Casio Privia PX-350M

" The Privia PX-350M has the soul of a real acoustic grand. It’s inspiring and emotional in a way that I haven’t experienced in a digital piano outside of the best virtual instruments and most expensive hardware digitals. Kudos to Casio for their commitment and execution. "

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.

Piano Sound and Feel

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.

On a graded keyboard, the hammers are (or seem to be) heavier and slower in the lower range, just like on a real piano, and they get gradually lighter as you ascend. The PX350M has this, and also something called Hammer Response, an algorithm that accounts for the time it takes for the heavier hammers to hit the strings at a given MIDI velocity. Also, the key surfaces have a prominent texture that gives your fingers grip, wicks away moisture, and makes it hard to go back to stage pianos that don’t have it.