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grand piano sampled for PX-330, and approximating its touch


welltempered88

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It's been a great three years of playing the PX-330--it's helped immeasurably with getting piano chops back after too many years playing a synth.

I'm curious if anyone knows what make and model grand piano was used for the PX-330 modern and classic grand samples--and for good measure how the dance piano and mellow piano samples were created.

Also, what touch setting do you prefer on the PX-330--I used the default #2 setting at first for a while, then changed it to a lighter touch #1 especially after reading what the reviewer in the Keyboard Magazine said about the default touch being too heavy and how the #1 setting caused it to "dance"--which is a good description of how #1 setting feels to me.

Even so, I've often gone back to touch setting #2 because it brings out subtle tonal qualities that are harder to duplicate when I use setting #1, although the heavier touch #2 takes some getting used to.

I wonder which touch setting best emulates the touch of the acoustic grand piano used for the PX-330 samples--if I knew that I might be inclined to go with that, to make the grand piano experience as realistic as possible. Could it be the default #2 touch?

Having the Privia on a stand and the three-pedal setup has certainly enhanced the grand piano experience--all I need now is a candelabra and talent, or at least more time to play.

Thanks for your feedback.

Bill

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  • 4 weeks later...

Bob, thanks for your concern--the silence is a bit deafening.

Maybe I ask too many questions at once.

I'd be happy just to hear from other PX-330 players about their impressions of keyboard feel, favorite tweaks to get it to be as close as possible to the grand piano experience especially. It's been a long time since I had access to a concert grand.

I've had my eye on the WK-7500 as a backup/alternate keyboard for a while too--it would complement the Privia by its portability and flexibility, especially that scale tuning feature. The problem I'd have to deal with is the radically different keyboard touch--now that my piano muscles have gotten bulked up, could I control a WK-7500, and get the kind of expressiveness out of it that the Privia keyboard delivers?

Cheers, Bill

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I'd recommend a Privia PX-3 if you are looking for a giggable, portable keyboard instead of the WK7500. Not as many sounds, but it's a very sturdy stage electronic piano with 256 sounds and it will have the weighted, hammer action keybed that you are used to.

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I once thought I could not play piano parts (I'm a Rocker) on anything but a weighted board but now I easily can go back and forth for piano parts between my hammer weighted Yammy S08 and the 7500. It is easier to accidentally hit unwanted notes, at first, with the less weighted 7500 but eventually, and with a bit more concentration, I have been able to avoid that. I love the WK for organ/synth action but it does have some DB organ tone limitations.

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Thanks for your advice. The PX-3 would be fine if not for the fact that it doesn't do user-set microtones, 'scale tuning.' It has the usual bundle of tunings and temperaments found in the other newer Privias but they're pre-set and lack some of the better keyboard temperaments, particularly the Young temperament which sounds just lovely on the piano. If the WK-7500's piano voices are the same as the Privia PX-330 it might be just the ticket for bringing the beauty of well temperaments into the otherwise bland equal-tempered keyboard scene as that keyboard happens to have scale tuning capability.

The reason I jumped on the PX-330 when it first came out is because it was not only affordable and got good reviews but offered different tunings and temperaments, even though the only two historical Western unequal temperaments in the bundle are too rough and extreme to be as useful as other, smoother, unequal temperaments out there--even so, they're so interesting and colorful to play around with once in a while, to remind the ears what pure intervals, tone color and harmony in keyboard music can really be like. It's like going on a vacation and coming back to the same-old same-old with a fresh perspective.

I call the PX-330 on its wooden stand and three pedals my "Piano Piano" since it emulates an acoustic piano experience so well. I play mostly in equal temperament to preserve the piano illusion. It would be good to have another decent keyboard that doesn't so much pretend to be a piano, just a contemporary sonic engine with its own sound and touch, capable of being just as expressive as a piano. Now to keep justifying all that and jump on the WK-7500 when I have some of that mythical disposable income...

Bill

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. . .

I call the PX-330 on its wooden stand and three pedals my "Piano Piano" since it emulates an acoustic piano experience so well. I play mostly in equal temperament to preserve the piano illusion. It would be good to have another decent keyboard that doesn't so much pretend to be a piano, just a contemporary sonic engine with its own sound and touch, capable of being just as expressive as a piano. Now to keep justifying all that and jump on the WK-7500 when I have some of that mythical disposable income...

Bill

I don't think that what you want fits into the marketing strategies of the big manufacturers. They seem to market to a "piano market" and a "synth market", as though the two were separate. And maybe they are, for most buyers.

The Nord Stage 2 probably fulfils all your wishes -- except for price! It really seems to be a "do-anything" keyboard. The same for the Korg Kronos.

. Charles

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