This isn't an arranger demo but since we also discuss digital pianos here and since I was requested to make this demo for another forum I thought I'd share it here also.

When shopping for a digital piano we all focus on the piano sound first and foremost, but often there are other sounds available that add to the equation. So it was with my Kawai ES4, and since no demo exists online of the many sounds of this keyboard, I thought I'd make one.

My rough 4 1/2 minute MP3 demo of some of the best sounds from the Kawai ES4 is here:

Kawai ES4 Full Demo

This was recorded essentially flat with a little compression. The sounds are my adjusted preferences, in other words these are MY presets which I've tweaked to my personal tastes so ES4's on the showroom floor won't sound quite the same. The effects you hear are the ones I've chosen for each sound - YMMV. This is not a complete demo and is meant to give an impression of what the ES4 sounds like when tweaked and let you hear the sounds that aren't demo'd anywhere else online... so much for the disclaimers...

I start with my fav default acoustic piano sound, Piano 2 with a lot of string resonance. Then I walk through the electric pianos: Rhodes, Wurli, DX. Then two of the organs: percussive drawbars and regular drawbars with leslie effect & slight distortion. A mallet demo follows, then harpsicord and clavinet. Then one of the pads. I then do a piano + strings demo, followed by acoustic bass and then a acoustic bass/electric piano split. For the grand finale I simply trigger the default demo, which is quite impressive: it's a sequence that features the really nice ES4 drum sounds with acoustic & electric piano and bass.

It's worth mentioning that the ES4 has 100 drum rhythm patterns built-in that are difficult to get to but quite useful, and the drums themselves respond to General Midi keynotes. The drum samples are really quite surprising in clarity and are a bonus.

Enjoy!

Jim....thanx for the ES4 DEMO....
very well played & most of the sounds really shine thru, I just thought the organs lacked a bit, but the pianos, ele pianos really are spot on..shows what you can do with a little TLC So where do you stand now on your new stage rig as far as Gear that you happy with? http://www.kawaius.com/main_links/digital/es_4.html


[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 06-07-2006).]

Hi... thanx. I fully agree the organs are weak on the ES4 but then it's a piano so it's a bonus that it has organs and a leslie sim at all, and they are useable if not ideal. All the things I bought the ES4 for it does well.

I really enjoy my Kawai ES4 and play it every day. I don't know of anything else in it's league currently I'd rather have so I'm about 95% happy with it (it could use better EQ control). I'm using that with the Music Pad Pro which I'm about 55% happy with... there's LOTS of room for improvement on the MPP, especially as an MP3 player, and updates on the badly flawed MPP 4.0 OS are overdue. If/when the MPP becomes as well developed as the Kawai ES4, I'll be thrilled. Wish the MPP could become an arranger too like the MidJay but we'll be lucky if they get the existing features to work right.

Jim I hear ya ...its an never ending battle for KB happiness year after year......
I'm hearing rumors that the NEW Ketron SD Arranger KB will be a hybrid of the SD-1/Midjay all in one fantastic package!!!
We shall surly see soon enough. Meanwhile I'm very very happy with my Tyros 2 & laptop combo on stage.

Jim
Thanks for the demo(s)great chops ..... About the only things I really liked were some of the El. pianos allot. The bass I thought good as well. Now the little jazz compo near the end was outstanding all around.

Terry

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jam on,
Terry
http://www.artisans-world.com/

Hi Esh,

Thanks for posting that demo. The sounds instantly reminded me of the Korg Sg-1D(that's a compliment) I bought while working country club gigs and weddings when I was 19. I loved that board...but not the weight.

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http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=235791
www.mychrisvalenti.com

[This message has been edited by Chris Valenti (edited 06-07-2006).]

Esh, great playing, thanks for the demo.

Chris - I can see what you mean about the SG-1D. I still have my original Korg SG-1 (76 key version) I bought in 1986 and can tell you that it weighs 30kg (65lbs) .

From memory the Korg SG series has 12-bit linear PCM samples which gave it a certain bright presence at the expense of some smoothness. At the time the SG-1 certainly managed to cut through on stage when playing in a live band.

The thought of comparison with the SG-1D could be due to the relatively low bit rate of the demo (89kb/s). To my ears low resolution mp3's have a habit of sounding like low bit-rate samples.

It's likely that the ES4 (although never having played one in person) would sound much fuller/ richer/ smoother than the mp3 allows.

Esh, please correct me if I am wrong.


Kind regards,
Mark

Mark, I've heard this discussion before about low-rate MP3's cheapening the sound quality of keyboards and honestly my abused ears probably aren't the best judge anymore. The MP3 I made sounds pretty much like the ES4 to me even though it was meant to be a rough demo of secondary sounds with a small sample of my tweaked acoustic piano sound thrown in. I haven't heard a Korg SG-1 in so long I couldn't make any comparison (except that today's ES4 with 96-note polyphony, string resonance, damper pedal effects, etc. probably has a slight edge over old Korgs). I used to swear by my Kurzweil PC-88's piano sound but I recently played one and couldn't believe how crappy it sounded... times have definitely changed.

Also there are many parameters on the ES4 that can be customized and I certainly tweaked the snot out of them, so the only way to critically judge it's sound is in a quiet music store and make sure you have done a factory reset beforehand.

I love the way the ES4 sounds on stage and for practicing in my studio, by even so I use it to control a softsynth piano when recording (Colossus' Steinway D sample) because the softsynth sounds better to me and is quieter. And I'm probably going to migrate to Ivory eventually. FWIW: YMMV.

Jim, I pretty much agree with everything you said..including the Kurz comment..

I thought the piano sounds were great..Organ tones was okay , the Leslie simulation was weak, but as you say you consider it a bonus on a digital piano..

Hi Jim (Esh): Congrats on your new Kawai ES4 keyboard addition. Finally got a chance to listen to your impressive ES4 demo performance. I have to concur with Chris that the ES4 sounds strikingly reimiscent to the classic Korg SG-1D. , of which (at the time) could only dream of ownning.

Scott

Scott, thanks for the pic.

I still keep my SG-1 for two reasons, and neither of these is for the sound. The first is the great keybed action - the 65lb weight certainly allows it to have a good weighted feel. The other reason is for the pitch bend and mod wheels. As far as the sound goes, I agree that I was blown away in 1986 with the fantastic sound, but now it sounds very agricultural indeed. You can even hear the samples turning synthetic in decay as the looping takes over when the key is held down for a while. I firmly believe that the ES4 (and other modern weighted pianos) are vastly superior sounding instruments.

Esh, are you able re-process part of the demo at a higher mp3 rate? (say first 25 seconds of the piano part and maybe 30 seconds of the jazz combo from about 5.30 position). It would be useful for me to hear if there is a significant difference (or whether I am just full of **** as some of my friends keep telling me)

Kind regards,
Mark