Keyboards/Synthesisers: Casio Privia PX-500L Digital Piano

When I first opened the box and pulled out this keyboard (digital piano), I was very impressed at the size, weight and look of the Casio Privia PX-500L.

I have a fully weighted action keyboard and controller and it's fairly weighty and sizeable, but has a beautiful key action and I must admit, at first I wondered if the light weight of the Privia would affect the action of the keys. This was definitely not the case.

What has impressed me most about this digital piano is the action of the keys. I am pretty fussy and in fact, even though I may not use the sounds in a keyboard (you can always use midi or virtual instruments), I will always pick a keyboard on action.

Being a girl and a small one at that, the size and weight of the Privia was great! I can carry this keyboard and move it by myself without fear of injury... always a bonus! It also looks great and I would not be ashamed to have this piece of kit in my living room... of course it's also small enough to hide away if you want to.

On to the nuts and bolts of the keyboard.

The Privia PX-500L is an 88-key Scaled Hammer Action keyboard (this means it has touch response). It weighs a tiny 13kg and looks pretty stylish. The keyboard's polyphony is 35 notes, quite enough for all my fingers! It has 15 panel tones, with 15 variation tones, 128 General Midi tones and 10 drum sets. These tones all have a layer feature that allows simultaneous play of two tones and a split feature that lets you split the keyboard between two different tones. There are four types of reverb and four types of chorus.

A metronome has a range of 30bpm to 255bpm and can cater for the following time signatures 0, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. A likable feature of the pedals is the damper pedal as well as the usual sostenuto (sustain pedal).

The Privia has a transpose function and an adjustable tuning function. The Midi is what you would expect in a modern keyboard being 16 multi-timbre receive, GM level 1 standard. The speakers are two 12cm x 6cm with 8W output - quite adequate for the home user. The particular model I am reviewing does not have a line out which would be required if you were wanting to put the Privia through a PA system, however the Privia model PX-300 aimed at stage performances does have this capability.

This PX-500L model also features Casio's key lighting system which can be switched on or off. This function is to help the user learn particular songs from the extensive song library included with this model which has 80 piano songs (music book included) and 20 special piano accompaniment patterns and 100 rhythms.

To be honest it was difficult for me to trial this function properly as I read music like I breathe, but one of my piano pupils thought it was cool. The lesson function is a collection of functions that allow right-hand part only, left-hand part only or both hands. This means sessions can then be devoted to exactly the part that requires practice.

The real time recording and playback function is really useful if, like me, you are playing around and come up with something that sounds great and think you will remember it later on...you never do! This function enables you to record what you played straight away and recall it later.

The memory bank that holds all the sounds is powered by a Lithium battery which lasts around five years with normal use; and is fairly standard on all modern keyboards.

The user guide is comprehensive and easy to use. If I can use and understand it then believe me you will too! I am the type of girl who detests manuals and tries to avoid reading them at all costs.

So after all that what did I think? Well as I said I loved the action, the weight, portability and the look.

As for the actual sound - I am a keyboardist but my first love is definitely a real grand piano. Now nobody is trying to pretend that the Privia is a grand but I have to say the sounds on this keyboard are pretty nice. The Grand Piano 1 sound has warm tones and the Grand Piano 2 sound has a modern tone which I actually preferred.

I would like to try the Privia PX-300 through a decent PA and really test out the quality of the sound at the normal 'noise control' breaking levels I like to play at with my band.

However the Privia PX-500L is exactly what it claims to be, a great home use piano, with nice sounds, no fuss in-built speakers, great functions for learners but also a nice feel and sound for experts. It looks great and is easy to move around.

Between the three Privia models PX-100, PX-300 and PX-500L there is a keyboard that will please everyone - from someone looking for a home piano to a producer looking for a nice controller.

Alex Smart is a classically trained musician who has recently released her debut pop/rock album 'This is Me' available through www.alexsmart.com.