You’ve been good this year, so Santa has decided to bring you a digital piano…and he’s trying to decide which one in the +/-$2,500 range you would like best:

Kawi - - MP8ii
Nord - - Stage 76EX (or EX Compact 73)
Roland - - RD700SX (get the GX and save +/-$700?)
Yamaha - - CP300
Yamaha - - Nocturne 100 (purest acoustic tones but fewest features?)

Santa can fit only one of them into his sleigh, so which one would you like?

Why? What’s its best feature, where does it shine? What disappoints or needs improvement? Does one clearly stand out above the rest? And please go ahead, trash the others. :-) Did Santa miss any other good ones in the $2,000-2,500 range?

When comparing makes/models is it better to “ignore” any MIDI/recording/layering/etc., concentrating instead on best reproduced sounds, available voices, etc.? And then just plan to do the “I want to layer tracks on top of each other” thing via a software package on my computer? If so, how handy is it, nonetheless, to have, say, 2- or 4-track capability right on the instrument?

Also, is there a digital feature like a guitar’s capo for digital pianos – Oh, I can’t sing it in this key, but I can “bend/transpose the song” into that key? N.B. This will be a stand-alone, sitting-in-the-house piano (no add-ons, no sequencers, no additional keyboards, no gigs, etc.) – just for family and friends’ voices to set the dogs a-howlin’. Accordingly, features and function take precedence over weight and style of instrument.

And the winner is……….?

Santa’s elves thank you for your help!

Best regards,
Sneezy, Sleepy, Happy, Doc…oops, wrong story :-)

P.S. Speaking of Santa Claus, for any doubters out there…“Yes, Virginia, there IS a Santa Claus.” – Francis P. Church, 1897, editor-in-chief of the New York Sun, in an editorial response to a letter received from eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon, 115 W. 95th Street, NYC. Mr. Church goes on to say…

“He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas, how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.”

[my editorial] As we approach the holiday season, we parents especially need to take pause from our busy lives to reflect upon that which is most important to us …our legacy and our future…our hopes and our prayers …and all of our love...our children. [/my editorial] Peace.