Kawai MP9500

The software is version 1.02. I'm a relative novice to electronic keyboards and I mostly bought this to use as a piano for the lessons I am taking. I've had this one for a couple of months and I play every day. It is a definite step up from my RD-150 (which I used for over a year) in flexibility, sound and action. On the RD-150 the looping was quite noticable in a sustained piano chord or note. Not so with the MP9500. Piano sounds are very much a matter of personal taste. I find the piano presets to be quite good with little need for tweaking. There is also a lot of flexibility is changing the character of the preset sounds in terms of envelope, EQ and effects types not to mention layering voices. The manual is good enough for my use.

The polyphony is 64 notes, good enough for my uses. It might limit some users who want to use an external controller/sequencer to play the sounds within the keyboard. It is however first and foremost, an electric piano, not a synthesizer/workstation and 64 notes should be more than adequate as a piano.

The action is outstanding. I bought this thing to be my main piano instead of an acoustic one for playing and practicing. It allows me to practice in silence and it takes up very little room. I found that practicing on my RD-150 never really produced any improvment in my playing when I went to my piano lessons to play on an acoustic piano. Now however there is obvious improvement in tone an articulation. In fact, the MP9500's action is better than that of many acoustics that I've played around on (including some acoustic pianos that had been recently regulated and tuned). Velocity sensing is adjustable across a wide range including a custom user setting that measures your maximum and minimum velocities and sets them as the limits. I just use the normal setting.

There are a significant number of effects to choose from (about 22) and there are four parameters of each that can be varied. There is also a 4-band EQ and ADSR control, all adjustable from four rotary, analog like, controllers. On the side of the board are a modulation wheel and a pitch bender.

There is no obvious expansion facility a la Roland's SRX port but who knows what can be accomlished over MIDI ports in terms of downloading and programming? I have seen no mention of it however. There is no sequencer either (it is after all a piano). It is a great MIDI controller however, four channels and many assignable parameters.

The manual includes full details of the MIDI implementation. Most of it appears fairly straightforward if you already speak MIDI.

I find the expressiveness very good on all of the voices I've played with. The piano ("Concert Grand" and "Jazz Grand") are especially nice. The church organ is excellent and the default reverb setting
for that voice really gives the impression of the presence of a reverberant wall at the oposite end of the cathderal. The EPs are nice as well as are the mallets. The only voices I don't like are the harpsichords. They are kind of pinched and constricted compared to what I'm used to hearing. The harpsichord on my RD-150 was much nicer. It's a minor thing however and might be curable given the flexibility of the effects and EQ.

This would be a great keyboard for all types of music except maybe dance because you have to actually play it yourself.

I don't know because I don't gig (maybe someday...). It stays in my home. I've never had any issues with it but it has only been a couple of months.

I've only spoken to Kawai once (before I bought the piano) when I made inquiries over the phone to the head office in the US.
I got to talk to a "Product Manger" and discussed rumours of defects in the instrument. He was very open to discussion and we talked for about 10 minutes. We both agreed that I should listen carefully and trust my ears. I did. I have never dealt with their tech support.

I love it and I'd buy another one (or a different Kawai with the same keyboard) if it were stolen or lost. It's well worth what I paid. The action is the best of all of the electic pianos that I've tried - Rolands (RD-700 was close), Yamahas, Clevianos (Casio actually
and really God awful), Technics, Korgs and several others and the piano voices are at least as good as the best digitals out there. Piano voice preferences are a pretty personal thing. I dislike the sound of some acoustics (some highly regarded) and many electrics. I like this one very much. My other board is an Edirol PCR-50 controller for use with CUBASIS and N-TRAX Studio.

One small gripe I have with the layout of the keyboard is that the music rack is too far away from me. Densly annotated sheet music is a bit of an eye test. I'm new to reading music however and am in my 40's so that is probably more me that the instrument.

The software version can be obtained by holding down the TRANSPOSE and STORE buttons (the ones furthest to the right) while powering on the piano. It appears on the display.

There is a defect only in the right XLR and 1/4" audio out put in the Concert Grand voice. The ROM is mapped incorrectly. The samples called by the notes F thru Ab above middle C do not match the rest of the samples in the voice.The stereo voicing is unusable in a recording or live professional setting. Kawai US has confirmed this. All MP9500's have this problem and Kawai is not going to fix it. I've filed a complaint against Kawai with the California State Attorney Generals office. If Kawai does not purchase the MP9500 back from me I will sue. The rest of your questions are moot.

The action is good. The effects are good. No expansion. Good MIDI. No Seq'.

It appears that you cannot depend on Kawai US. Their response to me was to substitute plug-in software sounds to make-up fir the MP9500's flaw. I bought the piano for the Concert Grand voice. Very arrogant of Kawai.

Not usable.

The best action I've experienced on a digital piano, aside from (possibly) Kawai's CP series home pianos. I came very close to buying this keyboard for the action alone. You really feel like you're throwing hammers around.

It's not very expandable, but I wasn't interested in that; only in the most realistic piano. I was going to dock it a point for weighing over 70 lbs and not including speakers, but I assume the extra weight is because of the wooden keys and more extensive "real" hammer action, which to me is a great trade-off.

I tried so hard to like the piano sound! I went back to the store a half dozen times. I tweaked all the manual waveform tweaks. I tried headphones and external amplification. I even tried more than one unit, including the older MP9000 model. How could they have gone so wrong here? This thing is orders of magnitude worse than any other digital piano I've experienced (except for other Kawais). It doesn't sound even remotely like an acoustic piano! You couldn't mistake this for a real piano if you were playing it on the runway at LaGuardia. If Beethoven played this thing blindfolded, he would be able to feel the artificiality through his butt! OK, so I'm hyperbolizing, but I want to convey my frustration. Paired with even a mediocre piano sound, Kawai's action would make this the best keyboard on the market; but as it is, it leaves you with such a feeling of detachment from the instrument that the realism of the action is a moot point.

Regarding the action, I also want to point out that there's a difference between realism (which is only a function of the mechanical action) and expressiveness (which also involves the interface between the mechanical action and the samples, DSPs, etc., and emulates the nuances of dynamics, timbre, etc.). Here again, I feel the Kawai falls short of Roland and far short of Yamaha. A Yamaha CVP, for example, feels less like a real piano but is a far superior instrument, if that makes sense.

Ultimately self-defeating. The hands-down best action in any digital piano is completely negated by the horrible sound quality. If this is fixed in successive generations of this model, I'll buy one in a heartbeat. Meanwhile, I went with a Yamaha P250.

My MP9500 uses v1.02 software.

Extremely easy to use, at least in the SINGLE mode, which I use exclusively (I never cared much for layered sounds in keyboards). Layout us intuitive, and I've only very rarely had to consult the manual, and usually only for small details (Such as what "Kirnberg" temperment is). The manual says what is has to, and nothing more. For the not technically avid, it might be a bit incomprehensive.

Customizing patches in SINGLE mode is easy and intuitive (granted, there isn't that much to customize, but nonetheless one is never confused)'. One thing that surprises negatively is that the band equalizer settings are global, and so not included in patches. This is annoying, especially is you switch much between sounds.

Polyphony is 64 voices, 32 in stereo, with mono switching when voice stealing becomes necessary. In the time I've had it (only a few weeks, but I've played many, many different pieces during that time), I've never heard noticable voice dropouts, not even in Beethoven sonatas.

Reverb is a standalone effect, all the other (and there are many) effects, such as Phaser, Overdrive, Rotator etc. are single use. I would have liked Sympathetic Resonance (simulation of other strings in the piano vibrating when the damper is lifted and some strings are struck) to be a stand-alone effect too, so I could subtly enhance the piano sounds a bit more with an extra effect, but this is really only a very minor detail.

Compared to the competition, which is mainly the Roland RD700 and the Yamaha P250, it is far better-featured than the Yamaha, and slighty less compared to the Roland. However, the Kawai leaves these pianos in the dust, because...

The keyboard action really is incredible! It is, by far, the best weighted keybed in, and a far reach above, it's price bracket. The bounce-back (the little bounce the key makes when it reaches it's initial position after release) is very believable, and the weight of the hammer feels almost completely real. The only thing keeping you from believing you're setting at a real action keybed, is that there's no hammer escapement at the bottom of the key depression. But this is very minor, and there really is no competition among other stage pianos, until you reach very high-end Yahama's, or digital hybrids.

I bought this keyboard untried (after very thorough research on the net and trying keyboards in all the music stores in Copenhagen), with action and a believable piano sound as priorities, in that order (I have acces to a very good grand, but not often enough to practise, so I was willing to sacrifice sound for feel (technique).). During the first hour playing, I was disappointed. The piano sounds were a bit to shrill, and I had trouble getting the reverb right. Then it struck me that I hadn't even noticed the action yet! After months of rejecting keyboards, from the Studiologic SL880 to Korg SP200 to numerous Rolands (including the RD700 and the FP series) and Yahamas (PXXX's and Clavinovas), almost always on feel (sound rejects were all low-price stage pianos, also with terrible feel), the Kawai action felt so natural, that I wasn't put off by anything in it.

Then, with a tweaking of the Concert Grand, I now believe that my MP9500 sounds far superior to anything I tried during the last 5 months (with the possible exeption of the GEM ProMega3, but the action (Fatar, I believe) of this keyboard, kept me from buying that instead of the Kawai.)

There's no sequencer, but since you'll probably have a computer nearby (who hasn't these days), this really doesn't matter. Onboard sequencing has never been a favorite of mine, as even the most rudimentary sequencer programs for computers could do a better job in 1990.

Overall the features does not get a 10, but it deserves it from the perspective of a classical pianist, who uses it for practising.

Oh, it comes with a dual footpedal, and music stand. Not major points, but you'ld miss them if they were gone (well you'ld probably get another footpedal, but the music is VERY handy).

The high notes of the Cencert Grand bite a bit too much when using headphones, but since you can alter the amplification envelope (try doing that on a Yamaha P250) setting the cutoff a little lower than preset, and cutting a bit in the treble and boosting the bass, gets rid of that problem.

The volume interval is perhaps a bit to narrow, i.e. there's to little difference in soft vs. hard notes in volume, but that is made up for in expression. Hard bass notes are far superior to both Roland and Yamaha, whose midlevel notes are of almost the same strength as the bass (probably to give the "store player" an illusion of what a "grand" (no pun intended) piano they're playing. After playing these for many hours, I can tell you that it's annoying in the extreme not to have midlevel expressivesness)

For those into the the dark Roland piano sound, the Mellow Piano does a rather good job. Again, altering the envelope can work wonders.

With five preset sensitivity levels, two user defined, and four expression levels, it should be possible for you to customize a piano to your liking.

But...

The GEM ProMega3 sounds better, so for studio recording, this would be recommended. Then again, so would a real piano ;-)

Built like a ton of bricks, and weighs like it.

Emailed me an english PDF-manual within two days of asking.

I would probably end up buying another. Then again I might spring for a digital hybrid if I had the room (and money).

I would look long and hard at the ProMega3 again, if I had to buy another stage piano.

The next GEM incarnation of a digital piano could be on par with the Kawai...

Combine the two and yould have an instant classic, and unbeatable stage piano.


But for now, the Kawai can't be beat in the grand piano feel.

I own the MP9500. A friend of mine owns an MP9000. I haven't brought the two together to A-B them, but I've been back and forth between the two and just thought I'd share that I think the action on the 9500 is much improved over the already-excellent 9000. The action of the 9500 is heavier, more solid, less prone to bouncing. Its really a nice improvement on a product that was already at the head of its class. Well done Kawai.

I have a nice Petrof acoustic at my place, and I love playing it. There's no substitute for the experience of playing a real acoustic piano. But my MP9500 has such great action and such a realistic dynamic response, playing the MP9500 actually does more for my technique than practicing on the Petrof. Remarkable, that.

Previous review was incorrect - - polyphony of the MP9500 is 64 voices according to Kawai

I am a classical pianist (and organist), too poor to buy that Steinway B of my dreams. I never thought I'd be interested in a digital piano. Then I played the Kawai MP9000 -- just at the time Kawai came out with the MP9500. I'm in love. Believe me, it's not a Steinway; it has its own personality and expressiveness; but turn this baby on, and indulge. I've had this for a year, and I'm still happy. I've read the manual, but I don't do MIDI (yet) and don't do gigs. There are more presets than I need to use: I love the Concert Grand, Jazz Piano (a brighter sound), and the two Harpsichords. I play it through my old Bose Lifestyle 5 Music Center and single cube speakers and get a rich sound. I've not bought a keyboard amp yet. I just play this piano for hours and simply enjoy it.

The action is what sold me on the Kawai. I've since gone back and played on the Yamaha P80, Roland 700, and GEM PRO keyboards I originally looked at. No comparison. The Yamaha tired me out, and all that plastic felt ucky. The wooden keys on the Kawai are wonderful. Great feel, great action, great expressiveness.

The polyphony is 32 note, which is limited in pieces with big sound and cascades of notes, esp. with the use of the sustain pedal. I can live with this.

I prefer to keep Sympathetic Resonance on (a kind of reverb) and choose Plate. There are more reverb choices than one could want. I like a more intimate "grand piano" sound.

There are significant MIDI capabilities and controls which others can more ably comment on. There are no expansion or sequencing capabilities. And no aftertouch.

The piano sounds are great. Don't get me wrong: this is a digital piano. I've been impressed with other piano patches out there, but all things considered, the MP9500 is one versatile piano.

The Kawai action is the reason to buy this instrument.

I mentioned the great Piano and Harpsichord patches above. I'm also impressed with the bass and wah presets (though I haven't experimented with these much). The electronic organ presets are funky. I wish there had been a few basic "pipe organ" presets of higher quality (the diapason, flute, and full organ are not great). But I bought a piano, not an organ.

The foot pedal works as a sustain and damper. It "travels" easily on the floor (a nuisance which improves a bit on carpeting).

The expressiveness of the action is superb and again, is another reason for purchasing this instrument. I could not get a P80 to play Adagio movements by Beethoven with the kind of sensitivity you can get out of the MP9500.

Velocity reaction is smooth.

I think this instrument would play great jazz. I can't comment how someone would find it for rock, raves, etc. It is not a synthesizer. Yet the MP9500 is loaded with more presets and options than the MP9000.

I use headphones on occasion (Sony MDR-7506 closed studio monitor, $100), but the piano sounds better (="less digital") played through my little Bose speakers with sound bouncing in the room. The headphones are very handy at night, but note that the wooden keys "make noise" as does the expression pedal. If walls are thin, you can still disturb someone's sleep.

My piano has developed only one problem in the year I've used it (almost daily use for 1-2 hours). The "a" above "middle c" sticks. I found out I need to get it repaired before my warranty expires. It seems this has been a problem with the MP9000 after extended use. I'm not sure what such repair entails nor how much it costs when one is no longer under warranty.

The piano is heavy (80+ pounds) and takes two people and a big car to move it around. I believe the case available for the MP9000 (cost approx. $300) fits the MP9500, but it is not airworthy. I've taken a previous suggestion and bought two sleeping bags to take my baby outside (with lots of static!) -- and I'm glad I've not had to take it out of town yet.

The manual originally wasn't packed with the brand new model I purchased, but Kawai USA was very gracious in getting one to me quickly. I have only dealt with my local dealer re getting my sticky key repaired, and will see how that goes, since my warranty expires soon.

I love this piano. I've never played so much in my life. I still want a Steinway, but I agree that my technique has improved tremendously on this digital instrument. It has its own personality. For a pianist on a budget, owning a Kawai MP9500 is a totally worthwhile investment.

I used to own a Kawai MP9000. I loved it. Bought it used for $1150, played it for a year, and sold it when I had to uproot and change cities. Now, about a year later, I have an acoustic piano but can't play it too much because of my living situation, so, in order to get my practicing in, I figured its time to get the MP9500. Good decision.

Yes, its easy to use. It is not, however, easy to move. 70 lbs and bulky.

Well, the main reason to like the 9500 is the same as the main reason to like th 9000 -- the action. Piano-like and expressive on a whole different order of magnitude than any other digital piano that I've tried (which doesn't count some of the super upper-end digitals that cost much more). The 9500 feels about the same as the 9000. I'm not able to A-B them, which I would have to do to really make a comparitive judgement. But from my memory of playing the 9000, its about the same. The 9500 is supposed to have "graded" hammer action, meaning the lower keys are a bit heavier. I'll take their word for it.

The action of the MP9000 was a bit bouncy, in an way that seemed unrealistic. I'm going to go out on a limb and say the 9500 seems improved in that regard, i.e., less bouncy. Although, again, I'd have to A-B them to be sure.

One of the nice benefits of the MP9500 action is that the keys bottom out softly, so you don't get that playing-a-table-top fatigue that you do from most digital pianos.

I think the midi capabilities are improved in the 9500. I'm not sure how exactly, because I don't remember now what the 9000 could do because I never used it as a midi controller. It seems like a powerful controller although nothing like, say, a Kurzweil PC2X.

Kawai says it has improved the sounds from the 9000 to the 9500. I thought the 9000 had excellent acoustic piano sounds. I'm going to have a hard time saying the 9500 sounds are better. Obviously, they are at least as good. The most obvious improvement, however, is in all the others sounds, such as electric piano, organ, and so on. Most of these are clearly better in the 9500. Of course the great thing about the MP is not just the sounds but the expressiveness that is possible because of the action.

Sure, it seems reliable. I don't anticipate I'll be hauling this around, but who knows. Were it not for the weight, I wouldn't hesitate to use it for a solo piano gig.

The best way to describe how I feel about the MP9500 is this: I've owned several digital pianos (Roland, Korg, Yamaha) and played countless others in stores. The MP is the only digital piano I've every played that truly feels like an instrument in its own right, rather than an imitation of an instrument. I know this because when I sit down to play, I just want to keep playing. The hours float by and my wrists are aching pleasurably. And I know this because practicing on the MP9500 results in improvement in my acoustic piano playing unlike any other digital piano I've owned. The technique you use on the 9500 really does transfer over to a quality acoustic piano.

If you own a MP9000, it might be hard to justify upgrading to the 9500. They are so close in quality. The 9500 is an incremental improvement. If I had kept my 9000, I would probably keep playing it and not have gotten the 9500.

Its hard to find these in stores. Based on my experience with the 9000, I purchased the 9500 without ever having audititioned it. I got it through Musician's Friend and was very pleased with their service.

The thing that might stop most people from buying the MP9500 is that its a "portable" keyboard that truly is not very portable. But I don't care, I get so much out of it just sitting in my living room. It earns its keep anew every day.

The presets sound very good. 64 sounds in total. The piano sounds are extremely convincing and wonderful to play, especially the Grand Piano and the Jazz piano. To me, the pads, the strings and the organs just adds the little extra sugar on top...
The edition options are quite OK due to the frontpanel knobs, and although I haven't even used the machine as a midi device yet, I assume it is fairly easy to set up. The manual is in english and german.

The feeling and action of this stage piano is overwhelming. I have tried out the most significant Roland models (RD-700, RD-600, RD-150, XV-88, FP-9, FP-3 etc.) and Yamaha models (Motif 8, P-80, P-120, S-08, S-80, S-90 etc.), the most recent Korg models (plus the Triton ProX) and the Oberheim models (Cosmos, MC-2000 and MC-3000). The model of utmost interest I didn't get the chance to test before I bought the Kawai s the GEM ProMega. However, it doesn't matter, because to me the Kawai MP9500 finally brings back the inspiration. At home, my parents had an unbelieveably wellsounding Andreas Christensen upright piano. Tuff competition? No! The Kawai's wooden keys (it is a darn heavy machine) offers the exact balanced feel I know so well. It's nothing but lovely.

The effects are good and easy to use. If I need more effects I'll use my outboard gear in my studio. The Kawai does not offer any kind of expansion, nor any on-board sequencer. It doesn't matter to me at all. It's got what it needs.

As I mentioned before the Grand Piano is very realistic. Thru my AKG 240 headphones it's amazing. I can't wait to listen thru my Alesis Monitor One speakers.

I believe it works for any kind of music. It inspires the player or the composer and that's the most important thing, I guess. As to compositions, I prefer an electronic-pop-with-a-twist focus, and the Kawai MP9500 can easily find its place in every setup. No doubt about it.

Check out: http://www.mp3.com/pongcuter

It reacts like it's supposed to. Nice velocity reaction, but no aftertouch I believe. Who really needs that anyway?

I have only had for 2 days now, so I have no idea. It feels very solid and its heavy as a ton of bricks. I intend to use it in my studio only, i.e. no gigging.

I have been looking for a stage piano like this for about 6 months. Intensively. If it were lost or stolen, I would buy a new one right away. The Kawai MP9500 is simply too fantastic. And it's a quite handsome dude - my girlfriend seems to have fallen in love with him too.... :o)

Basically it is very easy to use, access to presets and multis is straighforward, tweaking of sounds is easy with four knobs. Setup of your own multis can be a little more tricky, but is not more complicated as for similiar instruments.

The keyboard action is GREAT, it is the best imitation of a real piano I've ever played. Polyphony is somewhat limited (32 stereo voices), but it tries to keep long sustained notes by switching them to mono if required, so you can achieve as much as 48 voices, which should be enough in most situation.

The masterkeyboard functionality is limited as well (better than in the MP-9000, but still). I owned a Kurzweil PC-88 before, and it was much more flexible. E. g. the Kawai allows only one expression pedal, and to make things worse, you have to assign a fixed controller number to it. In my setup, some devices need #7 for volume control, while other need #11, and there's no way to define different controller numbers for e. g. different zones or multis.

The acoustic piano sounds, combined with the great keyboard, is the reason for buying this instruments. They sound very realistic, have a good response, and there's enough variation between the presets for different situations. The best I've played so far.

EPs are generally fine, but I miss a really hard one. The Clavinet is very realistic, but I didn't like the Hammonds (I own a Voce V5, so they couldn't have a chance, anyway). Strings are fine, as are basses.

The reverb is OK for an on-board type, the other effects sound good, but when changing presets, there sometimes are clicks or other artefacts, which you wouldn't expect in an instrument of this quality

It doesn't have aftertouch, but responds very well to velocity, there are 5 predefined and 2 user defined response curves, so everybody should be satisfied

I only own it for a week now, and haven't used it live, but it looks very solid (and is heavy). it's too early to have a real opinion about that, but so far, I think it's very dependable

If lost or stolen, I would buy it again. The only alternative I considered was a Kurzweil PC-2, but you can't get one these days in Europe. The keyboard of the Kawai is definitely the best, but I wouldn't mind more flexible masterkeyboard functionality (and I don't have a very big MIDI setup: an Ensoniq SQ-R+, a Voce V-5 and a Lexicon reverb)

It's real fun playing it, it feels good and it sounds good.