They had an NP-30 at Guitar Center in P'cola, the last time I went, Scott. No substitute for playing one yourself...!

I find the Yamaha's too brittle for my tastes, pretty much across the board. Roland get much warmer, better for jazz and ballads, classical, etc.. Truepianos is a VSTi, so to use it you need a laptop (pretty modern, at that) and a GOOD soundcard. In a mix, the Rolands come close enough for live, IMO, definitely good enough that it's better than the hassle of running a laptop fro your piano, live!

As to 76 vs. 88... Well, I survive OK with 76, the main hassle is getting that low C, used in a LOT of piano musics, and you have to lose the top octave to get it by transposing down an octave. But a lot of piano stuff can be played on a 76 (a lot of Beethoven and prior can be played on 76)...

The main thing for me is the generally poor actions on cheap 88 controllers. And the NP-30 is hideous, IMO, even for a 76. If you ARE a pianist, I think the action is more of a hindrance than the lack of notes! And if you want to learn at home (but not haul to the gig), my advice would be get a used, real 88 older sampled piano with MIDI on it (old RD or Yamaha, etc.), and hook it up to your T2, or get a Sonic Cell for soundsource...

Rather than go gaga over the cream of VSTi's, perhaps you should stick to finding what is the best HARDWARE pianos, and make your decision based on that. Unless, of course, you already are very familiar with the ins and outs of running VSTi's, and already have the hardware sufficient to run Truepianos, or Ivory, etc..

And, in the meantime, keep the pressure up on Yamaha to make you a 76 T-series (or even PSR). The fact that you are bumping your fingers up against the 61 barrier shows that many of us DO need more... Why tote around TWO keyboards, when one 76 will do the job?!