Casio America today announced two new, digital pianos – the Celviano Grand Hybrid GP-500BP and GP-300. Designed to combine the advantages of digital technology with the traditional sound and feel of acoustic pianos, Casio staff say the new Grand Hybrid pianos promise an experience like that of a grand piano including the tones, keys, and playing comfort.
Casio’s new AiR Grand Sound Source faithfully recreates the sound of an acoustic piano. Aspects including sympathetic string resonance, damper resonance, key-off response, and mechanical sound have been reproduced. It includes recreations of three “legendary” grand pianos, each with a rich history: the Berlin Grand, “known for its elegant, clear sound and melodic color;” the Hamburg Grand, which delivers “gorgeous, versatile tone with evocative string resonance;” and the Vienna Grand, which provides a “stately and expressive sound” with a wide tonal palette. Several preset configurations of these pianos are included, along with other essential instruments.
The Celviano Grand Hybrid pianos feature Casio’s new Natural Grand Hammer Action Keyboard. The GP-500BP and GP-300 also feature a Grand Acoustic System that faithfully represents the sound of a grand piano as it emanates from above and below the soundboard. The multi-channel amplification system creates an immersive sound field like that of a 9-foot concert grand for both the player and audience. A Headphone mode is included to produce an ideal stereo image while playing or practicing quietly.
Here’s the Natural Grand Hammer Action Keyboard going through a performance test:
https://youtu.be/yRoVKtFNeWo
The Celviano GP-500BP and GP-300 also offer the following features:
- Hall Simulator
- Scene feature (GP-500BP only)
- 256-note polyphony
- 5 touch sensitivity curves
- 60 preset songs
- 10 user songs
- Concert Play mode
- Duet mode
- USB Audio Recording
- 1/4″ Line Outputs
- Satin Black Finish (GP-300) or Black Polish finish (GP-500BP)
Pricing and Availability. Casio’s Celviano GP-300 ($3,999) will be available at select music dealers nationwide beginning in September, and the GP-500BP ($5,999) will be available beginning in November. For more information about the new Celviano GP line of digital pianos, check out the Casio website.
You can digitally capture the sound of a piano, recorded and played through a speaker.
You can’t capture the sound of sitting in a room listening to an actual piano.
Agreed, but a real grand is something that many of us can’t have – I can’t slip it into my basement and trust that it’ll stay in tune in a less than ideal environment (humidity, temperature, light falling on the instrument, etc.).
The people I know who own grands are either extremely wealthy or professional pianists.
I’m not sure that I do agree. Digital pianos are so good nowadays, I suspect that the average audient might not be able to identify it in a blind test against a real concert grand. (Note that I did not say “distinguish”.)
I trust that it retains backwards compatibility with earlier Casio products, and has a complete set of VL-Tone sounds?
Very little piano heard in the music for this video… I would have thought the only instrument we should hear is this new piano being played by an expert.
The video makes me think of a car commercial…not a piano.
Yeah. It’s a hybrid dubstep piano. “Great” demo video.
Or a piano to play percussions
A piano IS a percussion instrument.
Does it have calculator?
Stage one: Passes the ‘Liberace Test’.
Oh, a superb teaser! More! I hope for a second teaser which makes it even more mysterious… Mini keys?
The promo video’s music relies heavily on preset sounds/patterns from Heavyocity’s Damage VST.
I agree that I’ll want to hear a lot more of the actual piano tone, but at those prices, I suspect it won’t be a slouch. Its an in-betweener piano, for those who are not just home dabblers, but also not in need of or equipped to handle a full acoustic grand. That key-rebound test was like a piece of sci-fi. Nice. I’d like to see a few modifiers like EQ, but its also not intended as a hardware Modartt Pianoteq, either. Let’s hear a few more people play it in a more exposed setting and then gauge it.