Well, up to this bombshell, you were...

I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but REAL pianos get inconsistent from note to note. Listen carefully from time to time. 'Wolf' notes, soundboard resonant frequencies, changes from different sections of the harp...

I don't know where anyone gets the impression that a piano is smooth from top to bottom. There are at least three distinct sections on the harp (and noticeable transitions from one to the other). Add in the fact that all arranger pianos use stretched samples (not every note is sampled) and I can't understand why anyone expects smoothness who plays a REAL piano.

All we can expect is that the performance be predictable, and responsive. I find this in Roland pianos. As do a very large percentage of pro piano players (look at how many RD series sampled pianos you see in the hands of real pianists.

Thing is, iof Yamaha sampled pianos in arrangers sounded anything like Yamaha's REAL pianos, I would be agreeing with everything that Ian says. But sadly, they DON'T. Listen to all the Tyros and PSR demos at P.Creek. That don't sound like ANY Yamaha piano I ever played... well except for that CP70 I used to play!

We've got Ivory at the studio (check the demos). My producer and I both prefer the G70 to it for many tracks, and it is FAR more responsive to play (virtually ZERO latency). Yes, my tastes are more towards Steinway's than Yamaha's in respect to real pianos. But I'll take a REAL Yamaha over any Yamaha arranger piano. But we HAVE a real Steinway at the studio. On many tracks, we STILL prefer the G70!

You can EQ warmth OUT of a warm real piano (it's what Yamaha must have done with their arranger piano samples!), but you can't EQ warmth INTO a brittle sample. If it's not there, no amount of EQ can bring something in a sample that ain't there in the first place.