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I've been playing piano for about 25 years, but I've never really delved into the world of digital pianos/keyboards. I play 3 times a week on a Young Chang grand piano that sounds very nice, and now I find myself playing an additional time a week on a digital piano.

I don't currently have a piano at home, and I have some specific goals for my music:

  • compose music at home
  • play whenever I feel like it (without regard to the sleeping babies)
  • record music to my computer (preferably with USB)

Looks like I need to get a digital piano. I have been spoiled playing on a grand for all these years, and I would like to have a good piano sound. I'm also concerned about the action.

What digital pianos should I be considering? Any good review sites? I am willing to spend a decent amount of money ($1500 - $2000) if it would be worth it, but with a baby on the way I'd like to keep costs down as much as possible.

Edit:
I ended up buying the Yamaha CP5 earlier this week. It arrives this afternoon. Thanks for your help, everyone!

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3 Answers

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My choice would be the Yamaha CP-300. I bought the P200 model several years ago and it's been a great instrument.

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I was looking at the CP300, but decided on the newer CP5 for the more realistic keyboard. – Nathan DeWitt May 28 at 16:13
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My Yamaha S90 ES has a great real piano feel.

It's a bit of a learning curve to use the recording features but it has some bells on it. The Motif is the newer generation.

You didn't mention this but if you want to take it out to gigs and the like, it doesn't have "styles" where you can do band-in-a-box stuff with other musicians.

Some of the newer digital upright pianos have styles and yet more bells, but you're looking at $3,000+ for those. You can probably find a used S90 ES for $1,000 or less, and it's a solid instrument.

I have a sequencer that came with MIDI-to-USB cable. This will let you hook up to most computers.

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what's the difference between a synthesizer and a digital piano? – Nathan DeWitt Jan 2 at 3:21
Great question! Wish I could give you a good answer. Might be another question to ask on this site. – commons Jan 3 at 8:16
commons - see this new question: keyminor.com/questions/160/… – Nathan DeWitt Jan 11 at 6:36
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I have never found a digital piano that had a satisfactory touch, and so I try very hard to play only acoustic pianos. You might want to check out the Yamaha Silent Piano product line. One time—more than ten years ago—I saw a Yamaha acoustic piano that was soundproof, so that you could play it normally, but no sound would escape the case. (You listened through headphones.) I can't tell if the Silent Piano products are the same thing or if you have to actually block the hammers from striking the strings in these models, but the effect is the same: acoustic piano action with no sound. These pianos have headphone, audio, and MIDI jacks, so they would seem to fit your needs. You would have to buy a USB MIDI interface for your computer, but you would probably have had to do that with any digital piano.

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I would love that. Are any in the $1500 - $2000 range? – Nathan DeWitt Mar 18 at 18:06

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