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Wow, @Moonhare, that’s exactly the great info I was hoping for. Thanks so much; it’s great to hear from a real pianist. Ultimately I’d love to learn to play piano properly. Don’t know if it’ll happen in the years I’ve got left, but if I don’t have the right equipment, there’s no chance. I was skeptical of 61 keys and now you’ve confirmed it for me. I considered a 76-key (Yamaha NP-32), but at that point, why not just get the real thing and not wonder which keys I’m missing?
Thanks also for confirming about weighted keys. It seems they add enough weight to take the keyboard out of the “portable” category, and I need to be able to move it around or put it away. I’ve heard good things about touch-sensitive semi-weighted keys on reputable brands from other actual pianists and it’s nice to get confirmation that I’m not giving up anything that matters to a beginner. By the time I’m Rachmaninov, I’ll just have to get a real piano LOL.
Thanks for your real-life story about the durability of your Roland. I’ve always heard that Roland and Korg were solid brands, and I’m leaning toward the Roland GO:Piano. It’s priced a bit below the Korg B2N at Amazon.ca. Yamaha’s entry-level electric pianos seem really nice and easy on the wallet, but they’re light on the electronics stuff like USB and MIDI. Yamaha seems to have a blind spot about that. Most reviews pointedly criticize them for that.
Great point about the on-board piano sounds and speakers. I wouldn’t have thought about it, but I would definitely not like to be tied to a computer just to play a key and hear it. I’ve taken any like that off my candidate list.
Thanks again for all your great input. Let me know if you need any similar advice about guitars.
-PD
