Hey. I own an upright piano. When I play with my band (or on stage) I play a Casio Previa PX-555 (i think - I don`t have it in front of me). I think I've outgrown this keyboard. I feel like it sounds like a toy. It doesn't feel to bad (they keys are nicely weighted) but I've felt better. I've been looking into Yamaha. I can tell I'm already in your good graces - you guys seem to love Yamaha / hate Casio. I've borrowed my friend's Yamaha CP33, and though it already sounds better than my casio, I can't stand the feel of the damn thing. I have another friend with a Yamaha CP130 (I think-) and that feels much better, although I think it sounds about the same and I don't think that makes it worth the extra few hundred bucks. I've also been told clavinovas are spectacular, but they're not portable, are they? I'm planning on using this as a stage piano, as well as doing some recording with it. My budget is up to $1800. I can't think of anything I'd be particularly picky about in, say, features anything. I just want the piano to sound real. What are my options?
As far as I understood, you want to have something that feels good to play on, and sounds good. It's pretty hard to research on the internet and read specs to know wether the keys feels good or not, so you will probably need to go to a store and compare a few different stage pianos, to see which ones you like the most. I've done a quick search on zzounds.com, though, and I found 2 stage pianos by Roland that might be of interest to look into. http://www.zzounds.com/item--ROLFP4 http://www.zzounds.com/item--ROLRD300GX You can probably search for those on youtube to get some examples of how it sounds.
You know, looking up what these instruents sound like on youtube never crossed my mind. That's a great tip!
I go to the nearest music store, try out all the keyboards there, choose my favourite in my price range and write them down. I come home, and it's FP7 (FP4 with a speaker and "better" for ~$300 more) and the RD300GX. Completely by coincidence. Shocking. The deal is that I love the sound and feel of the FP4/7 piano, but it has no "toys" (pitch bend / vibrato wheel, dual/split, multiple zones) that the RD300GX has. The latter doesn't sound as piano-ey, though. I'll probably settle for it, unless I find something other than these 2 that i prefer. Way to make a good suggestion though!
