Stage Piano
An 88-note hammer-action stage piano as affordable as this seems far too good to be true. Is there a catch?
The PX3 heads up
Casio’s Privia digital piano range, which for the most part consists of
home and education-oriented models with integrated stands, speakers and
pedal units. There are no such accoutrements here, though; the PX3 is
a proper, portable stage piano with a feature set that makes it much
more suited to stage and studio than domestic use.
I
must admit a pang of nostalgia when I discovered I’d be reviewing the
PX3. I spent a large portion of my teenage years playing Casio
keyboards. In the 1980s, Casio synths (like the almost-classic
mini-keyed CZ101) significantly undercut the likes of Roland, Korg and
Yamaha and, on paper at least, seemed more highly specified in some
areas, but didn’t always come out on top for sheer sound quality.
Predictably, too, programming was largely LCD-driven and labyrinthine,
and construction quality aimed at something less than heavy duty. They
unashamedly represented the entry-level end of the market, but then, if
the trusty Casio was what you could afford, it would certainly do the
job.
Back in the present, I wondered if the PX3
would be a case of history repeating itself. Typical street price is
a mere fraction of some of the stage piano competition, and yet the
spec-sheet and marketing blurb puts it very much in the big league.
There’s an 88-note hammer-action ‘Ivory Touch’ keyboard. The 250
editable onboard sounds major on acoustic and electric pianos, with
Acoustic Resonance modelling, and a ‘Linear Morphing’ system that is
supposed to do with away with obvious sample-switching across the
velocity range. Other sounds include plenty of mallet instruments,
organs, strings, pads, guitars and an entire General MIDI sound set.
Keyboard splits and layers can be set up to play internal sounds or
trigger external MIDI modules (via USB or conventional 5-pin MIDI
sockets), and there are 64 ‘registration’ memories for these kinds of
setups. Effects include EQ, reverb and chorus that can be shared amongst
the internal parts, and two multi-effects processors, which can be
applied to specific individual parts. A pitch-bend wheel lurks to the
left of the keyboard, and there are two assignable buttons for toggling
effects and so on, as well as rear panel inputs for two switch-type
pedals. Oh, and the whole thing weighs only 23.8lbs. With so much on
offer, for so little, there’s got to be a catch, right?
Corpus Clavicordium
Probably
the two main reasons for the PX3’s light weight become obvious as soon
as you start using it. The case is made entirely of plastic, and there’s
an external power adaptor.
The casework itself
is sturdy, looks durable, and doesn’t flex or creak under any normal
conditions. Rear-panel sockets are not well supported, though. Only the
USB and MIDI sockets are anchored to the casework, so typical
quarter-inch jack plugs plugged into the ‘L’ and ‘R’ audio outputs can
wobble up to about a centimetre from side to side, presumably stressing
the internal circuit-board mountings. The power adaptor is a compact,
in-line design whose 2.5m lead is terminated by a two-pin IEC plug. It
adapts to mains voltages worldwide, and in use it barely got warm.
Now,
what about this Ivory Touch keyboard? The hammer action is on the
weighty side, compared to some stage pianos, and the key-tops are
lightly textured — though no-one would mistake them for ivory. The
action itself has no obvious vices, and allows for expressive playing.
Superficially, it doesn’t feel quite as silky or stable as Yamaha’s or
Roland’s best hammer-action keyboards, especially when played very
gently, but then it’s difficult to be completely objective about this.
Subtle aspects of mechanical feedback through the key can influence
a player’s (and reviewer’s) perception, and in that respect a big,
heavy, metal-constructed stage piano can, by default, feel classier than
a plastic-bodied instrument. What I can be objective about is that the
Privia keys reliably and evenly generate the full range of MIDI velocity
values. And for the vast majority of pianists, especially those playing
jazz, pop or rock piano, the action on offer here won’t give a moment’s
concern.
Plugging In
Editing of the Privia PX3 is achieved via the button-heavy front panel and modest LCD screen.
When you switch on the PX3 with its unusual
side-mounted power switch, it boots up ready for use in about 12
seconds, and defaults to its main piano sound. Selecting other sounds is
nice and easy: there are eight labelled buttons for main instrument
groups, and a pair of up/down buttons above for stepping through the
variations within. A simple layer of two sounds or a keyboard split (or
both) is just a button push away. The resulting additional keyboard
‘zones’ are configured using dedicated Zone Selector buttons, which also
choose whether individual zones trigger internal sounds, transmit MIDI,
or do both at once. It’s all useful stuff, though it’s worth noting
that the PX3’s strict adherence to the split/layer concept won’t let you
do more advanced stuff like creating overlapping zones, or even three
or four adjacent zones spread across the pitch range. So far, so
straightforward. Going further with the PX3 may well have you reaching
for the User Guide, though — at least initially.
Sounds
can be quite extensively edited within each zone. You access groups of
four parameters at a time, and shuttle between them with the dedicated
Parameter Selector buttons and repeated pushes of the Zone Edit button.
All the while, values are shown in the LCD. There’s plenty to fiddle
with: part transposition, bend range, volume and pan, EQ, effects
assignment, filter cutoff, attack and release, and vibrato. That’s by no
means an exhaustive list, either.
The
ergonomics of editing, though, are hobbled by the Parameter Selector
buttons being placed to the left of the LCD, and not underneath it,
where they’d tally up with the parameters they select. It seems like
a minor point, but this and other little inconsistencies contribute to
the programming system often feeling cumbersome and counter-intuitive,
when in reality it’s quite simple and fast to navigate.
Global
parameters, which are accessed in a different way, using buttons to the
right of the LCD, fare little better. They appear in a kind of pop-up
window on the LCD, through which you enter a menu-driven system, but you
might struggle to figure out that this is what’s happening the first
time you try.
Of course, striking the right
balance between ease of use and programming depth is a problem that
perhaps uniquely affects stage pianos. We want them to be simple and
immediate, but feel hard done by when they don’t offer
workstation-levels of flexibility. The PX3 at least is programmable, and
you can get quite creative with it. Saving and recalling setups to and
from the 64 Registration memories is easy to understand, too. However,
it’s probably fair to say that while most people will learn to navigate
the editing system eventually, fewer will learn to love it.
Rocking Out
Let’s
cut to the chase and consider the PX3’s sounds. The two main acoustic
piano sounds have a lot going for them. They differ in general
character: one’s quite middle-y and incisive, the other more luxurious.
Here the Linear Morphing system does its job, because I couldn’t hear
any obvious velocity switching. Nor are there any terrible lurches of
timbre between adjacent notes, and the extreme low and high pitch ranges
are convincing. Some players may find the sound of very loud notes
a bit forced and lacking that nice steely projection, and note decays
are not exactly state of the art — after about two seconds, you’re into
that lifeless, short-sample-loop sound that differs so much from the
beautiful complexity of a real piano’s decay. But the PX3 is no worse in
this respect than stage piano competition at three times its price. In
my experience, when you rule out big computer-based piano sample
libraries, only a very few keyboards (such as Nord’s Piano 88) do
significantly better. Anyway, regardless of relative cost, in the
context of a typical stage performance or pop/rock mix, the PX3’s pianos
will do the job and sound really convincing.
Additional
timbres include bright dance pianos, and also compressed and mono
varieties. They’re all helped along by the Acoustic Resonance feature,
which simulates the additional depth and breadth experienced when you
depress the damper pedal on a real piano. It’s more obvious on some
sounds than others, but as it’s editable you can easily decide how much
of a contribution it should make. It’s worth noting here that Casio’s
Acoustic Resonance does not, apparently, stretch to generating
sympathetic string resonance between sustained notes when you’re not
using the damper pedal. Still, only a select few stage pianos pull off
that stunt.
Amongst the main group of electric
pianos, there are 11 distinct flavours of various Rhodes and Wurlitzer
models, some clean and others with ready-rolled phasers, tremolos and
wahs, courtesy of the on-board DSP effects. It’s possible to discover
obvious velocity switching with all of them — the Linear Morphing
technology doesn’t seem to be present here. Also, no amount of vigorous
playing will tease out the really barking, coarse tone that is such
a useful part of a good electric piano’s expressive scope. But
generally, there’s lots to like, and across all the sounds the immediate
effect is impressive, both from the player and the listener
perspective.
The rest of the sound set is hit
and miss. There are some good organs and mallet instruments, but the
string sounds have a tendency to be rather harsh, and both the Yamaha DX
sounds and electric grand pianos are, sadly, very poor indeed.
Of
the on-board effects, I have no complaints with the shared Reverb and
Chorus; all parts can make use of them simultaneously, and they’re quite
respectable. Many of the 64 DSP insert effects are good too. There are
masses of chorus and phaser variations, and the rotary speakers and
autopans are great to have around. The distortion isn’t so nice, though,
often setting your teeth on edge and emasculating the sound you’ve
applied it to, rather than beefing it up. The LCD-driven programming
system isn’t altogether up-front about effects assignments — you
sometimes have to do a lot of digging around to see which parts have
which effects applied.
Turning now to some
aspects of playing the PX3, having a pitch-bend wheel on hand is
a bonus, but a momentary button (the one marked Assignable 1) is no
replacement for a mod wheel. On the other hand, the second assignable
button is genuinely useful. It latches on and off, and is ideal for
toggling Leslie speaker rotation speed on the organ sounds. The supplied
damper pedal has a unexpectedly shallow range of action, and I was
forever accidentally damping held chords. There is a second pedal input
jack, switchable between soft (una corda) and sostenuto functionality.
Conclusion
As
I hope most of this review has already made clear, the PX3 isn’t some
poor-sounding, hugely compromised budget item and has some really strong
points. It’s not perfect, of course. There are too many duds in the
sound set and effects department, and the programming system, with its
multi-purpose, strangely located buttons, can drive you nuts until
you’re used to it. It’s a shame there’s no modulation wheel too.
Balancing
these criticisms, though, are probably the best acoustic and electric
piano sounds that have ever been available at this price point, and an
88-note hammer-action keyboard that wouldn’t be out of place on an
instrument costing several times the PX3’s asking price. In short, Casio
have got all the important things right.
Does
it stand comparison with a Roland RD700 or Yamaha CP5? Yes and no. Yes,
in that for many typical performance situations the PX3 will sound and
feel every bit as good, and be miles easier to get in and out of the
venue! No, because for really heavy-duty use a burly, metal-constructed
stage piano or workstation is still the right tool for the job, and may
well have better non-piano sounds. It’s not really a fair question,
though, as the PX3 is a quarter of the price of these keyboards.
If
you’re after a stage piano and you’re on a tight budget, look no
further. If you’re in a position to spend more, you should still
audition the PX3, and consider what fun you might have with
the balance.
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