Looking For A Good $700 (or so) Digital Keyboard

I was considering buying the new Casio Privia PX-320, but thought I'd get some opinions on it and other digital pianos around that price first.

I'm a songwriter/performer in a band , so I suppose some tasteful (read: not cheesy) overall sounds are what I'm looking for. You know...Piano, Organ, possibly some decent Brass and String sounds. Reverb and Chorus would be nice as well.

I noticed that the PX-320 has some arrangement features, which are totally unnecessary for me (I have other ways of recording song ideas) ...I'm starting to ramble.

Basically, what are some good keyboards in the $600-$800 range?

EDIT: That should read 'Digital Piano' in the title.

Korg, Roland, Yamaha, all make nice romplers gettable in that price range. Of course none have speakers built in. Of the 3 brands I mentioned I favor Korg sound wise. Tons of possibilitites for used synths in that price range.

Yamaha and Korg have some nice arranger keyboards that are slightly more than your budget, but I'm sure you can find one used for around $700. Yammy discontinued the PSR 1500 (I think), and it had some really nice strings, horns, and pianos on it. EPs were super, but the organs were crap. However, as a songwriter, you would probably appreciate how these can help you arrange a tune.

Well I own a Casio Privia PX-320 which I recently bought. As for piano patches/samples/sound, I'd say these have been carefully and nicely sampled, no "ringing" of notes like Casio's old toy-keyboards...

The lower registers have a rich bass sound (fully appreciated when using AMPs...the built-in speakers of the PX-320 don't give justice at all to the good piano samples that Casio packed into the AIF sound source/engine) and the higher registers are not "tin-can-ish" in sound. In fact the high notes resonate quite well and seem to decay naturally. You can appreciate this when using either a good pair of headphones or AMPs/powered speakers.

I wouldn't call the grand piano patch "cheesy", I suggest you try one out in any music store and hear for yourself. It can hold it's ground against an equally featured/priced Yamaha portable DP.

There are several string patches (one in panel tone set, around 4 in the variation tone set and 2 included in the General MIDI set which also includes the "synth string 1 and 2"). The string patches in the GM set, however, sound a bit "cheesy"...nevertheless this GM string patch do sound decent when mixed with other instrument patches even on loud speakers. The string ensemble in the panel and variation tone sets sound "warm" and again, this can only be FULLY appreciated if you connect it to a decent pair of powered speakers or AMP...you may also appreciate this using a good pair of headphones but I personally like hooking it up to powered speakers.

The Brass sound is decent and useable, I'd say the "attack" segment of the sample has been "tempered" . For the sake of comparison, my old Casio CTK-811Ex keyboard had brass patches that sounded like a horn of a truck...and these sounded "harsh and loud". But there are 2 Brass ensemble sounds/patches in the PX-320, these are the STEREO BRASS ENSEMBLE and the normal BRASS General MIDI patch. I like the STEREO BRASS better (you can appreciate it if you try playing the intro parts of the song "Break Out" by the Swing Out Sister or the Brass parts in the song "SMOOTH" by Carlos Santana).

The individual brass instruments are also a big improvement, particularly the variation tone patches named "breathy ALTO" and "breathy TENOR" saxophone patches (try playing cheesy music like "Silhouette" by Kenny G with these 2 patches). The trumpet sound is also decent if not outright better...(although a flugel horn was used in the original song "FEEL SO GOOD" by Chuck Mangione, try using a trumpet patch and you may be able to appreciate the patch a bit more).

As for REVERB and CHORUS effects:

Reverb has 4 settings (Room, Small Hall, Large Hall and Stadium)

Chorus has 4 settings (Light Chorus, Medium Chorus, Deep Chorus, Flanger)

Some stereo sampled tones have their own reverb or chorus settings and automatically activate these effects. For the grand piano patch, I turn the reverb off when playing classical music. As for other types of music (contemporary jazz, pop, rock) I turn the reverb on and either use the small hall or room FX)...and yes the reverb and chorus are also decent.

There are also several fine organ variation patches. I particularly like the GM Organ 2 and 3 patches (in the GM patch set) as well as the Drawbar, Rotary Organ, Rotary Drawbar organ and percussion organ all sound good and decent. The rest of the organ patches I don't really use (church, tremolo, 70's organ, reed, pipe).

There are several EP (electric piano) patches, but personally, I only like 2 (pop EP and GM EP 2) out of around 7-8 EP patches.

As for the recording features, the PX-320 only has a 2-track sequencer. Songs recorded can either be using the internal memory of the DP or using an SD-card for storage. It can store recorded music in either SMF Type 0 or Casio's proprietary data format (which can also be converted to SMF type 0 or 1 using the included Casio file converter software in the Casio Program CD). You have another option of course, to record your arrangements or compositions...by hooking it up to a desktop PC or laptop with your DAW software (e.g. Sonar, Cubase etc.). I don't use the built-in recorder at all, I'd rather hook up my PX-320 via MIDI or LINE-OUT to my desktop PC (while in my home studio) and laptop (during gigs).

Hope this lengthy reply/post helps a bit.

Beowulf unlocked his word-hoard ... (Just taught the poem - couldn't resist!)

Good review!

Thanks guys. I appreciate all of the replies thus far, Beowulf's lengthy review especially.

I decided to get another hands-on feel for the digital pianos today, and I personally found the Casio Privia PX-320 sounds and key-action to be severely lacking when compared to Yamaha's similarly priced models. The Privias certainly do trump the Yamaha's in features, though. However, as I stated before, it's the quality of the sounds that I'm looking for.

So, I suppose I've narrowed my search down to two models. The Yamaha P-85 ($600) and the Yamaha P140 ($1000). I think I'm leaning towards the P-85 currently, but those few extra sounds and effects in the P-140 are certainly enticing...just not sure if they're worth the extra $400.