Stage piano recommendations

[KevinW]

Not Reaper related, I know...
I've been asked to make a recommendation to replace our church's Korg Trinity. The keyboard is used primarily for contemporary Christian music as part of a guitar led band. All the keyboardists are volunteers/amateurs, so ease of use is an important criteria.

I'm hoping to keep it under $2500, but I've been told to spend up to $5,000 if I feel it's necessary.

I'm hoping for a good piano sound, great rock organ, and pad. Electric piano is nice too. Most other sounds would probably go unused.

Seems like the Roland FP-80 or Yamaha CP5 are good options? What other options should I consider?

[Stipes Vigilo]

It might be better if you started off with why the Trinity needs to be replaced; what is liked about that board; what is disliked about it; what sounds would be missed even though only sometimes used; and if it is used in multiple ways for accompaniment, band/orchestra participation, plays and other things.

Do you need aftertouch? How important is the feel for you?

Those things can only be answered by examining what you have, what you need and few trips to the music store and taking each for a test spin.


Add: My vote for church use is Yamaha. Motif, MOX, S-series. They just blend well with everything. And well in your price range. But your taste may be completely different.

[LCipher]

Can't beat the quality and feel (action) of a Yamaha S90 88 keys: (yes, this is my Yamaha S90 for sale)




http://www.ebay.com/itm/200940999842...84.m1555.l2649


This is an 'older' model but in pristine condition. Almost never played. The piano is not quite as good as the EX (newer), but sits well in mixes, for this price ($950 shipped) you have $$ to spare!



.

[planetnine]

Can you bring the S90 over to Lincolnshire please LCipher?



>

[Panic]

Originally Posted by KevinW

Not Reaper related, I know...
I've been asked to make a recommendation to replace our church's Korg Trinity. The keyboard is used primarily for contemporary Christian music as part of a guitar led band. All the keyboardists are volunteers/amateurs, so ease of use is an important criteria.

I'm hoping to keep it under $2500, but I've been told to spend up to $5,000 if I feel it's necessary.

I'm hoping for a good piano sound, great rock organ, and pad. Electric piano is nice too. Most other sounds would probably go unused.

Seems like the Roland FP-80 or Yamaha CP5 are good options? What other options should I consider?

Based on your criteria and budget and more than a little of my own bias (I own the predecessor and absolutely love it); I would recommend the Kawai MP10.

[LCipher]

Originally Posted by planetnine

Can you bring the S90 over to Lincolnshire please LCipher?



>

I think I'd lose my ass on the shipping!!

[KevinW]

Originally Posted by Stipes Vigilo

It might be better if you started off with why the Trinity needs to be replaced; what is liked about that board; what is disliked about it; what sounds would be missed even though only sometimes used; and if it is used in multiple ways for accompaniment, band/orchestra participation, plays and other things.

Do you need aftertouch? How important is the feel for you?

Those things can only be answered by examining what you have, what you need and few trips to the music store and taking each for a test spin.


Add: My vote for church use is Yamaha. Motif, MOX, S-series. They just blend well with everything. And well in your price range. But your taste may be completely different.

Those are fair questions. I'd say the primary reason is that we routinely exceed the 32 note polyphony of the keyboard. We use a keyboard controller to drive additional layers on the Korg, so we can have piano/pad on one keyboard and organ, for example on another. I'm hoping that a new keyboard will have a much higher polyphony.
Apart from that, it is just getting old, and it's electronics. We rely on it weekly, so I don't want to wait for it to fail before we replace it.
The feel of the keyboard is of a lesser importance. In the event that we host a professional pianist who might strongly desire a real piano feel, they would most likely just play our baby grand.
Aftertouch is not important. We're just needing something simple to use.

I appreciate all the comments so far. I'll look into those Kawai and Yamaha suggestions.

[Toft]

We bought a Kawai MP5 for our church and are extremely happy with it. We tried out the Yamaha and Roland alternatives and found that they are fine, but definitely lack the ease of use feature of the Kawai.

We also have a bunch of amateurs who want to be able to turn it on and choose which of three or four piano/EP sounds suits. The Kawai does not have 5000 instruments and sound effects, but it does have a very nice action and the keyboard sounds (to my ear at least) are the most usable of those we tried. Most of our players like its grand piano sound, though as sound guy I prefer a couple of the other slightly edgier keyboard options - they cut through very nicely. Anyway, the main thing is, of the six or seven players, every one has commented how they like it, and how it is way better than the all-bells-and-whistles Roland Fantom at our main church campus.

I'm not sure you need the top of the line Kawai - sure the MP10 is a fine instrument, but we felt the simplicity (and lighter weight!) of the MP5 was a better fit for our use. A few years on, and we are very happy Kawai fans. They just do pianos, and they know what they are doing IMHO.

[heda]

I always like the Roland RD series touch and feel of the keys.
http://www.roland.com/piano/stage.html