KAWAI DIGITAL

Piano Manufacturers of The World

Piano Brands Of The World:

KAWAI DIGITAL

Company Website: KawaiUS.com
Owner: Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
Country of Origin: Hamamatsu, Japan
Year Established: 1927
Related Brands: Yamaha, Roland, Casio

HISTORY AND BACKGROUND

Kawai is an iconic acoustic piano builder that has operated as a family business in Japan for more than 90 years. They have cemented their reputation for musical excellence and industry-best quality control, and sell pianos in virtually every country around the world.

Their success in the digital piano industry space is more recently established, having invested heavily in the early 2000s to completely revamp their research and development team and product lineup. In eliminating virtually all other digital products from their offering except digital pianos, they chose to hyper-focus on doing to the digital piano industry the same thing as they had to the acoustic piano industry: build pianos that sound and feel great, at a top-of-class quality level, delivered at value-added price points.

They currently produce several leading products which are consistent sales leaders and customer favorites, such as the KDP120, ES920, CN29, CA79 & CA99, Novus 5 & 10, and the MP11SE & VPC1.

Harmonic Imaging – Kawai’s Iconic Tone Engine

Kawai developed their proprietary sampling engine called Harmonic Imaging, which has been a core feature of their digital pianos since the early 2000s. It has progressively increased in complexity fidelity over the years and remains the basis for their most advanced digital piano tones.

It begins with the sampling of Kawai’s very own SK-EX Concert Grand Piano, in multi-layered, individual-note stereo samples. Then, up to 21 parameters of additional behaviours (not including velocity/volume) are layered on top of the core sound, to produce a dynamic and hyper-realistic piano tone.

Wood Key Actions – The True Touch Of A Grand Piano

In addition to their Harmonic Imaging Engine, Kawai’s focus on wood-key actions for all of its upper-end units has also stood out from competitor models from Yamaha and Roland. Models like the MP11se, VPC1, CA49/59/79/99, and Novus 5 and 10 all use solid wood keysticks that mimic the same length, weight, and geometry of their acoustic grand piano counterparts. This leads directly to a longer-lasting action that behaves more like an acoustic at all dynamic levels.

Kawai’s current lineup of Wood Key Actions includes the Grand Feel III (CA79 & CA99), Grand Feel (MP11se), RM3 Grand II (VPC1), Grand Feel Compact (CA49, CA59), Millennium III Hybrid Upright (Novus 5s), and Millennium III Grand Hybrid (Novus 10s).

Kawai is the only company in the world to include the use of solid-wood keysticks throughout its mid and high-end range of digital pianos

KAWAI DIGITAL PIANO SERIES

KDP Series:

Kawai’s KDP series is the class-leading digital piano series built for budding young pianists and enthusiastic hobbyists alike. Built to last through the opening stages of a piano learning experience, these instruments have powerful speakers to better simulate the dynamic range of an acoustic piano – one of the biggest disconnects that often plagues this category.

Several key features make these instruments stand-out choices amongst options from Yamaha’s YDP or Roland’s RP and F series:

Bluetooth Midi
Powerful 40 Watt Speakers (KDP120)
Advanced Triple Sensor Key Detection
Individually-sampled 88 note Stereo Samples
Spatial Headphone Signal Processing
Durable and attractive finish options
Included Bench

Explore the KDP75 and KDP120 and discover why your first musical partner might just be a Kawai.

CN Series:

Kawai’s CN Series delivers the next level of musical finish, with sizeable upgrades to the amplifiers, tone generator, key action, and cabinetry over that of the KDP lineup. While still an accessible and unintimidating piano for the beginner, it’s capable enough to satisfy a seasoned professional looking for a second instrument, a practice piano, or even a teaching tool.

Watch out for lots of Onkyo-built circuitry and hardware in the CN series, Kawai’s acclaimed RH3 action with both a triple sensor and escapement/let-off (as featured in Nord’s GRAND model), and beefed-up Harmonic Imaging tech inside. The piano sounds and feels substantial, with tone signal that’s completely recordable.

For those looking for a piano-centric experience on a budget similar to a used acoustic piano, the CN series is an impressive choice with few downsides.

CA Series:

The CA series is the answer to the age-old question: can a digital piano sound and play as well as a similarly-priced acoustic, without breaking the bank. The answer of course, is yes.

The four models of the CA series (CA49, CA59, CA79, CA99) offers their Grand Feel wood actions, multi-speaker Onkyo arrays, and their top-of-line Harmonic Imaging XL engine. It opens a world of musical expression previously only available with acoustic instruments, where the sensitivity, complexity, and dynamisim can truly be sculpted and called upon to render the most demanding classical repertoire or today’s contemporary piano hits.

For teachers, the pianos’ actions ensure that students have the right weighted resistance and ‘touch’, so that muscle control and full expression can be taught.

For enthusiasts, the sound quality is album-worthy, allowing them to learn and play a piano that delivers grand-piano like tone and touch, for the price of the most basic new acoustic upright piano.

This is a series of few compromises, and generally represents the top-end of actions and sound technology from Kawai. Beautiful cabinet options are also available, including white, polished black, and satin black and rosewood finishes.

CA Series:

The CA series is the answer to the age-old question: can a digital piano sound and play as well as a similarly-priced acoustic, without breaking the bank. The answer of course, is yes.

For teachers, the pianos’ actions ensure that students have the right weighted resistance and ‘touch’, so that muscle control and full expression can be taught.

For enthusiasts, the sound quality is album-worthy, allowing them to learn and play a piano that delivers grand-piano like tone and touch, for the price of the most basic new acoustic upright piano.

ES Series:

The Kawai ES Series is their response to the Roland FP or Yamaha P series – portable ‘all-in-one’ units which deliver great sound and features in a compact package.

The ES110 is virtually the KDP120 without the furniture, whereas the ES520 and ES920 was developed entirely separate from any other Kawai model. The control interface, speaker system, and feature set are unique to the entire brand. It has the RHIII action like the CN series, a specially-designed speaker box which delivers great bass response, and recording and intelligent accompaniment with rhythms as well. It also incorporates EQ sliders, extensive onboard recording capability, and Bluetooth Audio and Midi.

MP Series:

The MP Series is Kawai’s Pro-only line, which would directly compete against Yamaha’s CP4, CP300, and Roland’s RD line. They are stage instruments built for live performance, studio use, and production. The MP7 focuses on a traditional controller/stage piano use case, whereas the MP11 is the only portable example of Kawai’s full-length wood key action in a piano. The VPC1 doesn’t really fit into a ‘series’ per se, but it’s essentially the MP11 without ANY tone generation whatsoever. It’s a midi-controller on steroids, widely acknowledged as the most accurate midi controller on the market.

Novus Series:

With Novus, Kawai has created a digital piano without limits, without compromise, and without peer. Every aspect of the piano has been designed to deliver the absolute best of the industry, and the result is a musical instrument that’s so dynamic, so responsive, and so realistic in every sense that it truly presents an alternative to an acoustic piano – even for a discerning professional.

Its actions are taken directly from their K Series (Novus 5) and GX/Shigeru Series (Novus 10) – there are no approximations, short cuts, or ‘almosts’…it is the same action, complete with full escapement, jack, whippen, dampers, action rails, keysticks…everything.