Polite call for donations
February 25, 2006
If you enjoy or find useful the Piano & Synth site, would you please consider donating a little to my “Digital Piano Fund”?
Donations will shorten the time it takes for me to be able to purchase a Yamaha P140 digital stage piano, and finally satisfy my cravings for a (near as) real piano experience again.
I grew up in a house with an upright acoustic piano, and took lessons on several baby grand pianos. I have tinkered on a number of other acoustic and digital pianos, and now I want my own.
There’s no way I can afford or find room for an acoustic piano, so a well-crafted digital offering from Yamaha is the way to go.
I was practically drooling in the showroom yesterday when I played it, though I’m sure the price tag staring back at me was sniggering…
I can find it online for a couple of hundred pounds less than the RRP, but it’s still a serious investment (I’m not rich). I’d love to have it in situ by early summer.
Naturally I’m saving for it and finding other ways of raising the money, but any spare dollars you have that could filter themselves into my PayPal account would be greatly appreciated. You’ll even get a special mention.
You’ll find the donation button at the top-right of every page, together with my target.
Thanks for your consideration. Now please continue enjoying the site.
M-Audio Prokeys 88sx: lighter touch digital stage piano
February 25, 2006
M-Audio released their ProKeys 88 digital stage piano last year. Now its little brother has arrived:
The Prokeys 88sx digital stage piano is a semi-weighted 88-note keyboard offering 7 instrument sounds.
It offers much of the functionality of its heavier relative.
See full details of the ProKeys 88sx and ProKeys 88.
The Age of the Stylophone
February 25, 2006
Wow, it’s the Age of the Stylophone.
Precisionsound has released a set of three stylophone samples:
- Dubrek Stylophone (black)
- Dubrek Stylophone (white)
- Waddington Compute-A-Tune – “A more advanced and very good sounding -70ies keyboard, rare to find and with a “bleep” sound that suits electronica and retro pop well.”
More information is available at the Precisionsound website.
Breaking out of the preset rut
February 24, 2006
Michael Weeks has written a useful article: Ten Ways to Break out of the Preset Rut in which he offers hints for getting away from a synth’s presets and creating original, signature sounds without a huge headache.
His ten points (read the article for more information) are:
- Read the manual
- Look at the presets, analyse, and disassemble
- Start simple and then go crazy
- Randomise
- Effects
- Chaos as structure
- Using a sequencer to define a sound
- Outboard vs. software – out of the box and back in again
- Outboard vs software part two – run your mothballed keyboards through fancy VSTFX
- Simplify and diversify
Blues piano training
February 24, 2006
Here are a couple of resources that beginner blues pianists may find useful.
1. Blues Riffs & Licks
A basic written introduction to blues riffs and licks with some written examples.
2. Blues Piano & Keyboard
This is a great interactive set of lessons that teach the basics of playing blues piano. It features audio samples, simple language, and moves on to video clips of the lessons. Highly recommended.
Jan Preston: Piano Rescuer
February 24, 2006
As well as being a fervent jazz and blues pianist, New Zealander Jan Preston also admits to ‘stealing’ old acoustic pianos that have fallen into disrepair.
“Pianos are like people, or personalities to me. No two are the same. They are very precious,” she said in a phone interview from Sydney.
“The whole piano culture is leaving us because they are such big pieces of furniture to move around and nobody has the room to have them any more, and people move around so much.”
She said a lot of venues she plays have lovely old pianos that nobody is really playing “and they are abusing”.
“They get shoved in a corner and not looked after.”
In response she has a penchant for “rescuing” them – three times to date.
“In my defence, having stolen these pianos, I have always asked if I could buy them first.
“Having being refused, I really had no option but to rescue them – you’d understand that.
“Pianos wear out and die – they need love and nurturing.”
Read the full article: Jan Preston doesn’t just play the piano
Great dealer offering but I’m holding out for more
February 24, 2006
Update! See end of post…
I visited a couple of piano showrooms today to try out some digital pianos – I am really missing the piano experience at the moment.
To cut a long story short, one of the dealers was lamenting about the Yamaha P60 being superseded by the P70. He said that the P70 seemed like a bit of an enigma – no-one seemed to know much about it, there was no stock of it, and he had one showroom model of the P60 left to sell.
He offered it to me for a straight £500.
Tempted? Sure I was tempted! It was ticketed at about £660 so he’d knocked over £150 off the asking price to ‘get rid of it’ (his words).
Now, the P60 is a great entry-level digital piano from Yamaha, but here’s the crunch:
It only has 32 notes of polyphony and it’s using an older digital sampling technology.
With the P60 and the P140 sitting side by side, it was fairly obvious to tell the difference. The lowest A note (not that I’d expect to play that often) was noticably better on the P140.
The P60 also doesn’t support half-pedalling, which may not be absolutely essential, but does add to the realism.
The keyboards both have the graded hammer effect, which is noticable, but the P60 doesn’t have different touch settings; again, I could live without it, but it would be nice to have.
So I turned the salesman down.
I’m saving up for (at least) a P140  its samples sound gorgeous. Of course, there’s always another level up, but that’s seems like a good deal to me.
Moral: You can find great deals on musical equipment, even when you weren’t particularly looking for them, but don’t get something with less features than you really want just because it’s a good financial deal.
Moral 2: If you are happy with the features of an older model, you can get some great deals when a manufacturer brings out a newer model, but don’t leave it too late or all the stock will be gone.
Update! OK, I am pleased that I didn’t do the deal, because the P70 (which has replaced the P60) RRP is £500 – the same price as I was offered on the P60 – and I could buy it online for £450! I still stand by my ‘morals’ above, but be careful.
In this case, the P70 does feature half-pedalling capacity, but still the same digital samples as the P60.
Glad I didn’t go for it now!
As another update, I’m still quite tempted by the M-Audio ProKeys 88, but I can’t get my hands on one to test it out. I’ve read good reviews.
Free MP3 recordings of classical piano music
February 22, 2006
I’ve just found this fantastic site offering free classical piano music downloads.
It offers a place for amateur and professional pianists to share their music and performances, and povides free music for the masses (that’s us!)
The Piano Society requires free registration which takes about 30 seconds, after which you’ll have access to the complete library, and information about the composers and pianists.
I listened to a few Chopin pieces and the qaulity, whilst variable, is generally high.
So if you’re after some free piano music, give the site a try.
Virtual piano chords and scales
February 22, 2006
Here’s a useful web page for displaying the notes of any chord or scale on a piano keyboard.
Elton John to auction piano on eBay
February 22, 2006
Elton John will auction one of his Yamaha grand pianos on eBay to raise funds for the Elton John Aids Foundation.
He will autograph the piano he calls Fiona.
Bidding concludes on 9th March.
Director [of the Foundation] Mr Campbell said: “The charity auction of this one-of-a-kind piano offers a unique opportunity for a fan or collector to own a major piece of music history while simultaneously raising funds to support the critical work of prevention, education and treatment of Aids.”
Read the full story: Sir Elton auctions piano on eBay (found via UK Auction Info)
