Piano amplification

[Nick1962]

Hi - I'm looking to buy EX88 stage piano for accompanying work (solo violin) in small venues. Looking around the various forums points towards avoiding a piano amp and going for speakers/PA stereo systems to obtain the most natural sound that matches the un-amplified violin. Does anyone have any suggestions/advice about this issue. Many thanks.

[kagamul]

Hi!

Still looking?
Will the violin be amplified too?

[Nick1962]

Hi - still looking although have just bought an EX88. No, the violin will not be amplified. A friend suggested saving some samples form the Nord website onto an ipod then taking them round to try various speakers. Will this be representative do you think? Cheers.

[kagamul]

I would rather record myself playing the Nord and put that on the iPod. But the idea is good!

For that particular application a speaker that radiates 360° like a real piano would be interesting!
I have a Groove Tubes Spacestation SFX (which does 300° stereo) for "acoustic" sets that I like a lot. Unfortunately, they don't make it anymore.

Motion Sound has this thing, but I've never had the opportunity to try it:
http://www.motion-sound.com/product?name=ms-360_1
I have their KP-500SN though, which is awesome for loud stuff!

Cheers,
Manuel

[nordfanatic]

I am a brand new Nord Piano 88 owner. Holy cow what a piano. The quality of the samples are out of this world. Pedal noise, string sympathetic resonance, are you kidding me. This thing is so good that when I tried it for the first time through my sound system, which I will describe directly, it ran chills up my spine it was so good.

Now to the point. There may be some of your newbies, or maybe even some oldbies that are wondering how to amplfy this beast. Well here is what I did, and it cost less than a $1,100 US (your milage may vary depending on where you purchase) not including the Mogami cables. I am using two (2) Yamaha HS80M (mains) and one (1) Yamaha HS 10W (subwoofer). The sound is immaculate. All I was trying to do was recreate the volume of an acoustic grand piano, and no more, for living room and studio use. This set up does exactly that with plenty of headroom if you want to crank it up a bit. Also you might think why do you need a subwoofer, well from C3 on down it really makes a difference, subtle but noticable. The Grand Lady Large, and the Bdorf Grand Imperial, are out of this world. Throw a little "Hall 1" reverb to taste then look out!

[PianoZac]

David,

Yeah the NP88 is absolutely a blast to play. It's such an engaging instrument to play, and the detail in the samples really sets a benchmark in Hardware DPs. The NP88 is hands down the best Stage Piano for piano use IMHO. I've never received the amount of compliments as I do now with my NP88 on sound. Now to add the NE3 73 and I'll be good as gold. :)

[dzollo]

This is an easy one, as far as I'm concerned; of course, there's no accounting for taste, but as someone who does 200 gigs a year, in just about every conceivable setting, I would recommend you purchase the Bose Compact. At just under a thousand bucks, there's nothing that can touch it in that price point. And I use it as a p.a. in small venues to run my Nord Piano and vocal mic. I also use it as an on-stage monitor at larger gigs with house production, thus insuring a consistent, high-quality sound night-in and night-out. Happy hunting.

[ybakos]

QSC K series. (such as the K8, K10 or K12)