Kawai MP9000

No problemo in the ease of use dept.. Everything has a dedicated button and not too many nested menus to schlep through. Sure has some purty lights on it.

This is the best action in a digital piano yet!!! It weighs 73 lbs, but with it being a real piano action, not one of those Fatar things, I don't mind the extra weight. It feels awesome, and you can get a lot more dynamic expression out of it, although no sostenuto pedals and no aftertouch, at least from the keyboard. There's probably a workaround for that, maybe in the sysex string, but I haven't had it long enough to really check and see. It's 64 note polyphonic with 16 sounds; 5 pianos ranging from the ubiquitous concert grand patch to studio to mellow, to "modern" to rock. They're all good, and the other sounds are OK, but nothing to shake up anyone's current MIDI rig of sounds. No expansion capabilities, but the controller parameters are good, nothing on the order of what you would get with something like an A90 or studiologic. Don't get me wrong: it's plenty for the person who is in a band with 2 or three other synths/sound sources, and it's easy to set up. Plus, unlike the Generalmusic PRO2, it does have both pitch and mod wheels.

HEY!!! It isn't in tune!!!! See Mike's (sorry, didn't get his full name) insightful article (also on harmonycentral) on his MP9000 for confirmation on this. It not BAD, like you want to send it back and get your money back, but it's bad enough that if you have good ears, you'll notice the discrepancies. I'm sort of a stickler for these things, but other people who've played it have said to quit yer whinin', it's just fine. So, you'll have to decide for yourself. Thank God for MIDI, 'cause I definitely plan to find a module that has samples/physical modeling I can work with. On the positive side, it's a wonderful axe for expressiveness, especially with the dynamic range. And, you tend to forgive the out-of-tune notes once you get into playing, because as I said before, this is just like the real thing. I have an acoustic piano, so I am able to A/B the two, and it's so close as to not even be an issue. The FX are good, especially the reverbs, and the others can be tweaked to whatever. It also helps to have an onboard EQ, Tone Modify and MIDI CC# setups , as well as 4 dedicated sliders for 2 internal and 2 external zones. And, you get a 2 pedal affair instead of one, so now you can soft pedal and sustain. So, I'm giving the expressivness a 9, but the sounds (mainly because of the poor intonation, which you might very well find OK or even good) a 7

I think this will be in my rig for a long time because of the ACTION ACTION ACTION. The reliability remains to be seen, but it appears to be solidly built, and definitely warrants some kind of case, preferably one that is lightweight but protective. 73 lbs makes me think of my good ol' Rhodes suitcase.

Customer Support appears helpful, but I had a hell of a time trying to find information on their website- It's like they hype it in the magazines with cute little endorsements ala Generalmusic, blah blah,blah, but when you go to find out more about it, there's nothin' not even in their "what's hot" section. Also, I had some trouble finding a dealer who actually had heard of the instrument, but to be fair, when I brought the lack of info to their attention, they put something up, and I got a call back from the guy who did the sampling for it in Japan. So , I think their heart's in the right place, but time will tell.

To sum up: This is an incredible action with pretty decent sounds, but the real deal with this is the action. And, I'm the first to admit; evaluating sound is a very subjective thing, so don't take my word for it: go audition one. As far as the other features, it's a good balance of things the gigging musician has come to expect, and the FX are happening. I plan to use it mainly as a controller and get my piano sounds from Generalmusic who I contend still has the most accurate, best piano sounds out there. But, Kawai is pretty close and with the competitiveness of the market will probably join the In-Tune party soon.

The big deal about this keyboard is the KEYBOARD! It's a piano!!! I am a classicaly trained pianist, and I have spent a great deal of time looking for a "real" piano feel in a keyboard. While some people may be very happy with the Roland A90 PA hammer action, I find it generally sluggish and annoying. But the Kawai MP9000? It has a REAL piano action--complete with wooden keys (ahh the smell of the wooden keys, there's something!). The keyboard itself has an odd shape to accomodate the REAL HAMMERS it uses to create the action.
And the feel is great. It is virtually indistinguishable from a real piano. One beef I have with many of the actions on the synths and digital pianos out there is what I call "cushion." Because I play the keys very forcefully, I find that many keyboards are just to hard at the keybottom, and my hands tire or hurt after playing them. While the MP9000 action is a little on the heavy side (like a piano), it doesn't tire my hands too much. I find I get lost and quickly think I am playing a real piano.
One limitation of the action is aftertouch. Because of the way the keyboard is constructed, there is no aftertouch built-in to the keys (however if you desperately need it you can access it through a footswitch).
BTW, because the keys are wooden, you will want to take care of it by making sure the synth is in a room with constant temp, no moisture, etc. You wouldn't want them to warp, now would you?
The panel layout is very clean, with dedicated buttons for most features. It has 4 assignable sliders, which can be used to control the internal effects, a 4-band EQ, simple patch editing (Attack, decay, reverb, etc), and Midi controller values. There is a pitch-bend and mod-wheel. The unit also has the nice feature of allowing you to control the internal volume seperately from the external vol.
The LCD display is rather sparse and tiny, making it a little bit of a pain to get to things quickly. Overall, the Ease of Use is fairly high and I put it at about 7. I have not worked with the board for a long time yet, so this rating may go up.

I find the Kawai MP9000 fairly easy to use overall. It has dedicated buttons for each of the 16 sounds, which can be layered with an upper/lower button, or by holding the button for one of the presets and then simultaneously pressing the preset for another. One annoyance here is that only the original button stays lit--not both buttons as you might expect. However, the LCD does display both sounds with an "*" next to each one that is active in the layer.
I believe the polyphony is 32, but the manual isn't the easiest thing to look at so I don't find it quickly.
The board has 7 reverb types, 21 EFX types, and uses 2 zones to play internal sounds and 2 additional zones to control external MIDI instruments.
The board weighs in at around 69 pounds.
One complaint: the board falls just short of being a truly powerful controller. It could have more zones, and a larger LCD display. But its primary reason for existence, as I mentioned earlier is to be the best-feeling MIDI keyboard you ever played on. It lives up to the bill!!!!!!!

OK, now for the bad news. The sounds, in my opinion, are rather poorly sampled and implemented: I hear a buzzing sound on some of the lower notes when using the default Concert Grand sound. The sounds do not seem absolutely consistent from note to note. Perhaps this is due to irregularities in the actual piano used for the sample, but it annoys me a little. additionally, the notes do not sound entirely IN-TUNE!! Maybe its just my ear, but that's what I hear. Yes, if you're wondering, the tuning is properly set to 440.00
Having said that, I will say that the OVERALL quality is fabulous. The concert grand really does sound great, and again as I said before I find myself quickly lost in piano music-land (which is the whole point, I think!)
Because the keyboard is a REAL action, the expressiveness is terrific.
I give this category a 10 for expressiveness, but downgrade it because of the sounds.

I have only had the board a short time. My only realy concern is that the wooden keys hold-up to any moisture.

I have dealt with the company. Because this board is so new, I had to go to the Kawai dealer in Compton to even try it out. One of the techs there, Malcom, was terrifically supportive and enthusiastic about showing me the board; in fact I got a private showing. He actually worked on programming the MIDI implementation and on the sampling of the sounds. I did mention that I heard buzzing on the low notes,but he said it was because it was hooked up to a crappy speaker. But I still hear that buzzing in my studio, which has the Mackie HR812 reference monitors (fabulous!!!!).

Overall, this board is gold for anyone who is looking for a true piano action in a Midi-implemented board. The controls are clean and easy to use, and the sounds are incredible once you get past the slight buzzing on some of the low notes.
Because I like the feel of the board so much, and because that's why I bought it, I give the overall rating a 10. Try it. Buy it. You'll love it!!!! Although you may have to go the Sam Ash in Hollywood (if you're in So Cal) to buy it. Ask for Bennet; he was a fabulous sales guy who really knew his stuff.