Yamaha PSR e413 piano sound quality

[cmplays]

I've had this keyboard for a few years (not playing much though, so I'm still a total beginner), and there's something that has always bothered me about its portable grand piano sound. It just doesn't sound like what I'd expect from a piano, especially in middle octaves. To me, it sounds almost like... a harp. It's just not the right timbre. I don't know if that makes any sense. The effect is even stronger when I record through line out rather than listen to what I play on the built-in speakers. Additional frustration comes from the fact that I used to own a different Yamaha beginner keyboard as a kid (don't even remember the model -- probably some PSR from 20 years ago before PSR-E series came out), and its timbre seemed pretty much piano-like to me.

So maybe I don't understand what a real acoustic grand is supposed to sound like. Or I have something misconfigured. I'm posting on the chance that maybe it's a common issue and there is a well-known solution for it. I would appreciate any pointers.

If I post a recorded sample of what my keyboard sounds like, is it possible for some to tell me either "it sounds exactly like a real piano should" or "it sounds wrong, and here's what you can try changing"? (I know some people play with reverb and other effects to get a more realistic sound, but everything I've tried so far didn't help.)

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I have similar models to yours, and the Grand Piano (Voice 001) sounds okay to me. But then, our acoustic upright piano sounds horrible, and I have no experience with playing an acoustic grand piano other than several decades ago when taking piano lessons-- so I'm not a very good judge of what a grand piano voice should sound like!

However, I've seen posts in other forums from people who want to tweak the Grand Piano voices on their Tyros or PSR-S models, so it seems to be common for people to be "particular" about this, and to want to tweak the settings on their keyboards to get something that sounds better to them.

If it sounds worse when you record it, you might want to try the various Master EQ settings to see which ones give the best sound when recording, as well as when using the built-in speakers-- you may want to use different settings for those two situations.

If the timbre in general sounds too thin, or has too much treble, etc., then you can try adjusting the Cutoff Frequency and Resonance settings after selecting the Grand Piano voice.

You can also try adjusting the Attack and Release settings, and the Reverb and Chorus as well.

Once you've tweaked the Grand Piano voice to your liking, save it to a Registration so you don't have to try to recreate the settings each time.

 

[happyrat1]

You get what you pay for...

Reproducing a credible electronic piano used to be the holy grail of the digital keyboard industry.

If you're willing to pay thousands for a top of the line Kurzweil or Casio or Nord or Roland or Yamaha or Korg or Kawai you might get pretty close these days.

Sigh ...

http://techland.time.com/2014/01/23/the-definitive-guide-to-digital-pianos/

Even if you posted a sample from your keyboard we'd still only be able to judge by what we are playing it on ourselves.

Gary