano 1 and 60's elec piano... That kind of thing. Like companies usually name elec piano sounds I guess to avoid any copyright issues?

 

Anyway the basic elec piano tones were solid, Rhodes type had a nice bark in the lower register and a nice bell like quality in the upper register if played appropriately. That being said I'm used to playing the modx elec pianos and some of the scarbee softwares ones so I'm spoilt. Obviously the 520 won't be like these ones but there are external effects that you can add to each tone (phaser, tremolo, amp simulations etc) that will get you very close to what you want. Unfortunately I didn't get enough time with it to go though all of these but saw enough to know that you could get very good results if you spent a little time. I'm assuming you can save these patches /registrations once all your editing is done? I'm guessing th emanual is widely available as a pdf online so it might be worth looking through it.

 

I know Kawai James is active on this forum and always very insightful and helpful so he might chime in about the types of improvements. Hope this helps.

Yamaha MODX8, Legend Live.
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