Not a piano guy, but many of my audience members know how a good piano sounds. There is always someone in the lobbies that is a resident that is a piano player and wailing away at the Yamaha or Steinway grand. And, more often than not, there is a group of folks standing around the piano singing (howling).

A few years ago, there was a guy with a cheap Casio that relied heavily on the piano voice - which was just awful. It didn't take long for the resident council to tell the AD not to bring him back. He was a very talented player, but the sounds coming out of the amp were not on par with today's TOTL and mid range arranger keyboards.

Now, DonM relies heavily on his guitar sounds/voices, but he too uses the piano for a lot of his on stage productions. I have heard him play using both guitars and pianos and he really does a fantastic job with both. I'm fairly confident that he would have problem with any keyboard that didn't have great piano sounds.

Many years ago, when I was experiencing phase cancellation using Yamaha's Grand Piano that was heavily, stereo-sampled, I spent the better part of three months creating a mono grand piano based on a midi grand piano. It took a lot of time to get it to sound great, but I finally managed to get what I considered an acceptable, end product. I posted the piano voice on line and it has been downloaded more than 1,000 times since I posted it. Many users tell me it is their go-to piano voice, which is quite flattering, at least to me.

All the best,

Gary