PX-350M
WHEN YOUR MUSIC MATTERS
The original Privia was the answer to many pianists’ prayers: the first (and for some time the only) serious 88-key digital
piano at an unprecedented price and weighing only 25 pounds. This made it a catalyst for increased competition in the
under-a-grand piano market: 128-voice polyphony, graded and weighted keyboard actions, and ample supplemental
sounds are pretty standard these days. What does Casio do to up the ante? For the latest Privia, the PX-350M, they
plunged their resources into a piano playing experience so improved... it’s astonishing.
One new feature which comes out of the
box—but after a couple of uses is to be found
indispensible—is the audio recording. Plug
in a USB flash drive, hit a couple of buttons,
and you can now record anything that
goes on in the instrument as a CD-quality
(16-bit/44.1kHz) WAV file. This is great
for capturing fleeting songwriting ideas,
documenting practice for feedback from a
teacher, or turning a solo gig into a demo.
Piano Sound and Feel On the Gig
Compared to the previous flagship Privia (the PX-330), Casio has tripled
the sample size of the main piano sound. They’ve also adjusted the key
sensors such that there’s a lot more going on than what you may be used
to from a digital stage piano. For one, the keys transmit high-resolution
MIDI to the internal sound engine (as well as any external software that
can interpret it), so instead of 127 possible velocity values, there are
16,256. We took the PX-350M out of the box and directly to a 150-seat jazz quartet
gig. Going through a pair of Barbetta 41C keyboard amps, it took me a
few songs to nail my sound. Most digital pianos, we now realize, are more
forgiving than a well-miked acoustic grand. That’s what this Privia—
with its sensitive dynamics and wide separation—sounds and plays
like in a live situation. For the first few tunes, we had to concentrate on
our voicings and touch. Then, it began to sound like a good recording
of a live performance. A week later we played a 500-seat corporate gig
through a pro sound system with a stereo direct box and wedge monitor.
Again, it was like playing a miked acoustic, only now we knew how to
take advantage of it. For example, y