REVIEW - Kawai MP6 Digital Piano - Awesome Piano Tone & Key Action - for Home, Church, School, Studio, or Stage - This one is a WINNER!

UPDATED REVIEW - February 1, 2012 - New Audio Demos along with video demo at bottom of blog - The Kawai piano company has, what I consider to be, the best acoustic piano reproduction in a digital piano for under $2000which is a portable digital piano called the MP6, and it's selling at internet discount price of $1499.

The Kawai piano company has been able to develop a special grand piano action key touch and tone simulation for the MP6 which is truly amazing at this price. I have played virtually every other new digital piano brand & model under $2500 and nothing else comes close to what I consider to be a stunning sound & touch that's really hard to believe. In fact, the grand piano tone inside this new model is so advanced that you may have a difficult time believing you're really playing an electronic digital piano.

The Kawai piano company is well known throughout the world for producing excellent home and professional upright & grand pianos and their international corporate headquarters is (coincidentally) in the same city as Yamaha Corporate headquarters, which is Hamamatsu, Japan. Kawai was also chosen by the famous Steinway piano to build the "Boston" line of grand & upright pianos in their professional Japanese piano factory for Steinway Piano Company in New York. Boston Grand Pianos sell for $20,000 and more and are used by famous universities, homes, churches, and many other venues all over the world. If Steinway regards Kawai that highly to ask them to build acoustic pianos under the Steinway name, then as far as I'm concerned, that is a big compliment and shows that Kawai builds some very nice instruments if it can meet Steinway piano standards. 

It's no surprise to me that Kawai has found a way to create a new digital piano that really does give you the feeling of playing a grand piano. I was a little skeptical at first because up until this point, Kawai has not been a big "player" (haha) in the world of digital pianos, although they have been producing some nice models for many years. However Kawai has really moved ahead of the pack in my opinion for authentic grand piano touch and tone for a price well below the competition (including their top of the line MP10 - $2499 internet price).

If you're looking for a very convincing acoutsic grand piano sound and touch in a user friendly model at a low price, in my opinion the MP6 is it. I've played a lot of digital pianos throughout the years in all kinds of price ranges and the MP6 is really amazing because it feels and sounds so natural. I would consider the key action touch on this piano to be medium or slightly firm (as opposed to light) which gives the player better control and dynamics in my opinion.

To get everything you need to have a great playing experience on this piano, you'll need to purchase some accessories including a sturdy stand, bench, and a small but powerful  (powered) stereo speaker system (assuming you don't have these things already), and then you'll be set. But I don't think this is a big obstacle because these accessories are relatively inexpensive and as consumers, we are used to purchasing accessory items such as added speaker systems, stands, and other things when purchasing larger flat screen TV's, computers, or other electronic devices. Once you have these accessories in place, you'll still be under $2000 and will save $2000 or more over the much higher priced cabinet digital pianos ($4000 and up), and I'm a big believer in saving money these days.

Please be aware that some Kawai & general internet dealers suggest certain stands, benches, and other accessories that are not good for this particular instrument. This is because they have likely not used this instrument themselves as I have. I can tell you the proper MP6 piano stand, speakers, bench, and headphones to buy (if you don't have those already) and tell you how to get them at low discount prices.

The Kawai MP6 can be used for many applications including home, stage, church, school, recording studio, gigs, and many other situations. You can duplicate Yamaha, Steinway, and Kawai Grand Piano sounds (among others) as well as full cathedral pipe organs and symphonic orchestras. The MP6 reproduces the famous classic electric pianos from the 50's, 60's, 70's, & 80's such as the Wurlitzers, Fender Rhodes, Yamaha CP70/80, and Yamaha DX7's. It's like you're playing the real thing including the nuances of those electric pianos. And the Hammond tonewheel B3 organ sounds are incredible too with virtual adjustable drawbars along with a huge variety of B3 tone combinations and effects which can be edited and easily saved into user memories. I have played actual Hammond B3's and know what they sound and play like. The MP6 even has a great Leslie speaker reproduction with a fast/slow rotary speed control. Nothing under $2000 comes close in my opinion.

The only instrument which I believe is even better than the MP6 (on a few of the main acoustic and electric piano sounds) is the new Kawai MP10 at $2499 (internet price). However the MP10 has just 27 total instrument sounds compared to 256 on the MP6. But those particular sounds along with the MP10 wooden key action are even more refined then the MP6 or any of the other digital portable pianos out there. If you want to know more about the MP10, then go to the following link:
http://azpianonews.blogspot.com/2011/03/kawai-mp10-digital-piano-review-best.html

Back to the MP6: here's a quick example of the power and flexibility of the Kawai MP6 piano. Let's say you'd like to combine a 9' concert grand piano tone, a Fender Rhodes electric piano (very popular), a full lush string orchestra, and maybe some subtle choir voices in the as well, and then play them all together while being able to adjust volume, reverb, sustain, and other parameters on each tone independently in 'real time' while you're playing... you can do that and it's very easy to do. It comes out perfect when you have that much control and then can easily be saved as a memory preset. Then you can recall that setting the next time you want it at the touch of a couple of buttons. By the way, the word "zone" on the Kawai is also another name for instrument.

The powerful 192-note polyphonic memory (the most in its price range under $2500) will generally be plenty for even complex passages or multiple layering or splitting of instrument tones. If you think all this is too good to be true for just $1500 bucks, then wait until you own this piano and you'll see what I mean (listen to the song samples below I recorded from the MP6). The MP6 key action (pic above left, click on pic for larger view) seems to be very well designed and also has key let-off/escapement which is a physical movement that happens when you press down a key on an acoustic grand piano. It allows you to get authentic grand piano "feel" which is rare to find under $2000. Also, the keyboard action itself is very quiet when the keys move up and down as compared to many other new digital pianos I've recently played, especially at lower volumes. The keys & keybed (underneath the keys) seem to be very solid and even, with the key movement being very quiet with little ambient noise. I'm usually not that excited about a digital piano because I've played so many, but this one has definitely caught my attention.

By the way, the MP6 does some other very cool things like playing or recording your performance as a MIDI file as well as MP3 or WAV audio file directly on the piano and saving or loading from a USB flashdrive. That means you can take your favorite song from iTunes or any other MP3 song file and play along with it directly on the MP6. And if you want to record yourself, the MP6 recording will sound exactly as you played it and heard it with exceptional digital sound quality. This instrument is 192-note polyphonic and has 256 instrument sounds with 4 zones for layering and splitting (that means putting 4 separate instrument sounds together at one time for layering and/or splitting keyboard areas with individual editing and relative volume controls). It even has 30 pro sounding drum patterns so you can play along with your own drummer if you like, which is great for rhythm training and timing, plus it's fun.

When it comes to actual acoustic piano tone, the MP6 piano has intuitive editing features that allow you to control many of the aspects of an acoustic piano sound by adjusting and editing things like piano damper resonance, string resonance, key off effect, voicing, dynamics, cutoff, attack time, decay time, and release time. It will even analyze your finger touch and strength as you play the keys and automatically and set up a customized touch sensitivity curve for you with potentially unlimited touch settings. That's an amazing feature and no other digital piano does that in this price range as far as I know. For those people looking to get even more than the easy to use 256 preset instruments on the Kawai MP6, using your editing features gives you thousands more possibilities.

This little baby is super powerful and I believe it will absolutely inspire your "musical soul." I have never been a big fan of Kawai digital pianos in past years and always thought of Yamaha & Roland as offering more superior instruments for low prices and recommended them as such. But this time I believe everything has changed and the Kawai company has hit a "grand slam" with the MP6 as well as the top of the line MP10. Oh and one more thing, the Kawai MP6 does comes with the single damper/sustain pedal (which supports graduated half damper control) , but is also set up to use an additional & optional dual pedal unit for traditional piano functions incl soft, sostenuto, and damper/sustain. One of the pedals is even programmable to access a few of the keyboard functions for hands free sound selections.

Below are just some of the "specs" on this piano. Specs never tell the real story until you actually get a chance to hear & play one of these pianos. But that might be difficult as this model is in short supply and not easily found at local stores. Kawai is first and foremost, a builder of real Grand Pianos played all over the world, so these people know what they're doing but unfortunately they have not been able to keep up with the demand for these instruments and frequently are out of stock. I suppose that's a good problem for Kawai to have but not so good for the consumer. I would recommend that you do your research, as well as listen to some of my personal audio demos below which will give you a good idea of what this MP6 actually sounds like.

• - Progressive Harmonic Imaging™ (PHI) (reproduces grand resonance). You can hear the nuances of real piano strings
• - Responsive Ivory Feel Hammer action with Let-off (reproduces grand piano touch)
• - USB Audio - MP3 and WAV files - play/record - load and save with flashdrive
• - New Concert Grand and EP sounds along with all new symphonic instruments
• - 256 Instrument sounds total includes 22 pianos incl Concert Grands, 10 string symphonies, 10 pipe organs, 20 authentic vintage electric pianos, 32 authentic Hammond B3 organ tones, choirs, classical nylon & steel string guitars with overtones, choirs, vintage synths, bass guitars, and more
•  - 100 pro drum patterns for rhythm backup or music education
• - 192 note Polyphony to reproduce the most complex music passages and tone layers
• - 256 User Memory Setups to store all your custom settings
• - 4 Internal/External Keyboard Zones for layering & splitting
• - Special effects incl an array of reverbs, EQ's, chorus, analog editing, and more
• - Customizable piano sound and setups (to easily "create" the ultimate piano YOU like)
• - Custom Hammond organ drawbar with digital Leslie speaker and slow/fast control operated by a touch of a button 
• - Intuitive LCD display screen
• - Tilted/sloped control panel for easier use & viewing of buttons and LCD 
• - Mahogany wood sides

If you want more info on these and other pianos and lower prices than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call me direct at 602-571-1864

* Here are some song demos (below) that I arranged & recorded directly from the MP6. They show off just a few of the many excellent instruments the MP6 can reproduce and I hope you enjoy them.


   Concert Grand Classical Piano Solo (Steinway Grand piano reproduction)

   Fly'n  (Jazz Piano Solo - Based on the famous Yamaha Jazz Grand Piano Sound)

  Lovin You More & More  (A fun tune I wrote using piano, organ, drums, synth bass, 

   Celtic Harp Angels (harp & choir angel sounds from the MP6)

  Rivers of Life (Grand Pianos, Digital Piano, Concert Strings)

   Spanish Guitar Dreams (Classical Guitar, Air Choir, Strings)
 
   As The Deer (Electric Pianos, Flute, Synth Strings, Choir)
 
   Jazzoogie (Jazz Grand, Jazz Drums, Clarinet, Tenor Sax, Vocal Group)

   Animated Movie Themes (grand piano, electric piano, synth strings, etc)
 
   Desert Rains (Drums, Electric Pianos, Synth, Bells, Synth Choir)

Here are some more audio demos at the Kawai Piano web site:http://www.kawaius.com/main_links/digital/PRO_2010/mp6_audio.html  

Below is a short video of Anthony Geraci of Sugar Ray and the Bluetones who are an internationally famous blues group at a recent concert in Phx, AZ. I took this short video (with bad audio due to my cheap camera, but you'll get the idea) of Anthony playing on the Kawai MP6 which he and his band-mates love. If you check out Anthony's jazz & blues piano work on his web site at www.anthonygeraciblue.com, you will see that Anthony''s high praise of the Kawai MP6 is a big compliment considering Anthony Geraci's extreme level of piano skill and experience playing fine grand pianos all over the world.