Kawai ES8 vs MP7SE
As one of the most popular instruments being played and learned by new students everyday, piano’s sound is catching almost everyone’s attention due to its beautiful characteristics. While the acoustic is more fascinating to listen and play, digital pianos can sound beautiful as well like Kawai ES8 Vs MP7SE which are made for more experienced players or professional performing on stage. If you are also eyeing these amazing pianos, see what we can expect from them before shopping, so then we can choose better.
In this article, we are going to give you information about:
– What to Look at a Professional Digital Piano
– What are Kawai ES8 and MP7SE
– What Kawai ES8 and MP7SE Look like
– How are the Keyboard in Kawai ES8 and MP7SE
– How are the Sound Quality in Kawai ES8 and MP7SE
– What Output Available in Kawai ES8 and MP7SE
– What else Kawai ES8 and MP7SE can offer
– Kawai ES8 Vs MP7SE
Professional Digital Piano
As with many careers, being a professional musician is not an easy journey because we may have to walk a very long path and building listeners over the years along with polishing our skills to make better music. We can be a singer or instrument players and it is all up to your choice but there is something very interesting with musical instrument for like singing, it takes lots of training which may last for many years but our love to the instrument sound is making everything worth at the end.
Among those many instruments being played on stage and music school, we are sure that piano is one of the biggest classes with most students and it is understandable for the sound of acoustic instrument is beautifully pleasing. However, piano is also one of the most expensive musical instruments today and getting the real model can cost an arm and a leg for many of us, which is why countless people are choosing digital piano as the alternative despite not as authentic as the acoustic version.
Another factor to consider is not all digital piano will suit just anyone because unlike the real instrument, this piece of electronic machine is made to follow the user’s capability or more accurately preference so there will be tons of them out there. Beginners always choose cheaper model like Alesis Recital Pro Vs Roland FP 10 due to the fairly affordable tag and nice enough for daily training but those who have more experience or playing on stages from one gig to another will need more than just “sounds nice”.
For professional and enthusiast alike, we are sure sound is the most important point to consider because it is way past mimicking a similar feeling of an acoustic piano. Today, most digital pianos are using sampling to deliver the proper sound including models in higher ends. As the name suggests, it records sound from the real instrument and this is why not all pianos will sound the same because besides using different grand piano, they also using different technology yet, in general, the more memory they have, the higher the quality.
Besides sampling, we also have another technology used to deliver the most similar acoustic sound in digital piano and it is called physical modeling. Unlike the older technology, this one uses various modeling techniques and combined it with advanced software to create the physical behavior of the acoustic instrument in which they have hundreds of elements interact with each other. It is used as an attempt to make the ultimate piano sound that we hear as we press the keys.
About Kawai ES8 and MP7SE
If you are also shopping for a professional piano, it is better to set a budget limit first because they are mostly quite expensive and like getting any pricier products, we do want to spend the budget effectively. In the market, we do have so many options available from affordable models to pianos that are marketed mostly for musician on stages and to accompany their journey from one gig to another. However, not all of them will suit your preference which is why we should spend some time choosing the most ideal unit.
However, if you want to shop quickly without having to select those in the budget range one by one, in our opinion it is better to see what similar users are picking since models that are satisfying more people will have a higher chance to fit yours as well and among those huge companies, we are sure most people are already familiar with Kawai because this brand has its long history in the music industry especially in the higher up, professional instruments.
They also have quite the options to choose in the catalogue and two of the most interesting to look at for musicians are the ES8 and MP7SE. The former is known to be a very budget friendly stage piano because it is currently sold below $2000 and what’s surprising, the latter is also available in the same price range which makes it quite difficult to pinpoint what model to bring home for they are actually very identical as well in terms of capabilities.
However, it doesn’t mean that Kawai ES8 and MP7SE the same piano because the latter is coming from different family or MP line to be exact with another interesting model like MP11SE. While the ES line is deemed to be the compact version of the company stage piano, the latter is marketed more as a stage piano which is kind of similar in a sense for mostly we are going to look for a compact unit when dealing with lots of traveling.
Kawai ES8 and MP7SE Design
Despite being labeled as a compact line, the fact that ES8 is not a compact piano is quite surprising yet, it is still a very elegant piano with glossy metal cabinet and long speaker grill, making the whole instrument a very appealing addition into your living room. The MP7SE on the other hand is not as beautiful as the former but it still sporting a high quality material that we can instantly tell from the first touch yet, it is also clear that it is a stage piano.
As you can see on the sample picture above, the ES8 does featured some control below its elegant speaker but the MP7SE is taking this control panel into another level by adding a bunch of buttons, knobs and other functions. It also has a slightly wider screen which in our opinion combined with the available convenience control can be a breeze for stage use. In a glance MP7SE may look like the bigger piano but in fact they are quite identical at 54 to 53.6-inch wide, 14.5 to 13.3-inch deep, and 6 to 6.7-inch tall.
Kawai ES8 and MP7SE Keyboard
As a professional instrument, we do hope to see both of Kawai ES8 and MP7SE delivering the quality of expensive piano and they are not disappointing either because both are coming with Responsive Hammer III action combined with Let-off simulation. This is interesting because the technology is one of the most realistic plastic keys that we have on the market today. This technology is using different weighted hammers to produce mechanical movement we can feel on a real acoustic piano.
They have triple-sensor key detection system which is designed to accurately capture each keystroke and give you the fast passage trills with lots of note repetition. In the end, the technology will allow players to play a note repeatedly despite the key has not fully returned to their resting positions.
Kawai ES8 and MP7SE Sound
As it has been mentioned above, the most important part in a professional piano is the sound and being in the same price range, these two models are actually paired with the same sound technology as well or the upgraded Harmonic Imaging XL which is Kawai most advanced sound clip and we often found them on the higher-end models as well like the CA98. There are also 10 piano tones to accompany your playing so we can choose the one that suit our taste the most like the 9-foot Shigeru Kawai SK-EX Concert Grand, etc.
What’s different on the sound part is that the ES8 is only coming with 34 instruments including the aforementioned piano tones while on the other hand Kawai MP7SE is packing 256 built-in sounds, making the unit feels like a keyboard rather than a digital piano. Additionally, both of them are equally a 256-notes polyphony digital piano.
Kawai ES8 and MP7SE Output
Moving further, let’s talk about the output of Kawai ES8 and MP7SE because they are meant to be played on a stage so output will be a very important part to consider. The former is already blasting a pair of 15W speaker but we do need more for a gig and an amplifier is a must, but what set them apart the most in our opinion is the lack of speaker in MP7SE, making this model requires an external speaker or headphones to listen.
Kawai ES8 and MP7SE Features
On the additional features, we are getting similar capabilities in both of these pianos such as the layering mode, splitting mode, and duo mode that we can access from the control panel. However, we also admit that MP7SE is offering a more convenient operation especially for those who are playing on stage because this model have assignable knobs and sliders to allow players to adjust parameters easily.
Comparison
Kawai ES8 and MP7SE are an equally ideal choice for anyone who plans to use the instrument on stage but they are also different because the most important is MP7SE lacks of speaker and require external output for mass listening yet, it also provides much more sound collection for you to explore and integrate on the song as well as convenient as a stage piano due to its assignable knobs and sliders.
Kawai ES8 vs MP7SE
Conclusion
Since both of them are equally good, there is no bad options between them and you can choose based on personal preference or need. However, as a stage piano, we do adore Kawai MP7SE better for its convenience.
