New piano for total beginner; Yamaha NB30 or Casio CPD100

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shade
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New piano for total beginner; Yamaha NB30 or Casio CPD100

Post by shade »

Hello, everyone. Fresh meat here. I've been reading around the forum and I can't help notice the advice passed around here sounds pretty solid so I was wondering if I could get some wise words in here. I'm 20, uni student, very little experience with music and very much would like to learn. The only musical knowledge I have are just some chords to strum on a guitar :shock: . So I'm finally making the initiative to play an instrument (one that's as proper as it can get considering my budget constraints)

Here's what I had in mind:
- Between 200-400 quid
- Something portable, where I could store it somewhere like under my bed or in the closet to save up space.
- Sounds decent or as close as it could get to a real piano.
- Something I could play at night, with my headphones on.

After reading through some of the other threads, I've been searching for one based on the advice I've read and I've come down to two choices: the Yamaha NB30 and Casio CDP-100. My impression is that most of you will favour the Yamaha over the Casio based on the general idea that Yamaha is more experienced in making DPs but the CPD-100 doesn't seem half-bad considering the price is a bargain compared to the slightly more expensive Yamaha P85. However, I'm slightly more keen to the NB30 because it's cheaper (being a student, a bargain means a lot!). I understand the NB30 keys are not weighted and there's only 76 keys but it's a lot cheaper than the Casio.

So my lemmas at the moment are:
Do I really need 88 keys considering I'm a total beginner?
Do the keys need to be weighted for a beginner?

Also, has anyone had any experience/impressions on the CPD100? My goals are ultimately to learn some musical theory and gain a good degree of aptitude in an instrument. Any input is much appreciated.
joseph
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Re: New piano for total beginner; Yamaha NB30 or Casio CPD100

Post by joseph »

In this particular case, I'd go for the Casio. It has weighted keys and it has the right number. It will see you through a bit longer than the Yamaha.
shade
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Re: New piano for total beginner; Yamaha NB30 or Casio CPD100

Post by shade »

Thanks for the input. I've made an order from eBay for 300 with free delivery. Pretty good offer IMO since it's selling for about 350 anywhere else (some excluding delivery).

Also, I have another question. Would it be possible to plug the stereo output from the piano to your PC's microphone/line-in and plug your headphones to your PC?

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i.e. Piano ------> PC -----> Headphones
For example if you'd play a song/instructional CD on your PC and play the piano, listening to everything through your PC. Just wondering if anyone has tried it before. I hope it won't damage anything, though. :?
markymark
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Re: New piano for total beginner; Yamaha NB30 or Casio CPD100

Post by markymark »

I have never done that before but theoretically it should work.

My only concern would be the strength of the sound signal coming from your keyboard into your computer.
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