Kawai has been crafting world-class pianos for decades, and their experience in crafting acoustic pianos has helped them create top-class digital pianos as well. Kawai digital Pianos can be used for learning to play piano at home, for recording in the studio, or playing on stage. Their digital pianos can be categorised under CA, CN, MP, ES Portables, KDP series.
Best Kawai Digital Pianos (At a Glance)
Japanese brand Kawai makes excellent acoustic as well as digital pianos, and they have received several industry awards for their pianos over the years.
Top Kawai Digital Pianos:
- Kawai CE220 Digital Piano
- Kawai ES8 Digital Piano
- Kawai ES110 Portable Digital Piano
- Kawai KDP90 Digital Piano
- Kawai MP11 Professional Stage Piano
Best Kawai Digital Pianos: Reviews
Kawai ES110 Digital Stage Piano
The Kawai ES110 is a budget stage piano (priced well under 1000 grands), and comes with useful features in a lightweight, portable design.
Top quality piano sounds with advanced resonance effects, and the grade-weighted keys makes the Kawai ES110 a great portable stage piano for gigging and practice.
Key features: Graded hammer key action, built-in speaker system, 88-note piano sampling, 19 sounds, 192-Note Polyphony, advanced resonance effects. Read more.
Kawai KDP90 Digital Piano (with Stand)
Suitable for the home, studio, and classroom, the Kawai KDP90 comes with realistic instrument sounds, advanced hammer-action keyboard, Kawai’s Grand Feel Pedal System, on-board lessons.
Kawai CE220 Home Digital Piano
The Kawai CE220 has a very realistic sound and action, and it is a great piece of furniture as well. Looks and feels like an Kawai acoustic piano. It comes with a Stand & Bench.
Key features: 22 Instrument sounds. 192-Note polyphony. Built-in 2-track/3-song recorder. real wooden keys, 22 layerable sounds, Split and 4-Hands modes, USB stick memory, and more. Not lots of whistles and bells, but comes with high quality sounds. It is very straightforward to use.
Suitable for piano lessons, practicing, composing, jamming, for use at church, teaching piano, school bands, and more. Overall, a nice piano that will help you become a better player.
Kawai MP11 Professional Stage Piano
Kawai MP11 is a professional stage with handpicked selection of premium voices, and incredible action. Stunning acoustic pianos, cherished vintage EPs, and inspiring subsidiary voices – the three essential sound categories, organized as independent sections. Realistic reverbs, resonances, and effects. Each sound section features a hardware volume fader, effects and reverb controls, and four distinctive voice categories, with tonal variations for each type. Easy to create layers, splits, and key ranges.
The PIANO section showcases a variety of Concert, Studio, Jazz, Modern, and Pop grand piano sounds that are suitable for a wide range of musical periods and styles. For playing in a live band setting, additional mono piano sounds ensure that the MP11 will cut through even the heaviest of mixes.
The Kawai EX concert grand piano is widely regarded by professional pianists and piano technicians as one of the finest instruments within its class, hand-built by Master Piano Artisans.
Kawai VPC1 Virtual Piano Controller Keyboard (88-Key)
Kawai VPC1 is a professional MIDI keyboard controller with wooden-key keyboard action (88 keys).
There are no knobs, buttons, or displays, only 88 real wooden keys and a wide surface on the top for your laptop, mouse, or synth. The VPC1 connects to your PC or Mac using a single USB cable.
A 3-pedal unit (Kawai F-30 triple pedal controller) is included. VPC Editor software is included.
Buying links: Buy Kawai VPC1 on zZounds
Kawai ES8 Portable Digital Piano
The feel of the keys, sound, and features of the Kawai ES8 make it one of the most sought after digital pianos in its price range.
The Kawai ES8 is compact, portable, with rich piano sound (256-note polyphony) and comes with accompaniments as well. 34 high quality instrument sounds (the piano sounds on this piano are fantastic), 100 Accompaniment Styles, USB Digital Audio (you can play / rec WAV and MP3 files. Comes with internal speakers, which is a nice feature to have.
Great for Practice, Gigs, Concerts. Suitable for playing on stage, for practicing, for a recital, for accompanying the church choir or studying in the classroom.
Buying links: Buy on zZounds
Accessories for Kawai Digital Pianos:
Kawai Grand Pianos
- Shigeru Kawai Grand Pianos
Limited edition concert series grand pianos (Handcrafted from precious materials) offer unparalleled key touch, tonal quality and expression. - GX Professional Series
Professional grand pianos – rich in tone, and expressive pianos. - GL Classic Series
High quality, modern Kawai grand pianos that allow pianos players to achieve full musical artistry.
Top Kawai Piano Models
Here are the various models of Kawai Digital Pianos.
The Concert Performer series, the Concert Artist Series, the ES and MP Series Stage Pianos, are already top choices for most of the performing musicians.
- CP series – Concert Performer Digital Ensembles
CP207D Digital Grand Piano with DVD, CP187 Digital Grand Piano with CD-R, CP177 Digital Ensemble with DVD, CP137 Digital Ensemble with CD-R, CP117 Digital Ensemble, CP67 Digital Ensemble - CA series – Concert Artist Digital Pianos
CA9 Concert Artist Digital Piano, CA7 Concert Artist Digital Piano, CA5 Concert Artist Digital Piano - CN series – Affordable, high performance digital pianos
CN4 Digital Piano with Alfred Inside, CN3 Digital Piano with Alfred Inside, CN2 Digital Piano, CL20 Digital Piano - Stage Pianos
CA-X Portable Digital Piano, ES4 Portable Digital Piano, MP8 Professional Stage Piano, MP4 Professional Stage Piano
About Kawai
Kawai is almost a century old piano manufacturing company, its Pianos are known the world over for its high quality and distinctive sound. Kawai has a fine selection of grand, upright, digital and professional stage pianos.
It is a favorite with pianists; some of the greatest names of our time like Alex Alessandroni, Russ Freeman, Paul smith are some of the great players who own a Kawai piano. Kawai digital pianos are widely used in International Piano competitions as well.
Basically a Japanese company, Kawai has won various prestigious international awards for introducing models with innovative ideas and cutting-edge technology. With its highly acclaimed Concert Artist Series and Concert Performer Ensemble Series pianos, Kawai is already a big name in the digital pianos segment.
Watch: Kawai ES100 Digital Piano Demo. This piano has graded hammer action, is portable and available for entry-level prices.
Piano Key Actions on Kawai Pianos
Thanks to Kawai’s deep experience in producing acoustic pianos over decades, the Kawai action (on their digital pianos) is considered to be among the best in the digital piano marketplace.
For a digital Piano to replicate an acoustic Piano, not only the sound has to be good, it also needs to replicate the feel of the acoustic piano. Kawai, because of its experience with acoustic pianos, has understood this need and that is the reason Kawai digital pianos have real wooden keys to get that perfect “feel”.
Watch: This video explains the various piano actions that exists in the various Kawai pianos
Kawai Digital Pianos have one of these three key actions –
- AWA PRO – found on the MP8, CA5, CA7, CA9, CA-X, CP207, CP177 and CP137.
- Advanced Hammer Action IV with AR Technology (AR stands for ‘”Acoustic Response”) – found on the portable ES4, CN2, CN3, CN4, CP117, CP187 and MP4 Professional Stage Piano.
- Advanced Hammer Action III – found on the CL20. This is industry standard weighted, graded-hammer action, not the simple weighted action found on the cheaper digital pianos.
Kawai Pianos Features
Harmonic Imaging sound Technology
Kawai is known for its top class concert grand pianos, especially the Kawai EX Concert Piano. With the “Harmonic Imaging” process, which is a new proprietary process developed by Kawai, the sounds from the Kawai EX Concert Piano are recorded in one of their labs and the same samples are then used in the Kawai digital pianos. Harmonic Imaging Technology gives a new level of authenticity to the instrumental sounds produced by their digital pianos.
Learning system
Concert Magic is the built-in system which makes learning and playing songs on the Paino considerably easier for you. It gives you a wide range of styles and songs to learn from. Almost all of the Kawai digital pianos have the Concert Magic Feature. Models in the CA and CP Series also feature the Concert Magic Note Navigator system, a visual guide to help you through each song. In addition to that, models in the CP Series (except the CP67) also display the lyrics to many of the songs.
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KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
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