Quality of 1996 Roland KR-770 as a controller vs Kawai VPC1?

I think it boils down to cost versus benefit.  Newer may be better, but is it worth the cost if you already have something that's adequate?

I have recently changed to the VPC-1, and indeed it is SO SILENT, that I can play in the middel of the night, while my girlfriend is sleeping directly behind the baldy insulated thin wall at which the VPC stands.

Formerly, when playing on my old Clavinova, she could even hear me downstairs......

But as this Roland you have, is a very nice piano, its difficult to change I believe.

Dear Thor - sounds like you are making some quality and objective decisions about your playing and choices for instruments.  Isn't Pianoteq a great ?!  There is nothing out there like it.  Totally awesome.

I do have a couple of comments regarding your original post.  The VPC1 and the Roland PHA II are quite nice actions.   I have a store model (three and four key) of each of those actions. 

1)  The length from fulcrum to the front of the natural key on the VPC1 is approx 186mm (7.32")

2)  The length from fulcrum to the front of the natural key on the Roland PHA II is approx 218mm (8.58")

3)  The length from fulcrum to the front of the natural key on a Renner grand piano action is approx. 10-3/8"

The VPC1 is a little quieter than the PHA II.  Once an action is placed inside an enclosure though things can be different including whether there is carpet and cushioning where the piano is sitting.  Oddly, most people are not aware that a "real" acoustic piano makes a whole heap of noise . . . but trying to test that is kind of like chasing-one's-tail . . . if you play loudly to hear the action noise, then the strings and sound of the notes override the mechanical nose.  If you play softly to lessen the sound of the strings and the notes, then the mechanical noise is quieter.

Pianoteq does allow one to turn up all of those noises apart from the notes. 

As for your existing piano or if you were to choose a more recent Roland console - you have the benefit of a built-in sound system.  Roland is pretty good at audio.  Also, the console models have a lot of flat top surface area to place laptops, monitors, modules etc.

As for that Yamaha Electone demo and your interest in orchestral sounds:  That fellow is playing the arrangement without multi-tracking - "strait from the cuff" as it were.  But you hear many complex changes on the fly.  He is doing that with the preset buttons between the keyboards (they are referred to as thumb pistons)  Those sounds are carefully set up prior to playing a piece.  Playing a keyboard such as an organ vs a keyboard interfaced with several sound sources is a compromise at best.  The organ configuration allows for more playing versatility but external modules or virtual software may have sounds you would prefer.  In the end, configuring those thumb pistons to access external sounds to the same degree of flexibility can be rather daunting . . . rather like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic!

Regards,

Lanny

I did not even listen.....Organ is my thing, and only recently bought the VPC1 for playing Pianoteq.
Btw: my virutal organ console has no built in speakers; just keybaords, pedals, etc. So that,s why for a piano keyboard I also profer soundless devices. THese built-in speakers are always a compomise, and as soon as you connect to real speakers, the sound is far better.

But speaking about keyboards and eventually organ sounds:

1. Your piano keyboard is already a very good Midi masterkeyboard. So use a sequencer, like Reaper, and play whatever soft-synths there are....

2. If you want organ,. the VB-3 VST plug-in is at the moment the best you can get. Really true Hammond sounds, an very realistic Leslie.

Etc, etc......Nowadays we don,t need external hardware anymore, for our music, just Midi input, a laptop, a good audio interface, headphones and/or speakers.

For organ: I recently stacked two inexpensive keyboards, Behringer UMX610, on top of each other, and midified an old 13 note pedalboard. and then I play the VB3 software Hammond. Just like the real thing that I owned.