Yamaha P85 Review

Overall Rating:   yamaha p85 review

Available on Amazon at 50% off here!
yamaha p85This new Yamaha P85 piano keyboard gives you all the dynamic, high-quality sound and natural piano response you expect from Yamaha, along with a high-quality built-in speaker system – packed into a slim, exceptionally affordable digital piano you can play virtually anywhere, anytime. No compromises, full quality.

Exceptionally High-quality Sound
The gorgeous piano sounds of the P-85 feature meticulous digital sampling of a full concert grand piano-at various playing strengths-thanks to Yamaha’s sophisticated AWM Stereo Sampling.

Realistic, Acoustic-like Touch Response
Enjoy authentic, naturally expressive key touch-virtually the same as an actual acoustic piano, from the low notes to the high-with the Graded Hammer Standard (GHS) keyboard. Ultra-compact, Stylish Design The attractive, slim, lightweight design of the instrument-less than 12 kg- suits virtually any room décor, while the built-in speaker system fills your room with luscious sound.

Includes Yamaha P85 88 Key GHS Black Contemporary Digital Piano, Owners Manual, Quick Operation Guide, AC Power Adapter, Pedal, FC5 Music Rest.

Get an immediate 50% off the Yamaha P85 through Amazon!  Click this link to get an immediate discount.

I checked out some of the lower end piano models, Rolands P250, Korgs P250, Roland RD700s, and Yamaha not only sounded much better, but was jaw-droppingly cheap. I find Roland’s sound sweet but a bit muddy or saturated, the action was not bad. Korg’s P250 sounds nice but I find their samples are compressed too much and the decay sounds unnaturally fast. Yamaha hit the sweet spot with their piano samples

Here are some great features of the Yamaha P85:

* Extensive Voice Selection and Dual Voice Function – The versatile P-85 also gives you a variety of other high-quality instrument Voices.
* Record Your Performance – You can capture your own playing with the song recording feature, then play it back for studying or accompaniment.
* Expressive Half-pedal Control – Features a half-pedal effect that gives you greater acoustic-like expressive control over the sound
* Matching Stand (optional) – The optional L-85 & L-85S stands provide stability and optimum sound projection for the instrument.
* Three-pedal Pedal Unit (optional) – The optional LP-5 Pedal Unit gives you three pedals for the same kind of comprehensive sustain
* There’s even a built-in metronome for practicing and recording in perfect time.

All in all, this keyboard is an absolute steal at this price, once again the bar is raised in terms of quality and portability. You get bang-for-the-buck with this! It fits in the trunk of my car, just barely. Don’t even have to put the back seats down!

Here’s what another owner had to say about the Yamaha P85:

The Yamaha P-85 is a well-designed digital piano with the full 88 keys at a price point that is hard to beat. 10 different voices are included, which can also be layered in many different ways (e.g., octave-shifted). The grand piano voices and the first electric organ are in stereo (and there are two stereo headphone jacks at the front of the device) and sound absolutely amazing. Multisampling is used, and the samples are blended expertly, so there isn’t that jarring effect where suddenly a completely different sample is played when you hit a key a little harder, as I noticed on the Casio PX-320. Polyphony on the P-85 is sufficient that dropped notes should not be noticeable. Reverb can be added to the voices to simulate small rooms (or concert halls), and there is a built-in very basic MIDI recorder.

The P-85 looks very stylish and has a solid, well-made overall feel to it. Although the keys are weighted, the instrument is remarkably slim and lightweight. In fact, the instrument looks serious enough (in the black version) that many of the higher-priced Yamahas and Casios seem pretty toy-like next to it, with their little LCD screens and all.

All in all, the Yamaha P-85 looks and sounds great, is a joy to play, and has all the basics for piano playing covered, as well as some advanced features like voice layering. The quality, convenience (headphone jacks, easy recordings), and price of the P-85 make it pretty hard to fathom why anyone would bother with the hassle of a real grand or upright piano anymore. — Martin D.

View this Yamaha P85 review here

Yamaha NP30 Review

Overall Rating:    yamaha np30 review

Available on Amazon at 32% off here!
yamaha np30The Yamaha NP30 Portable Grand is an easy-to-carry piano that features Advanced Wave Memory stereo sampled piano sounds for incredible sound quality. An entirely new take on the digital piano, offering quality, value and portability with a lighter touch.

Featuring 76 Graded Touch keys and stereo-sampled piano, it also has 10 voices like Organs and Strings plus 32 notes of polyphony. Another great feature for the home recording artist is that it performs as a MIDI controller.

The built in speakers allow you to play it anywhere since it operates on six AA batteries. The new NP-30 Portable Grand delivers Yamaha digital piano sound and simplicity in a new lightweight, compact design like nothing else you’ve seen… all at a price point you won’t believe. Because of its similarity to acoustic pianos, a graded action is one of the primary features sought by pianists in their digital instruments.

The Yamaha NP-30 is a wonderful musical instrument! I bought it for my daughter for Christmas and I was very impressed at what a great grand piano sound it can make. My in-laws have an upright piano and after playing the NP30 for weeks and then playing their piano I was frankly shocked at how terrible their piano sounded compared to the NP30!

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Here are some great features of the Yamaha NP30:

* Music Rest Included
* Operates on 6 AA batteries or optional PA5D Power Adaptor
* Weight: 12 lbs
* Dimensions: 49 Inches x 10.2 Inches x 4 Inches
* Number of Keys: 76

76 keys, great piano sound with rich bass notes, light and portable at 12 pounds and runs on batteries, sleek looking instrument at a very reasonable price!

Here’s what one of the owners had to say about the Yamaha NP30:

I’ve been waiting for something like this for years

Until now, there hasn’t been an affordable 76-key keyboard that weighs ONLY 12 POUNDS and can RUN ON BATTERIES!

Keyboardists who don’t need all the bells and whistles of sequencers and synthesizers will be delighted with this ultra-light keyboard. There are only a few sounds (a couple pianos, harpsichord, electric piano), but for little cocktail piano, wedding or singer-songwriter gigs, often you only need a piano sound. (Yamaha is known for its authentic piano sounds.)

No more breaking your back carrying your keyboard.

View this Yamaha NP30 review here

Casio PX130 Review

Overall Rating:    casio px130 review

Available on Amazon at 28% off here!
casio px130The new Casio PX130 redefines the digital piano category with unprecedented sound quality and performance in a sleek package that is supremely portable. Featuring all new grand piano samples and a new Tri-Sensor 88-note scaled hammer action keyboard and weighing less than 25 lbs., the Casio Privia PX-130 is versatile enough for home, church, school or on stage.

Education Features
In addition to the superior keyboard action and piano sound, the PX-130 is the perfect instrument for music education. Featuring Casio’s Duet mode, the keyboard can be split into two equal ranges, allowing student and teacher to play at the keyboard simultaneously. The PX-130′s built-in 2 track recorder and metronome allows you to practice any tempo and later listen back to what you just played. The recording features can also be used to capture moments of creativity and remember song ideas.

I’m just starting to learn and I can’t tell the difference between this and a real piano. It comes with 60 full songs programmed in (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc.) and you can set it to just play those songs on demo mode and it’s like you bought 5 albums of piano music! It also has a score book that contains sheet music of all 60 songs with proper finger placement noted.

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Here are some great features of the Casio PX130:

* 88 weighted, scaled hammer-action keys
* 128-note polyphony
* 16 tones (with layer and split)
* Reverb (4 types), Chorus (4 types), Brilliance (-3 to 0 to 3), Acoustic Resonance

The action of this piano is constantly surprising to me with how natural and responsive it feels. It does not feel like a “keyboard” instead, it has the feel of some of the less hammer-y Japanese pianos I’ve played or a Rhodes that is in good shape.

Here’s what one of the owners had to say about the Casio PX130:

Look and Feel: I love the classic, uncluttered look of the instrument. It has minimal buttons and lights. There is no screen. It first and foremost wants to be a piano. It succeeds. It will look right at home in a studio, a church, or a living room. As for feel, when playing, I have to remind myself that it is not an acoustic. My fingers are convinced that these keys are attached to a big, wooden cabinet in the form of a traditional piano. I did not get a chance to see one of these in a store before buying. I was worried the keys would feel cheap. Needless to say, my expectations were blown away from the first touch. You will not be disappointed.

Sound: If you know what a piano sounds like, you know what this sounds like. I won’t pretend to know how all the high end electronic pianos sound, but they can’t possibly be head and shoulders above this one. Just as my fingers are easily convinced they are playing an acoustic piano, my ears are equally convinced. If you are thinking about buying an acoustic piano for your home, do it only for the value of a classic piece of furniture, not for the sound. This casio sounds so much better than 90% of the pianos I’ve played in the homes of people I have visited. The speakers are more than sufficient for most common uses. High notes sound like they originate from the right of center while the opposite is true for low notes, just like you would expect from an acoustic piano. Such full and realistic sound from such a compact package is shocking. You will not be disappointed.

Features: This keyboard has several other sounds besides the traditional piano. To my ear, they are all quite good. Not everyone will find use for all of the sounds, but all of the sounds will be useful to many people. I will not take the time here to describe each sound. There are YouTube videos that do a good job of that. IMO, this keyboard would be well worth it just for the piano sound; the others make for a great bonus. You can split the keyboard to play two different sounds, or you can combine two different sounds to make one composite sound. There is a library of songs built into the memory that are readily accessible. You can even transfer files from your computer to be played on the keyboard. Speaking of computers, this is a great companion for a midi enabled computer, Mac or PC. I use a Mac. After connecting a USB cable, I was instantly able to use the keyboard to trigger the midi in all three of my music creation programs: GarageBand, Logic Studio, and Band in a Box. I experienced no detectable latency in any of the programs. It just worked. You can even record your performances directly in the piano’s memory and send them to your computer for editing and use with other programs. There are many useful features. You will not be disappointed.

Value: It is worth every penny of the asking price. Even so, you can find even better deals if you are willing to do a bit of searching. Yes, this is a Casio. No, this is not even the top model in the Privia line. Do not let the low price or the name brand trick you into passing this one up. From now on, I will look at Casio before looking at Yamaha or Roland. Yes, I feel just as silly writing such a thing as you do reading it. But there it is. I have got to believe that the Casio PX-130 is the best keyboard value going right now.

Casio should be rewarded for what they have done. They have successfully reinvented themselves and we are the beneficiaries. You will not be disappointed. — D. Johnson

View the full text of this Casio PX130 review here

Yamaha EZ200 Review

Overall Rating: yamaha ez200 review

Available on Amazon at 50% off here!
yamaha ez200The Yamaha EZ200 lighted keyboard will have you playing songs from the very first day. Just call up a song from the 100 songs built-in to the keyboard, select if you’d like to play the left or right hand part and hit “Start”. The keyboard will light up the key that you’re supposed to play, and in fact, the song will actually stop and wait for you to find the correct key! All of the tools you need are found in the keyboard, including how to play chords. This bundle includes everything else you need, as well–a keyboard stand, headphones, and a power supply.

Expressive Touch like a piano
If you’re buying a keyboard having piano in mind, you’ll want Yamaha’s Touch Response feature. On an acoustic piano, striking a key harder will produce a louder sound, striking it softer will produce a softer sound. With Yamaha’s “Touch Response” the EZ-200 keyboard responds like an acoustic piano.

Portable Grand: Industry’s best piano
You’re never more than a button push away from the most realistic piano sound in portable keyboards today. One press of the Portable Grand button resets the entire keyboard to a stereo-sampled piano–perfect for when it’s time to practice. Yamaha is known around the world for the quality of our acoustic pianos and this attention to detail is evident as you enjoy the warmth and clarity of the EZ-200 Portable Grand piano. And of course, the keyboard includes a Sustain Pedal jack on the back for practicing and playing piano pieces.

For someone looking for instant gratification, this keyboard offers just that. Open the box, read the simple instructions and begin playing even classical pieces because the keyboard will tell you where to put your fingers exactly! From there you can memorize the piece yourself so you can play without needing the assistance. Great Idea!

Get an immediate 50% off of the Yamaha EZ200 through Amazon!  Click this link to get an immediate discount.

Here are some great features of the Yamaha EZ200:

* 61 Full Size Keys
* 32 Notes of Polyphony
* 367 high-quality tones
* Learn to play the “EZ” way instructional method
* Stereo Speakers

I love this keyboard and the teaching system. I have found the multiple teaching methods to be very handy and clever. You have the option of learning by following along with a demonstration while the keys light up, or you can just sit and watch and learn, or you can practice tapping out the rhythm on any key just to get the pacing right, or you can use the “wait” method, where the keys light up and the song plays along with you, but if you stop or get the wrong key, the system waits for you, holds the song at that point, lights up the correct key(s) to hit, and does not proceed until you get it right, then continues. I like that you can turn off the demonstration at any point, and you can turn off the lighted keys if you like and just play the instrument like a regular piano.

Here’s what one of the owners had to say about the Yamaha EZ200:

This is my first real keyboard and I got it to learn to play piano. I’ve only had it a few days but I’m really impressed by it so far. The keyboard seems to be really good with teaching songs, not only do the keys light up but it tells you which fingers to use and it can teach one hand at a time which is nice for a beginner. I really wasn’t expecting much but this thing sounds like a real piano and even the stand and headphones are pretty good quality.

View this owner’s Yamaha EZ200 review here

Casio LK 100 Review

Overall Rating:         casio lk 100 review

Available on Amazon at 51% off here!

casio lk 100The Casio LK 100 61 Key Musical Keyboard allows you to select from 100 tones and 50 versatile rhythms to help add plenty of life to all your keyboard performances.

The Auto Accompaniment will allow you to simply play a chord and the corresponding rhythm, bass and chord parts play automatically. This keyboard also includes the 3-Step Lesson System that lets you practice at your own pace. The keyboard automatically grades your performances, so you can trace your progress as you improve.

With a total of 100 built-in Song Bank tunes you have a broad range of music for your playback enjoyment or for play along practice. The Casio LK100 features on-screen fingering and timing indicators, and easy-to-understand on-screen indicators allow for simple keyboard play, even for novices, 100 amazingly realistic tones, enhanced auto-accompaniment function for greater versatility, 50 built in auto-accompaniment patterns, 100 Built-in Song Bank tunes for playback enjoyment or play-along practice, and a 3-Step Lesson System.

Develop your musical skills by following the keys as they light. First, you become familiar with the timing of the notes by watching the keys light as you playback one of the 100 built-in Song Bank tunes. Next, practice playing along at a pace that’s comfortable for you. Finally, try playing along at the normal tempo for the Song Bank tune. A simulated human voice is used during Step 1 or Step 2 play to call out the fingers you should use.

The keyboard has a wonderful sound and plenty of demo songs to keep young children busy. I love that it lights up and it helps illustrate the concept for children who are just learning about music and notes. The keyboard is lighter than I expected. It’s also great that it comes with a stand, headphones, and an adapter. Many of the high-end casio keyboards, for some reason, do not even include an adapter.

Get an immediate 51% off of the Casio LK 100 through Amazon!  Click this link to get an immediate discount.

Here are some great features of the Casio LK 100:

* On-screen fingering and timing indicators
* 100 amazingly realistic tones
* 3-Step Lesson System
* Auto Accompaniment
* MIDI compatibility

We love the keys’ optional light-up function, and we enjoyed being able to immediately “play” the keyboard. The lighted keys help beginners become familiar with the timing of the notes that follow one of the 100 built-in tunes from the keyboard’s song bank. A songbook (included) allows kids and adults to view the printed musical notes for each song. The tempo of the songs can be slowed as you learn to follow the keys, which is a nice feature. The key lighting feature can be turned off as desired. This is particularly important for advanced players who wish to use the instrument as a traditional keyboard.

Here’s what one of the owners had to say about the Casio LK 100:

I was in a Electronic store and noticed our 7 year old was missing. I saw a girl hunched on this keyboard playing the keyboard. The girl was playing very well and music sounded great.

That was our child!

Purchased from Amazon for their package deal pricing and accesories. Free shipping. The electronic store was slightly cheaper but did not include even the AC adapter and that’s basically a hassle and extra cost. And kids do need the other accessories included with this product on Amazon.
So Amazon was the lowest cost option at end of the day.

MOST IMPORTANT: Due to the Advertised Features, ease of play, and sound quality of this product – our daughter loves to go play on this keyboard for at least an hour every day! That’s what you wish for when you go looking for your first keyboard for children.  (Sandeep)

View the original Casio LK 100 Review here