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r/piano on Reddit: Keyboards under 1000$ (Korg B2, Kawai Es110)

August 1, 2020 -

Hi,

I'm looking for a keyboard that has some of the nicest piano sampling under the 1000$ range to practice and play on.

I'm hoping for one with a line-in so I can eventually connect a vst and play it through the keyboard speakers.

I looked through the p-125 and such and I think the tone sounds a bit artificial.

I really like the ES110 sound but apparently there's no line-in. Also looking at the Korg D1, B2, and FP30x.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Top answer

1 of 2

I have the Kawai ES110 and I am a concert pianist. It's a great piano for classical at its price and has like eight piano sounds. However, it's not perfect. I doubt there's a single better electric piano for the price range, but it still has significant downfalls. If you are performing classical music just get a real piano. I haven't played the ES8 but it sounds like it's much better. Don't get stuck with a mostly good electric piano. It's just not worth the cost if you regret being stuck with a mediocre product after-the-fact. Definitely get the three pedals kit. I have a music degree and I'm stuck with this junk and cause the pandemic I can't make money to get something better. Not trying to whine, just warning you, if you have money now don't cheap out if it's going to bite you later. Instead of line-in. Use midi into your PC and use VST on the PC. You may need some good speakers for this. I have Roland CM220's but those are very expensive (And no longer made). I don't believe very many electric pianos would have a line-in except maybe workstations. The bluetooth does not work with windows unless you ask me nicely for a special program I wrote to make it work (which is buggy, and requires a few steps such as a custom bluetooth driver). Also allows flipping pages with the sostenuto pedal. I wish the Kawai had USB midi. It works fine with EastWest's Steinway piano sound library but something's just wrong with how East West takes in velocities and it's never felt right (Specifically, the velocity curve). I use the second piano sound with the reverb turned as high as possible. Don't be afraid to mess with the settings. I even re-tune mine so I can play along with orchestra's. This video is from half-way through my undergrad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znC7CMbR_S8 Positives: The key action isn't stupid deep like all of Yamaha's electric pianos are. 28 pounds, super light. I have transported this thing thousands of kilometers between home, university, and wherever. Negatives: Build quality. Some keys start to rub and kinda squeak. Plus I feel like months after buying this thing the store model key action felt different which makes me think this is like a Nintendo 64 controller scenario where it slowly breaks itself over-time (Or like a break-in period). Also, if there's one in the store check if the surface has a cool "texture" feel. Mine is just a boring plastic surface which makes me think that stuff rubs off or the store I went to applied some sort of texture-stuff to the surface of the keys. Kawai support told me they don't put anything on the key surfaces though. Noise. You can hear the "hammer" hit the underside of the plastic casing. Real pianos make hammer noise too so I don't care, but some do. Internal speakers: They sound great, but at 8 watts or whatever they clip too easily. Sound analysis: The piano is like pretty realistic. Like I can play all my performance level stuff on it. But as soon as you compare it with a real sampled Steinway (like from East West) you'll immediately realize it's missing a lot of stuff. I want to upgrade to one of their pianos that has the Shigeru Kawai SK-EX Concert Grand Piano (Or just a real piano). Kawai electric pianos are stupid expensive and impossible to get anyway. Like none of the dealers near me even keep them in-stock. Also, consider that the most expensive electric piano models aren't necessarily good either. I've played on a top of the line Roland which was absolute garbage. I've also played on a good Roland which looked like an upright piano. Such a frustrating thing as it's impossible to really know if it's any good until years down the road. tldr; Probably better than other pianos in its price-range. Especially anything from Yamaha or Roland. Perhaps try and find something more suited to your use-case. Testing for a good electric piano is easy: Hit a note as hard as you can (not trying to break it obviously) if the sound produced sounds good. Then it's a bad piano. Any real piano's tone won't sound great if you hit the keys too hard.

2 of 2

I’m not sure about the other keyboards, but I have the ES110. In my current recording setup, I connect the keyboard to my Mac with Bluetooth MIDI. I get the audio station (Logic Pro in my case) to playback a midi file which plays out of the keyboard speakers using the built in samples. And I run a stereo line out of the keyboard into an audio interface connected to my Mac. So I can essentially record any midi file using keyboards built in sampling. Hopefully that helps with your question.

B&H Photo Video

bhphotovideo.com › c › compare › Korg_B2_vs_Kawai_ES_110_vs_Roland_FP30X_vs_Korg_SP-280 › BHitems › 1646124-REG_1320319-REG_1647746-REG_922875-REG

Compare Korg B2 vs Kawai ES 110 vs Roland FP30X vs Korg SP-280

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