” The two most important things you need from a digital piano when you’re learning is a realistic touch and an authentic piano tone. It must feel close to the weight and response of a real piano and have a minimum of 4 dynamic levels. Size, weight, and ‘bells and whistles’ shouldn’t be a deciding factor in your purchase “, Graham Howard, Piano Advisor
Call freephone 0800 358 8880 or email your questions: grahamhoward@ukpianos.co.uk
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Check out the new range of Gewa digital pianos.
“Excellent – wonderfully embraces the sound and feeling of a grand piano. Congratulations to you and your team”, Alexander Meinel, professor of piano at the University of Leipzig for Music and Theatre
Gewa pianos – made in Germany
The Vogtland region in Germany not only represents traditional instrument making, but also develops high precision, top quality circuit boards and components for Gewa digital pianos. The production process includes multiple quality controls. Each component and every piano has passed the documented procedure and is 100% made in Germany.
Sampling without loops
The heart of a GEWA Piano is the high performance sound board, which was developed by European hardware and software experts.
A fully developed technique encounters true innovation. 256 note polyphony without any sample loops. The new, extremely fast IC enables a much faster data release off the NAND-Flash memory. As a result you experience all piano functions in real sequence. Sampling without loops. The larger cabinet also enhances the tone quality.“Excellent – wonderfully embraces the sound and feeling of a grand piano. Congratulations to you and your team”, Alexander Meinel, professor of piano at the University of Leipzig for Music and Theatre
Steinway Sound sampling
All Gewa digital pianos were sampled on a Steinway concert grand in Hamburg, Germany.
The Steinway Concert Grand Piano D274 was recorded in a state of the art recording studio in Hamburg, Germany. More than a hundred samples were made. This sound can be heard in all Gewa digital pianos.
Keyboard
Thanks to the use of 3 contact points the “Concert-Pianist” keyboard‘s resolution is on the level of a concert piano when it comes to weighting and repeat performance. The clearly defined and precise touch supports the most advanced playing and is perfectly calibrated to 6 layer samples.
Main circuit board
To address our fine sample library in the memory we need high tech on the sound engine. The German made main circuit board uses a military grade IC that’s able to address the memory ultra fast to achieve this unique sonic performance. The amplifier and power supply are also mounted directly on the circuit board to save resources and make it an efficient and easy way to service the main board.
VSRC
With the VSRC you even hear the soundboard vibrating and the resonance changing inside the cabinet, as the full decay of every key was recorded in every sound layer.
Sampling: A sample is the digital image of the complex sonic structure of a sound.
A Steinway concert grand piano in a state-of-the-art recording studio in Hamburg was meticulously sampled to offer an unrivaled sound experience. Every key was recorded in multiple dynamic layers resulting in several hundred individual samples. Most importantly, the sounds were recorded without looping.
So what you hear striking any key in a GEWA piano is the true sound with the full recorded decay of the fantastic Steinway grand.
Memory
The new, super fast IC enables a much quicker data release off the NAND-Flash memory. As a result you experience all functions
in real sequence. GEWA pianos: 256 note polyphony without any Sample-Loops.
Final Assembly
In Adorf, headquarters of GEWA, the final assembly of the pianos takes place. In keeping with the expectations of the Made-in-Germany emblem, the quality has top priority for the manufacture of Gewa products. Providing best preconditions – meaning the adherence to all EMC guidelines, skilled production workers, optimised processes with integrated quality management and documentation as well as a final performance check based on fixed patterns and processes – each and every piano is manufactured according to these strict guidelines.
Questions
Hi Graham,
Thank you very much. We’ve been very busy lately (packing to move to another country next week for a couple of years) but are very excited to read The Digital Piano Bible in a couple of weeks after we settle and choose a piano for our 6 year old daughter. She did around 10 lessons before the summer break and is looking forward to resume her lessons in coming weeks.
Her teacher recommended that we look at clp 380 (or 370/340/280/270). Depending on budget, her other recommendations were for clp 407 and clp 609 (these appear to be very expensive models, even second hand). She was saying that clp series 600-685 are ok but have fewer functionalities that keeps children excited. Similarly, Kawai cn 27 is but it seems to have a good sound. We are complete beginners (apart from our daughter who did a few lessons) and are looking to buy a piano within a reasonable budget that the whole family can use to learn and enjoy for years to come something that will allow us to progress to an advanced (but not a professional) level.
Once we have a chance to digest The Digital Piano Bible, we’ll have a better understanding of differences between different pianos that will hep us make hopefully a good choice. If you have any recommendations in the meantime, please let me know.
Kind regards,
Ulmas
Reply/ Hi Ulmas
I’ve played all the Yamaha and Kawai digital pianos.
Personally I much prefer the key touch of the Yamaha.
Its firmness of touch feels much closer to a real piano.
The Kawai has a nice touch also, but if feels quite
soft (spongy) at the bottom of the key’s down stroke.
That’s not favourable for my playing. I like to feel
the key reach the bottom. It gives me more control
and I can put more into the music I am playing.
As an alternative, I recommend looking at the new
Gewa digital pianos.
These are completely made in Germany.
You can see them here:
https://www.ukpianos.co.uk/gewa-digital-pianos
The best of the range are the models UP380G,
UP380G/WK and creme de la creme UP400G.
These are lovely pianos and have a Steinway sound
(sampled on a Steinway concert grand in Hamburg).
The key touch is ultra responsive and feels the same
as playing on a real piano.
The Gewa pianos have extra sounds (as they all do),
but more of the memory is used in the sampling of
the grand piano sound than other manufacturers who
spread the memory out across many instrument sounds…
The result is a full, warm, rounded grand piano tone
that has excellent sustain and long note decay.
I love the sound of the Gewa pianos!
Let me know if you have any questions.
Yours pianistically
Graham Howard