Kawai MP5

It is pretty easy to use. I've only just got mine and I can do much of the things without even looking through the manual

Polyphony is great at 192, so hopefully, no fear of dropouts. The effects are pretty good also - I like the pedal wah effect (Needs an expression pedal to work) which acts like a guitar wah-wah simulation and is very nice with EPs and clavs. MIDI seems good. It transmits accross the whole volume range (127), unlike my Yamaha P90, which goes to about 100 or so (This was the only bad thing about the P90).

The knobs (more about these later) control varying parameters, such as effects, EG and MIDI CC's. The zone control is very good and ennables real-time control over factors such as dual voice (The Piano and default Zone 2 'String Pad' sound is beautiful when combined)

For a stage piano, it has a lot going for it

Sounds are a subjective thing of course, however I am very impressed with the Pianos. Very expressive and a good choice. Although a few seem to be altered versions of the same sample, rather than new pianos outright. There are some very good all-round sounds, such as a few very usable brass samples, strings, organs and chior. The EP's are a more standard affair, but are very usable none the less. The synth sounds are pretty good also.

The control knobs is where I feel is the only real serious letdown with this instrument. Someone below has already commented about these and is right in what he says. They don't have a centre mark, so your not too sure whether you are in the middle or not when turning them blind, but more worryingly is that they are not very accurate, sometimes they will be upto about +/- 5 values out when you have set the knob dead center. Also, if you turn them quickly to and throw, it sometimes doesn't register the values properly either,

Also I've noticed that if a value on the screen says 64 (half-way, 12 O'clock) and the dial is at, say 32 (quater way round, 9 O'clock) from setting a previous value or effect not relating to the one you are about the change, when you turn the dial, it will start the count from 32, despite the dial being physically set at 64. You have to turn the dial either to '0' or '127' and start again for it to register the count, which is pretty wierd when you are used to it starting from the last position, like on my Yamaha synth.

Its a shame as the rest of the buttons and sliders seem good. and the whole keyboard feels very solid

Appart from the control knobs, this is a very good instrument.

I find this keyboard very easy to use. 4 Zones can be assigned 4 different sounds which can be layered, or velocity sensitive turned on or off, or assigned to different key ranges. Easy to layer a string pad under a piano patch and bring string volume up and down via an exression pedal.

Effects are basic and sound fine. Althogh rotary effect is not as programmable and realistic as some. 192 Polyphony is pretty good considering the keyboard cost. ($1100 U.S.)

Velocity sensitivity can be adjusted to the players style. I like action. I have been able to play leads faster and with more ease. User sensitivity option monitors your playing style to determine correct velocity set up. Purchased mainly for piano sounds and action. I must confess I was suprised how useable the string and brass patches are.

Not sure, Gigged only once so far and it worked fine. Cut through on stage also. At 45 pounds, the is the max weight I care to move around.

Not used yet

I like action and simple operating system, Spend more time playing and less programming. I like instant knobs for 4 band EQ. If stolen I would probably purchase again not because it sounds that much better but because it is the right cost/weight/sound/action/ease of use combo for my needs.

I don't know if it gets easier than this, all the relevant functions have dedicated buttons, not much digging through the menus even if you want to change the voicing, string resonance, key-off effect and such. Maybe for the MIDI settings, but that's not something you'll be doing on stage. But even then - the Setup section has a hundred or so slots already set up for MIDI zones (1-4 zones with variations).

I had a Roland XP-80 before this one, a great synth with excellent sounds (with 4 expansions), but creating multi-sound performances was a pain - no sound categories, and setting the hi-lo notes for a zone meant digging with a shovel.
On the MP5 I press and hold the Zone Select button, press the start and the finish note, and that's it. Transposing is done in the same manner - press and hold, then press the key on the keyboard for the amount you want to transpose (above and below middle C).

Changing the effect and reverb rate/depth, EQ, cutoff/attack/release, MIDI CC#'s with the 4 knobs is easy, I'd only wish if those were more precise.

The manual is great, no comments needed.

For me the keys are great for this price range, medium-heavy with not much of that "spongy" feeling - you can see that the mechanism is well done just by looking at the size and the shape of the synth.

But there is one thing everybody forgets - there is a great difference if you try to play a stage piano like this on a normal X-stand, or a sturdy wooden stand. I tried a Roland FP-4 and at first the keys felt better than the MP5, because MP5 was rocking on a tiny single X-stand, and Roland was on its own wooden stand, which gives a hard base to the keys and your fingers.

MP5 works great as a master controller, you can use Zone sliders, SW button (asignable), foot controls and the 4 knobs (with the MIDI CC# pressed) to control external gear or computer software.
The thing Kawai did with the Mod Wheel is great - you can assign it to be a Data Edit wheel, which means naming setups is easy, as well as other stuff. I almost never use it anyway, so this is handy.

It's also great as a sound module - polyphony is 192, so no problems there. It can also work in 16 multitimbral mode for playing back MIDI files.

I could use a two-track sequencer, but that's just me.

Sounds

Pianos and ep's are great, especially classic and jazz pianos, and there are lots of variations - I love it. Same goes for strings/pads sounds that can be used with piano/ep sounds or for themselves, and are even better if you play around with FX.

Bass and guitar sounds are ok, no better or worse than the competition, drums the same, but there are only 2 "normal" kits.

Synth sounds are good but I'd like a few synth strings more (miss them from XP-80) - I'd also like more different types of lead sounds, cause I play some progressive music, but I'll get these from another synth with faster keys anyway.

The brass sounds are very expressive, the difference from normal and aggressive playing is nicely programmed, and you can find brass for all kinds of music - pop, funk, jazz, even old-school James Brown style.

And then there are Drawbars - these are excellent! All kinds of drawbars that can be stacked together and controlled via Zone sliders - ok, only 4, but this is a stage piano - coupled with two types of rotary and distortion (rotary2 has overdrive on its own). These are all usable, and really stand out in a band. There is also a separate "key click" sound you can add.

Kawai put Organ sounds in a different category appart from Drawbars, which speaks for itself.

Oh yeah, there are a few very realistic Vocal sounds that are velocity-controlled, which is so helpful if you are harmonizing vocal parts. And is also fun :)


Effects

First I noticed is that the reverb is very good, and the same goes for all the rest - good quality effects for my taste - and there are 4 independent FX processors so you can add a different FX to every zone - not so on the MP4 model (only one FX and reverb type for all zones).

This way you can add massive chorus, tremolo, phaser, delay or whatever, all coupled with reverb, and even vibrato settings, to create a thick, animated evolving pad - and don't forget the Voicing (normal, stretched, wide stretched) option, which can give you some nice touches with strings. Also there are the cutoff/attack/decay/release controls and some asignable MIDI CC#'s.

This is far more than I expected from a stage piano.

I have two quarrels with Kawai: first - two buttons (store and transpose) have a habit of "sinking" every now and then if I press them too hard, so I have to pick them up with my nail. And it's brand new! Appart from this the buttons are very good, nice feel and a light touch is all you need.

Second - the knobs are not precise enough - they do not "zero" on the center marker, each one is a milimeter or two away either left or right. Also, they sometimes act "funny". For example - you have just changed FX parameters, and now want to change the EQ - you press the EQ button (now the knobs are left in a position you selected for the FX), and find out that the "zero" position is even further away from the center - some 2 stops away! Then, if you turn the knob a few times, it is centered once again.

This is not good, and feels like Kawai was saving money here. But, being a DIY freak, I think I'll open it and change these knobs and fix the buttons, so no fear for me. Did it with XP-80.

Appart from this, the synth is really sturdy and I doubt anything would break or malfunction during transport.

This is my first time I bought anything from Kawai, so I can't tell.
But I do know that they have upgraded the software for MP4, and I mean really upgraded it - 256 setups instead of 64, new MIDI and foot controller options, SW button options and so on. Great move, but this is about MP5, so no opinion here.

This is a synth well worth the money. You get a great sounding a and feeling stage piano, with lots of sounds and the flexibility to create your own sounds much different from the presets.

Also you get a great MIDI controller, easily hooked up to a computer, with lots of setups pre-programmed especially for this purpose, and it makes composing a breeze.

I'm not giving it a 10 just because the problems with those two buttons and knobs.

This keyboard is the best I have ever owned. The user manual is straigt to the point and only has a few pages, about 10 or so. The action is by far the best in this price range. Also this keyboard has two settings that can be customized to the users playing style.

OK Where do we start on the Features. First off this instrument has 192 Note Polyphony, USB, Midi-In/Out/Thru. To inputs for different typeso of pedals. 88 Key weithted action, who could want for more.

I must tell you all that I have been searching for the perfect piano replacement for about a year now. I sampled Roland, Korgs, Yamahas, Ensoniq, Kurzweil, everything out there, and I must tell you that nothing out there even comes close to this instrument on price or functionality. Every single sound in this instrument is amazing, and if you don't like something you have realtime controls to change it on the fly. The pianos are simply incredible. My favorite is the Mellow Piano, It reminds me of the steinway grand I used to play in college. The Organs are also very realistic and with the leslie swith in action you will never know that you are not playing the real thing. The Strings, Horns, Basses, and Drumkits makes this instrument the best out there now. Also did I mention that this one also has a couple of Jazz Scat voice presets.
If you are inclined to classical music or classical gospel music (Richard Smallwood) This is the instrument for you!
The effects are realtime assignable and are also great.

No problems as of yet, Comes with warranty.... but I hope I don't have to use it.

Haven't had to use customer support. If this keyboard was lost or stolen I would by one the next day without a second thought. Nothing else comes close. Get by a dealer and check it out for yourself you will not be disappointed.

Best value for the money, again.
88 Key IV Hammer Action
256 Sounds
192 Polyphony
Drum Kits
GM Internal Preset for sequencing

really easy to use : totally visual, well designed

really good polyphony

I don't find this keyboard action and piano sound as it should be : acutally i prefer from far steinberg the grand combined with a fatar sl-880 pro : you can't beat that team for a canned great piano sound.......but they're a bit too much for a computer to play live with other vstis sounds

For the built in sound studio grand after hours of tweaking almost like the grand (both are emulating a kawai ex concert piano), but you can't get the goodies that you get with the grand : when you release a note on the grand you can hear it muff the note, the kawai won't do it even though you can tweak the sound the parameters are graded from 1 to 10 : they should increase the difference between each step especially the string resonance that is not enough in the high range....

The other built-in sounds are ridiculous, the effects also......
But as a stage piano/controller it will do the job.....

it think i will trust it for gigs.

I'm a lazy piano player who have been playing composing for almost 30 years now.....

The last years have given us a great step forward with steinberg the grand about real piano sound in a box.....

form me this is : german team 10(the grand) japanese team 7 (kawai)

the only way to make it sound almost the same is decrease the quality of the grand vs the mp5

If i lose it i would not buy one again: i would buy a muscle pc that would only play the grand (i wish i had listened to my friends advices)

I find it very easy to operate, the user interface is very intuitive and makes a well thought-out impression, the first hours I've played it I didn't even glance at the manual, as most functions are where I (you?) expect them. The buttons are clearly arranged, you see at once which sound or setup you are using (which is great on a dark stage), you can see the zone settings at once. The manual itself is good, the descriptions are short and clear.
The parameter presets are consistently good, well balanced settings. You can sit down and start playing.
Oh, and the firmware version is 1.04.

With a polyphony of 192, you can hardly push this board to its limits. The keyboard action is great, in fact it is the best plastic action that I've ever played (I have the luck to live near a store where they have the Yamaha P70, P120, CP33, CP300, Casios, Roland EP-880, FP-4, FP-5, RD-300SX, RD-700SX and Kawai ES4, MP5 and MP8 ready to play, and I found the action the best from all these aove except for the MP8's). A feature that shold be mentioned is the ability to generate a touch curve according to your style of playing - it really makes a difference!
The 256 sounds are all between good and excellent (except for the drum kits, which are standard), in my opinion there's no sound that is "just there because it's in GM(2)" - none of them is crappy. The piano sounds are excellent, as they are tweakable ad nauseam - temperature, voicing, resonance, cutoff, attack, decay, release - you name it.
It has 7 types of reverb and 22 effects, independently adjustable for every zone, and anintegrated 4-band-EQ.
The zone concept is very good, there are four internal and external zones, each with its own key range, voice (and own voice settings), effects, sound parameters etc. - I tested it as a MIDI master keyboard, and (in my opinion) it is really good at that. A usable feature is the possibility to start an external sequencer with an on-board button, so you don't have to leave your keyboard.
It is a pure stage piano, it doesn't have expansion capabilities, a sequencer or rhythm patterns (as for example the RD-700sx has). As I don't need them (I already have a home keyboard and music software on my PC) I rate this category "9" anyway, as I found the other sections to be really feature-rich.

To me the keyboard was the reason to buy it - with the custom generaterd touch curve it is very expressive, in my opinion even better than Roland's excellent PHA. Of course it has velocity, no poly aftertouch, only channel aftertouch (adjustable by controller).
The sounds are all, as mentioned above, good to excellent and very tweakable, so there's a sound for everything :)
So far I played mainly blues and boogie-woogie on it, for which it is excellent (with "bright" voicing), but I also played some Rock ballads and some Bach, and I found sounds and keyboard fitting well to all of them.
I didn't use the effects extensively (yet), but to me they look solid. Every effect has adjustable depth plus one parameter (often frequency), so I consider them okay.
It is, as mentioned above, very expressive, very dynamic to me, and it is really fun playing - for this, the superb keyboard action and the extensive ability to tweak the sounds to your liking, I rate this section a "10".

I didn't have any opportunity to test it on stage yet, but it seems dependable to me.
It's build very robust (as in "stage piano" as opposed to "home/style piano"), aluminium housing, internal power supply, no wiggling keys, buttons or knobs, from my first impression the quality is solid. I'd estimate the reliability high.

I didn't have to deal with Kawai's customer support directly, but on the german Kawai website there's a forum where they are very friendly and helpful.
Plus, for what I give them high credit, for the predecessor, the MP4, they added features that were requested in the forum in the next firmware upgrade.

If it were lost or stolen, I'd buy it again without hesitation. It's definitely worth what I paid, in fact, I consider it a bargain buy.
I play piano since 16 years, and I've played mainly uprights and home keyboards. I started with classical music and slowly moved towards blues and boogie-woogie and helped as a keyboarder in a rock band.
I really love the action of this keyboard (did I mention superb?), the tweakable sounds and (yes) its looks. It fits onto stage as well as into my living room. I don't like its weight (20 kg), but for a stage piano this is ok.
As mentioned above, I compared it to virtually the whole spectrum of Kawai, Casio, Roland and Yamaha stage pianos and I chose it because of its superb keyboard action, the possibility to create a custom touch curve, the ability to adjust the piano sounds, the warm sounds and its abilities as a midi controller.
The only thing I'm missing is a digital audio connector (preferably optical), but thats hard to find in this price range.
I consider it an inspiring product, and sice I've been playing it, I created several new melodies and songs.

A tip for those who want to play it in a store: adjust the user touch curve to your needs - that helps a lot.

I'd say: test it, compare it, if you like it, buy it :) If you'd like to have a rhythm section and an arpeggiator integrated, tone-wheel-organs wih drawbar simulation etc. either consider buying some synth or a MIDI expander or look for the Roland RD-700sx, which has also a very good action (haven't had a chance to test the Yamaha S-90ES). But if you look for a "pure" stage piano with superb action, highly tweakable high-quality sounds, good effects and first-class master/MIDI capabilities at an affordable price, this may be THE board for you.