A friend of mine is looking for a 76 or 88 key portable piano with great piano sounds and sequencer... suggestions?

Glenn

How much does your friend want to spend?

Gary

He's a high school vocal teacher doing several road trip performances with the HS jazz vocal group. I think money is not that much of an issue, lucky guy.

Most of the digital pianos that are portable and have sequencers only have 2 track sequencers. How important is having a really full blown 16 track sequencer compared to a simple 2 track sequencer?
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

George is dead on there. Most of them do only record 2 tracks. You know there is one good board out there with 88 weighted keys and full 16 track recording. Have you considered the Korg Triton LE. I'm pretty sure that model has a better acoustic sample than the other LE's. I think the 88 model has a 16mb piano. You also could consider something like a Motif ES with 88 keys, or even a Roland Fantom with 88 keys. These boards are portable. You can go much less in the weight, but like George said those models typically have 2 track recorders.

Squeak

Good point. I think the 2 track would work for him. Beyond that he could create on his PC and then transfer to the KB, right? His main priority is very good piano voices.

Here's a couple of strong recommendations from a music store owner who carries all of these products.
The Yamaha P90 (or P120 if internal speakers are needed). However, the P90 has a better Grand Piano sound. both weigh about 37 lbs.

The Roland FP5 has a great piano and even has some arranger styles with drums, bass and accomp. with built in speakers and many more sounds then the Yamaha Pianos. The weight is about 32 lbs.

All of the above Pianos have 64 voice polyphony and are really dependable products which can be moved alot and give years of good service.

Prices will vary from $999.00 to about $1295.00.

George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

GlennT,

If you want the best portable 88 key portable piano, look no further than the Yamaha P250. This has the best touch suitable for classical pianists and the best sampled Grand found on any electronic piano made for professional use. The only way you can get a better touch and slightly better piano sound is to get the new Yamaha CVP-309 which is not portable and therefore does not apply to your friend.

Yamaha cornered the professional electronic piano market with the P250. It eclipses the Roland RD700 both in touch and sonics. It lists for $2500 but you can easily buy it for $1800.

It comes with a 16 track 150,000 note sequencer and the full palette of 480 XG voices plus its own 45 panel voices and 128 voice polyphony. The Grand Piano 1 (default) and Grand Piano 2 are outstanding. Pianists buy this just to get this sound and practice with headphones at home. Speaking of headphones, you should also get the Sony MDR-7506 with this. You can get this for $89. Excellent detail, frequency response and comfortable fit.

This unit weighs 71 pounds and comes with very powerful onboard stereo speakers. Do not buy the optional Yamaha LH3 stand. Instead, get a simple X-stand. It is easier to fold and transport and the P250 feels very stable on it.

Later, your friend can add styles and rhythms to this setup by placing a Yamaha PSR3000 on top. There is enough real estate on the top panel of the P250 to comfortably fit the PSR3000. This setup will give you a tremendous value rivaling the CVP series of Clavinovas costing several thousands more.

Because the P250 is designed for professional gigging and has some stiff competition, it is priced low. A similar CLP piano with living room grade styling costs much more.

I think the P250 will be an excellent choice. You ought to go to Guitar Center and try this out. It beats the S90 Triple Strike Piano and betters the Motif ES with the PLG-150AP piano expansion card.

If weight and price is of concern, the second best choice is the P90 as suggested above by George.

Tapas




[This message has been edited by Tapas (edited 12-16-2004).]

Glenn,

You may also want to keep an eye out on the Ketron GP10/GP10A which are also portable units with 88key 'graded' hammer action and multi [5] layer Stereo Samples on Piano and other voices. It also comes with a two track sequencer, capability to layer 2 or 3 voices at once, split and great overall sound quality ... sounds of Ketron.

Ofcourse you can always add the XD3 Arranger Module or new Midijay ... if he wants to add on an Arranger as well!

Thanks,

AJ

First, the sequencers in most of the portable digital pianos, whether 2 tracks or 16 tracks are totally useless for performance since there is no way to save and load data. The onboard sequencer can only hold one song at a time.

Second, if the piano sound is what is the most important in your friend’s application, he/she should definitely check out the Promega 3 from Generalmusic.

PDF Brochure

Information and Specs

Jazz Piano

Concert Grand Piano

I notice that you are in Ohio. My office is in Cincinnati. If your friend's school is also in Ohio, I would be happy to bring a Promega 3 to the school so your friend could have a chance to see and hear what this unique instrument is all about.

Best Regards,

Dave McMahan
Nat'l Product & Support Manager
Generalmusic USA www.generalmusic.us

[This message has been edited by WDMcM (edited 12-17-2004).]