Technics SX-P50 Digital Piano.
A 2017 breakthrough! I found one of these locally at £215, a good enough price and a rarity on the guitar obsessed Isle of Wight. I needed more than the jangly DX7, Yamaha P50M module and five octave restrictions.
Contrary to some online opinions, based on the unusual (and preferable) sustain pedal and peculiar curved end cheeks, the P50 is not a toy - it has a fantastic graded weighted keyboard and sounds excellent - and I'm a highly fussy aspie. Manufactured in 2001 this treat laughs in the face of the new crappy plastic Yamaha P45 and urinates over its awful feeling keyboard and cheap piano sound whilst leaving its lack of line outputs in a guff cloud. (I bought and sold the P45 in the space of a week due to my horror, fortunately at a £50 profit.) I also had a feel of a Nord Stage 2 or 3?? and the keys had very feeble weighting and a constant hollow sounding clonking noise when played - not good.
After suffering from aching hands for a few months, a consequence of switching to a weighted keyboard, the newly strengthened fingers are now rewarded with greatly improved response and expression. I don't have a bad word to say about the P50 as the acoustic piano, DX EP, jazz organs and very realistic piano keyboard feel make it a winner.
Contrary to some online opinions, based on the unusual (and preferable) sustain pedal and peculiar curved end cheeks, the P50 is not a toy - it has a fantastic graded weighted keyboard and sounds excellent - and I'm a highly fussy aspie. Manufactured in 2001 this treat laughs in the face of the new crappy plastic Yamaha P45 and urinates over its awful feeling keyboard and cheap piano sound whilst leaving its lack of line outputs in a guff cloud. (I bought and sold the P45 in the space of a week due to my horror, fortunately at a £50 profit.) I also had a feel of a Nord Stage 2 or 3?? and the keys had very feeble weighting and a constant hollow sounding clonking noise when played - not good.
After suffering from aching hands for a few months, a consequence of switching to a weighted keyboard, the newly strengthened fingers are now rewarded with greatly improved response and expression. I don't have a bad word to say about the P50 as the acoustic piano, DX EP, jazz organs and very realistic piano keyboard feel make it a winner.
I've only recently discovered that the choice of speakers are critical in the reproduction of a good piano sound. It's trial and error. Having tried several sets of speakers and EQ settings, I obtained the best reproduction from a cheap set of Kenwood hi-fi speakers twinned with an even cheaper set of mini hi-fi speakers on top - normally positioned pointing left and right which adds to the stereo effect.
EQ is useful to brighten up the piano sound or remove some mid-range or excess bass. Suitable speakers are the most important factor, things always sound good with headphones on, but you ponder why it sounds worse through your speakers... When the P50 is funnelled through a stereo amp, you'll appreciate the spatial stereo sound, the piano delicately pans from left to right as you ascend the keyboard and the left and right outputs differ slightly to create a spatial effect. This is indeed a highly tactile, pleasure to play piano.
Now hooked on the weighted stage piano concept it was time to ditch the wobbly X-stand, head to the DIY store for wood and build a custom stand, bench and gadget table with sheet music shelf. With some research and experimentation I settled on building a bench at 20 inches high and a piano stand which made the top of the white keys 28.5 inches from the floor, fairly standardised heights, perfect for a six foot aspie. If your forearms and wrists dangle at the wrong angle your playing pleasure is negatively affected and you'll get achey hand syndrome.
The Technics SX-P50 gives you a 16Kg, aluminium bodied, turn of the century treat with 64 note polyphony, 18 instrument sounds, a graded weighted keyboard and a solid quality feel.
The first three sounds are acoustic pianos, the same piano with variations of brightness and reverb applied - supposedly sampled from a Steinway. The piano sound is excellent over the whole keyboard, natural, bright, subtly panned in the stereo spectrum, the sustain pedal gives perfect sustain duration and the velocity curve is perfect too. Reverb and brightness are easily adjustable with dedicated buttons, all four reverbs are sensible and effective, or no reverb is the fifth option..
E. Piano 1 is a dubious Rhodes, E. Piano 2 is a mellow Yamaha DX style jangly FM sound. Harpsichord is very good - if you like that sort of thing.. Vibes is a very full and harmonically rich sound, Strings are just a mellow string pad - probably best layered with the piano, same goes for the Vocal sound - a mellow background choral sound.
By pressing the Organ Presets button, the UP / DOWN button selects the organ type. C1 - C4 are classical pipe organs and J1 - J5 are jazz organs. The pipe organs are good reproductions with all of their nuances but J2 is more my style, great for a Donald Fagen jam.
The first three sounds are acoustic pianos, the same piano with variations of brightness and reverb applied - supposedly sampled from a Steinway. The piano sound is excellent over the whole keyboard, natural, bright, subtly panned in the stereo spectrum, the sustain pedal gives perfect sustain duration and the velocity curve is perfect too. Reverb and brightness are easily adjustable with dedicated buttons, all four reverbs are sensible and effective, or no reverb is the fifth option..
E. Piano 1 is a dubious Rhodes, E. Piano 2 is a mellow Yamaha DX style jangly FM sound. Harpsichord is very good - if you like that sort of thing.. Vibes is a very full and harmonically rich sound, Strings are just a mellow string pad - probably best layered with the piano, same goes for the Vocal sound - a mellow background choral sound.
By pressing the Organ Presets button, the UP / DOWN button selects the organ type. C1 - C4 are classical pipe organs and J1 - J5 are jazz organs. The pipe organs are good reproductions with all of their nuances but J2 is more my style, great for a Donald Fagen jam.
Two sounds can be layered together by pressing both sound buttons simultaneously, if for example you want an organ and a piano together - you select your organ first then press the organ and piano button simultaneously. If you hold both sound buttons down for 3 seconds you can adjust the volume balance with the UP / DOWN buttons.
Transpose UP / DOWN buttons provide a 6 semitone rise or a 5 semitone drop.
Touch sensitivity can be set to light, medium or heavy. Light for organs or medium / heavy for acoustic piano.
Reverb depth is altered by holding down MODE SET, then press the reverb button to choose reverb type and adjust depth using UP / DOWN. Default reverbs are perfect, no tweaking is needed for normal requirements.
String resonance is the effect of piano strings vibrating around the one that was struck, it's a nice warm effect but is only heard when the sustain pedal is used and no reverb is selected.
The Digital Effect button adds celeste style vibrato to a sound. In the case of the acoustic piano, it becomes a honky tonk, the jazz organs gain a tremolo / rotary speaker effect.
Transpose UP / DOWN buttons provide a 6 semitone rise or a 5 semitone drop.
Touch sensitivity can be set to light, medium or heavy. Light for organs or medium / heavy for acoustic piano.
Reverb depth is altered by holding down MODE SET, then press the reverb button to choose reverb type and adjust depth using UP / DOWN. Default reverbs are perfect, no tweaking is needed for normal requirements.
String resonance is the effect of piano strings vibrating around the one that was struck, it's a nice warm effect but is only heard when the sustain pedal is used and no reverb is selected.
The Digital Effect button adds celeste style vibrato to a sound. In the case of the acoustic piano, it becomes a honky tonk, the jazz organs gain a tremolo / rotary speaker effect.
Regarding connections, we have MIDI in and out - proper old fashioned MIDI with 5 pin DIN plugs able to transmit and receive note on / off, velocity, pedal on / off, digital effect on / off and program change messages.
Connections available are 1/4 inch stereo headphone socket, left and right (or right mono) 1/4 inch line out sockets and 1/4 inch sustain pedal socket.
The power supply is via the much loved wall wart - a 10v DC, 1 amp, centre pin positive DC plug, curiously a 4.8mm DC plug.
Connections available are 1/4 inch stereo headphone socket, left and right (or right mono) 1/4 inch line out sockets and 1/4 inch sustain pedal socket.
The power supply is via the much loved wall wart - a 10v DC, 1 amp, centre pin positive DC plug, curiously a 4.8mm DC plug.
As a final vague repair tip note - when removing the bottom cover you will find that if you need to clean the key contacts because of possible dodgy key behaviour, the contact PCB is instantly accessible, just undo the relevant screws and pull connector off and clean contacts with something non-volatile like a baby wipe.. If you are irritated by a rattle / vibration when playing the P50 it will be one of the circuit boards rattling in its slot in the aluminium top. A couple of small dots of bathroom silicone or similar does the trick but you must remove the whole keyboard mechanism to access the PCBs. You could go crazy and replace the 3mm red button LEDs with a brighter bunch. As far as the weighted mechanism goes, it's a joy to the eye with proper weights and a zero maintenance rocking action, not the nasty weightless rods of the Yamaha P45 - never buy one unless it's dirt cheap..