Belgian composer, organist and musicologist Sander De Keere has signed to Brighton-based indie label Phantom Limb and released a new song titled Pt 6.

Recorded on a faithful replica of a 1763 Contius baroque organ (constructed in 2022), the seven-minute composition is designed to pay homage to this heritage instrument and explore how it can be reinvented and reinvigorated in the modern age.

"You feel the music through your whole body", De Keere said of playing the organ. "It's incredibly physical. Each register holds a sonic character, and combining them becomes a kind of alchemy."

The song was recorded at the historic St Catharina Church in Wondelgem (Ghent, Belgium), and this spiritual setting seeps easily into the landscape of Pt 6, a track that smoothly blends minimalism and electronic experimentation.

This reflects De Keere's place in the world of music; born in Ghent and raised in Brussels, he focuses on bridging the gaps between historical music and contemporary sound, supplementing his releases with classical music lecturing and broadcasting.

On Pt. 6 De Keere's aim was to create "landscapes that challenge expectations of what a pipe organ can be", with nods to early sacred music, mid-century minimalism, the classical avant-garde and modern electronic experimentation.

And his ambitions run far beyond this release. Having signed to Phantom Limb, the rising Belgian composer is preparing to release his debut album later this year. Watch this space.

Before becoming one of hip-hop's most sought-after producers, Rogét Chahayed spent years honing his craft as a conservatory-trained pianist, composer and session musician.

That technical foundation, combined with an apprenticeship under Dr. Dre and Mel-Man, has helped him develop a musical identity that's landed him credits on some of the biggest releases of the past decade.

Having contributed to tracks such as Travis Scott's Sicko Mode, Doja Cat's Kiss Me More and Drake's recent chart-topper Janice STFU, Chahayed's studio reflects a balance between classical musicianship and modern production. Packed with hardware synths though it is, he still enters studio environments with the same instruments that first sparked his love of music.

Asked which pieces of gear he simply couldn't live without, Chahayed doesn't hesitate before naming the keyboard that's central to his creative process. “My number one keyboard is definitely the Nord Stage 4, but I combine some of my favourite sounds from the Stage 3.

“If I was going away on a trip for a week and could only bring one keyboard, I’d bring that one, because I know where every sound is blindfolded. It's also a performance keyboard and when you're recording a performance in the studio it's going to resonate like that on the record.

Meanwhile, when it comes to creating depth and texture, two keyboards consistently earn a place in Chahayed's sessions. “Another one that I love is the Korg KRONOS, which is fantastic for layering and organising sound categories. There are a few sounds on there that are just brilliant and it has the perfect combination of what you might call low-quality or low-tier sounds and ones that really cut through.”

“Another keyboard that I love to use is the Prophet X, which has an unbelievable sound selection. The 8Dio sound engine is the same that the Native Instruments and Kontakt people use, so it’s very cinematic.

Though Chahayed now owns a vast collection of instruments, he fondly reminisces about lusting after gear during his early days as a musician breaking into the industry. “When I started making a little money, I'd go to Guitar Center, try the keyboards and find myself coming up with all these amazing ideas.

"I thought to myself, ‘wow, if I had a studio with all these keyboards on a wall I’d be coming up with stuff all the time.’” Fast forward a few years, and Chahayed has built that very studio, which he describes as an “amazing” space to work in.

“I finally built my home studio, which is a really amazing place,” Chahayed says. “I have two walls of keyboards with about 30 or 40 synths and a Steinway piano alongside a Fender Rhodes and a drum kit.

“Over the years, I've developed an amazing system with my engineer Julian Vasquez where I’ll just bring a Nord Stage 4 and my laptop, which has millions of sounds organised for easy access to strings, synths, brass, woodwinds, basses and guitars. It’s like I’m playing one of those games where you're in control of an army and you have access to this whole artillery of sounds.”

Hardware may form the backbone of his setup, but Chahayed says his workflow wouldn't be complete without a handful of software instruments. “I can't live without my Kontakt libraries, so my MacBook is very important and I've been finding some incredible sounds in Native Instruments’ Play Series libraries recently.”

“I began as a piano player before shifting into keyboards, but realised that there was a whole world of VSTs that I needed to get into. At first, I was just showing up to sessions with one keyboard, but then it changed to a laptop loaded with Kontakt.

But what about the instrument that started it all? “I guess the last piece of gear or equipment I need is a good piano. Wherever I am, the piano is always the thing that grounds me; it’s where I discover a lot of movement and things that work with those other sounds, so my Steinway Model B grand piano is one of the most important tools that I own.”

Being able to do things one handed is an overused euphemism for something being easy. But one Northern Irish teenager has passed her piano Grade 8 using just her left hand. And as she explains in an article on the BBC website, it was far from easy.

Freya Terris from Lisburn, County Antrim, has become the first known pianist to have achieved this feat. Not out of choice, it should be added. Two years ago, the 17-year-old sustained a long-term injury and had to have surgery on her right hand. But despite her injury, she was determined to power on through and keep playing.

"My left hand could already play but not at all in the way that it now needs to," Freya explained. "I sort of stumbled into it and, without realising, built up that technique."

She contacted the exam board ABRSM to see if it was possible to get the qualification with some modifications to the pieces she would be required to perform. To their credit, ABRSM sent her a list of pieces to choose from, all specifically written for the left hand. "They were so encouraging, they were all up for it and just as excited as I was about it," she said.

Then Freya had to put in the hard work to pass the exam. “In my head, at one point, there was frustration that I was only playing this music because I can't play what I want to or what I used to play. That was hard.” Every so often she’d have to have breaks to rediscover her love of the piano. “I think that was necessary,” she explained. “The analogy we had used was that I was throwing myself at a brick wall.”

Freya passed and her success has had a knock-on effect – from 2027/28 ABRSM are introducing a one-hand repertoire list across Grades 1 to 8 for the first time in the school’s long history. "It's meant a lot, for me, what they have done and it is really exciting that this is something that other people can do," she added.

The teenager is planning to study music at university after she completes her final year at school. As you’d expect, her mum is very proud of her achievement. Of her daughter, Susan Terris said: "She's a very determined young lady who has pushed herself and keeps going. Any set backs that she has, she uses to her benefit to push herself forward and achieve her goals. Nothing will stand in her way."

What is it?

The CX102 is part of Kawai's new CX line, which takes over from the well-known KDP series. For years, the KDP-75 and KDP-120 have been favourites in the digital pianos for beginners category. Now, with the CX102 and the larger CX202, Kawai is offering a fresh option for anyone starting out, hobbyists, or families who want to get into piano without spending a fortune.

Sitting at the entry level of the CX range, the keyboard uses Kawai's Responsive Hammer Lite action, with fully graded keys designed to support the development of finger strength and technique. Kawai has carried over some of the hammer-sensing and key cushioning technology from their higher-end CN series, resulting in a keyboard with a softer feel than a traditional acoustic piano action, while still aiming to replicate its fundamental feel.

The Responsive Hammer Lite features a shorter pivot length than Kawai's higher-end actions; the pivot is the hinge around which each key rotates when pressed, making the keys lighter and more accessible.

While designed as an entry-level digital piano, the CX102 still features Kawai's Harmonic Imaging technology, sampling each key individually to deliver a realistic tone with ample dynamic range. The main piano sound is based around the iconic Shigeru Kawai SK-EX concert grand. Hand-built at the Shigeru Kawai R&D Laboratory in Ryuyo, Japan, the SK-EX is widely regarded as one of the finest concert grands in the world, regularly gracing the stages of international competitions and concert halls. There are three different SK-EX concert grand piano sounds: Classic, Jazz, and Mellow.

The CX102 also includes 17 built-in sounds in total, with the three SK-EX concert grand voices alongside 14 additional instrument sounds covering essentials like electric pianos, organs, string pads, and even an upright bass with a ride cymbal for walking bass lines.

For amplification, the CX102 uses a 2 × 11W stereo system driving two 12cm speakers tucked under the keyboard for a wide stereo image. The design is compact, simple, and clean, with just a few buttons, a keyboard lid, and three pedals. It's available in embossed black or embossed white.

The CX102 works with two free Kawai apps. PianoRemote lets you control the piano from your phone, allowing you to change sounds, adjust settings, and set the metronome without using the piano's buttons; particularly useful since entry-level models can be tricky to navigate. PiaBookPlayer turns our phone or tablet into a digital score viewer for the built-in lesson library, with pieces from Burgmüller, Czerny, and Beyer, and you can even turn pages using the pedals. Beyond Kawai's own apps, the CX102 also supports Skoove for structured interactive lessons and Tomplay for sheet music with professional backing tracks; both are available via separate subscriptions.

As I'd expect, the CX102 comes with a built-in metronome and recorder, plus a range of lesson pieces from popular classical method books. It also features material from Alfred's well-known piano method series, giving beginners a structured practice plan right from the start.

Performance

To me, the CX102 makes a quietly confident first impression. The cabinet is neat and unfussy, with a classic piano look and layout that feels immediately familiar – sit down, and you know exactly where you are. At just 40.5cm deep, it sits neatly against a wall without eating into the room, making it a practical choice for smaller spaces. I would say it does feel a little light and plasticky up close, but at this price point, that's clearly a trade-off Kawai has deliberately made, choosing to focus on what matters most, like the keys and the sound.

One small note worth mentioning is that navigating the CX102's functions relies on button and key combinations rather than a dedicated display, and Kawai has moved from text labels to icons on the control panel. Personally, it's not a dealbreaker, but it can feel a little unintuitive at first, particularly for newcomers to the digital piano world.

What makes the CX102's keyboard interesting is that Kawai has taken a different approach to the key action here. Rather than scaling down a heavier action, they've opted for the Responsive Hammer Lite, a lighter action originally found on more portable stage pianos, making it more approachable for younger players or complete beginners who might find a heavier keyboard tiring. The shorter pivot length does mean the key weight can feel slightly inconsistent depending on where you press, something acoustic pianists will likely notice more than beginners. Overall, the action is soft and pleasant to play, though more accomplished players may find it limiting when pushing into bigger, more dynamic passages.

The CX102 also benefits from Kawai's key cushioning technology, which dampens the mechanical noise of the keys during play, a small but genuinely useful feature for anyone practising at home without wanting to disturb the rest of the household.

On sound, the CX102, with 22 watts of power, produces a surprisingly crisp and vibrant tone that fills a room well. The stereo image is wide and immersive, even if the overall tone can feel a little boxy compared to more premium models. Experienced pianists may find the sound lacks the finesse and detail of a higher-end instrument, and I do feel it has a digital edge to it, but for an entry-level piano at this price, it delivers far more than you might expect.

Through headphones, as is often the case with digital pianos, the experience steps up a notch. The sound becomes genuinely immersive, with lovely low-end warmth and interesting tonal nuances that feel inspiring to play. I did notice the mids can get a little muddy, with not much room to breathe, but it's far from a dealbreaker. Having the SK-EX as the tonal foundation of a piano at this price is no small thing; the three grand piano voices are gorgeously sampled, and the additional 14 instrument sounds are simple and well-chosen; everything a beginner needs without overwhelming them. A personal highlight is the upright bass and ride cymbal combination, a neat touch for anyone looking to explore jazz and work on their walking bass lines.

The CX102 is well-equipped on the connectivity front, too. Dual headphone outputs, one full-size 6.3mm jack and one 3.5mm, make it easy for a teacher and student to listen simultaneously, while Bluetooth MIDI opens the door to a growing ecosystem of piano learning apps without a cable in sight. It's worth noting that, unlike the step-up CX202, Bluetooth Audio is absent here, meaning you can't stream music through its speakers from your phone. I understand why this isn’t included here, but it feels like a missed opportunity to me. Most modern learners will expect this functionality as standard, so it’s disappointing that we don't have it here.

Verdict

The Kawai CX102 isn't simply a remake of the much-loved KDP-75. It's a different proposition entirely. Kawai has made deliberate trade-offs in the right places, and the result is a compelling entry-level piano that delivers strong sound quality both through the speakers and headphones, solid connectivity, and an accessible keyboard designed to make those first steps at the piano a little easier and kinder on the fingers. The lighter build won't be for everyone, but at this price, it's hard to argue with.

The CX102 is at its best in the hands of a complete beginner, a younger player, or a family looking for a reliable first instrument that won't intimidate and won't break the bank. It takes a different road from the KDP-75, and while purists may miss the feel of the old action, for its intended audience, it makes a strong case for itself.

Those who outgrow it will naturally find themselves looking at the CN series for a more realistic action and richer sound, but that's a conversation for further down the line. For now, the CX102 does exactly what a good entry-level piano should: it gets out of the way and lets you focus on learning to play.

Hands-on demos

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Kawai Pianos

Specifications

What is it?

The Kawai ES120 is a portable 88-key digital piano and the successor to the popular ES110. Released in 2022, it builds on an already strong foundation with an improved keyboard action, refinements to its sound engine, enhanced Bluetooth connectivity, and a sleek visual redesign. Aimed at a broad audience from beginners and home players to gigging musicians and teachers, it sits in the mid-range portable stage piano bracket at a competitive price point.

Portability is a key feature of the ES120. Weighing only 12.5kg and measuring 130.5cm wide by 28cm deep, it is easy to transport to rehearsals or gigs and fits comfortably into most gig bags. Its design is minimal and functional, with a row of clearly labelled buttons along the top left of the instrument handling voice selection and key functions.

The ES120's keyboard features Kawai's Responsive Hammer Compact action, a fully-graded keyboard that mirrors the weight distribution of an acoustic piano, with heavier keys in the bass and lighter ones in the treble. Updated cushioning materials and revised key mechanics contribute to a quieter action and a more consistent playing experience across the keyboard, and both black and white keys feature a matte finish.

This model uses Kawai's Harmonic Imaging sound engine, with every one of the 88 keys individually sampled from the Shigeru Kawai SK-EX concert grand. Recording each note separately rather than stretching a smaller number of samples across the keyboard results in a more natural and consistent tone.

The ES120 also includes Kawai's Virtual Technician feature, accessible via the PianoRemote app, with 18 parameters covering everything from voicing and damper resonance to key volume and temperament. A Low Volume Balance function keeps the tone and touch natural at lower volumes, a useful addition for home practice.

It offers 25 built-in voices, covering all the essentials. In addition to its main piano sounds, you will find electric pianos, organs, strings, and other useful instruments such as vibraphone, harpsichord, and a bass and ride cymbal combination that is especially useful for exploring jazz styles.

Kawai’s ES120 is equipped with a dual 10-watt amplifier that powers a pair of 4.7-inch speakers, designed to provide ample volume for home practice and produce a clear, balanced sound with a convincing stereo spread. The keyboard is equipped with two headphone inputs.

Through headphones, the ES120 benefits from Kawai's Spatial Headphone Sound technology, which adds depth and dimension to the listening experience and, according to Kawai, helps reduce ear fatigue during longer practice sessions.

On the connectivity front, Bluetooth MIDI and Audio handle wireless app integration and audio streaming, USB to Host takes care of computer connectivity, and two headphone outputs alongside dedicated stereo line outputs cover both practice and performance needs. And of course, it is compatible with both PianoRemote and PiaBookPlayer apps.

Out of the box, the ES120 includes a damper pedal and a music rest. Half-pedal support is also available when using a compatible sustain pedal. An optional wooden designer stand and matching triple pedal unit are available separately, which neatly transforms it into a compact home digital piano. The ES120 is available in two finishes: Black and White.

Performance

Right off the bat, the ES120 makes a pretty strong first impression with its simple, sleek design. The control buttons sit neatly in a single row and are easy to access. Although it is lightweight, the ES120 feels solid and well-built, with a sturdy chassis and quality plastics that give it a reassuringly robust feel. It genuinely feels like it won't rattle apart on the way to a gig. However, the included damper pedal is quite basic and may not meet the needs of more advanced players. I’d say that upgrading to a better sustain pedal that supports half-pedalling is recommended to get the most out of the instrument.

The ES120's minimal button layout keeps things refreshingly simple, with direct access to the essentials. That said, navigating beyond the basics can get a little confusing without the manual, as some functions rely on button combinations that are not immediately obvious. For deeper customisation, including the Virtual Technician parameters for fine-tuning touch and tone, you will need the PianoRemote app; a reasonable trade-off that keeps the physical design clean, but worth knowing before you buy.

For me, the ES120's key action is where Kawai's expertise truly shows. The keyboard has a modest, no-frills appearance, with a plain matte finish on both the black and white keys and no simulated ivory texturing, but I don’t mind that at this price point. The touch is on the lighter side with an even response across the full range; some players may notice a slightly firm initial resistance before the action settles into a smoother feel once past that first point of contact.

Players who rely on precise pianissimo technique may need a little time to adjust. That said, playing fast and complex passages feels natural and comfortable, and Kawai has struck a good balance; the keys are neither sluggish nor overly forceful, making the ES120 a genuinely enjoyable keyboard to play at any level.

The sound of the ES120 is impressive for a portable piano and delivers a surprisingly wide, immersive tone. There is a slight boxiness to the sound that is common to beginner digital pianos, but it does not detract from what is an engaging and enjoyable listening experience at this price.

Now, a particularly useful feature for home players is Low Volume Balance, which automatically adjusts tone and touch at lower volumes, keeping the sound natural and responsive even during late-night practice sessions.

Personally, I think the ES120 performs particularly well through headphones. The main piano voices feel lush, warm, and detailed, and Kawai's Spatial Headphone Sound technology adds a welcome sense of space and depth to the experience, while also aiming to reduce ear fatigue during longer practice sessions; a thoughtful inclusion for an instrument at this price, for sure.

When it comes to voices, the ES120 offers a simple but well-chosen selection. The piano sounds are responsive and organic, the electric pianos warm and colourful, and the remaining keyboard instruments feel realistic and characterful. A personal highlight is the upright bass and ride cymbal combination, a fun and practical addition for anyone looking to explore jazz accompaniment.

In practice, the connectivity of the ES120 works exactly as it should. Bluetooth pairing is seamless, the dual headphone outputs are genuinely useful for shared practice or teaching, and the line outputs make plugging into a PA at a gig a straightforward affair. Everything performs reliably and without fuss, and I can’t ask for more than that.

Verdict

The Kawai ES120 is a confident and well-rounded portable digital piano that punches above its weight in almost every area. The key action is its strongest card; light and approachable without ever feeling cheap, and is comfortable enough to satisfy players at any level. The sound holds up impressively on both speakers and headphones, and the SK-EX sampling delivers a level of tonal quality rarely found at this price point.

It is not without its compromises. The plain matte key finish and the basic included pedal are the most obvious, and players with a classical background may need time to adjust to the lighter action. But these are conscious trade-offs rather than oversights, and none of them undermines what a genuinely strong package this piano is.

For a beginner looking for a first serious instrument, an intermediate player wanting something portable, or a gigging musician needing a reliable, lightweight stage piano, the ES120 makes a compelling case. At this price, it is hard to find a more complete portable digital piano.

Hands-on demos

MusicRadar

Kawai Pianos Global

Specifications

What is it?

The CA901 is Kawai's flagship Concert Artist digital piano and the top of their digital range. This is the most ambitious instrument Kawai makes before stepping into the world of hybrid pianos, which combine digital sound generation with real acoustic piano mechanisms. Aimed at serious home pianists, advanced students, returning players, and dedicated hobbyists, it offers the closest possible experience to an acoustic grand piano without the space, tuning bills, or price tag of the real thing.

Starting with the keyboard, all 88 keys are crafted entirely from wood, with finely textured ivory- and ebony-like surfaces, and each key pivots on a balance pin that replicates the seesaw motion of an acoustic piano action.

Now, Kawai’s Grand Feel III action has four key details: an extra-long key pivot length, which matches that of a Kawai grand piano; metal counterweights graded beneath each key, giving a balanced, substantial touch; a triple sensor detection system for improved responsiveness and note layering; and let-off simulation that recreates the subtle notch sensation felt on a grand piano when playing very softly.

When it comes to sound, the CA901 uses SK-EX Rendering. This exclusive sound engine combines multi-channel, 88-key sampling with resonance modelling. It captures the Shigeru Kawai SK-EX, one of the most celebrated concert grands, from multiple microphone positions. The result is a richer, more three-dimensional sound. Unlike most digital pianos, the CA901 also features a genuine wooden soundboard, like the resonating panel found in acoustic pianos. This soundboard vibrates to project sound. Driven by transducers rather than traditional speakers. Two top-mounted speakers with 360-degree diffuser panels, two front-facing speakers, and two tweeters complete the six-speaker, 135-watt configuration.

The CA901 comes with 96 voices in total, covering electric pianos, organs, strings, and more. At the core are two distinct SK-EX grand piano recreations: the Competition Grand, which is brilliant and clear with a weighty attack, and the Concert Grand, which is warmer and richer in character. Each comes with five rendering characters for further tonal shaping.

Rounding out the feature set, a 5-inch anti-glare LCD touchscreen lets you access sounds, settings, and the Virtual Piano Artisan voicing tools. Bluetooth MIDI and Audio v5, USB recording and playback, and Spatial Headphone Sound complete the connectivity picture. The CA901 is available in Premium Satin Black, Satin White, Premium Rosewood, Ebony Polish, and Natural Walnut, with a soft-fall fallboard included as standard.

Performance

First impressions of the CA901 are hard to argue with. The cabinet is compact and convincing enough to be mistaken for a small acoustic upright, and the build quality is immediately apparent, from the soft-fall fallboard to the sleek, anti-glare LCD touchscreen, which sits discreetly in the cheekblock without disrupting the piano's clean lines. To me, it feels like a well-thought-out instrument from every angle.

Although there are two small observations worth noting. I think the wood-grain texture on the satin black finish feels a little artificial. I’d say it’s worth considering one of the polished finishes if aesthetics matter to you. The CA901 is also notably slow to boot up, though with the complexity of the audio engine under the hood, this is perhaps to be expected, and a small price to pay for what follows.

Before getting to the sound, it is worth spending time on what most players will notice first, the keyboard. Kawai's expertise in piano making is on full display here, with the keys feeling deceptively real, and it takes a beat to register that you are playing a digital instrument rather than an acoustic one.

The let-off simulation and counterweights deliver a genuine sense of mechanical feedback with every keystroke, allowing for dynamic control and expressive nuance that is rarely found at this price point. The ivory- and ebony-like key surfaces are a pleasure to touch, too, with a smooth finish that absorbs moisture and maintains consistent control even during longer playing sessions. It is an impressive and genuinely pleasurable keyboard to play, and arguably one of the finest key actions available on any digital piano today.

Moving on, I’m happy to report that the three pedals feel solid underfoot, and I like that the sustain pedal supports half-pedalling, a must for many classical pieces and a nice touch from Kawai.

The wooden soundboard takes the experience a step further. Playing in the lower register creates a physical vibration that I could feel through the cabinet and my fingertips. This brings an organic quality to the playing that no conventional speaker system can replicate. The six-speaker system is equally impressive, delivering a wide, detailed, and immersive sound that easily fills the room. I soon stopped thinking of the CA901 as a speaker, as it simply sounds and feels like a real piano.

The piano voices of the CA901 are excellent across the board. To me, they have genuine realism, rich harmonics, and detailed resonance, whether through speakers or headphones. With headphones, the dedicated amplifier and Spatial Headphone Sound technology create a genuinely three-dimensional listening experience and a great sense of space. This makes extended practice sessions a pleasure instead of a chore, in my opinion.

The new SK-EX Competition Grand voice is a particular highlight. It’s vivid, responsive, and instantly inspiring, while the upright voice is characterful and full of life. The broader selection of sounds maintains high sampling standards, offering plenty to keep even the most demanding player engaged.

The CA901 covers all the connectivity bases you would expect at this level, and everything works as well in practice as it looks on paper. The touchscreen is responsive and intuitive mid-session, the Bluetooth pairing is seamless, and the Spatial Headphone Sound makes late-night practice genuinely immersive. The Virtual Piano Artisan voicing tools are a particular standout, offering a level of tonal control that goes well beyond what most digital pianos offer at any price.

Verdict

As Kawai's most advanced digital piano, the CA901 brings together some of the most sophisticated technology found in any digital instrument today, from the multi-channel SK-EX Rendering sound engine and Grand Feel III wooden key action to the Virtual Piano Artisan voicing tools and six-speaker system. It is the key action and soundboard in particular that blur the boundary between digital and acoustic, giving the CA901 a physical, tactile quality that is genuinely unlike anything else in its class.

Okay, so at this price, it is a serious investment, and is certainly not a beginner digital piano, but one that is hard to question when you consider what it delivers. Yes, the Yamaha Clavinova CLP-885 and the Casio GP-510 are both strong alternatives, each with its own take on key action and sound delivery, but I’d go as far as to say the Kawai CA901 may just be the best in its class.

Of course, piano playing is personal, and what feels right under the fingers varies from player to player. I always recommend trying each option side by side before committing at this level.

Hands-on demos

MusicRadar

Kawai Pianos Global

Alternatives

Specifications

What is it?

Expressive E is a company that has always pushed the limits of MIDI control, through its impressive lineup of hardware and software. At the very heart of its development manifesto is the ability to control electronic instruments in a unique way, exploring some of the outer limits of the MPE format.

Its journey began with the unique design of the Touché, a hardware controller of sorts, which was designed as an add-on to your existing MIDI or modular setup. Then came software that fully embraced the MPE format, inviting users and players to engage the Touché for all of those control niceties.

The pinnacle of its most recent explorations arrived a couple of years ago, with the Osmose synthesizer keyboard. This not only allowed us to see its unique keybed technology for the first time, but also gave us a very weighty onboard MPE synth engine, taking full advantage of a performance-level keyboard package.

Now Osmose is available in a new CE format, providing a cheaper controller option for those who don't need Osmose’s internal sound engine. The unique selling point is undoubtedly that, where other MPE controllers provide unique styling and design, the heart of Osmose is a traditional piano layout, at least at first sight. Beyond that, the Osmose keyboard responds to all manner of strikes, after touch-style pressure, lateral movement, and more!

Performance

So if you are paying considerably less for the CE edition, what are you losing? In essence, the onboard sound engine! The keybed technology is identical in every way, so we could easily argue that there is no compromise. The lack of a sound engine is unlikely to be a deal-breaker for anyone who is studio-bound and DAW-based. Apart from its availability in both a 49 and 61 key (four and five octave) format, there is an included bounty of over 900 sounds available, through the installation of the Ctrl-e software, which runs as a VST or AU plugin in your DAW.

At the present time, there is no standalone version of Ctrl-e, or indeed a version that might run on a tablet, but maybe that might be something that appears in future. Osmose CE integrates fully with Expressive E’s other products, and arguably opens an entirely new area of control for Soloiste (its virtual solo string instrument plugins) and Noisy 2 (synth), although the Ctrl-e software is a fantastic MPE showcase for other manufacturers too, who have contributed patches – Synapse, G-Force and Kilohearts, to name just a few – alongside Expressive E’s own included sounds.

Build and construct

The hardware itself is manufactured in Poland, with the component elements being a black metal base and aluminium upper panel. The keybed sits proud of the fascia, with pitch and modulation sliders located on the far left, along with a number of buttons and pots and the ever-important display.

Power is supplied via USB-C, meaning that you can plug it directly into your computer for both data/MIDI and power connectivity. It's a very neat solution. Should it be more convenient for your setup, you can also connect MIDI via more usual 5-pin DIN connectors, both in and out, although you will still need to connect USB-C for power. The build quality itself is exemplary.

Use and feel

So how does Osmose CE perform, as an MPE-biased controller, versus more regular pianistic use?

This starts with the physical attributes of the keys themselves. When you play a key, pressing it down with the force of your finger, there is quite a lot of travel. Unlike a piano or similar keyboard, there is no hard stop, that is, unless you increase the travel of your finger to the very depths of a key’s depression point. This means that you effectively have a halfway point, which might be considered the more usual stopping point for a regular keyboard. If we refer to the rest of the travel as an ‘aftertouch zone’, there is about the same degree of movement again, but of course, the point here is that you can initiate further control through the software, such as the induction of vibrato, or the application of some form of synth-based modulation.

Osmose CE goes much further, though, with lateral movement too, which often induces vibrato. Bizarrely, this concept of lateral movement dates back to the 14th century, and the instrument known as the Clavichord. However, Expressive E has taken the concept to new heights, with a high level of programmability which complements the sound engine palette. This means that you can engineer considerable secondary control, once the initial note strike has occurred.

Thanks to the accompanying Ctrl-e software, you can quickly get up and running with an incredibly extensive sound palette, which is designed to show off Osmose to its fullest potential. There are plenty of pads, synths and guitar-like plucks within the software, but we were also interested to test Osmose CE with its unique Soliste suite, which concentrates on members of the orchestral string family.

The level of control supersedes what may be possible with a conventional controller, but it underlies one notable point, which is that this is such a radical design that you may need to engineer some Osmose practice to get the very best from the action. It is a different instrument, in the way that it plays and feels, and while it's clearly very simple to switch to a piano sound, it is also a very different proposition if you are used to sitting at an acoustic piano, or one of the excellent fully-weighted MIDI controllers that are currently on the market.

Integration and install

There can also be a high level of integration between Osmose CE and your DAW. We were testing the unit with Logic Pro, but must note that installing all the appropriate software that might be required wasn't quite as simple as it could be.

The basic setup of plugging in gets you off the blocks very quickly, but installing additional components, notably the Ctrl-e software and support script for your DAW, are treated as separate elements.

The Ctrl-e software is essentially a sound source, in the shape of a plugin. The installation procedure was simple enough, but we had to do a number of full restarts of our system and Logic before the plugin was recognised and appeared. It just seemed to be a little bit temperamental, which might also be because of the presence of iLok, for authenticity.

The accompanying DAW script allows the Osmose CE to integrate fully with your DAW. This extends from sound selection within Ctrl-e, through to transport and even fader control. As a specification, this seems like a good idea; however, the Osmose CE display is nowhere near as gratifying as a computer screen, so while incremental/decremental navigation of sounds might be useful, it seems unlikely that you will use the onboard display when your computer screen will presumably be very close at hand.

Moreover, navigation via the display is through six infinite and clickable pots and five buttons, and while it does get easier with use, it’s not the most intuitive menu hierarchy or way of getting things done. It's also worth noting that loading times for many of the Ctrl-e sounds felt quite laboured. This did vary from one patch to another, and probably has everything to do with the sonic complexity of each sound.

There are two 1/4” jack connection points on the rear of the unit for pedals, one of which could easily be a sustain pedal. In operation, we also noted that applying the sustain pedal meant that any attributes that had been triggered within a patch, such as a change in filter cutoff, would not be held with the sustain. Presumably, this is to do with the nature of MIDI sustain pedals, where they tend to operate in an off/on scenario, for notes only.

You also have to use the display for making settings on the Osmose CE, which is entirely fair enough, particularly as you probably won't need to change these settings very often, but for DAW control, it feels somewhat surplus to requirements, although the tactile nature of the transport controls has a degree of appeal.

Verdict

Being available in both four and five-octave versions, Osmose CE is incredibly appealing for anyone making music within a DAW. It is capable of some pretty clever party tricks, such as the Pressure Glide mode, which allows portamento movement between notes, but with a useful degree of control and accuracy.

Where the jury may be out is with its attractiveness as a straight replacement for a conventional MIDI keyboard. If you are a pianist or keyboard player, there is an overwhelming attraction to an MPE controller, which looks identical to a regular piano keyboard. This is, however, where it ends!

The playing experience is very different to that of the piano, and will take some time and encouragement to fully embrace. Playing slower and more chordal progressions allows you time to embrace the MPE control, but rapid playing presents greater challenges, particularly as ends of notes are nowhere near as tight as more conventional controllers. The upside is, of course, you get all the other MPE elements, which you could not do in the same way with a regular controller, even armed with a bank of faders.

There is something very musical about the way you can approach playing Osmose CE, and we like that an awful lot. The only problem is that we are thinking that we might need to make space for two controllers in our studio setup, in much the same way that we have a weighted keyboard and a synth action keyboard. It has to be worth it, just for the sheer style of the Osmose CE!

Hands-on demos

Expressive E

Alternatives

Specifications

Akai Professional has announced updates to its range of standalone MPCs, giving the entry-level MPC One and keyboard-equipped MPC Key 37 Gen 2 upgrades that bring them in line with the MPC XL and MPC Live III.

As with those latter models, the big news is a significant step up in processing power and storage capacity. Both new machines feature 8-core processors, which Akai claims offers four times the power of the previous generation.

Both MPCs also now pack 4GB of RAM, up from the 2GB of their predecessors, along with 64GB of storage. The previous MPC Key 37 had 32GB of storage, while the MPC One+ had just 16GB.

The improved specs mean that both models can make better use of the MPC3 OS in standalone mode, with the capacity for up-to 32 simultaneous plugin instances and 16 stereo audio tracks.

The extra power can also be put to use for pro-grade stem separation and real-time time-stretching, although access to these features requires the optional Pro Pack expansion, which also adds the Clip Matrix seen on other new MPCs.

While there are big changes under the hood, the hardware units themselves are fairly similar to their predecessors. Whereas both the MPC XL and Live III saw the introduction of new interface layouts with additional hands-on control, both the hardware UI and I/O is largely unchanged here.

The most significant addition on this front is the introduction of multi-channel audio streaming via USB-C, which lets users stream multiple tracks of audio and MIDI to/from a DAW, as well as sample directly via USB-C. This is a feature I really liked on the Live III and XL, so it’s nice to see it included here.

The most notable omission of these Gen 2 designs is the multi-expression MPCe pads found on the XL and Live III. Instead, both of these new models stick with the velocity and pressure-sensitive pad designs of their last gen predecessors.

The MPC Key also keeps the existing 37 synth-action keys with aftertouch, pitch bend and mod wheel.

This may well come as a disappointment for users of the current models who have been anticipating an upgrade, although the absence does create a slightly more logical gap in capabilities between the MPC Live III and its cheaper MPC One counterpart.

"Whether you live on the pads or write everything on keys, the MPC One G2 and MPC Key 37 G2 give producers and beat makers the most powerful standalone MPC we have ever built at these prices," said Andy Mac, Director of Artist Relations at Akai Professional.

"From bedroom beat makers to established producer communities around the world, creators now have four times the power, MPC3 OS, and a powerful collection of instruments and samples ready to get you started. This is generation 2 of MPC standalone production."

Next gen

Akai’s MPC range has had numerous ups and downs over the past four decades, from the early days of Roger Linn’s designs through the company’s initial bankruptcy, sale to InMusic and a shortlived reinvention as a range of MIDI controllers.

Recent iterations of the MPC have been some of the strongest we’ve seen in years though, hitting on a winning formula that balances the self-contained creativity of ‘90s MPCs with versatile, DAW-rivalling production capabilities.

I really liked both the MPC Live III and XL when I reviewed those machines. The increased CPU power and USB-C streaming makes them far more viable standalone production machines for those that want DAW-like tools without being bound to a laptop. Given Native Instruments’ much-discussed turbulence and scant Maschine updates, these current MPCs are unrivalled at what they do.

The MPC One G2 and MPC Key 37 G2 are out now priced at $799/£729/€849 and $999/£849/€999 respectively. Both sport new colours inspired by classic MPC designs.

Check out full specs and included plugins below, or head to the official Akai site for more info.

Key features

Shared Platform Features (Both Models)

• G2 8-core processor with 4x the processing power of the previous generation
• 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage
• Up to 32 simultaneous plugin instances and 16 stereo audio tracks in standalone
• MPC3 OS with modern, track-based workflow and full Linear Arranger
• 7" full-colour multitouch LED display
• USB-C with 24×24 audio streaming, expanded MIDI, host and device support over a single cable
• Ableton Live Control Mode and Ableton project import/export
• Direct sampling from phones, tablets, and external devices via USB-C
• Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz / 5 GHz, 802.11ac) and Bluetooth 5
• Over 20 GB of included content; NI Analog Dreams MPC Edition free at launch
• An optional Pro Pack expands both systems with advanced production tools including professional-grade stem separation, real-time time-stretching, and Clip Matrix.

MPC One G2 – Additional Features

• 16 velocity- and pressure-sensitive RGB pads across 8 banks
• 4 touch-sensitive Q-Link knobs with 4 accessible columns
• 5-pin MIDI in/out and 4 TRS CV/Gate jacks (8 outputs total) for hardware and modular integration
• SD card slot and USB-A port for expanded storage and accessories
• 11 included plugins and 9 expansion packs

MPC Key 37 G2 – Additional Features

• 37 synth-action keys with aftertouch, pitch bend, and modulation wheel
• 16 velocity- and pressure-sensitive RGB-backlit pads with 8 accessible pad banks
• 2 × 1/4" TRS inputs and 2 × 1/4" TRS outputs (stereo)
• 8 CV/gate outputs (4 × 1/8" TRS jacks), 5-pin MIDI in/out
• 13 included plugins and 6 expansion packs

MPC One G2 – Included Plugins (11)

• NI Analog Dreams MPC Edition (free, included at launch)
• Bassline
• Electric
• Fabric Select
• Hype
• Mellotron
• Odyssey
• Organ
• Solina
• Tubesynth
• Drumsynth

MPC One G2 – Included Expansions (9)

• Acoustic Tools
• Classic Drum Machines
• Apollo Retro Kits
• Percussion Tools
• ATL Song Starters
• Marco Polo Lo-Fi Boom
• Welcome to ATL Kits
• Welcome to ATL Melodics
• Producer Essentials

MPC Key 37 G2 – Included Plugins (13)

• NI Analog Dreams MPC Edition (free, included at launch)
• Bassline
• Electric
• Fabric Select
• Hype
• Mellotron
• Odyssey
• Solina
• Tubesynth
• Drumsynth
• OPX-4
• Jura
• Sub Factory

MPC Key 37 G2 – Included Expansions (6)

• Acoustic Tools
• Classic Drum Machines
• Apollo Retro Kits
• Marco Polo Lo-Fi Boom
• Gemini Future Classic Synths
• Orion Future Classic Workstations

Welcome to MusicRadar’s Deals of the Week, your go-to source for the hottest music gear deals online. Whether you’re a pro musician, bedroom producer, live performer, or passionate hobbyist, our weekly roundup guarantees you catch the best gear at unbeatable prices.

Well, this week, Guitar Center's fantastic acoustic guitar sale continues with up to 30% off a huge selection of instruments. You can still score major savings on acoustics, classicals, ukuleles, resonators, and banjos. The sale runs until June 24th, giving you plenty of time to grab a deal. All the top brands, Taylor, Martin, Gibson, Yamaha, Fender, Epiphone, and more, are included, making this one of the best chances to score a quality acoustic this year.

Sweetwater has just launched its drum month sale, which means deep discounts on everything percussion-related. We're seeing hefty savings of up to 55% off on electric kits, studio-ready acoustic kits, cymbals, snares, and so much more.

Now, the savings don’t stop there; Waves is still running specials on plugin bundles. If you spend $50, you’ll get one free plugin, and if you spend $80, you’ll get two free plugins. If you’ve been itching to upgrade your home studio, now’s the perfect time.

Lastly, Musician’s Friend Electric Guitar Month is here, offering incredible deals on select electric guitars, amps, and effects. You can also take advantage of special financing offers and stock up on accessories with 15% off qualifying purchases with the code ACC15.

Editor's picks

Looking for more bargains? Check out more recommended sales below:

• Thomann: Shop hot deals
• Fender Shop: Shop discounted Strats & Teles
• IK Multimedia: Save on iRig and AXE I/O
• Plugin Boutique: Save big on plugins
• Positive Grid: Smart amp sale
• Reverb: Save big on top brands

How we choose our deals of the week

Here at MusicRadar, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing, creating and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything music gear-related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our deals.

Our mission is simple - to help you make the best buying decision, find the right gear at the right price, to make the best music you can.

For us to recommend a deal it has to be a product we rate that’s been reduced to a genuinely great price or part of a truly fantastic bundle. It’s also important that we only recommend retailers that we trust.

You can see more of our product recommendations in our buyer's guides and reviews.

Why you can trust our choices

Our editors and writers are all experienced musicians and experts in their fields. They have a deep understanding of the categories that they cover, which means that you can trust their choices when it comes to recommending products.

We pride ourselves on the independence, quality and reliability of our testing processes and the reviews it produces. It’s what has made us the world’s leading music-making publishing company. You can find more details on how we test some specific key product categories, but the principles apply across the board, rigorously assessing build quality, functionality, playability and, of course, sonic performance.

We cover a lot of the big sales events throughout the year, including Memorial Day, Black Friday, 4th of July sales and Amazon Prime Day, and we have a good view of which products are likely to receive the biggest discounts and when, the prices they’ve been in the past and which deals are genuinely worth a look.

Where are the best places to shop?

Online shopping is definitely a lot easier and more secure than it used to be, and we like to recommend a small handful of online retailers who have a sterling reputation and offer fantastic benefits like fuss-free returns, great customer service and, in some cases, full checks and setup of guitars before they are dispatched. So, all the deals we’ll recommend on this page are from retailers that tick these boxes.

What sort of deals should I look for?

Great deals come in all shapes and sizes. There are a few key types to look out for:

• Single item - A single product with a great discount
• Site-wide discounts - A single discount percentage on a large range of products across a site
• Discount codes - Load your basket to a certain value and redeem a discount code for money off your basket contents
• Added value deals - These include multi-buy discounts, or additional products or software for free when you buy certain items

Every good pianist knows the importance of dynamics – how loudly or quietly you play, basically – but other tonal terms have always been somewhat more subjective. Can you really make a piece sound ‘warmer’, ‘darker’, ‘brighter’ or ‘heavier’, for example, given that, once the hammer hits the string, the tone of the sound is supposedly out of your control?

This is a question that’s long been debated, but new research led by Dr. Shinichi Furuya of the NeuroPiano Institute and Sony Computer Science Laboratorie (published in ScienceDaily) claims to show that this level of touch and timbre variation is indeed possible on a piano via subtle movements of the player’s fingers and hands, and that listeners can identify it when they hear it.

In order to measure these movements, the researchers used a custom-built non-contact sensing system called HackKey. This is capable of recording the movements of all 88 piano keys at a speed of 1,000 frames per second and with microscopic spatial precision.

20 “internationally acclaimed” pianists were asked to play this specially modified piano in a variety of tonal ways – brightly, darkly, lightly and heavily, for example. It was shown that listeners - even those with no musical training – were consistently able to recognise the tonal qualities that the pianists were trying to convey, with professional pianists being particularly adept at doing so.

When the researchers analysed the HackKey data, they discovered that just a few very precise movements influenced the tonal changes, causing subtle variations in acceleration, timing and synchronisation between left and right hands. What’s more, it was noted that just one single movement could influence how listeners perceived the sound.

The researchers believe that these extremely subtle gestures are picked up through years of piano training, and are consistent among advanced players. As such, the findings challenge the assumption that such playing techniques are subjective, and that their perceived impact is somehow psychological.

Going forward, this means that students could potentially be taught how to play in tonally different ways by showing them the exact techniques required as opposed to giving them more ambiguous descriptive instructions. Music technology companies might be interested, too, as the research could give them a better understanding of how pianists actually play and enable them to tailor their products accordingly.

The study also feeds into growing scientific interest in understanding the nature of creativity and ‘dynaformics’ – the science of music performance.

In what feels like it could have been a scene from the movie itself, a piano-playing audience member at an orchestral showing of the 2016 musical La La Land has just stepped in for the on-stage keyboard player after they fell ill during the interval.

The Hollywood-worthy incident took place in Sydney, Australia on Saturday at the ICC’s Darling Harbour theatre. The first half of the show had proceeded without incident, but as the scheduled interval stretched out to 40 minutes, audience members started to wonder what was going on.

It was at this point that Justin Hurwitz, the La La Land score composer who was conducting on the night, stepped out onto the stage and asked if there happened to be a pianist in the audience who was also a top-notch sight-reader. It turns out that no one else in the orchestra was capable of filling in, and attempts to recruit a replacement player who could get to the theatre quick enough had failed.

“I figured nobody’s as close as they say they are … so I just thought, well, we have 2,500 people in here,” Hurwitz told Guardian Australia. “Yes, it was a gamble.”

Enter the suitably heroically named Sterling Nasa, a 21-year-old politics and international studies student at the University of Sydney, who was attending the show with his friend.

Knowing his skills on the piano and organ – and indeed the bagpipes, it turns out – she encouraged Nasa to boldly go where no audience member had gone before and put his hand up.

After Hurwitz had asked a few follow-up questions – “Are you sure? Can you really sight-read? Can you play key signatures you’ve never played before?” – Nasa took his place on the stage. However, having seen La La Land before, he must have known that he was soon to be faced with one of the toughest challenges in the score – the synth solo that Ryan Gosling’s character plays (on a ROLI Seaboard, funnily enough) when he’s on stage with John Legend during the song Start A Fire.

“The synth solo is really technical, and I thought, even a really high-level professional sight-reader would probably not be able to do it,” says Hurwitz. “As it was coming up, I was thinking, ‘Oh no, how’s he going to be able to handle the solo?’”

Nasa was equally concerned – “I saw it on the score and I thought, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to sight-read that in one go,’” – so decided to do what most musicians have done from time to time during a performance: wing it.

“I took a little bit of a creative liberty and just decided to improvise, which I think ended up being a good choice,” said Nasa.

Hurwitz agrees: “To be able to play a really cool solo in the right key, in the right scale, on the fly with no rehearsal – it was remarkable,” he said.

Cue Nasa’s 15 minutes of well-deserved fame – he’s been doing the media rounds since his performance. However, having lived his La La Land dream, he will now return to his university studies.

To quote Mia, Emma Stone’s character from the film, though: "Here's to the fools who dream, crazy as they may seem."

Welcome to MusicRadar’s Deals of the Week, your go-to source for the hottest music gear deals online. Whether you’re a pro musician, bedroom producer, live performer, or passionate hobbyist, our weekly roundup guarantees you catch the best gear at unbeatable prices.

Right after the slew of Memorial Day deals, Guitar Center is kicking off a fantastic acoustic guitar sale with up to 30% off a huge selection of instruments. Score major savings on acoustic and acoustic-electric guitars, classicals, plus ukuleles, resonators, and banjos. The sale runs until June 24th, giving you nearly a month to grab these deals. All the top brands, Taylor, Martin, Gibson, Yamaha, Fender, Epiphone, and more, are included, making this one of the best chances to score a quality acoustic this year.

Sweetwater’s Recording Month sale means deep discounts on everything studio: microphones, speakers, interfaces, headphones, and software. Now, the studio savings don’t stop there; Waves is still running specials on plugin bundles. If you spend $50, you’ll get one free plugin, and if you spend $80, you’ll get two free plugins. If you’ve been itching to upgrade your home studio, now’s the perfect time.

Lastly, Musician’s Friend Electric Guitar Month is here, offering incredible deals on select electric guitars, amps, and effects. You can also take advantage of special financing offers and stock up on accessories with 15% off qualifying purchases with the code ACC15.

Editor's picks

Looking for more bargains? Check out more recommended sales below:

• Thomann: Shop hot deals
• Fender Shop: Shop discounted Strats & Teles
• IK Multimedia: Save on iRig and AXE I/O
• Plugin Boutique: Save big on plugins
• Positive Grid: Smart amp sale
• Reverb: Save big on top brands

How we choose our deals of the week

Here at MusicRadar, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing, creating and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything music gear-related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our deals.

Our mission is simple - to help you make the best buying decision, find the right gear at the right price, to make the best music you can.

For us to recommend a deal it has to be a product we rate that’s been reduced to a genuinely great price or part of a truly fantastic bundle. It’s also important that we only recommend retailers that we trust.

You can see more of our product recommendations in our buyer's guides and reviews.

Why you can trust our choices

Our editors and writers are all experienced musicians and experts in their fields. They have a deep understanding of the categories that they cover, which means that you can trust their choices when it comes to recommending products.

We pride ourselves on the independence, quality and reliability of our testing processes and the reviews it produces. It’s what has made us the world’s leading music-making publishing company. You can find more details on how we test some specific key product categories, but the principles apply across the board, rigorously assessing build quality, functionality, playability and, of course, sonic performance.

We cover a lot of the big sales events throughout the year, including Memorial Day, Black Friday, 4th of July sales and Amazon Prime Day, and we have a good view of which products are likely to receive the biggest discounts and when, the prices they’ve been in the past and which deals are genuinely worth a look.

Where are the best places to shop?

Online shopping is definitely a lot easier and more secure than it used to be, and we like to recommend a small handful of online retailers who have a sterling reputation and offer fantastic benefits like fuss-free returns, great customer service and, in some cases, full checks and setup of guitars before they are dispatched. So, all the deals we’ll recommend on this page are from retailers that tick these boxes.

What sort of deals should I look for?

Great deals come in all shapes and sizes. There are a few key types to look out for:

• Single item - A single product with a great discount
• Site-wide discounts - A single discount percentage on a large range of products across a site
• Discount codes - Load your basket to a certain value and redeem a discount code for money off your basket contents
• Added value deals - These include multi-buy discounts, or additional products or software for free when you buy certain items

Welcome to MusicRadar’s Deals of the Week, your go-to roundup for the latest and greatest offers on top-rated music gear from around the web. Each week, we handpick a fresh selection of standout discounts, so make sure to check back regularly to stay on top of the hottest bargains and never miss a chance to upgrade your setup.

With Memorial Day Weekend drawing closer and the big day itself not landing until May 25th, there may not be any official sales just yet, but there is a surge of great deals worth shopping right now. While many of the biggest sales are still on the horizon, you don’t have to wait to score serious savings. If you’re keen to grab a bargain ahead of the holiday rush, there are plenty of impressive offers available right now.

Sweetwater has just kicked off a huge effects pedal sale, offering up to 35% off a wide variety of stompboxes. You’ll find $100 off Universal Audio UAFX pedals, plus major savings on brands such as Line 6, Digitech, Warm Audio, Electro-Harmonix, and many more. If you’re looking to refresh your pedalboard, this is the perfect time to explore what’s on offer.

For gigging musicians, Sweetwater is also running a Gig Essentials sale with up to 30% off strings, cables, and must-have accessories for a limited time.

After its recent relaunch as an outlet-style store, Musician’s Friend is serving up some major savings, with up to 60% off top brands. Right now, you can find up to 50% off electric, acoustic, and bass guitars, so if you’re in the market for a new instrument, it’s definitely worth a look.

Still going strong from last week, Guitar Center’s huge Live Sound sale continues, with up to 25% off leading brands like Yamaha, JBL, Alto, and Shure. Whether you’re shopping for new speakers, microphones, or other live sound essentials, these limited-time offers make upgrading your setup more affordable than ever.

Editor's picks

Looking for more bargains? Check out more recommended sales below:

• Thomann: Shop hot deals
• Fender Shop: Shop discounted Strats & Teles
• IK Multimedia: Save on iRig and AXE I/O
• Plugin Boutique: Save big on plugins
• Positive Grid: Smart amp sale
• Reverb: Save big on top brands

How we choose our deals of the week

Here at MusicRadar, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing, creating and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything music gear-related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our deals.

Our mission is simple - to help you make the best buying decision, find the right gear at the right price, to make the best music you can.

For us to recommend a deal it has to be a product we rate that’s been reduced to a genuinely great price or part of a truly fantastic bundle. It’s also important that we only recommend retailers that we trust.

You can see more of our product recommendations in our buyer's guides and reviews.

Why you can trust our choices

Our editors and writers are all experienced musicians and experts in their fields. They have a deep understanding of the categories that they cover, which means that you can trust their choices when it comes to recommending products.

We pride ourselves on the independence, quality and reliability of our testing processes and the reviews it produces. It’s what has made us the world’s leading music-making publishing company. You can find more details on how we test some specific key product categories, but the principles apply across the board, rigorously assessing build quality, functionality, playability and, of course, sonic performance.

We cover a lot of the big sales events throughout the year, including Memorial Day, Black Friday, 4th of July sales and Amazon Prime Day, and we have a good view of which products are likely to receive the biggest discounts and when, the prices they’ve been in the past and which deals are genuinely worth a look.

Where are the best places to shop?

Online shopping is definitely a lot easier and more secure than it used to be, and we like to recommend a small handful of online retailers who have a sterling reputation and offer fantastic benefits like fuss-free returns, great customer service and, in some cases, full checks and setup of guitars before they are dispatched. So, all the deals we’ll recommend on this page are from retailers that tick these boxes.

What sort of deals should I look for?

Great deals come in all shapes and sizes. There are a few key types to look out for:

• Single item - A single product with a great discount
• Site-wide discounts - A single discount percentage on a large range of products across a site
• Discount codes - Load your basket to a certain value and redeem a discount code for money off your basket contents
• Added value deals - These include multi-buy discounts, or additional products or software for free when you buy certain items

SUPERBOOTH 2026: Earlier this month, we brought you news that Auxy, the Swedish developer behind the popular music-making app Auxy Studio, was preparing to release its debut hardware instrument, a keyboard stocked with sounds designed by content creator and musician Andreas Paleologos, better known as Cuckoo.

Today, Auxy has announced the release of that instrument, and it’s called Svensson 49. It’s a 49-key home keyboard designed with a focus on accessibility, simplicity and ease-of-use, equipped with a built-in speaker and a semi-weighted, velocity-sensitive Fatar TP/9S keybed.

As mentioned, Auxy partnered with Cuckoo on the development of Svensson, a well-known YouTuber in the world of music technology. Cuckoo was the lead sound designer responsible for creating Svensson’s bank of around 100 presets, which are divided into four categories: Drums, Bass, Bread and Butter.

The first two are self-explanatory, and the other two cover everything else that falls outside of those categories: keys, leads, pads, plucks, organs and more, spanning both acoustic and electronic sources. Svensson’s sounds have a distinctly organic and expressive quality, with a touch more personality and character than the presets you’ll find in the average home keyboard; it’s clear that a lot of love went into designing these.

Developed in-house by Auxy, Svensson’s polyphonic sound engine uses a combination of samples and wavetables. Each sound has three macro controls – Tone, Mood and Shape – and each macro has been customized to offer a tailored variation on each sound, dialling in effects on an independent per-preset effects chain covering reverb, delay, chorus, phaser, compression, EQ, and various styles of distortion and saturation.

Svensson is equipped with a multi-track MIDI looper that can play four different sounds at the same time, and each of those sounds can be looped in multiple layers, with no limit on length. There’s a metronome onboard, a tempo control, and the looper has smart quantization that can be turned off.

Loops can be stored on Svensson to revisit later, and you can trigger loops from its memory via the keyboard. There’s not currently a function for exporting loops as audio or MIDI to another device, but Auxy tells us that this is something that may likely be implemented in future.

As you’ll see in Cuckoo’s walkthrough video, Svensson’s looper is triggered when you start playing, and can be used to go back and retrieve ideas you just played without hitting record, a bit like Ableton’s Capture MIDI feature. (This is a brilliant addition – how many times have you played something great while jamming away and wished you were recording?)

On the hardware side, Svensson looks like a sturdy instrument, with a metal chassis and solid oak sides, and the interface is clean, stylish and uncluttered, in keeping with the theme of accessibility. Auxy says that particular attention was paid to the design of the speaker, crafted by Swedish speaker guru Ingvar Öhman, which is "surprisingly loud" and benefits from a bass port on the instrument’s rear.

Connectivity includes two ¼” line outputs, a 3.5mm headphone output, and a sustain pedal jack, along with USB-A and USB-C for power.

Svensson is currently in pre-production, and preorders for a first limited batch will start soon, with shipping set for early fall 2026. While a final price hasn’t yet been determined, it’s expected to be around €899/$999.

“We struggled to find products that combine ease of use, inspiring features, and a quality build,” Auxy’s Henrik Lenberg told us. “There are some great digital pianos out there, but we wanted something with more playful features, a broader range of sounds, a smaller form factor, and a design that feels at home in your living room.

“We wanted to make a great instrument for playing at home. Something that invites you to play and create in the moment. No need to read the manual or connect other gear. No menus to dive through. No modes to get stuck in. Just play, loop, and explore your musical ideas.

“A lot of music technology has been shaped around the idea that everyone can be a producer and make tracks for an audience. That’s great, but I think we’re moving in a direction where more people want to take part in music again, not only as listeners. People want to play to have fun, to be present, to learn, or to connect with others. Svensson was made for that.”

Find out more on Auxy’s website.

What is it?

Talk to any contemporary keyboard player and the chances are, they will hold an enormous amount of affection for the electro-mechanical piano known as a Rhodes. Much like conventional acoustic pianos, the Rhodes adopts a key and hammer mechanism, but instead of striking a string, the hammer strikes a thin rod, known as a tine. The tine vibrates across a pick up, producing the beautifully identifiable sound, which we intrinsically know as the sound of a Rhodes.

Of course, there’s a little more to it than than that, but as each note on the instrument requires its own set of moving parts, there's a lot going on under the hood of the instrument, although the instrument itself has significant history.

The version that we tend to think of as the original, is the Mark 1 Stage, which was originally released in 1970. Of course, there have been numerous revisions over the years, but many people still regard the Mark 1 and Mark 2 as the benchmarks, although purists will tell you why one is better than the other. That is until now, because under the direction of renowned keyboardist Dan Goldman, Rhodes is back on the block, and producing amazing hardware and software, with the pinnacle being the flagship Rhodes MK8, now complete with a full FX section and MIDI.

Performance

As any keys player of repute will tell you, the music begins with the action of the keyboard. Unlike other electronic pianistic instruments (which obviously have their benefits) the Rhodes has two aces up at sleeve. Firstly, being electro-mechanical, there is nothing quite like playing an action which offers the resistance of hammers, which is exactly what we have here. Moreover, the second ace up the sleeve is that Rhodes uses a Kluge keybed; this possibly won't mean very much, until you add that Kluge also supplies legendary piano makers, Steinway. The consequence of this is that you could effectively have a Steinway action available to you as a MIDI controller. That's insane!

Anyway, back to the action – as a playable proposition, the instrument simply draws you in, and it is beautiful to play. We were inundated with sudden interest, when the review model MK8 arrived. Suddenly, lots of our industry friends and colleagues wanted to come round for a coffee… “oh, and can we try the MK8 while we're there?”

Amp section

The instrument’s design looks entirely classic, although it has been given a thorough makeover by synth design guru, Axel Hartmann. In its most basic form, the MK8 is available in an original black Tolex style, with a black ABS top/hood. However, at the point of order, you are able to customise the instrument to your own stylings, which includes 13 different hood colours, and a bottom shell made from walnut. We’ve seen the walnut/smoked hood combo, which allows you to see the inner workings of the instrument, and it looks very nice indeed, but these customisable elements will increase the overall cost.

The MK8 still adopts an anodised silver front rail, for that original classic look, but this can also be swapped for a black front rail, at no extra cost. To the left of the rail, is the active preamp section. Much like the original Stage instrument, there are no inbuilt speakers, but you will hear the sound of the tines being struck, as you play. This is where you will need to take an output from the instrument and plug it into some form of amplification or studio monitoring. The good news is, the active preamplifier means that you get a workable signal level to use, which is also clean and pure as a bell! This does mean that the instrument requires power, unlike the original passive Rhodes Stage, but the sonic benefits are huge.

Within the preamp section, located to the left, is a wonderful ‘drive’ circuit (equipped with a basic envelope), which provides the classic distorted sound associated with many rock and fusion recordings, a parametric EQ channel and a tremolo. The Parametric provides a high and low cut/boost, with a mid range parametric, which we found to be extraordinarily useful for picking out certain bands that we wanted to highlight, particularly in the upper-mid register. Moreover, there are some alternative hidden features, available within each section, with the alt-parametric allowing an increase to the mid-frequency resonance, for getting even more squealy.

The Tremolo section is a total boon, particularly as this was never an original Stage option, being reserved for the speaker-bound Suitcase model. Rhodes has extended its tremolo’s functionality considerably, providing four different wave styles, from the original ping-pong square, to more subtle triangle & sine waves. The tremolo section, now described as Vari-Pan, also provides rate and depth control, so you can keep things subtle, unlike the original hard-panned ping-pong, which was more about on or off!

In our testing, we connected the MK8 directly to an audio interface, as well as PA speaker, and in all settings it not only sounded stunning, but provided clarity, definition and detail across all areas. The ability to fine-tune the EQ, particularly with a PA speaker in play, negated the need for an in-line mixer, which in a live scenario, is one less thing to plug in and use.

FX section

Unlike the preamp section, which is a prerequisite of the instrument, the FX panel section is an optional extra, at a cost of £1,299. This does away with the need to connect additional pedals, such as the commonly associated chorus and phaser, but being part of the instrument means that you keep away from earthing issues, not too mention the fact that the four included effects are entirely top-draw quality, and all-analogue in their makeup.

The FX signal path begins with a compressor, which we found to nicely shift from gentle to incredibly aggressive, according to your penchant and tendencies. The compressor is arguably more of a functional effect, but a mere entrée compared to what’s to follow.

The Chorus and Phaser effects are next, both offering immediate control of rate and depth. They both sound extraordinarily good, particularly the phaser, which we couldn't resist applying to every single sound that we played. Its thickening nature is sublime, and with subtle control of depth, made it possible to use very sparingly – just enough to make a difference in the mix.

All of the FX elements have their own controls, which includes an on/off button. The final effect is a delay, styled very firmly on the best tape-based vintage delays, and while it is also equipped with rotary controls for timing and feedback, a tap tempo button is a total boon for live control. It's worth noting that the performance elements have been thoroughly thought out. Deactivating the delay results in the signal decaying naturally, rather than switching off abruptly.

Of course, should you prefer to be more traditional in your effect approach, there is an effects loop, which we equally found to be perfect for connecting Small Stone phasers, and the like, but we continually found ourselves coming back to the internal FX, with their immediacies and complexities. The FX section also hosts its own set of alternative modes, for fine adjustment of compression settings or added extras like the ability to adjust phaser frequency.

Coming back to the tremolo, the Vari-Pan rate moves up into the audio spectrum, meaning that there are considerable possibilities for ‘playing’ the pan rate, while also playing the instrument itself. By combining elements such as this with other rate-based effects, the sound of the instrument moved well away from its original timbre.

You can set up a number of CV control aspects too, which logically suggests the attachment of pedals, but you could conceivably connect something Modular, for further chaos, while also connecting instruments to the FX loop input, meaning that you can send an additional instrument layer through the onboard FX channel.

Full sustain

One major improvement over the original instrument, is the total redesign of the sustain pedal. Unlike the original, which relied upon a rod from the pedal, the included sustain pedal is a robustly designed and built unit, which now relies upon a secure connection, with a cable running through it. In real terms, this means that the pedal won't fail halfway through a gig, remaining connected the entire time.

One of our favourite elements on the instrument, is the inclusion of MIDI out. Being an electro-mechanical instrument, there is no option for MIDI input, but the output (available via convention 5-pin din) opens up a number of options, both for studio and live use.

We had it connected to our computer system for a couple of weeks, and found the whole experience to be beneficial, from the perspective of playing live into the DAW. But undoubtedly, one of our favourite musical excursions, was through the connection of a Waldorf STVC – a string synth and vocoder – which allowed us to layer the Rhodes with classic string synth sounds, and even the odd vocoder patch. Ok, we’re not quite in Herbie Hancock’s musical league, but as a sonic exploration, we managed to lose ourselves for hours!

Double Rhodes

The highly regarded Rhodes app, which provides both Rhodes sounds and FX, is also a great partner for the MK8. With the ability to further layer sounds, which can become more complex within the DAW, a ‘Double-Rhodes’ can be highly productive, although we can't deny there is a strange sense of irony in doing so.

The MK8 is equipped with two sets of main output, on both XLR and 1/4” jack, and there are options for routing the signal to suit your own requirements. This could be particularly useful for live environments, but while the MK8 is lighter than the original Stage models, it still weighs 34kg, which to our minds, is not a manageable weight for an individual playing down the pub on a Saturday night. In any case, would you really want to take this beautiful instrument out to a venue such as this? No, we don't think we would, but it is certainly a prospect for a more professional gig setting, providing you have the back-lifting-power to provide porterage.

If external noise is an issue for you, a dedicated headphone output is located on the front of the instrument, just below the keyboard on the left. All the FX head to this output too, which is equipped with its own volume control.

Verdict

In an age of mass-produced consumer electronics, we have to ask ourselves where this instrument resides, as a musical proposition.

The Rhodes MK8 is a sum of parts. It is hand-assembled by people with passion for the instrument, in a new design which has looked at the flaws of the original, and made many considerable improvements. In doing so, they have also cast a musician’s and performer’s eye over the whole instrument.

The result is the Rolls-Royce of Rhodes revisions; from its immense playability, provided by the Kluge keybed, through to the extraordinary quality of the FX and clean outputted signal. It sounds like a brand-new classic Rhodes, but with plenty of capacity to extend the sonic palette to contemporary production. Like any organic and hand-crafted musical instrument, the price reflects its labour intensive build, but the payoff is an undeniable classic, for the modern age.

Hands-on demos

Rhodes Piano

Alternatives

Specifications

Welcome to MusicRadar's deals of the week, where we'll share with you the very best offers from around the web on some of our best-rated musical equipment. As the name suggests, we'll bring you a new batch of exciting discounts every week, so be sure to check back regularly to see what we've uncovered and stay ahead of the game.

We're now in the final days of Guitar Center's massive Guitar-A-Thon sale, which ends on the 29th. There’s up to 30% off thousands of items. There are hundreds slashed off everything from Fender to Gretsch, Epiphone to Taylor, and so much more. So whether you’re after a new acoustic, electric, bass, amp, or pedal, you name it, you’ll find it here.

As expected, Sweetwater's Keyboard Month Sale is still live, and again, time is running out to get involved. Korg, Yamaha, Nord, and a whole lot more are all in the mix with some genuinely great prices. Stage piano, synth, workstation, whatever you're after, it's worth a look. The music retail giant has also just kicked off a Headphone Sale this week, which is well worth a look. There are deals across Sennheiser, Kali Audio, Shure, JBL and much more.

It's worth noting that time is almost up on the Musician's Friend Spring Sale, too. With up to 60% off, the range covers pretty much everything: guitars, keys, drums, studio gear, the works. Definitely worth a browse while it's on, but be quick as it won't be available for much longer.

Editor's picks

Looking for more bargains? Check out more recommended sales below:

• Thomann: Shop hot deals
• Fender Shop: Shop discounted Strats & Teles
• IK Multimedia: Save on iRig and AXE I/O
• Plugin Boutique: Save big on plugins
• Positive Grid: Smart amp sale
• Reverb: Save big on top brands

How we choose our deals of the week

Here at MusicRadar, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing, creating and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything music gear-related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our deals.

Our mission is simple - to help you make the best buying decision, find the right gear at the right price, to make the best music you can.

For us to recommend a deal it has to be a product we rate that’s been reduced to a genuinely great price or part of a truly fantastic bundle. It’s also important that we only recommend retailers that we trust.

You can see more of our product recommendations in our buyer's guides and reviews.

Why you can trust our choices

Our editors and writers are all experienced musicians and experts in their fields. They have a deep understanding of the categories that they cover, which means that you can trust their choices when it comes to recommending products.

We pride ourselves on the independence, quality and reliability of our testing processes and the reviews it produces. It’s what has made us the world’s leading music-making publishing company. You can find more details on how we test some specific key product categories, but the principles apply across the board, rigorously assessing build quality, functionality, playability and, of course, sonic performance.

We cover a lot of the big sales events throughout the year, including Memorial Day, Black Friday, 4th of July sales and Amazon Prime Day, and we have a good view of which products are likely to receive the biggest discounts and when, the prices they’ve been in the past and which deals are genuinely worth a look.

Where are the best places to shop?

Online shopping is definitely a lot easier and more secure than it used to be, and we like to recommend a small handful of online retailers who have a sterling reputation and offer fantastic benefits like fuss-free returns, great customer service and, in some cases, full checks and setup of guitars before they are dispatched. So, all the deals we’ll recommend on this page are from retailers that tick these boxes.

What sort of deals should I look for?

Great deals come in all shapes and sizes. There are a few key types to look out for:

• Single item - A single product with a great discount
• Site-wide discounts - A single discount percentage on a large range of products across a site
• Discount codes - Load your basket to a certain value and redeem a discount code for money off your basket contents
• Added value deals - These include multi-buy discounts, or additional products or software for free when you buy certain items

Given that one plays guitar and the other piano, Mark Knopfler and Bruce Hornsby might not seem like the most obvious musical “kindred spirits”, but Hornsby says that he’s always felt a stylistic connection to the Dire Straits frontman, and one of his songs in particular.

The revelation came during an episode of the popular Track Star YouTube show, in which musicians and celebrities are played songs in their headphones and asked to name the artist.

In Hornsby’s case, one of those songs was Dire Straits’ Sultans of Swing, which he not only quickly identified, but also compared to his own signature hit.

“I love Dire Straits,” he began. “I guess I've often cited that in the sense that, on Sultans Of Swing, Mark Knopfler – who's one of the great guitarists, with his own style – he's soloing kind of all through the record. And that's what I did, too, on [The] Way It Is.”

Recorded with his band, The Range, The Way It Is was Hornsby’s biggest hit by far, and reached No 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1986. It was unusual, though, in the sense that it leaned as heavily on his piano playing as it did his vocals – just like Knopfler on Sultans Of Swing, except with a guitar instead of a piano.

“I soloed in the middle, soloed at the end,” says Hornsby. “So I call them sort of stylistic kindred spirits on pop radio, because pop radio was never about improvisation at all.”

That’s as maybe, but The Way It Is continues to be a pop radio favourite, and has been interpolated on several hits since. Of these, Hornsby says that his favourite is Tupac Shakur’s Changes, which was recorded in 1992 and released in 1998, two years after his death.

“About a year after he'd [Tupac] been assassinated, out of the blue, I got a cassette in the mail of this song. They found it in his posthumous files. They send it to me, mostly to start the negotiations about publishing splits. And then a year and a half later it came out.”

It might be one of her signature songs, but Bonnie Raitt says that her 1991 hit, I Can’t Make You Love Me, wouldn’t have been the musical gut punch that it is without Bruce Hornsby’s piano playing.

Written by Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin, I Can’t Make You Love Me wasn’t a song that grabbed Raitt immediately. “I sent it to Bonnie and she didn’t jump up and down and say ‘oh my God!’, you know?” Reid told Top 2000 a gogo. “She didn’t do that - she called me and we talked and she said ‘would you mind letting me live with this?’ And then eventually she listened and got the song and so we just happened to have the perfect singer at that time.”

And, in the end, the perfect piano player. Speaking to The New York Times in a new profile of Hornsby – his new album, Indigo Park, is set for release on 3 April – Raitt says: “I think he made all the difference. The reason that song is the heartbreaker it is, is because of the way that he interprets those chords. That’s not how the demo sounded. Even in the intro alone, it already breaks your heart.”

We agree wholeheartedly but, according to Mike Reid, who played piano on that demo, it might not have ended up this way. He says that Don Was, who produced the song with Raitt, later told him that the recording of Hornsby’s part had its moments of tension.

“Bruce would play it and Bonnie would say ‘no, listen to the demo again,’” says Reid. “And Bruce was just very - this is the story I got from Don - resistant. And Don said ‘no, no, no: Bruce, listen to the demo’. And finally he said, ‘why don’t you get him [Reid] out here?’ and left the studio.

“And then he cooled - cooler heads prevailed - and he came back and made it. It’s essentially the [piano] line that we wrote, but he made it Bruce Hornsby. He made it his.”

Indeed he did, and the song itself has become a modern standard, covered by everyone from George Michael and Prince to Adele and Bon Iver.

The combination of Raitt and Hornsby brought a special kind of magic, though, as witnessed at the 1992 Grammy Awards, when the two of them performed it together.

What's more, the two are still collaborating: Raitt features on Ecstatic, a new Hornsby song that's included on Indigo Park.

Well, it's officially spring, and Amazon is celebrating with its Big Spring Sale. Over the next few days, we'll see prices slashed on everything from smart devices and TVs to toys, and, of course, musical instruments. Now, in previous years, I've felt let down by the offerings for piano players, but that certainly isn't the case for 2026.

I've searched through the full sale and uncovered enticing discounts on everything from digital pianos to synths, beginner keyboards, MIDI controllers, and more.

Prices range from a couple of hundred dollars to thousands of dollars, so there are potentially massive savings to be had.

Shop the full Amazon Big Spring Sale

Reading from the UK or EU?

Now, before I worked at MusicRadar, writing about music gear for a living, I used to sell pianos and keyboards in a busy music store. So, I’ve used my background in music retail to come up with my pick of the very best piano deals from across these mammoth sales.

Below, you’ll find my expert choices from various price categories and styles. Whether you’re a beginner looking for your first keyboard or an experienced player seeking a much-needed upgrade, you’ll find it here.

You'll want to hurry, though, as some of these offers are ending today, so don't delay if you spot something you like!

Should you buy a piano or keyboard in the Amazon sale?

Okay, so the Big Spring Sale isn't the biggest sales event of the year, but it still sees hearty discounts on everything from consumer tech, such as phones and laptops, to fashion, home furnishings and, more importantly, musical instruments!

I have been covering this sales event for several years, so I have a fair idea of what to expect, and I can say with confidence that you should most definitely be thinking about making your piano purchase around this time. If you can't wait until Black Friday, near the end of year, then now is probably the best time to grab a bargain.

Should you order a piano online?

While I fully understand the hesitation about ordering a piano online, the reality is, it couldn’t be easier to get your dream instrument delivered directly to your door. In our guide to ordering a piano online, I talk you through what to expect when you buy an instrument on a website, things to look out for, and give you helpful tips on finding the best piano for you.

Of course, it's good practice to go to a store and get hands-on experience with a product, but I'm fully aware that sometimes it just isn’t possible. You may not have a local dealer that stocks the piano you are looking for, you may not be mobile enough to get out and about, or you may feel intimidated walking into a bustling music store.

Just remember to discuss the delivery options with the store you are ordering from and make sure you've made space for your new piano well in advance of its arrival. Also, the piano is going to arrive disassembled, so be prepared to build it.

Shop more piano-related sales

• Guitar Center: Latest keyboard deals
• Sweetwater: Keyboard & piano offers
• Thomann: Shop hot deals on everything
• Musician's Friend: Serious keys-related discounts

Welcome to MusicRadar's deals of the week, where we'll share with you the very best offers from around the web on some of our best-rated musical equipment. As the name suggests, we'll bring you a new batch of exciting discounts every week, so be sure to check back regularly to see what we've uncovered and stay ahead of the game.

Now, if you follow us from week to week, you'll know that Sweetwater is running a month-long promotion on live sound gear, with up to 35% off everything from speakers to mixing desks. And it appears Guitar Center want in on that action too, with up to $500 off live sound systems from now until the 31st of March. From speakers to mics, wireless systems, and cables, you’ll find everything you need to perform live.

Moving on to deals for our UK readers, and with massive discounts on guitars, drums, studio gear, keyboards, and loads more, the Thomann Spring Sale is the place to bag yourself a deal on something that will inspire your music-making throughout the rest of the year.

With discounts on brands like Gibson, Fender, Universal Audio, Zoom, Soma, and many more, it’s easily one of the biggest and best sales of the year so far.

Editor's picks

Looking for more bargains? Check out more recommended sales below:

• Thomann: Shop hot deals
• Fender Shop: Shop discounted Strats & Teles
• IK Multimedia: Save on iRig and AXE I/O
• Plugin Boutique: Save big on plugins
• Positive Grid: Smart amp sale
• Reverb: Save big on top brands

How we choose our deals of the week

Here at MusicRadar, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing, creating and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything music gear-related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our deals.

Our mission is simple - to help you make the best buying decision, find the right gear at the right price, to make the best music you can.

For us to recommend a deal it has to be a product we rate that’s been reduced to a genuinely great price or part of a truly fantastic bundle. It’s also important that we only recommend retailers that we trust.

You can see more of our product recommendations in our buyer's guides and reviews.

Why you can trust our choices

Our editors and writers are all experienced musicians and experts in their fields. They have a deep understanding of the categories that they cover, which means that you can trust their choices when it comes to recommending products.

We pride ourselves on the independence, quality and reliability of our testing processes and the reviews it produces. It’s what has made us the world’s leading music-making publishing company. You can find more details on how we test some specific key product categories, but the principles apply across the board, rigorously assessing build quality, functionality, playability and, of course, sonic performance.

We cover a lot of the big sales events throughout the year, including Memorial Day, Black Friday, 4th of July sales and Amazon Prime Day, and we have a good view of which products are likely to receive the biggest discounts and when, the prices they’ve been in the past and which deals are genuinely worth a look.

Where are the best places to shop?

Online shopping is definitely a lot easier and more secure than it used to be, and we like to recommend a small handful of online retailers who have a sterling reputation and offer fantastic benefits like fuss-free returns, great customer service and, in some cases, full checks and setup of guitars before they are dispatched. So, all the deals we’ll recommend on this page are from retailers that tick these boxes.

What sort of deals should I look for?

Great deals come in all shapes and sizes. There are a few key types to look out for:

• Single item - A single product with a great discount
• Site-wide discounts - A single discount percentage on a large range of products across a site
• Discount codes - Load your basket to a certain value and redeem a discount code for money off your basket contents
• Added value deals - These include multi-buy discounts, or additional products or software for free when you buy certain items

The further the initial impact of the Beatles recedes into history, the higher the prices for Fabs-related memorabilia rise. In the past week we’ve seen a piano that was once used by John Lennon fetched a record-breaking £2.5 million ($3.2 million).

That’s the most for any piece of Beatles-related memorabilia. But then it was the Broadwood upright piano that Lennon used to compose a number of songs for Sgt Pepper, including Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Being For The Benefit Of Mister Kite! and his section of A Day In The Life.

The piano was sold at Christie’s in New York as part of the Jim Irsay Collection, a group of items that belonged to the billionaire, who owned the American football franchise Indianapolis Colts until he died last year.

Irsay also owned a Ludwig drum kit that Ringo Starr had used both in the studio and live between May 1963 and 1964 – it was the kit he played when the Beatles appeared on the history-making Ed Sullivan show in February ‘64. That went for $2.4 million in the Christie’s auction and a drum head from Ringo’s next Ludwig kit sold for even more: $2.9 million.

However, the highest price at the auction went to an instrument with no connection to the Beatles (not directly, anyway). This was David Gilmour’s Black Strat which went for a whopping £11 million, thus becoming the most expensive guitar ever sold at an auction. Meanwhile, a Fender Mustang that Kurt Cobain used in the iconic Smells Like Teen Spirit video fetched more than £5.2 million.

In a statement, Julien Pradels, the president of Christie's Americas, said: "Lot after lot, we felt like we were making history."

"The Irsay sale did justice to the brilliance of the collector, and the monumental pieces he brought together - iconic objects that tell the story of our culture and our times."

Welcome to MusicRadar's deals of the week, where we'll share with you the very best offers from around the web on some of our best-rated musical equipment. As the name suggests, we'll bring you a new batch of exciting discounts every week, so be sure to check back regularly to see what we've uncovered and stay ahead of the game.

Well, this week, Guitar Center is continuing to make some noise with its Big Bang Sale. This is one for all the drummers. Right now, you can score up to 25% off everything from cymbals to accessories, or even treat yourself to a shiny new kit. But they've also added $200 off select Fender models so that guitar players don't feel left out.

Now, is your band finally ready to take to the stage and get your music out there? Well, you're going to need to invest in some quality live sound equipment. Luckily, you'll be able to hit the road running, as Sweetwater is currently offering up to 35% off a range of live sound equipment. From speakers to mics, wireless systems, and mixers, you'll find discounts on everything you need to perform live.

Meanwhile, Musician’s Friend has kicked off the Guitar Fest Sale, which sees up to 40% off a massive range of gear. From Epiphone to PRS, Music Man to Gretsch, and so much more, all the big guns are included.

Editor's picks

Looking for more bargains? Check out more recommended sales below:

• Thomann: Shop hot deals
• Fender Shop: Shop discounted Strats & Teles
• IK Multimedia: Save on iRig and AXE I/O
• Plugin Boutique: Save big on plugins
• Positive Grid: Smart amp sale
• Reverb: Save big on top brands

How we choose our deals of the week

Here at MusicRadar, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing, creating and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything music gear-related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our deals.

Our mission is simple - to help you make the best buying decision, find the right gear at the right price, to make the best music you can.

For us to recommend a deal it has to be a product we rate that’s been reduced to a genuinely great price or part of a truly fantastic bundle. It’s also important that we only recommend retailers that we trust.

You can see more of our product recommendations in our buyer's guides and reviews.

Why you can trust our choices

Our editors and writers are all experienced musicians and experts in their fields. They have a deep understanding of the categories that they cover, which means that you can trust their choices when it comes to recommending products.

We pride ourselves on the independence, quality and reliability of our testing processes and the reviews it produces. It’s what has made us the world’s leading music-making publishing company. You can find more details on how we test some specific key product categories, but the principles apply across the board, rigorously assessing build quality, functionality, playability and, of course, sonic performance.

We cover a lot of the big sales events throughout the year, including Memorial Day, Black Friday, 4th of July sales and Amazon Prime Day, and we have a good view of which products are likely to receive the biggest discounts and when, the prices they’ve been in the past and which deals are genuinely worth a look.

Where are the best places to shop?

Online shopping is definitely a lot easier and more secure than it used to be, and we like to recommend a small handful of online retailers who have a sterling reputation and offer fantastic benefits like fuss-free returns, great customer service and, in some cases, full checks and setup of guitars before they are dispatched. So, all the deals we’ll recommend on this page are from retailers that tick these boxes.

What sort of deals should I look for?

Great deals come in all shapes and sizes. There are a few key types to look out for:

• Single item - A single product with a great discount
• Site-wide discounts - A single discount percentage on a large range of products across a site
• Discount codes - Load your basket to a certain value and redeem a discount code for money off your basket contents
• Added value deals - These include multi-buy discounts, or additional products or software for free when you buy certain items

Italian brand Frap Tools is known in the modular realm for its range of Eurorack gear, which centres around a collection of West Coast-inspired modules that balance gnarly sonics with neatly-labelled, stylish user interfaces.

Now the company is taking an ambitious step up with the launch of Magnolia, its debut analogue polysynth. The sleek-looking Magnolia takes a variety of the concepts Frap Tools has previously explored in its individual modules and combines them in a self-contained instrument equipped with a poly aftertouch keyboard.

According the company's announcement, "Inside [Magnolia] we put all of our most iconic analogue sounds: searing wavefolders, screaming filters, sweeping flip sync and, most importantly, through-zero linear FM."

The synth features eight analogue voices, each with two oscillators arranged in a modulator-carrier relationship. This set-up makes use of through-zero FM, a variation on the style of frequency modulation usually found in analogue synths that allows for a more natural and musical sound.

According to Frap Tools, these oscillators take inspiration from both West Coast synth design – in the vein of brands like Buchla and Serge – and more common East Coast elements. The first of the two oscillators is described as being the West Coast one, including a wavefolder and flip sync capabilities, while the second offers East Coast tools like pulse width modulation and fine tune.

Each voice also goes through a dual low- and high-pass filter setup. Each of these filters is 24db with adjustable resonance, and can be modulated at audio rates for further FM possibilities.

Given the emphasis on modulation, it’s unsurprising that Magnolia sports an easy-to-use mod routing system that allows users to assign destinations at the touch of a button and toggle modulation on and off.

Alongside its three LFOs and three envelopes, modulation is provided by Magnolia's Polymove function, a randomization generator that creates a random control signal for every voice and every destination within that voice.

For further expressive capabilities, the synth comes attached to a Fatar keybed with routable polyphonic aftertouch.

Magnolia is bi-timbral, with single, dual, split and morph modes, and features a per-part arpeggiator and per-part 16 step sequencer. On the effects front, multiple flavours of digital chorus and delay are available alongside stereo analogue distortion on the output.

In all, it looks like a lot of synth power in a single package, and has the potential to offer something quite unique against the backdrop of the current polysynth market.

If it all sounds somewhat complex, rest assured, Frap Tools claim Magnolia is an "analogue FM synth that's actually fun to play", where you can "forget about operators and just have fun exploring".

Magnolia is priced at £3699/€4199.

Find out more on Frap Tools' website.

What is it?

Arturia’s KeyStep range is a line of controller keyboards with a step-sequencer focus, and the new KeyStep 37 mk2 is the latest model. Offering a more performance-focused alternative to their KeyLab controller keyboards, the KeyStep devices are designed for use in both standalone and DAW-based setups.

Although visually similar to the KeyLab controllers, closer inspection reveals a bunch of features aimed at sequence creation. Meanwhile, on the back, support for CV, MIDI and USB formats means you’re all set to simultaneously control multiple types of devices.

Let’s take a look at the layout. The KeyStep 37 mk2 is built around a quality slimline keybed with velocity and aftertouch. On the left-hand side, you get ribbon-style modulation and pitch bend alongside octave shift and note Hold. A further blue Shift button provides additional functionality.

The top panel, which has been considerably reworked since the previous version, is centred on a mini OLED screen with push button rotary encoder. You’ll find various RGB backlit buttons on either side of the screen, and 4 rotary encoders on the right. Meanwhile, a line of 39 note-indicating LEDs accompanies the keys.

Back panel connectivity includes MIDI in and out, 4 CV outputs (pitch, gate, mod1 and mod2), pulse synchronisation (in and out), USB-C, sustain pedal input and on/off switch. Power is provided either via your USB-C connection or by using a regular USB-C power supply (this needs to provide 5V at 100mA). Alas, there’s no included PSU, but you do get a rather nice 2m Arturia-branded USB-A to USB-C cable.

Also included are licences for Ableton Live Lite and Arturia’s Analog Lab Intro instrument. Overall product management and activation is handled using Arturia Software Centre, and firmware upgrades and many device parameters can be set using Arturia’s MIDI Control Centre desktop app.

Performance

Much like its predecessor, KeyStep 37 mk2 is a single-track sequencer with step and real-time options and sequence and arpeggiator modes. However, with the removal of the physical arp and sequencer knobs, from an operational perspective, things have changed quite a bit. Now, buttons work alongside the OLED-based menu, which provides access to both settings and real-time parameter feedback. Meanwhile, holding down some buttons gains access to secondary functions. Global functions such as clock and transport mode (main/secondary) are now menu settings rather than real panel dip switches. Impressively, the 4 rotary encoders work with both the MIDI CC and Control buttons.

For MIDI CC output, the encoders have 4 banks, cycled through using the MIDI CC button. The Control button provides quick encoder access to parameters for the Sequence, Arp, Mutate and Chord modes once they are selected. The Shift button adds a further layer of settings and options across all the buttons, keyboard keys and rotary encoders. Thankfully, labelling is good and coupled with the OLED feedback and task-specific RGB button backlighting, it’s pretty easy to see what’s happening.

Much like the latest KeyStep mk2, the KeyStep 37 mk2 has some excellent creative features that help you enhance and manipulate patterns. For example, the Shift button, combined with the pitch and modulation ribbons, accesses the Gate and Spice features, respectively. The latter adds pattern variation with an optional dice feature (3 taps of the modulation strip) for randomisation of the outcome. However, of most interest is the Mutate feature, which is based on Arturia’s Minifreak option.

Designed to add a degree of musical randomness, it affects note length, swing, pitch and polyphony and can be applied repeatedly to sequences and arpeggios, but also completely reset back to the starting point. On the KeyStep 37 mk2 Mutate has extended functionality via the 4 encoders, allowing you to set parameters to influence the outcome. These vary slightly depending on which arp or sequence mode you’re using, but in essence, you have control over things such as probability, randomness, polyphony and density.

Verdict

The KeyStep 37 mk2, much like its smaller sibling, is an excellent upgrade and great fun to use. If you can afford the extra spend, the new encoders and particularly their excellent implementation make this the more desirable unit.

Hands-on demos

Arturia

Alternatives

Specifications

Welcome to MusicRadar's deals of the week! Get ready to dive into a treasure trove of fantastic offers on top-rated musical gear from across the internet. We curate a fresh batch of jaw-dropping discounts every week, so be sure to swing by regularly to catch the latest steals.

Well, it’s time for another round of MusicRadar’s deals of the week, and blimey, have the retailers been busy this week! Whether you’re after a shiny new axe, some studio gadgets, or just fancy treating yourself to that pedal you’ve been eyeing up, there’s something tasty cooking at all the big players.

Guitar Center is still going hard with their winter clearance sale, slashing prices across guitars, amps, and effects. With up to 30% off, we’re talking proper savings on Fender Player Series Strats, the ever-popular PRS SE models, and some cracking deals on practice amps that won’t wake the neighbours. If you’ve been holding off on upgrading your rig, now’s the time to pounce - but be warned, the sale does end on Wednesday, the 11th of February.

Over at Sweetwater, they’re doing what they do best – massive discounts with that legendary customer service thrown in for good measure. Their “You Deserve a New Guitar” sale offers genuinely eye-watering price drops on models from Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, Martin, Taylor, and so much more.

Meanwhile, across the pond, Thomann’s serving up their usual treasure trove of bargains for our European mates. They don't have a specific sale as such, but the Harley Benton range offers ridiculous value alongside the big-name brands, so it’s worth starting there if you’re on the hunt for an affordable new six-string.

Editor's picks

Looking for more bargains? Check out more recommended sales below:

• Amazon: Money off accessories
• Fender Play: 50% off annual
• Fender store: Save big Fender
• Gear4Music: Clearance deals
• Guitar Center: Save on guitars & more
• Guitar Tricks: 1 month just $1
• IK Multimedia: $200 off Tonex Max
• Musician's Friend: Shop the BF Sale!
• Plugin Boutique: Money off plugins
• Positive Grid: Save on Spark
• Reverb: Save on used gear
• Sweetwater: Epic deals
• Thomann: Last-minute deals
• TrueFire: Save 60% on lessons
• Waves: Buy two get one free

How we choose our deals of the week

Here at MusicRadar, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing, creating and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything music gear-related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our deals.

Our mission is simple - to help you make the best buying decision, find the right gear at the right price, to make the best music you can.

For us to recommend a deal it has to be a product we rate that’s been reduced to a genuinely great price or part of a truly fantastic bundle. It’s also important that we only recommend retailers that we trust.

You can see more of our product recommendations in our buyer's guides and reviews.

Why you can trust our choices

Our editors and writers are all experienced musicians and experts in their fields. They have a deep understanding of the categories that they cover, which means that you can trust their choices when it comes to recommending products.

We pride ourselves on the independence, quality and reliability of our testing processes and the reviews it produces. It’s what has made us the world’s leading music-making publishing company. You can find more details on how we test some specific key product categories, but the principles apply across the board, rigorously assessing build quality, functionality, playability and, of course, sonic performance.

We cover a lot of the big sales events throughout the year, including Memorial Day, Black Friday, 4th of July sales and Amazon Prime Day, and we have a good view of which products are likely to receive the biggest discounts and when, the prices they’ve been in the past and which deals are genuinely worth a look.

Where are the best places to shop?

Online shopping is definitely a lot easier and more secure than it used to be, and we like to recommend a small handful of online retailers who have a sterling reputation and offer fantastic benefits like fuss-free returns, great customer service and, in some cases, full checks and setup of guitars before they are dispatched. So, all the deals we’ll recommend on this page are from retailers that tick these boxes.

What sort of deals should I look for?

Great deals come in all shapes and sizes. There are a few key types to look out for:

• Single item - A single product with a great discount
• Site-wide discounts - A single discount percentage on a large range of products across a site
• Discount codes - Load your basket to a certain value and redeem a discount code for money off your basket contents
• Added value deals - These include multi-buy discounts, or additional products or software for free when you buy certain items

NAMM 2026 was absolutely dominated by AI-discourse. There were many eager music tech companies looking for new ways to incorporate the alleged world-changing potential of it. Then, there were those generative AI-oriented outfits trepidatiously floating around the show, subtly attempting to integrate themselves within a cautious industry.

While AI is, of course, a broad topic, a widespread perception for many in the music-making sphere is that AI is an existentially damaging force. What's more, is a pervading feeling that this disruptive new power should not be engaged with in any capacity.

It’s a view largely fostered by the rejection of copyright-infringing, generative AI-platforms, evolving into a mass lumping-in of anything labelled with those two little letters as aspects of the same malevolent entity. Even the stuff that may actually be pretty useful, is frequently tarred with the brush.

We were intrigued then, when we were personally invited at the show to check out a markedly different kind of AI-driven product. Allegedly designed to help human users become better musicians, this new product sought to arm piano and keyboard-leaners, and not replace any part of the human-instrument relationship.

In fact, this new tool - designed by Seaboard and Equator-maker ROLI, is entirely built around tightening that bond.

Ostensibly a smart AI piano teacher with a difference, we were told that this intelligent educational software monitors every nuance of the user’s playing, and verbally guides with smart, tailored feedback, angled at improving playing ability over time.

ROLI's AI Music Coach works in tandem with ROLI’s Airwave hand-tracking device to monitor all 27 joints in each hand, which are visualised on-screen at 90 frames per second.

It also works particularly well with ROLI’s vividly-coloured Piano to guide users through a range of colour-labelled exercises and challenges. Hand placement on the keybed is depicted on the screen in realtime, while the interface is entirely speech-based.

As we sat down in ROLI’s refreshingly quiet, dimly-lit (but aesthetically on-point) demo room, CEO Roland Lamb positioned this writer in front of the software, and willed me to explain to the new software who I was, my piano ability-level, and to choose a genre to angle the lessons around.

After communicating that I was more of a 17-takes kind of guy, my first test was to try and match the vocal melody of Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy, depicted on screen as a series of coloured blocks falling down into place over the respective piano keys, with my jittery hands visualised in real-time by Airwave, illuminating which finger should be on which key.

A few quite surprisingly stern responses were issued my way when the concept of an index finger mysteriously vanished from my head - but as Roland explained, this software replicates a real teacher - and evenly balances the fun with the firm.

“The sweet spot is a place where it's not too easy, it's not too hard.” Lamb told me. “You're being challenged in the right way and you're being encouraged, and it's like if you're being challenged too much and not encouraged enough, it doesn't work. In the same way, [it doesn't work] if you're being encouraged too much and not challenged enough.”

A polite way of saying my own playing needed a fair bit of challenging…

Once I managed to snap into gear with the required rhythm, I realised that this particular song-learning aspect was starting to rekindle dim memories of the era of Guitar Hero, albeit with a discerning brain behind the scenes keeping a watchful eye on what I was doing (and I'm not talking about Roland…)

Eventually expanding into chords and more nuanced polyphonic melodies felt like a dopamine-triggering challenge.

As Roland explained, this ‘gamification’ of the learning process has been carefully designed by ROLI to help those who are practicing on their own to improve their technique on a daily basis, merging discipline and play to alleviate the feeling of it becoming a tedious slog. A particular concern for young people just starting out in their journey.

“Lots of people have a certain amount of fear of piano lessons - a fear of failure,” Roland explained. “This kind of takes it away because it's friendly and you can do it on demand. And so there's a lot of ways in which the usability and convenience of a system like this will just help people get started.”

As Lamb continued, he explained how AI Music Coach can generate a personalised lesson plan, as it gathers data on your approach. “It can instantly generate new lessons and new feedback based on what you're learning or your level.”

That’s certainly something I noticed during my initial test as the piano speed smartly slowed down before gradually increasing as I got the hang of it.

Beyond learning particular popular songs, and leaning futher into the ‘gamification’ concept, we were shown one of the the platform’s on-board games, Superluminal - an Asteroids-style video game spin on piano teaching. It began by firing increasingly rapid single notes - which could only be ‘shot down’ by hitting the matching coloured key.

Ultimately, this became dual notes and chords. If the basic song-learning approach got the dopamine trickling then this was akin to a tidal wave. Built with the addictive ethos of a classic arcade game, the instantly absorbing nature of the experience was gradually achieving that age-old trick; teaching without the student even realising they're being taught.

The clear objective here is to facilitate the brain-mapping of the piano keyboard (and the linked notes of a key) via this atypical, addictively fun context, and not through hours of joyless repetition.

“You chose to play that game in C major,” Roland points out. “Maybe if you were working on [learning] a song, you know, in G flat, [AI Music Coach] would be like, ‘Why don't you play that in G flat’, so that you're learning more.”

“Or it might notice that you often make mistakes when it comes to your ring finger,” Roland continued. “A lot of people do, [it’s] the hardest finger to control. So, it might suggest an exercise to build strength or dexterity in your ring finger. It’s going to become incredibly targeted, and it will have insights that real human teachers can't have because they don't see.”

Roland went on to show us another facet of AI Music Coach, a more classically-angled view which guides the player through virtual sheet music.

“I’m a jazz musician, and I'm learning how to read music,” said Lamb. “This is really helpful for learning; I can choose different sections, it can help me adjust to the speed. We think that that is a really nice thing, because it can just work at so many different levels of the music-learning journey. There's a lot of conversations about AI, and particularly sort of [generative] AI for music. but we think this is the sort of best and first example of using AI for human interaction, teaching and learning in music.”

That leads us onto the potentially provocative elephant in the room; the fact that in 2026, the denial of AI-infused products as a matter of principle might scare away potential customers. Did Roland and ROLI contend with that concern when developing AI Music Coach?

“I'm not worried about it,” replied Roland. “But, I totally understand it. Here at ROLI, my philosophy is that AI and technology can be powerful as long as you use it in the right way, and our mission is to use AI to enhance the humanity of humanity. AI can actually help us to be more human by doing things like teaching us the piano and giving access to people who either don't live near a teacher, can't find one or can't afford one.”

Roland stressed that this product is not just for people who can't access a teacher. It's also for people who already have a teacher and want extra tuition between lessons.

“Often practicing is lonely and you're not sure if you're doing it right. I like to think that when you're practicing, you kind of are the teacher and the student at the same time. You have to impose discipline on yourself which is very difficult, because you don't necessarily even have enough information. It’s actually that relationship between being the teacher and the student at the same time that makes a lot of people give up. What [AI Music Coach] is doing is delegating the teaching or coaching function to the AI, and then you can just focus on learning, which is where you should be when you're learning. I think it's a much more efficient model.”

While our time with AI Music Coach was somewhat brief, it was pretty apparent that this hyper-engaging way of getting to grips with a keyboard certainly feels like it could be a satisfying antidote to the often daunting formality of traditional piano lessons.

However, the software - slated for release in the Spring - isn’t quite fully ready-to-go yet…

In our demo there were a handful of technical gremlins - including a slight crash requiring a restart, a mis-hearing of my name and the voice recognition software interpreting my Northern English accent as being Welsh-language (although to be fair, it later made up for this in having no problem swiftly adjusting to Lamb’s pivot from English to Japanese).

These hiccups aside, ROLI’s attempt to redefine AI and re-contextualise it is an educational aid is certainly refreshing. A proudly AI-labelled product that is centred around empowering newcomers to improve their own abilities is an ambition that’s hard to sniff at.

In a more formal statement, released via ROLI’s press team, Lamb was quoted as saying, “We are so excited about this breakthrough in music learning. The combination of hand tracking, advanced voice capabilities, deep musical knowledge, and a range of engaging experiences results in an entirely new type of practice. It’s more fun, but also more effective, because the AI Coach can give you feedback on your technique. And anyone can use it. You don’t need to be able to read music to learn, you don’t even need to be able to read. We think this is an important human-first use of AI. No AI slop.”

ROLI told us that the closed beta of the AI Music Coach opens today, with current Airwave learners eligible to sign up, along with Airwave preorders as they are activated.

A public beta will open by the end of March 2026, with usage limits still to be determined. The company is keen to emphasise that the AI Music Coach will be a cornerstone of its ongoing learning-angled experience. We’ll report back with more info when we have it. Find out more info here

We’re aware that movie action heroes tend to have ‘very particular’ sets of skills, but we never expected to be watching a trailer for a film in which the lead character - one who gets drawn into the murky world of organised crime - is… a piano tuner.

Tuner is that film, though. It stars rising (risen?) British actor Leo Woodall as Niki White, a young piano tuner who’s mentored by Harry Horowitz, played by Hollywood legend Dustin Hoffman.

It turns out that Niki has a hearing condition that not only makes him good at tuning pianos, but also identifying chords and intervals. He appears to be some kind of music theory savant with perfect pitch, but also suffers from hyperacusis, which makes him “allergic to loud noises” and may have been the reason why his virtuoso playing career was curtailed.

But is there a danger that nefarious thieves could exploit Niki and his talent and make him use it to do bad things? It seems that there is, because - according to the film’s blurb - the young man’s “heightened sense of hearing draws the attention of criminals, who see his talents as useful for opening safes as for tuning Steinways.”

Why would innocent young Niki do such a thing, though? Well, the trailer indicates that the motivation for his inevitable turn to the dark side is a need to pay an ailing Harry’s medical bills.

To make matters worse, it looks like he ends up dragging composition student Ruthie (played by Havana Rose Liu) into his increasingly fraught double life, putting her in danger, too. “I’m just a piano tuner, man” he says at one point, presumably as he’s starting to realise that he’s in way over his head.

It might sound like a preposterous pitch but, given the high quality of the cast and the fact that it’s co-written and directed by Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Daniel Roher, Tuner might just be a perfect one.

Explaining his decision to make the piano the focus of the movie to Deadline Hollywood, Roher said: "The piano is an infinite universe of possibility. I wanted to write a film that put as much emphasis on the sound and the auditory experience as the images and the visuals."

Early reviews have been promising, but we’ll have to wait until May, when the film is released, to make a judgement of our own.

NAMM 2026: Founded back in 1982, Kurzweil is a company that’s shown itself to have some serious staying power, still releasing pro and home keyboards into a very competitive market. The SP8, its latest offering, is designed for performers - but to simply call it a ‘stage piano’ would be to do it a disservice.

That’s because, as well as offering the piano tones you’d expect - not to mention organ modelling - the KS8 is also a 6-operator FM synth. There are vector synthesis waveforms, too, and Kurzweil has included sounds from previous instruments such as the K2700, K2088/61 and PC4.

In fact, there are more than 1,000 factory programs in total, spread across 10 categories, which equates to around 2GB worth of content. 200 factory multis make use of the SP8’s split and layering capabilities, and there are assignable knobs and buttons.

Up front, there’s an 88-note hammer-action keyboard, with pitch and mod wheels at the top left.

The SP8’s styling is pretty conservative - this is a keyboard that says ‘I’m here to do a job so let’s get on with it’ - but it looks reassuringly durable and “promises rock-solid reliability”.

And that’s what you really want in a stage keyboard. More details on the SP8 will be released soon, but preliminary specs are available on the Kurzweil website.

Welcome to MusicRadar's deals of the week! Get ready to dive into a treasure trove of fantastic offers on top-rated musical gear from across the internet. We curate a fresh batch of jaw-dropping discounts every week, so be sure to swing by regularly to catch the latest steals.

Guitar Center is kicking things off with up to 30% off in the "stay inspired" sale – and yes, that includes guitars, keyboards, interfaces, and so much more. Whether you’re after a new six-string, looking to upgrade your studio, or finally nab that PA speaker you need to sound better live, there’s bound to be something worth checking out.

Over at Sweetwater, the January clearance sale continues, offering discounts of up to 50% on a wide range of gear. It’s the perfect opportunity to snag some quality kit without completely decimating your bank account - but be quick, as it is ending soon.

Making our way over to Musician’s Friend reveals a generous up to 40% off in the Winter Sale. This massive sale has everything from up to $799 off electric guitars to up to $1,000 off keyboards and so much more.

Editor's picks

Looking for more bargains? Check out more recommended sales below:

• Amazon: Money off accessories
• Fender Play: 50% off annual
• Fender store: Save big Fender
• Gear4Music: Clearance deals
• Guitar Center: Save on guitars & more
• Guitar Tricks: 1 month just $1
• IK Multimedia: $200 off Tonex Max
• Musician's Friend: Shop the BF Sale!
• Plugin Boutique: Money off plugins
• Positive Grid: Save on Spark
• Reverb: Save on used gear
• Sweetwater: Epic deals
• Thomann: Last-minute deals
• TrueFire: Save 60% on lessons
• Waves: Buy two get one free

How we choose our deals of the week

Here at MusicRadar, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing, creating and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything music gear-related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our deals.

Our mission is simple - to help you make the best buying decision, find the right gear at the right price, to make the best music you can.

For us to recommend a deal it has to be a product we rate that’s been reduced to a genuinely great price or part of a truly fantastic bundle. It’s also important that we only recommend retailers that we trust.

You can see more of our product recommendations in our buyer's guides and reviews.

Why you can trust our choices

Our editors and writers are all experienced musicians and experts in their fields. They have a deep understanding of the categories that they cover, which means that you can trust their choices when it comes to recommending products.

We pride ourselves on the independence, quality and reliability of our testing processes and the reviews it produces. It’s what has made us the world’s leading music-making publishing company. You can find more details on how we test some specific key product categories, but the principles apply across the board, rigorously assessing build quality, functionality, playability and, of course, sonic performance.

We cover a lot of the big sales events throughout the year, including Memorial Day, Black Friday, 4th of July sales and Amazon Prime Day, and we have a good view of which products are likely to receive the biggest discounts and when, the prices they’ve been in the past and which deals are genuinely worth a look.

Where are the best places to shop?

Online shopping is definitely a lot easier and more secure than it used to be, and we like to recommend a small handful of online retailers who have a sterling reputation and offer fantastic benefits like fuss-free returns, great customer service and, in some cases, full checks and setup of guitars before they are dispatched. So, all the deals we’ll recommend on this page are from retailers that tick these boxes.

What sort of deals should I look for?

Great deals come in all shapes and sizes. There are a few key types to look out for:

• Single item - A single product with a great discount
• Site-wide discounts - A single discount percentage on a large range of products across a site
• Discount codes - Load your basket to a certain value and redeem a discount code for money off your basket contents
• Added value deals - These include multi-buy discounts, or additional products or software for free when you buy certain items

NAMM 2026: Clavia has announced the release of Nord Electro 7, bringing a fully-fledged Synth Section, redesigned interface, and dedicated per-section effects processing to the next generation of this long-established stage keyboard, along with many more enhancements.

Nord Electro 7 is the successor to Electro 6, announced at NAMM 2018, building on the foundations of that instrument to create a keyboard Nord tells us is the most versatile model in the Electro line to date. On first glance you'll notice that Electro 7 has been given a visual refresh, sporting a redesigned front panel with push encoders and a high-resolution colour display.

Perhaps the most significant addition to Electro 7 is the new Synth Section, which augments Electro 6's sample-based synthesis with a virtual analogue synth engine and basic FM capabilities. You get mono, legato and glide modes for expressive performance, dual ADR envelopes for amp, filter and FM amount, vibrato and a resonant low-pass filter.

This is joined by an improved Organ Section based on the Nord Organ 3, released at NAMM 2025, boasting authentic emulations of classic pipe, tonewheel and transistor organs along with a sophisticated rotary speaker effect with multiple mic placements. All Electro 7 models now feature physical drawbars with LED indicators for organ control.

Nord Electro 7's Piano Section draws on an extensive library of grands, uprights, and electric pianos, and has been bolstered by a new compression effect for dynamic shaping, improved timbral editing capabilities and three-voice unison.

The keyboard's Effect Section has been given a significant refresh, and each sound section now has its own effects chain with independent control. Effects onboard include a global reverb with spring, room, stage, hall and cathedral options and a delay with ping-pong, filtering and an analogue emulation mode. There's also a compressor, EQ, amp sim and an array of modulation effects.

Nord Electro 7 comes in three editions: 61-key and 73-key versions with a semi-weighted waterfall keyboard and a 73-key edition with a triple-sensor Kawai Hammer Action Portable Keyboard, the Nord Electro 7 HP.

In the connectivity department, Electro 7 features stereo audio outputs, dedicated monitor and headphone jacks, comprehensive pedal support including expression, sustain and rotary control, plus MIDI In/Out and USB-B for MIDI, updates and sound management.

Nord Electro 7 will ship later this year. Electro 7 61 is priced at £2299/$3299, Electro 7 73 is priced at £2499/$3599, and Electro 7 HP is priced at £2799/$3999.

Find out more on Nord's website.

NAMM 2026: We live in the era of multi-disciplined creators - many musicians are now equally adept at producing video content, for example - and, naturally, this is having an impact on the kind of products that are being designed and released. Korg’s new Liano Live! digital piano, for example, an evolution of its original Liano, which was released in 2022.

Built for pianists who want to livestream and/or record their performances, this promises to give you everything you need to make it happen. It ships with a mic and stand and has a built-in mixer, so you can set the volume and reverb levels of your vocals and the piano right from the instrument itself. It can be connected to your phone, tablet or computer with a single USB-C cable.

As if to reinforce the fact that this is a keyboard built for livestreaming, there’s an on-air button that triggers instant global muting. There are also 10 built-in rhythms and 76 one-touch sound effects, six of which can be assigned to dedicated buttons.

But what of the actual piano bit of the Liano Live!? Although the 88 keys don’t have a hammer action, they are full size and velocity-sensitive, and there’s 120-, 60-, or 40-note polyphony depending on which sound you have selected. There are eight of these (acoustic and electric pianos, organ, guitar, strings, bass/piano and drums/SFX), and they can be dialled-in from a clearly labelled knob.

Obviously, you’ll want to play the Liano Live! at home as well as to the online world, so a pair of front-facing speakers is onboard. It's also properly portable, running on six AA batteries for up to six hours when you’re away from a main power source. It’s compact and light, too - a mere slip of a thing at 7cm thin and a weight of 5.9kg.

Connectivity includes USB MIDI and audio, headphone, damper pedal, line in and line out (you can adjust the USB/line input level with a dedicated slider). As well as the mic and stand, you also get an AC adapter, pedal switch, cables and a music stand in the box.

There’s also some software - Korg’s Module and Gadget 2 Le apps - and a 3-month subscription to Skoove, the online piano lesson platform.

The Liano Live! is available now priced at $600/£549. Find out more on the Korg website.

What is it?

Just when you thought you couldn’t fit another keyboard in the AstroLab stable, Arturia introduced what could be the most important model in the range yet.

Following the hugely popular original 61-key and 88-key avant-garde stage keyboards is the new 37 slimkey edition with velocity and aftertouch.

The keybed seems similar and potentially identical to that of the MiniFreak synthesizer and the chassis has the sturdy build quality we’ve come to expect from the French manufacturer. In fact, it feels even more compact and portable than the MiniFreak despite the same key count.

The styling is unmistakably AstroLab, and on the face of it, it looks like Arturia has managed to cram everything into the smaller box. Even to the point of ditching the fancy screen-equipped rotary dial, instead favouring a separate screen and a smaller rotary dial for menu navigation.

While the previous two models were clearly skewed towards live performance, slipping into the pro stage-piano camp, the 37-key version looks to crossover into both live and studio scenarios with its more forgiving footprint. The build quality and form-factor will certainly lend themselves to becoming a giggable second keyboard as well as a studio mainstay.

Performance

When we first looked at the AstroLab 61, I was rather enamoured by the little screen with its integrated rotary dial. However, after the first few hours of use, the novelty started to wear off. Turns out, it wasn’t the most user-friendly experience as your hand obscured the screen whilst turning the dial, and don't get me started on the issue of fingerprints.

With this new edition, doing away with the seemingly unnecessary adornment, navigation through the menu system feels a little less cumbersome.

When it comes to the rest of the controls, it’s business as usual. AstroLab 37 features the same four master encoders for shaping sounds and four FX encoders for controlling and manipulating the onboard effects. The layout of the mod and pitch wheels mimics that of the previous models, too. Again, we’re sure serious players will bemoan the positioning above the keybed and not to the side, but it seems less of an issue within this form factor.

The overall menu user experience feels exactly the same and the interface isn't overtly cluttered. Generally, Arturia has done a great job of reducing everything down to this bite-sized package without removing too much.

The dearly de-Parted

As much as a sterling job Arturia has done, there are some unfortunate casualties in the downsizing, though they’re not real deal-breakers, mercifully.

As this form-factor is steering away from a pure performative, two-handed affair, there is less of a need for some features that really lean into this. Notably, there is a lack of physical controls for accessing Parts 1 and 2. From a performance angle, I get that the secondary keyboard in a live setting is often used single-handed. However, even in this scenario, splitting the keyboard is useful and having quick access to the individual parts is sensible.

The reason for this is that the two-part architecture of the larger models does not exist here. Rather confusingly, you can still browse patches that feature two parts in the Connect app, but you won't be able to access the controls.

The most obvious omission when peering at the rear I/O panel is the reduction of the vocoder inputs from stereo to mono. Now, while in a vocoding sense, a mono signal is fine, having a stereo input was great for processing audio into such instruments as Pigments. On top of that, looking at the rear panel, it’s not like there’s not enough room for a stereo input, so perhaps this and the aforementioned multi-Part omission are due to a reduction in processing power in this model, and a case for creating a wider gap between models and price points?

The other big change is the reduction in ports in the Control/Pedal section on the 61- and 88-key models. There, you were afforded the use of a Sustain, Expression and two customisable jack inputs, labelled Aux1 and Aux2. With that, you could connect up to four pedals, should you so wish.

Key points

Clearly, the real big change with this more diminutive edition is the keybed. It would be unfair to compare Arturia’s slimkeys against their full-size counterparts; the difference is so vast. Yes, they are way better than mini keys, but they’re not a patch on full-size keys when it comes to playability and performance. However, for a secondary live keyboard and for most production uses, slimkeys work just fine.

I mentioned earlier that it would make sense if this keybed is exactly the same as the MiniFreak. I was able to compare the two during testing, and I found they feel quite different from one another. It’s hard to say whether this is a manufacturing discrepancy or that the keybeds are totally different, but the result is that I much prefer the action and aftertouch of the MiniFreak, the AstroLab 37.

Each key on the MiniFreak unit we have for testing has a very obvious aftertouch keypress across the board. Whereas the AstroLab doesn’t have the same consistency across all 37 keys. That said, I’m not a huge fan of the aftertouch on the slimkeys anyway. Even on the MiniKreak, I wish for more of an obvious travel to the key press, allowing for greater articulation whilst playing.

The action, generally, is a lot spongier than that of Korg’s Minilogue range and the excellent Yamaha Refaces, but not unplayable, it must be said.

AstroLab Connected Universe

Reliance on external apps and software sometimes feels like a way of either shoehorning extra features or exposing deficiencies in the original design of a product. Not that either of those is a bad thing, as at least there’s a fix, right? In the case of AstroLab, it’s not just a case of one app, but the integration of a whole ecosystem, which is designed to join up with existing products.

In this instance, AstroLab Connect (iOS and Android) is the app used to bridge the gap between the hardware and Analog Lab Pro software. Thus creating a wider ecosystem that also integrates Arturia’s MIDI controller keyboards. Its main aim is to further enhance the ability to browse presets and playlists, affording you a slightly better user experience than trying to navigate the small onboard screen. I like the fact that there are a few more options available when it comes to editing sounds on the fly; however, it feels like it could go a lot further.

Another issue I had during testing was the flakiness of the app's connection with the hardware. The app connects to the keyboard of WiFi, which should be a robust and fast connection. Here, though, the process was fraught with problems. Chief among those was the connection dropping out after a relatively short period of time being idle. I also noticed the connection sometimes dropped out when I moved away from the keyboard, but only by a few feet.

Verdict

Despite my misgivings with the app and the keybed, and more specifically, the aftertouch. I really like AstroLab 37. I’m a big fan of the idea as a whole. Porting all of that V-Collection/Analog Lab Pro power into hardware is no mean feat, and the application of the top-level control with the eight macros is just right. There’s plenty of tweakability at your fingertips without the need for any prior knowledge of over 40 individual instruments. That in itself is a triumph, but perhaps the real win here is that you get all of this power distilled in such a useful and portable form factor.

That form factor, though, will not be to everyone’s tastes, but I think it throws AstroLab open to an even wider audience. An audience of not just performers, but also producers. There is one big caveat here and that’s the price. $/£799 is quite a lot and many home and small studio producers will likely think that buying a KeyLab with Analog Lab included, will suffice. However, it has to be said that there isn’t a keyboard of this size in the KeyLab range and you don’t get half as many instruments bundled in. Not to mention having all that softsynth power in a rugged, portable and standalone package.

Hands-on demos

Arturia

Alternatives

Specifications

NAMM 2026: After a return to form last year, NAMM was well and truly back in business for its 2026 edition, with many of the industry’s major players once again jetting themselves down to the sunny climes of Anaheim, California to unveil the products on which they’ll hinge their year.

We’ve been reporting on this rolling live blog with all the brand-new gear, jaw-dropping reveals, head-scratching oddities (NAMM’s embrace of the weird is a genuine highlight) and the overall vibe of this music-maker’s paradise.

Aside from our coverage here, we’ll also be reacting shortly on our MusicRadar and MusicRadar Tech YouTube channels, and you can check out our findings at our Instagram (@musicradarofficial @musicradartech).

NAMM 2026 Live

Here's some early speculation to ponder what we can expect next week from some of the bigger players…

Roland: We know for sure that Roland will be foregrounding beats, with showcases of its recently-released TR-1000 Rhythm Creator as well as the V Drums 3 & 5 series. There’s also the MIDI-enabled Aerophone Brisa Digital Wind Instrument which we’re curious to see and hear in action - hopefully played by an actual flautist.

We’re also hearing rumours of a few new offerings in the software domain which have piqued our curiosity. So, we'll certainly be checking in with Roland as a day one priority.

Korg: Everyone is expecting something of note from Korg this year, considering it typically uses NAMM as the annual launch point for the year's new flagships. Last year, for example, we were highly impressed with the Kronos 3 workstation. Perhaps a new revitalized Electribe will square-off against Roland’s TR-1000?

We must stress we're in pure speculation mode here and don’t have any firm updates as yet from the company, but we’re standing by the proverbial phone…

As we noted last year, Korg is also a dab hand at throwing in a plethora of unannounced Easter eggs onto its booth. Back in 2020 we caught our first glimpse of a prototype Opsix when it appeared unannounced on Korg’s NAMM stand.

Akai: A few unconfirmed leaks suggest that Akai has been working on something that will mark a major advance of its industry-leading MPC platform. Perhaps a substantial all-in-one software/hardware workstation that expands on the brilliance of the MPC Live III. That's certainly heavily rumoured. As with everything, we’ll keep you posted with confirmed info when we have it.

Native Instruments: Speaking of all-in-one music production hubs, it’s rumoured strongly that NI might… might… be re-introducing a 2026-ed-up version of Maschine, six years since the Maschine+. This would see it go head-to-head with Akai’s hypothetical offering.

Otherwise, we can surely expect a series of new releases in the Kontakt instrument realm, plus updates to the expanded family of companies under NI’s belt (iZotope, Plugin Alliance and Brainworx)

Behringer: Well, like everybody else, we’re entirely in the dark on this one. After returning to the show for the first time in a decade last year, Uli Behringer’s company are clearly keen to push the envelope when it comes to spotlight-stealing.

Last year Behringer captivated us with the 16-voice Prophet-5-inspired, Pro-16 (which now seems to have been strangely discontinued…), the LM Drum and the Yamaha DX-1-inspired BX1. So, we can expect displays of similar allure this year for sure. The question is, when (if ever) will whatever instruments Behringer brings this year be available for purchase?

Besides the major players, speculation is also rife that Arturia will be bringing out a new software-integrated hardware synth offering, Ashun Sound Machines (the maker of the extraordinary HydraSynth) is also heavily rumoured to be dropping its successor. Or perhaps that’s just wishful speculation…

Anyway, this is just our initial chin-rubbing to get the wheels turning.

We’ll be back every day over the next week with further updates, theories and NAMM-related news drops until the show itself kicks off.

We've just published a lengthy interview with NAMM's President and CEO, John Mlynczak.

With vast expertise across the music education domain, as well as a stint driving learning at PreSonus Audio, Mlynczak’s appointment in early 2023 marked a real statement of intent. At that time, the future of NAMM was looking somewhat bleaker following the industry’s painful readjustments post-COVID.

With John at the helm, NAMM’s year-round educational offerings - and people-first attitude - have been key factors in its annual winter show regaining both its attendance and its importance to the wider industry. As John explains, this year’s show is already well on course to exceed previous records across a range of metrics.

We caught up with John to learn about his experience of leading NAMM so far, and his view on some of the key industry concerns that will undoubtedly be on everybody’s lips at the Anaheim Convention Center this year…

Read our interview here

In an interesting turn of developments ahead of the NAMM Show, we've learned that PreSonus's respected Studio One DAW is being renamed and re-angled, bringing it under an overarching Fender Studio brandname.

Fender's new idea for a "connected music ecosystem" comprises both software and hardware, with the brand launching several new products and bringing a number of existing PreSonus products under the Fender Studio name.

But the big headline is that Fender is rebranding PreSonus Studio One Pro as Fender Studio Pro 8 and relaunching the DAW with new native amp and effects plugins, a revamped interface and much more.

Read more about the rebrand to Fender Studio Pro 8 in our full report

Korg has revealed the first of its NAMM 2026 line-up, announcing its new microAUDIO interface range, which combines preamp-equipped inputs with some interesting effects tricks – in one case doubling up as a standalone analogue filter.

If the microAUDIO interfaces look somewhat familiar, it’s probably because the company actually previewed the range as a ‘concept’ product all the way back at NAMM 2025.

The new range kicks off with two devices, the microAUDIO 22 and microAUDIO 722, both of which are 2-in, 2-out USB-C interfaces.

Read more info here

AlphaTheta has unveiled a new DJ-focused effects processor and performance sampler, the RMX-Ignite.

The RMX range was originally established under the Pioneer DJ name in the early-2010s, with the launch of the RMX-1000. That unit – which was later joined by a smaller sibling, the RMX-500 – proved popular with both DJs and producers for its ability to quickly apply rhythmic and modulated effects to incoming audio.

Now the RMX range has been relaunched under the AlphaTheta umbrella. The RMX-Ignite significantly redesigns the format, and represents something of a step up in terms of both capabilities and price point.

In the words of AlphaTheta: “More than a decade after the launch of the RMX-1000 – the model released in 2012 that’s still highly respected by top DJs worldwide – this completely renewed effector combines dynamic sound-shaping control with advanced effects to enable new levels of live performance."

Read more info on the new RMX-Ignite here

Boss has anted up in the battle for multi-effects pedal supremacy, releasing budget-friendly but pro-quality entry-level GX series units for electric guitar and bass.

The GX-1 and GX-1B are all but identical in layout (the latter, for bass guitar, has a blue chassis), and are designed to be super-easy to use, portable, affordable, and promise tube amp dynamics courtesy of Boss’s proprietary AIRD amp modelling tech under the hood.

Read more>>

We live in the era of multi-disciplined creators - many musicians are now equally adept at producing video content, for example - and, naturally, this is having an impact on the kind of products that are being designed and released. Korg’s new Liano Live! digital piano, for example, an evolution of its original Liano, which was released in 2022.

Built for pianists who want to livestream and/or record their performances, this promises to give you everything you need to make it happen.

It ships with a mic and stand and has a built-in mixer, so you can set the volume and reverb levels of your vocals and the piano right from the instrument itself. It can be connected to your phone, tablet or computer with a single USB-C cable.

Read more info about the Korg Liano Live!

Korg has unveiled the next generation of the long-running Kaoss Pad effects processor and sampler, Kaoss Pad V. Equipped with a redesigned dual-touch interface, new effects and expanded connectivity, Kaoss Pad V is pitched by Korg as the most “versatile and performance-ready” model in the series to date.

A decade after the last instalment in the Kaoss family, Korg signalled a renewed interest in the concept with the release of the Kaoss Replay performance sampler in 2023 and the DIY NTS-3 Kaoss Pad the following year, but Kaoss Pad V is the first full-size, traditional Kaoss Pad to be released since the KP3+ in 2013.

Read all about it in our full news piece here

“No AI, no loops, no MIDI”: Celemony’s Tonalic puts a world-class session player in your DAW that intelligently adapts to your arrangement

Celemony, the company behind Melodyne, has announced the release of a new plugin that puts a world-class session player in your DAW, adapting authentic studio recordings to the harmony, tempo and groove of your track while preserving the feel of the original performance.

Running as a software instrument in your DAW, Tonalic doesn’t rely on loops, MIDI or even AI to work its magic. The plugin employs the sophisticated polyphonic note separation and manipulation technology found in Melodyne to reshape its extensive library of more than 7000 recordings to gel with an existing arrangement using its one-of-a-kind Tonalics engine.

It’s a unique concept, a hybrid of virtual instrument and session player that combines the organic feel of authentic performance with the flexibility of DAW-based editing.

Read all about Tonalic here>>

It’s been long-rumoured (mildly leaked) and giddily anticipated for years, and today every sound design-minded synthesist's prayers were finally answered as Ashun Sound Machines’ Leviasynth finally washed ashore to dwarf its (brilliant, we might add) digital wavetable polysynth predecessor, the Hydrasynth in terms of size, breadth and creative potential.

With an eye-catching new teal colour scheme, Leviasynth is ASM’s all-new flagship hybrid algorithmic synthesizer, offering 16 voices with 8 oscillators per voice. Driving its rich sounds are an algorithmically-powered merger of analog and digital filters.

The Leviasynth takes the Hydrasynth aesthetic and attitude and looks like it's expanding on everything that was beloved about that latter-day legend.

Read more about the Leviasynth here

Squier has announced that a comprehensive refresh of its Sonic Series of beginner electric guitars and basses is incoming, and that means more Fender designs in budget-friendly formats – and it has expanded its range of miniaturised classics with Stratocasters and Precision Basses scaled down to 3/4 size for young players.

These new models have been announced in time for that big old gearapalooza in Anaheim, California, but the dust from NAMM will have settled by July, when these hit stores and online.

Check out the details here>>

“Whether you’re chasing that famously haunting Wicked Game intro or carving out a completely new sound, it gives you inspiration from the moment you plug in”

After some 60 years out of production, hunted down relentlessly on the vintage market, the Silvertone 1446 is back.

In Hubert Sumlin’s hands, this semi-hollow electric was a formidable blues guitar. In Elvis Costello’s it was the sound of power-pop, rock and new-wave. Perhaps most famously, the haunting dream-world twang of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game came via this electric guitar (heck, his debut album is titled Silvertone).

More details on the 1446 here>>

AlphaTheta’s DJM-V5 is a compact and more affordable take on its flagship V10 DJ mixer with advanced effects that “enable entirely new styles of performance”

Pioneer DJ’s DJM-V10 is one of the most popular pro-level DJ mixers on the market. Along with the likes of Allen & Heath’s Xone:96, Pioneer’s all-singing, all-dancing flagship is a common choice for DJs playing major clubs or big festival stages.

With six-channels and a price point in the region of $/£3k, the V10 is unnecessarily big and expensive for home DJs or use smaller booths. Now it’s getting a compact and (slightly) more affordable sibling, which offers a similar design ethos and many of the same features in a three-channel format.

More on the DJM-V5 here>>

“Heard on recordings by icons like Rory Gallagher, Brian May, and Marc Bolan, this pairing helped define the sound of rock’s formative years”

Vox has unveiled the VTB-1 Treble Booster, a super-simple boost pedal with a single dial, one switch, and yet perhaps everything a the AC30 owner needs to recreate the iconic electric guitar tones of Rory Gallagher, Brian May et al.

Inspired by the Dallas Rangemaster that Gallagher used to such devastating effect that May simply had to add one to his rig, the VTB-1 is described as the perfect complement to Vox’s tube amps – yielding the kinds of juicy harmonic drive tones you’ve heard on countless Queen records, and giving players that touch-sensitivity that makes it such an expressive addition to a rock or blues guitar player’s rig.

More VTB-1 Treble Booster deets here>>

“I wanted to fix every issue I’ve ever had dialling in metal tones on similar pedals or even the original”

Warm Audio and YouTuber, producer and musician Ryan ‘Fluff’ Bruce have joined forces for a signature overdrive pedal inspired by an ‘80s Japanese classic – and Fluff says a comprehensive suite of improvements makes this drive pedal a natural fit for high-gain rock and metal guitar.

The pedal is called the Fluff Drive. It is offered with a Teal or White enclosure. The pedal that inspired it was a Maxon TS-01 Super Tube Screamer, but this promises to be quite a different proposition for your pedalboard.

Read more about Fluff Drive>>

“Represents the evolution of everything we've learned from decades of innovation in music production”

Akai has launched its successor to the flagship MPC X, the MPC XL. The XL follows in the footsteps of last year’s excellent MPC Live III upgrade, adding a lot of similar enhancements such as vastly improved CPU power, expressive MPCe pads and a new step sequencing workflow.

The MPC XL maintains the design ethos of the MPC X, which was first released in 2017, and followed by an upgraded Special Edition model in 2023. Broadly speaking, it offers the same workflow as the smaller MPC Live and MPC One models, capable of self-contained beatmaking, recording, sampling, arranging and mixing, but with an increased amount of inputs and outputs and a broader variety of hands-on controls.

Read more>>

“I often say ‘keep the faucet running’ when it comes to songwriting – it’s so important to stay in a creative headspace to get to the really good stuff”

PRS Guitars and Ed Sheeran have collaborated on a signature guitar unlike any other, with the stadium-packing pop-star’s limited edition model finished with his own artwork, and it presents us with a very different kind of guitar.

The Ed Sheeran SE Hollowbody Cosmic Splash takes its name from the artwork on the front, a piece taken from Sheeran’s 2025 Cosmic Carpark paintings, which were sold off to raise money for his foundation.

Read more>>

“Whether tilting the neck to swell a delay, raising the body for a filter sweep, or leaning back to unleash distortion, it opens a new world of expressive, intuitive stage performance”

What would January be in the guitar calendar without a new release that makes us question everything, that there is a new way of doing things and it might change how guitar players perform for good?

Casio might just have that release, with a gizmo that allows you to control settings on your guitar effects pedals via your guitar strap.

The DN-SE10 Dimension Shifter is a wireless controller that’s integrated in your strap. It’s a world first. Install this and you no longer have to crouch over your pedalboard to adjust parameters – you don’t even need your expression pedal.

Read more>>

I can go for that: Roland releases an official plugin version of the CR-78 drum machine

Released in 1980, the TR-808 might be remembered as the device that (eventually) became Roland’s first classic programmable drum machine, but rhythmic scholars will tell you that, two years previously, the company released the CR-78.

This analogue beast offered not only a decent selection of built-in rhythms, but also the option to create four variations of your own, giving it an extra level of flexibility.

Much more on the new CR-78 plugin here>>

Don’t DAW us, get to the (virtual analogue) chorus: You can now buy Reason’s iconic Rack of virtual outboard as a standalone plugin

Ever been tempted by the look of Reason’s Rack of virtual analogue gear, but can’t find space in your heart for another DAW? Well today might be your lucky day, as the Reason Rack is now available as a standalone purchase or subscription for the first time.

Launched in 2000, Reason was one of the first wave of DAWs. Building on the success of Propellerhead Software’s iconic soft synth ReBirth, Reason brought an old-school studio workflow into the software realm, with a faux-analogue design that set it apart from the more digital look of Logic or Cubase.

Read more>>

We're finally here and ready to bring you as much exciting new tech and gear news as we can at this year's NAMM Show.

We've been eagerly gathering as much info as possible ahead of this year's NAMM but nothing prepares you for actually setting foot in the Anaheim Convention Center and taking in the sheer scope of of all there is to absorb.

At Wednesday's Global Media Day, we were treated to some incredible presentations and product demos from the likes of Roland, Korg, Akai and Fender Studio (videos to follow!)

Launching at the show today, The Carbon Fox from Telgrapher is the world's first mass-produced studio monitor built around a fully carbon-fiber enclosure. This means that it's pretty lightweight (a 30% reduction vs the original Fox) yet inside sports the same all-analog design that the brand is known for, adding warm and rich analogue qualities to its sound reproduction.

DW’s Limited Edition MFG True-Cast 14x4” snare brings a piccolo to its sand-cast, machined bell bronze range, but if you want one you’re going to need to be quick

If there’s one trend that we’re glad to see continued at Namm 2026 , it’s that of heavyweight, cast bell bronze snare drums, and DW is first out of the gate with the latest edition to its True-Cast series, the Limited Edition MFG True-Cast 14x4” snare drum.

Designed in collaboration with ace session drummer, posture expert and cast-snare aficionado, Dave Elitch (The Mars Volta, Miley Cyrus, Weezer and more), the 4-inch-deep version of the True-Cast is just slim enough to claim the crown as DW’s first ever piccolo model in the range.

Read more>>

"Rethinking motion, balance, and response"

Swedish guitar company Strandberg, known for its lightweight and ergonomic headless guitars, has revealed an innovative new tremolo system at NAMM 2026 at the Anaheim Convention Center in California.

The new Arc TILT tremolo, currently patent-pending, is said to be “groundbreaking” with Strandberg’s Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Ola Strandberg and his team, designing it from the ground up and calling it “a groundbreaking innovation”.

Read more>>

Seymour Duncan unveils MortalCoil active humbucker set – will it dethrone Fishman as metal’s state-of-the-art pickup?

Seymour Duncan has unveiled a multi-voiced electric guitar pickup set that gives players the tones inspired by two of its most-loved humbuckers, a “clear, articulate single-coil” voicing – and delivers an all-new voicing that promises totally brutal electric guitar tone for those occasions when you need to take your tone nuclear.

At first blush, the MortalCoil Multiple-Voiced Active humbuckers are a serious upgrade for any metal guitar. And they sure throw down the gauntlet to Fishman, whose Fluence humbucker series has established itself as the industry standard for multi-voiced pickups.

Read more>>

Apogee’s latest audio interface is fizzing with ARM-based DSP and has built-in speaker correction, too

Apogee has added to its line-up of Symphony desktop audio interfaces with the release of the Nova, which comes packed with DSP for onboard effects processing.

In fact, one of the Nova’s big USPs is that it offers simultaneous realtime DSP processing on all four of its mic inputs, meaning that multiple sources can be tracked with a consistent sound. This could be useful when you’re recording drums, small groups, multi-speaker podcasts or a selection of live instruments.

Read more>>

"From professionals to advanced amateurs, EAD50 empowers every drummer to achieve their ideal sound"

NAMM 2026 is officially underway, and If you’re anything like us, you’ll have been keeping your eyes peeled for the most exciting new releases. Yamaha knows this, and has leaned into it with teasers for an all-new electronic drums product over the last couple of weeks.

The cryptically-cropped pictures got tongues wagging - is it a new electronic drum set module? Maybe a new multi-pad? As of now, we know that it is, in fact, a new addition to Yamaha EAD line-up: the EAD 50. And it seems to have its sights set on doing away with your sample pad, trigger module, mics, interface and mixer in one fell swoop.

Read more>>

“Give the average guitar player the chance to own my live rig. My tone. The tone worth $100,000s”

You can officially stop scrolling if you want to nail Billy Corgan’s electric guitar tone, because Laney Amplification has teamed up with Brian Carstens, the designer of the Smashing Pumpkins frontman’s signature tube amp, to effectively house his entire rig in a compact amp pedal, the Supergrace.

The latest in Laney’s series of Loudpedals, the Supergrace pairs the high-gain channel from Corgan’s Carstens Grace amp with the circuit of a 1969 Supergroup, offering a wholly analogue replica of Corgan’s tone – and it is so good that he used it when sitting in to play Pumpkins classic Bullet With Butterfly Wings in front of 60,000 My Chemical Romance romance fans in Chicago. That's confidence. Corgan left his "real" guitar amps behind and just rolled with this on the night.

It is all kinds of remarkable.

Read more>>

It might get loud

MXR's high-gain Eddie Van Halen collab headlines Jim Dunlop's fresh pedal drop – and there's an Iron Maiden Killers Cry Baby too

Jim Dunlop has lifted the curtain on first new guitar effects pedals to come from its portfolio of brands this year. and there are some special stompboxes in the lineup – what Iron Maiden fan could resist a special Edition Dunlop Cry Baby wah pedal finished with Derek Riggs’ iconic cover art from Killers?

But we can’t look past the bright red enclosure of the MXR EVH Modern High Gain Pedal, an amp-in-a-box style drive that not only bears the most famous initials in electric guitar but has been co-designed by the man himself, Eddie Van Halen.

Read more>>

KORG PHASE8

Behringer takes on the Juno-60

Donner enters the pro-level electronic drum set market with new flagship Groove Series

Donner is known for squeezing-in plenty of bang for your buck, and new for 2026 is its Groove Series, a new line of professional electronic drum sets made exclusively for the US market, and delivering what it describes as “portability without compromising the authentic feel and expressiveness of an acoustic drum kit”

There are three kits in the Groove Series: Groove, Groove Max and Groove Ultra. Each kit follows a five-piece drum pad setup, with mesh-headed snare and tom pads throughout, and the trio uses the same quick-setup Swift-Rack system.

Read more>>

“Our amplifier learns your cabinet’s impedance through controlled sweeps and continues to monitor it in real-time”

California’s very own Synergy Amps is a leader in modular tube amplifier technology and is set to push the envelope once more with its patent-protected Machine-Learning Power Amp technology, which makes its debut at the Anaheim Convention Center this year.

Known for crafting award-winning amplifier designs and collaborating with amplifier engineer heavyweights such as Dave Friedman, Mike Soldano and Tone King, the company has never shied away from breaking boundaries.

Read more>>

Akai MPC XL: First look review

We got our hands on Akai's newly-announced flagship MPC XL. How does it stack up against the original MPC X or the recent MPC Live III. Watch our first look review to find out.

We've got more details on Casio's surprise new sampler. And a demo...

A new dimension

The Buck starts here

Stem separation in a box

Half-size Quad Cortex

Off with their headstocks

Ethical AI?

ZEQD-Pre

Gibson concept

Tats entertainment

Juno the score

Ignite fever

NAMM 2026 is officially done and, furthermore, dusted, but we still have showfloor goodies to share. Plus, stay tuned for more reaction as we chew over our findings from Anaheim.

What is it?

Arturia produces some of the best and most stylish control keyboards and control devices available. Its KeyLab controller keyboards come in an array of sizes and performance at multiple price points. KeyStep is a parallel product that focuses on real-time step sequence and arpeggio creation and is aimed at those working with a hybrid or even DAW-free setup. Options include the original 32-key design as well as a 37-key version and KeyStep Pro, which is a 4-track design.

KeyStep Mk2 is a considerable overhaul of the 32-key version, nevertheless it still has some aspects in common with the original controller. It features the same slimline keybed, with velocity and aftertouch. Meanwhile, you get ribbon-based control of modulation and pitch bend to the left and dedicated octave buttons just above. Step sequencing is a single track with 8-note polyphony per step.

There have been some changes to connectivity, which now includes MIDI in and out, four CV outputs (pitch, gate, mod1 and mod2), pulse synchronisation (in and out), and USB via USB-C. There is simultaneous output from all outputs. Further back panel options include sustain pedal input and on/off switch. Power is provided either via your USB-C connection or by using a regular USB-C power supply (this needs to provide 5V at 100mA).

You’ll find KeyStep Mk2’s biggest changes are on the top panel, and these are primarily down to the removal of the three physical arp/sequencer controls. Indeed, the whole top panel has been redesigned to incorporate the new mini OLED screen, push button encoder and RGB backlit soft buttons. The panel buttons work in conjunction with the OLED-based menu, but also extensively via the Shift button. The Shift also works in conjunction with the keyboard keys to select patterns/arp modes, sequence banks and rate. You even get an Undo option that works when recording patterns.

Performance

Although KeyStep Mk2 is primarily a sequence and arpeggio creation device, it can also work as a straight-up MIDI controller keyboard. Meanwhile, you can incorporate KeyStep Mk2 into your setup as both a clock and transport master or slave. On the original KeyStep, setting this up required fiddling with the back panel dip switches. Thankfully, this is now handled via the OLED menu, as are many further settings.

As you might expect, the reworked top panel directly affects KeyStep operationally, and although options such as tempo are easily set via the metronome button and encoder, this is less immediate than the original physical knobs. However, this is a minor inconvenience, and the panel upgrade now includes more creative options. Two of these – Gate time and Spice – are Shift options that are assigned to the pitch bend and modulation ribbons, respectively. Spice is a pattern variation feature that influences both sequences and arpeggios. As you increase the modulation ribbon, the variation becomes greater, meanwhile returning the modulation to zero returns to the original pattern. Tapping the modulation strip three times activates Dice mode, which further randomises the Spice outcome.

The other main generative feature is Mutate and this primarily influences the notes played. A short press of the Mutate button creates small changes, but holding the button down longer and changes become much greater. This is great for adding more left field pitch changes to a sequence. However, if you don’t like the outcome, you can simply use the handy Reset option to return to the original.

Verdict

Overall, the KeyStep Mk2 is a well-designed and creative sequencer. With an expanded feature set for real-time sequencing and performance, it offers a straightforward yet well-featured entry point for anyone wanting to control a hybrid sequencing setup.

Hands-on demos

Arturia

Alternatives

Specifications

Roland has unveiled two new models in its Kiyola line of "artisan" digital pianos, a collaboration with respected Japanese wood furniture manufacturers Karimoku inaugurated in 2015 with the KF-10.

Inspired by "wa", the Japanese concept of harmony, the KF-20 and KF-25 are sleek and stylish pianos designed with an emphasis on aesthetics. Each Kiyola piano is said to be a one-of-a-kind instrument with unique grain patterns and aging, the Karimoku-crafted cabinets equipped with piano technology lifted from Roland's high-end GP and LX series instruments.

Both models feature the Piano Reality Modeling engine found in the GP and LX series and offer "warm, uniquely voiced" tones that match the aesthetics of their cabinets. Six tones are accessible directly from the piano with an additional 48 available via Roland's companion app, which gives players access to Roland's Piano Designer for fine-tuned sound-shaping. You also get two effects, the Ambience reverb and Brilliance, an EQ that brightens the tone.

Both models feature a stereo two-way sound system with 24W per channel. The KF-20 and KF-25 also benefit from Roland's PHA-50 keyboard, a premium action designed to recreate the weighted, nuanced response of a real acoustic piano. (In Roland's product line-up, PHA-50 is second only to the Hybrid Grand keyboard found in the flagship GP-9.)

The KF-20 is an update on the KF-10 designed to showcase a "soft, elegant look with gentle curves". It's available in a new, quirky Celadon Green finish, along with three more neutral colours: Walnut, Sheer White and Pure Oak.

The KF-25 has a sharper and more defined look inspired by the style of 'Japandi', a fusion of Scandinivian aesthetics and Japanese wabi-sabi. The instrument is available exclusively in a Smoked Oak finish.

Both models come with a piano bench and three-pedal unit with sustain, soft and sostenuto pedals, and each piano features Bluetooth (with Bluetooth MIDI), dual headphone outputs, a USB-C port for MIDI and audio and a USB-A port for additional storage.

Roland KF-20 and KF-25 are priced at £3803/€4490/$5719 and will be available for purchase at select Roland retailers worldwide this month.

So, if you're here, you most likely got a new beginner keyboard or digital piano for Christmas. Let me start by saying welcome to the club, and I hope your new instrument brings you years of joy. Now, I know that grabbing a bunch of piano-rated accessories isn't as thrilling as choosing the perfect instrument, but the right products can significantly enhance your playing experience, and you definitely shouldn't overlook them.

So, if you're a beginner digital piano newbie looking to hit the ground running and fully kit yourself out, I’ve pulled together a collection of my piano and keyboard essentials to ensure you get started on the right foot. From benches that'll keep you comfy during those long practice sessions to high-quality headphones that let you get lost in your music without disturbing the neighbours, I’ve got you covered.

Oh, and remember, every great pianist started somewhere, and with the right gear, you’ll be making beautiful music in no time.

Useful piano and keyboard buying guides

• Get started with the best keyboards for beginners and kids
• The best Yamaha keyboards for your home
• Get started with the best digital pianos for beginners
• How to clean piano keys, step-by-step

BEST OF 2025: Join us for our traditional look back at the news and features that topped MusicRadar's charts in 2025.

We can’t fully explain why André 3000 rocked up at this year's Met Gala with a grand piano strapped to his back – how could it ever make sense? – but it turns out that there was a reason. To coincide with the fashion spectacular, the star released 7 piano sketches, a brief collection of improvised piano jams.

This marked 3000’s first release since 2023’s New Blue Sun, the jazzy instrumental wind album that was nominated for three Grammy Awards. The roots of 7 piano sketches go back almost a decade, though, when André was staying in a house in Texas with his son that contained only a piano, their beds and TV screens.

Having lived with the recordings he made in the house - possibly on his phone, based on their quality - André decided that spring 2025 (“a time of year that promises that life, creativity, and possibility are ever-renewing”) was the moment to release them.

Discussing the project, André said: “The original title for it was ‘The Best Worst Rap Album In History’ and here is an excerpt from the original liner notes: ‘It’s jokingly the worst rap album in history because there are no lyrics on it at all. It’s the best because it’s the free-est emotionally and best I’ve felt personally. It’s the best because it’s like a palette cleanser for me.’”

The 7 sketches have the strong whiff of off-the-cuff noodlings, with only one – album closer i spend all day waiting for the night – having drums on it. There’s also a nod to New Blue Sun’s love of long song titles: track 3 is called ‘when you’re a ant and you wake up in an awesome mood, about to drive your son to school, only to discover that you left the lights on in the car last night so your battery is drained’.

We’ve all been there.

It’s all a long way from Outkast, the rap outfit that André 3000 made his name in alongside BigBoi and who were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2025.

You can listen to 7 piano sketches now.

Welcome to MusicRadar's deals of the week! Get ready to dive into a treasure trove of fantastic offers on top-rated musical gear from across the internet. We curate a fresh batch of jaw-dropping discounts every week, so be sure to swing by regularly to catch the latest steals.

Okay, let’s be honest, musicians can be pretty hard to shop for. Most of us have had to fake a smile after getting another guitar-shaped mug or a novelty music-themed t-shirt we’ll never wear. Don’t worry, though, I’m here to help with a selection of last-minute gift ideas, and even a few sales that are still live so you can save a little money, too.

Now, with Christmas being right around the corner, I thought I’d highlight a few gift ideas that require absolutely no delivery time. These are digital plugin downloads, lesson subscriptions, and more, so you don’t need to stress about them arriving in time for the big day. Of course, I've included a few instruments and pieces of music tech for those who aren't worried about delivery times.

If you’re looking to score some savings ahead of Christmas and the new year, then you’re in luck, as there are a number of sales running right now. Over at Sweetwater, you can score a generous up to 60% off a wide range of gear, while Guitar Center is offering up to 30% off big-name brands.

Below, you’ll find some pretty tasty deals on gifts that musicians, producers and home recording fanatics will actually like to receive - I know I'd be happy to see any of these in my inbox this Christmas.

Editor's picks

Looking for more bargains? Check out more recommended sales below:

• Amazon: Money off accessories
• Fender Play: 50% off annual
• Fender store: Save big Fender
• Gear4Music: Clearance deals
• Guitar Center: Save on guitars & more
• Guitar Tricks: 1 month just $1
• IK Multimedia: $200 off Tonex Max
• Musician's Friend: Shop the BF Sale!
• Plugin Boutique: Money off plugins
• Positive Grid: Save on Spark
• Reverb: Save on used gear
• Sweetwater: Epic deals
• Thomann: Last-minute deals
• TrueFire: Save 60% on lessons
• Waves: Buy two get one free

How we choose our deals of the week

Here at MusicRadar, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing, creating and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything music gear-related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our deals.

Our mission is simple - to help you make the best buying decision, find the right gear at the right price, to make the best music you can.

For us to recommend a deal it has to be a product we rate that’s been reduced to a genuinely great price or part of a truly fantastic bundle. It’s also important that we only recommend retailers that we trust.

You can see more of our product recommendations in our buyer's guides and reviews.

Why you can trust our choices

Our editors and writers are all experienced musicians and experts in their fields. They have a deep understanding of the categories that they cover, which means that you can trust their choices when it comes to recommending products.

We pride ourselves on the independence, quality and reliability of our testing processes and the reviews it produces. It’s what has made us the world’s leading music-making publishing company. You can find more details on how we test some specific key product categories, but the principles apply across the board, rigorously assessing build quality, functionality, playability and, of course, sonic performance.

We cover a lot of the big sales events throughout the year, including Memorial Day, Black Friday, 4th of July sales and Amazon Prime Day, and we have a good view of which products are likely to receive the biggest discounts and when, the prices they’ve been in the past and which deals are genuinely worth a look.

Where are the best places to shop?

Online shopping is definitely a lot easier and more secure than it used to be, and we like to recommend a small handful of online retailers who have a sterling reputation and offer fantastic benefits like fuss-free returns, great customer service and, in some cases, full checks and setup of guitars before they are dispatched. So, all the deals we’ll recommend on this page are from retailers that tick these boxes.

What sort of deals should I look for?

Great deals come in all shapes and sizes. There are a few key types to look out for:

• Single item - A single product with a great discount
• Site-wide discounts - A single discount percentage on a large range of products across a site
• Discount codes - Load your basket to a certain value and redeem a discount code for money off your basket contents
• Added value deals - These include multi-buy discounts, or additional products or software for free when you buy certain items

Well, it's Black Friday week, meaning that the internet is awash with deals. Over the last few days, we've seen prices slashed on everything from smart devices and TVs to toys, and, of course, musical instruments. Now, I'd say that this is a great year to be a pianist or keyboard fanatic! In previous years, I've felt let down by the offerings for piano players, but that certainly isn't the case for 2025.

Sweetwater, Guitar Center, and Musician's Friend all have enticing discounts on everything from digital pianos to synth modules, beginner keyboards, MIDI controllers, and more. Prices range from a couple of hundred dollars to thousands, so there are some potentially massive savings to be had.

Now, before I worked at MusicRadar, writing about music gear for a living, I used to sell pianos and keyboards in a busy music store. So, I’ve used my background in music retail to come up with my pick of the very best piano deals from across these mammoth sales.

Below, you’ll find my expert choices from various price categories and styles. Whether you’re a beginner looking for your first keyboard or an experienced player seeking a much-needed upgrade, you’ll find it here.

Should you buy a piano or keyboard this Black Friday??

Okay, so Black Friday is the biggest sales event of the year, and as such, we see hearty discounts on everything from consumer tech, such as phones and laptops, to fashion, home furnishings and, more importantly, musical instruments!

I have been covering this sales event for several years, so I have a fair idea of what to expect, and I can say with confidence that you should most definitely be thinking about making your piano purchase around this time.

Should you order a piano online?

While I fully understand the hesitation about ordering a piano online, the reality is, it couldn’t be easier to get your dream instrument delivered directly to your door. In our guide to ordering a piano online, I talk you through what to expect when you buy an instrument on a website, things to look out for, and give you helpful tips on finding the best piano for you.

Of course, it's good practice to go to a store and get hands-on experience with a product, but I'm fully aware that sometimes it just isn’t possible. You may not have a local dealer that stocks the piano you are looking for, you may not be mobile enough to get out and about, or you may feel intimidated walking into a bustling music store.

Just remember to discuss the delivery options with the store you are ordering from and make sure you've made space for your new piano well in advance of its arrival. Also, the piano is going to arrive disassembled, so be prepared to build it.

Shop more Black Friday sales

• Amazon: Huge holiday savings
• B&H Photo: Early Bird Holiday deals
• Fender store: Player II Strat lowest price ever
• Guitar Center: Up to 40% Black Friday sale
• Guitar Tricks: $899 $99 annual sub
• IK Multimedia: Up to $300 off Tonex hardware
• Musician's Friend: Early Black Friday 50% sale
• Native Instruments: Over 50% off UA bundle
• Plugin Boutique: 100s of software savings
• Positive Grid: Up to $50 Spark savings
• Reverb: Black Friday early access
• Sweetwater: Black Friday deals up to 80% off
• Universal Audio: 12 Days of UAD software sale
• Waves: Huge plugin bundle deals up to 95% off

Arturia has announced the release of AstroLab 37, a slimmed-down 37-key version of its Analog Lab-powered "avant-garde stage keyboard".

Released in 2024, AstroLab squeezed hundreds of sounds from Arturia's Analog Lab software into a 61-key stage keyboard that we praised for its versatile sound bank and user-friendly workflow. This was followed by an 88-key hammer action variant released in May this year.

AstroLab 37 packs the musical firepower of its larger siblings into a sleek and portable 37-key version that Arturia says "redefines what a compact performance keyboard can be", going so far as to claim that "this isn't just a new keyboard – it's a new era".

Alongside its 37-key slim keyboard with channel aftertouch, AstroLab 37 is equipped with 11 sound engines, spanning virtual analogue, wavetable, FM, granular, physical modelling and sample-based synthesis, offering a grand total of 44 instruments and 1800+ presets from Arturia's highly-rated V Collection 11 and Pigments software.

AstroLab 37 sadly lacks the combined colour screen/navigation encoder that you'll find on the larger models – this has been replaced with a separate screen and smaller rotary dial. This is flanked by two banks of four rotaries, one of which operates Macro controls for each instrument selected, and the other controls AstroLab 37's selection of 12 insert effects, with dedicated knobs for delay and reverb.

The keyboard is kitted out with an arpeggiator, chord and scale modes and a 32-bar looper, in addition to a vocoder engine that can be used with an external microphone. AstroLab's 1800+ sounds can be split across the keyboard or layered together in bitimbral patches.

In addition to AstroLab Connect, a mobile app for browsing presets and purchasing new sounds, AstroLab comes bundled with Arturia's Analog Lab Pro software which can be used to access more sounds, customize the keyboard's sound library and assign custom macros. Owners of Arturia's software instruments can also go beyond Analog Lab's four macro controls to design customized patches that can be be loaded on to the hardware.

As for connectivity, AstroLab is equipped with both WiFi and Bluetooth for hooking up with its companion apps, USB-C and USB-A ports, MIDI In/Out, a stereo line output and a headphone output. You also get a stereo combo input for running a microphone into the keyboard, along with a sustain pedal jack.

Priced at $699, the new 37-key model places the AstroLab well within reach of those without the studio space or the budget to opt for the four-figure 61- and 88-key versions.

Find out more on Arturia's website.

Revisit our video review of the 61-key AstroLab below.

How strange it must have been to view ‘70s pop culture through the eyes of a Beatle.

Having done so much to steer rock ’n’ roll’s evolution through the cultural riptides of the ‘60s, it surely would have been bewildering to then gaze upon this new era of creative effervescence at a time when lawsuits and persistent appeals for the Beatles to reform were anchoring them in the past.

Nothing the Fab Four had done before would suggest that they were artists overly enthralled by nostalgia. The reunion talk and the multimillion dollar offers from the super-rich as itself a form of zombie Beatlemania. Those appeals would come to nothing. John, Paul, George and Ringo were going it alone, and music, as is its wont, carried on regardless.

The Rolling Stones rolled on. The big beasts of rock were assembled. Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath had arrived. David Bowie had made himself known. And then there was Elton John, who with his 1970 hit, Your Song, had officially introduced himself as a generational talent.

John Lennon was listening. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 1975, Lennon described his fellow Beatles and the boys in the Stones as the “Old Guard.” Bowie and John were the “newies” – and Your Song was just what British rock was waiting for.

“[I] remember thinking, ‘Great, that’s the first new thing that’s happened since we happened.’ It was a step forward,” said Lennon. “There was something about his vocals that was an improvement on all of the English vocals until then.’”

Elton was just getting started. He and his songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin, were developing a real taste for it. Elton worked fast, chasing his eponymous 1970 album with Tumbleweed Connection, recording a third studio album that year with the Friends soundtrack (1971). All three went gold.

Technically, he recorded four albums in 1970, with his first live album, 17-11-70, taped during his much-bootlegged WABC-FM radio performance.

Elton was of no mind to slow down. In 1971, by the time he entered London’s Trident Studios to track Madman Across The Water, he had hit his straps, backed by a formidable rhythm section of Dee Murray on bass guitar and Nigel Olsson on drums.

Caleb Quaye returned to play electric guitar, tracking acoustic guitars on Holiday Inn, but it was the arrival of a coltish Scottish folk guitarist who could play anything with a string on it, Davey Johnstone, that would change the direction of the Elton John Band, inaugurating a collaboration that continues to this day, with Johnstone not only Elton’s guitar player but musical director, too.

He had been recommended to Elton by producer Gus Dudgeon, who had worked with Johnstone with Magna Carta, and after the success of Mad Man… he officially joined the band for 1972’s Honky Château.

“Elton and I became very close musically when I worked on Mad Man Across The Water as a session guy, because I was playing all acoustic on the title track of that album, and then mandolin and sitar on Holiday Inn,” says Johnstone, joining MusicRadar over Zoom. “And something happened. There was a thing that happened between us. It was like, ‘This is working really good. This guy is easy to work with.’ And that’s what it was for both of us, so that continued and just became what it was.”

Elton likes to introduce Johnstone as the guitarist who had never picked up an electric guitar before Honky Château and yet somehow turned his band into a rock ’n’ roll outfit. That’s an exaggeration, but Johnstone admits there is some truth to it.

“Put it this way, it’s what he says. It’s how he introduces me on stage!” laughs Johnstone. “And it’s kind of true. My buddy Billy Connolly, my dear friend Billy Connolly – we talk once every couple of weeks – always remembers the vibe at that point. We were talking about it one day and he said, ‘If Elton asked you if you’d played electric guitar, you were such a brash young guy, you would probably say, ‘Of course!’ Just to get the job.’

“But it was very true that I barely played electric guitar. I played a couple of fun sound effects on some Magna Carta albums, and I did have an electric guitar laying around, but it wasn’t what I played at the time. So, yeah, it’s partly true.”

Just think, Johnstone was only introduced to Elton in 1971, and by the summer of 1974 he had played on Madman Across The Water, Honky Château, Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and Caribou. What a run.

But by 1974, the Elton John Band needed to take a deep breath before going again. They took a cruise aboard the SS France, crossing the Atlantic on its final voyage, working on what would become Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy, and also proving that rock stars in the mid ‘70s could be responsible when they needed to.

“It was a great trip over because we were also chaperoning Julian Lennon,” says Johnstone. “Because Cynthia [Lennon, née Powell, Julian’s mother, Lennon’s ex-wife] was on the trip with us, and we were kind of making sure that he didn’t get up to too much mischief, because he was only about 11 years old at that time. He was on his way to New York to have the summer with his dad.

“We were happy to do that. Then when we got to New York Harbor, John was there, so it was awesome. It was quite an interesting trip – very iconic, if you think about it. It was the last trip of the SS France. It was their last voyage. To do that, and then to meet John for the first time – for me anyway, I hadn’t met him before that – it was an amazing trip.”

The plan was for the band to kill some time in New York, Olsson would hotfoot it to Nederland, Colorado, join Dudgeon and his production team at Caribou Ranch, work on the drum sounds, then the rest of the band would all head west.

Captain Fantastic… was to be a concept record, Taupin’s lyrics diarising and dramatising the early days of he and Elton’s songwriting partnership. Confessional, celebratory, raw, Captain Fantastic… was a considerable musical undertaking.

As Johnstone recalls, every song was “intense”. The cruise gave Elton a chance to get his thoughts in order. His New York stopover gave him the opportunity to warm-up for Captain Fantastic…, and he found the time to drop in on Lennon when he was tracking Walls And Bridges at the Record Plant. Much to Lennon’s delight, he ended up appearing on the album.

“Elton popped in on the session for Walls And Bridges and sort of zapped in and played the piano and ended up singing Whatever Gets You Thru The Night with me,” Lennon said, speaking to Rolling Stone in 1975. “Which was a great shot in the arm. I’d done three quarters of it, ‘Now what do we do?’ Should we put a camel on it or a xylophone? That sort of thing. And he came in and said, ‘Hey, ah’ll play some piano!’”

Once Lennon finished Walls And Bridges, he had some time to decompress, and chose to get out of the big city and seek some fresh mountain air. Colorado would do just nicely.

Visiting the Elton John Band at Caribou would also take his mind off the ongoing legal wrangles over his immigration status, and besides, Lennon wanted to see how an Elton John album came together.

“We didn’t really plan for anything. We knew there was there was a possibility that John Lennon would come up for a week,” says Johnstone. “Because he was really keen. He was really interested in watching the way our band was working, because if you think about it, we had become the next thing after the Beatles.

“I mean, obviously there was [Led] Zeppelin, a big Zeppelin moment, which still goes on to today, but John called us, during another album that we were recording, and said he thought that we were the best stuff that he had heard since the Beatles. And for us to hear that from John Lennon was like, ‘What?’ It was a wonderful compliment.”

Lennon’s arrival in Nederland caused quite a stir. Here was this small, sleepy town, 47 miles northwest of Denver, the gateway to the great outdoors, the skyline fringed by the Rockies, the Barker Meadow Reservoir close by, and here was a Beatle, John Lennon in the flesh.

“John went into Nederland to this little food store to buy a toothbrush and toothpaste. And they were like, ‘What??’ He was signing autographs for people in there and was just so great with everybody,” said John Carsello, Caribou’s studio manager, speaking to the official Elton John website. “It was really nuts.”

Lennon arriving in Colorado without a toothbrush betrays the fact that there was no great masterplan. It was not so unusual that musicians would drop in on each other, or that they might be passing through; Neil Sedaka was in the studio for the Captain Fantastic… sessions and witnessed the band pull off one of its great set-pieces, the recording of We All Fall in Love Sometimes and Curtains all in one go. They nailed it in two takes.

It wasn’t like Lennon was on the studio call sheet. He brought no gear. As far as anyone was concerned, he was there as a friend. As Johnstone recalls, there was no expectation that Lennon would reciprocate and track something with the band.

The album was being recorded in the order that Taupin wrote the songs. But there was ample time on the schedule for side missions, and the sessions for Captain Fantastic… would ultimately yield two songs that made it to number one without making it on the album.

Chaperoning Julian Lennon, Elton’s cameo on Walls And Bridges, Lennon in the studio; maybe it was kismet that one of these number one singles would be a Beatles cover.

“John wanted to come out and hang out with us. We didn’t plan on recording anything,” says Johnstone. “But during the odd session when Elton and I, Dee and Nigel were together, one of the things that I would do is I would start playing the riff from Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. It was just one of those things, and it was like, ‘Oh, we must record that one day!’ Well, when John came up, it was a no-brainer.”

Johnstone got the ball rolling, playing the riff as he often did. He gave one of his Les Pauls to Lennon, and told him he had to play on it. Lennon demurred, insisting Johnstone was the guitar player. Johnstone remembers Lennon saying over and over, “‘Can you tune it for me? I’m not the guitar player, you are”. This was really happening.

Olsson described it as a “pinch me” moment. Everyone was on-point. This was a chance to record a Beatles song with a Beatle.

“I started playing that in the studio, it was like, ‘Let’s do that!’ And we cut Lucy In The Sky and a couple of other things – one song of John’s that we used as a B-side [One Day (At A Time)]. It was just a wonderful time,” says Johnstone.

It’s also another example of how the Elton John Band would maximise their time in the studio. The 9 August, 1974, was a typically productive day by anyone’s standards, with the band recording Bitter Fingers, the second track on Captain Fantastic…, and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds – the latter augmented with a reggae section that was improvised in the studio by Lennon, who would be credited under his alias, Dr Winston O’Boogie.

This was no throw-and-go recording, an afterthought once Bitter Fingers was ticked off the list. The Elton John version of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds is Gus Dudgeon production masterclass, a panorama of instrumentation, with percussionist Ray Cooper laying down bells, gong, congas, bell tree and tambourine.

Elton, who would track his lead vocals a few days later, played piano, mellotron and harpsichord. Johnstone and Lennon dovetailed on guitar.

“Then also, we recorded Philadelphia Freedom during those sessions as well, so there was a massive output,” says Johnstone. “If you think about it, this is what we were doing all through those early parts of the ‘70s, till this album, which was ’74. We were always one album ahead.”

Philadelphia Freedom was another huge success from such a small footprint in the band’s calendar. It was written onsite at Caribou on the 13th August, recorded on the 17th, all in a day, with Johnstone just plugging a Fender Telecaster into the board and going for it. Elton tracking his vocals a few days later.

Elton John and John Lennon were not finished. The success of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds reprised the Beatles at their most psychedelic, a welcome flashback for those still jonesing for a Fab Four reunion.

After the Walls And Bridges sessions, there was talk of a wager, that if Whatever Gets You Thru The Night went to number one, Lennon was to perform it live with Elton and his band. Much to Lennon’s surprise, it did.

“I said sure, not thinking in a million years it was gonna get to number One, Al Coury or no Al Coury, the promotion man at Capitol,” he told Rolling Stone. “And there I was. Onstage.”

It was historic. It wasn’t officially Lennon’s last ever live performance but Elton John’s Thanksgiving show at Madison Square Garden on 28 November 1974 would be the last time he would step up and play in such a setting, in concert before a sold-out crowd.

He sat in with the Elton John Band for one Whatever Gets You Thru The Night and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, and, for good measure, threw in another Beatles cover, I Saw Her Standing There. The set was recorded. Lennon’s contribution was not included in the original release of Elton John’s 1976 live album, Here And There, but it made the mid ‘90s reissues.

For Lennon, it was perhaps the end of an era. For Elton John, 1974 this was just the start of a new chapter, Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy was in the can, Caribou was in stores worldwide, and a greatest hits record was coming soon, just in time for Christmas.

It was all systems go. All aboard the Starship for a 16,000-mile 10-week tour playing 45 shows in 31 cities across North America. They were the biggest thing since the Beatles, and the audience was waiting…

• Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy 50th Anniversary is out now via UMR.

The Elton John Band had one hour each day in the music room of the SS France to put together the music for a concept album that would be their most musically audacious and thematically intimate to date.

Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year with a deluxe reissue and a 5.1 Atmos remix, would tell the story of Elton John and his lyricist Bernie Taupin in the early days, when they were unknown and penniless, sharing a bedsit in London, writing with dreams of making it.

By the time of the album’s recording, they had most definitely made it. They were the hottest thing since the Beatles – and that was not just popular opinion, John Lennon himself had said so. Captain Fantastic... went straight to number one, selling 1.4 million copies in the first four days of its release.

As Elton’s long-serving guitarist and musical director Davey Johnstone remembers it, joining MusicRadar via Zoom, Captain Fantastic... all began with a bit of fun. A Transatlantic cruise aboard the world’s largest passenger liner on its final voyage would give them just enough time to let their hair down and gather their thoughts. It was just what they needed.

“We knew it was going to be a fun thing. And John Reid [Elton John’s former manager] said, ‘Look, make sure you bring some of your stage clothes with you, because every night we’re going to dress for dinner, and we’re going to sit at the captain’s table,’” recalls Johnstone. “It was quite a big deal, every night we got done up to sit at the captain’s table – was quite a thing. We were there every night.”

Music industry veteran Tony King, then Reid’s assistant, was on the ship with them. Johnstone says King set the sartorial standard. And you have got to picture this. Here was Elton John, Davey Johnstone, et al, sitting down to their starters looking like they were about to take to the stage.

“Tony was always immaculately dressed, and so we all trooped down to the dining room every night in our finery,” says Johnstone. “I mean, it must have looked ridiculous. We’re all wearing Granny Takes A Trip clothes, and all this stuff that we’d wear onstage in those days. I was sitting with the fucking captain. It was insane! But it was brilliant. We had a good time.”

If they weren’t at the captain’s table you might have found them in one of the SS France’s swimming pools, or in one of its cinemas. You would have found percussionist Ray Cooper in his cabin, sick as a dog. “I said, ‘Come on, man, you were seasick.’ And he said, ‘No, no, no, food poisoning.’ So, yeah, the poor guy never came out of his cabin more than once,” says Johnstone.

The others in the travelling party were more adventurous, making full use of the ship’s facilities. There was plenty to be occupied with. An 11-year-old Julian Lennon was onboard with his mother, Cynthia, and the band were chaperoning him to make sure he didn’t get up to too much mischief. They weren’t hiding themselves away. Elton even partook of the ship’s evening entertainment.

“I’ve got a feeling that Elton might have won the bingo, one of the bingo games that he and Tony King had sat in,” says Johnstone. “He actually won it. And so to have Elton John going, ‘Bingo!’ [raises hand] It was a comical thing.”

But this was a working holiday. Elton had a sheet of Taupin’s lyrics in his pocket. He had the concept swirling around in his mind, ideas percolating. What he wrote he committed to memory. They all knew that they were making their way to Nederland, Colorado, to make a record in the shadow of the Rockies. Preparations were being made at Caribou Ranch, the residential studio of choice for Elton and producer Gus Dudgeon, for album number nine.

And they had the Salon Debussy to write in, for one hour each day. That’s all. This was a working cruise liner. Elton John was a big deal but too had to share the facilities with the onboard entertainment.

“There was a room that we were assigned for an hour, I believe it was every day, between a ventriloquist and an opera singer,” says Johnstone. “We had a slot in the middle, and we went in there, and we had an electric piano, and I had my acoustic, and that was where I actually came up with the opening lick that you hear on the record.”

One hour each day would do it. They were used to working quickly. Johnstone’s efficiency when writing and recording is trait he and Elton share.

“I tend to be really quick. Elton is exactly that way, too,” says Johnstone. “I think that’s another reason that we always got on well. When I heard him even maybe just starting to put a song together, I would know what it was I wanted to do.”

Drummer Nigel Olsson did not hang about once the band got to New York City. He made a beeline for Caribou Ranch to set up the drums with Dudgeon while the band killed time in the city for a week. Olsson and Dudgeon were searching for the “ultimate snare sound.”

For the record, his Slingerland kit comprised of a 14” by 8” snare, a 24” by 20” bass drum, five toms (8” to 16”), and three cymbals. Olsson got his drums dialled in just right so there would be no messing around when tracking started.

Johnstone says a drum sound is a non-negotiable. It sets the table for the sound of an album. “That’s the basis of the whole thing,” he says. “Gus and his engineers did a great job putting all that together.”

With the drum sound already established the time Elton arrived at the studio, there was more time to experiment with different sounds. There was no hurry. Having safely handed over Julian Lennon to his father, John, at New York Harbor, they were expecting the former Beatle to join them at the studio at some point, and were busy recording the album in the order it was written.

First up, the title track, and the lilting, steely splash of Johnstone’s Yamaha FG-140 acoustic guitar inaugurating what would be one of the most intense recording experiences they would ever have. The chords came tumbling out and away they went.

“Pretty much every single track was intense because we recorded it in order,” says Johnston. “We recorded it in the order that Bernie had written the lyrics and saw the album. We thought, ‘Okay, here are all the songs. Here are all the lyrics. Let’s do each song as it comes.’ We already knew how Captain Fantastic… would go because we started it on the boat.

“I came up with that opening riff which became what it is, this kind of little folk-country song, and then it goes into this fucking totally different [thing]. So each song was treated really, really separately, and really importantly. It wasn’t like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna lay the track down.’ Each track was really intense.”

The title track is a work of field-born Americana, the soundtrack to an imaginary western. Johnstone lays down two acoustic guitar parts, three electric guitar parts, and two mandolin parts. Elton had a wah pedal on his electric piano.

There are layers and layers as they take this dusty folk-country song and electrify it. It’s like a metaphor for John/Taupin’s career. The bright lights were inevitable.

If the album is the origin story of Elton John and Bernie Taupin, musically it serves up the quintessence of what made the band what it became; Johnstone’s folkie sensibility and gift for playing pretty much anything with strings, Elton’s rock ’n’ roll energy and musical curiosity to take a song off-road, and this strange phenomenon of a band of British players making Americana central to their sound.

“You’re absolutely right. Americana is now this whole thing. We were fucking playing it in the ‘70s. This is what we did,” says Johnstone. “Dixie Lily [from 1974’s Caribou], Captain Fantastic, all of these tracks are steeped in Americana. So, yeah, very much so, we’ve always been that kind of a band.”

Each song presented its own challenges. Someone Saved My Life Tonight is Elton at his rawest. The arrangement had to leave space for that. With a running time just under seven minutes, it did not make the most obvious choice for a single, but then this was 1975 and there was something in the air.

A few months later, Queen would do something similar with a piano-led epic as they released Bohemian Rhapsody as the lead single from A Night At The Opera. It still blows Johnstone’s mind that it was successful as a single.

“On Someone Saved My Life Tonight, the main point that we wanted to get across was the vulnerability of the song, and the beauty of the piano sound,” says Johnstone. “Now, I mean, pfft! Here’s another thing. I’m still confused when I think of the fact that it was a massive hit single [laughs], because it was the only single on that record, which is kind of weird. It could have been could have been others. It was very, very emotional.”

How could you follow Someone Saved My Life Tonight, this operatic cri de coeur? It was an unorthodox single but the perfect way to close out Side A, an almighty mic drop. You can pick yourself off the floor as you turn the vinyl over.

Someone Saved My Life Tonight is a piano track but in the mix you will hear the swirl of Johnstone’s acoustic guitars through a Leslie.

There was always often a whiff of psychedelia in Elton’s ‘70s work, as on Tower Of Babel with its Univibe piano – all these modulated elements to contrast with the biscuity dryness of acoustic folk instrumentation, and the straight-ahead, decade-appropriate sound of Johnstone playing his 1972 Les Paul Custom through a Vox AC30, as he did on the Tower Of Babel solo.

Johnstone’s approach is worthy of study. Oftentimes his acoustics and mandolinw will be layered and panned, and used to sit alongside the piano, filling out those frequencies, whereas he will use the electric guitar like a secondary lead vocal, like on Bitter Fingers, where his rhythm/lead lines sound like they are in conversation with Elton.

“I don’t know why I was so audacious to think that I should play the tune behind the chorus, but it works,” he says. “When we did it, I remember Elton going, ‘Oh, I fucking love that.’”

What makes it doubly audacious is that it the fuzzy tone is really just a little Pignose amp pushed hard. Johnstone would use it regularly throughout the Captain Fantastic… sessions. “I used to go to the bass pickup, take all the bass off so that it was just a pure ‘woooo’ type of sound,” he says.

On occasion, he would bypass the outboard gear completely and just plug his guitar direct into the console, as he did on Writing, a track that’s all light on its feet, with Johnstone’s guitars tip-toeing through these almost celestial frequencies, doubling his acoustic with a Stratocaster, while Dee Murray’s bassline does much of the heavy lifting, giving it ballast.

Johnstone and Dudgeon had a reputation for double-tracked guitars, and by the time Captain Fantastic was being recorded they had it down to a tee.

“When I had a double or something, it pretty much would happen straight away. Don’t waste time on it,” says Johnstone. “If I was doing an acoustic guitar, whatever kind of it was, we would double it to get a bigger, more glossy kind of sparkly effect, and I would do it straight away.

“I’m not bragging here, but it became a thing that I became the double-track guy, so when we did this stuff on Writing, which was all direct into the board on that Strat, it was like, ‘Oh, let me just double that. I’ve got an idea.’ I was really playing off of it. I wasn’t doubling the part, per se, all the way. I was putting a couple of harmonies on, and then having them offset each other.”

There is a story online that Johnstone had to intervene when they were tracking the album’s centrepiece, Someone Saved My Life Last Night, that Dudgeon was pushing Elton too hard, given how difficult the subject matter was. But that’s not how Johnstone remembers it. One of Dudgeon’s greatest gifts was to humour Elton and keep him on-point.

“Gus has always been perfect at getting the best out of Elton,” he says. “Gus was a major, major part of this whole thing… A wonderful producer, who needs to be heralded, not only for this album but all of Elton’s albums.”

Murray, too, was key. In Johnstone’s opinion a criminally underrated bass player, “stunningly brilliant,” and capable of playing a line you would least expect. The first time Johnstone worked on a track with him, on 1972’s Honkey Château, he couldn’t believe what Murray came up with.

“When he comes in on Rocket Man, that bassline is fucking devastating. Who would think of playing that kind of a line?” says Johnstone. “You know, most bass players would just go to the root note. Dee, he’s just phenomenal. He does the same thing on Curtains, and, again, as you’ve mentioned, Writing is a phenomenal part. I really miss Dee Murray because he was such an integral part of what we were doing.”

Curtains was another one where the Univibe saw some action. Johnstone’s electric went through one and then into the Pignose. The Yamaha acoustic had served him so well. It was a dream to record. Dudgeon loved it. But Captain Fantastic… was the first time that Johnstone started experimenting with different acoustics. Johnstone brought a Martin D-28 to the studio.

There’s a spirit of expansionism running through the album. Little wonder John Lennon wanted to experience some of it, and he did, turning up to the studio to record a cover of the Beatles’ Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (Lennon is credited as Dr Winston O’Boogie), which was released as a single with Lennon’s One Day (At A Time), also recorded during these sessions, as the B-side.

These side missions were indicative of how prolific this hit-making machine had become. Philadelphia Freedom, written in tribute to Billie Jean King, was recorded during the Captain Fantastic… sessions.

That was another song on which Johnstone plugged an electric into the desk, this time a Fender Telecaster, before they gave the track to Gene Page to add orchestration. Again, Philadelphia Freedom was a hit, another number one. They were on a hot streak. Johnstone says they were always thinking one album ahead. There was no time for reflection.

“We just went on and went back out on the road, and then we’d come back in the studio and back on the road,” he says. “We never stopped to go, ‘Jesus, that is really fucking good.’ We never actually stopped to do that. Which was probably, in retrospect, it was probably a good thing. We didn’t get full of ourselves and the rest of it. We just carried on doing what we were doing.”

And there was much work to do. They were pulling out all the tricks. On Better Off Dead, they put Olsson’s drums through an Eventide Harmonizer. There are reportedly six layers of backing vocals on the track. Their appetite for adventure grew with each passing track, exploring the limits of vocal harmonies, Johnstone bringing his folk influences to bear on them.

The wind was in their sails. So when they came to closing out Captain Fantastic… with We All Fall In Love and Curtains, they decided just to record the tracks together, no breaks in between, 10-minutes plus of music.

Hey, they had opened Goodbye Yellow Brick Road like that, Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding. What could go wrong? Well, they did it, and in two takes. It was 50 years ago now but Johnstone remembers it like it was yesterday.

“That’s a long, long fucking piece. It’s like Funeral For A Friend… plus!” he says. “We’d become famous for doing these really majestic background vocals, with really great parts, and we loved doing them, but when we were doing the backgrounds for Curtains, and we were standing in a circle – I’ll never forget it – the three of us were almost in tears.

“And just like us/You must have had/A once upon a time… Even when I’m telling you this right now, I’m choking a little bit, because it’s fucking special. Listening to these words, and we’re getting to sing this as part of our history, the history of this band, and of course Elton and Bernie’s whole history up to that point, the whole thing was very moving. It was very deep, very fucking moving.”

Johnstone hasn’t had that long to sit with the new 5.1 Atmos mix of Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy, which was overseen by Greg Penny, and yet he is already hearing details that he had never heard before.

Today was a good day to catch him because hearing it in 5.1 has given him a deeper appreciation of not only album but that iteration of the Elton John Band and what they were capable of, and the part he played, and what the band’s greatest strengths were – what made the ultimate ‘70s band tick.

“Well, here’s the thing, we never, ever told each other what to do,” he says. “I tend to know the right things to play. And I’ve always been blessed with the gift of not stepping on the vocal. I think if a song’s great, leave it the fuck alone.”

“What’s the point of blowing a loud meaningless guitar solo over a great vocal line? That’s something that’s always come to me naturally, and I think there was an awful lot of trust between all of us, because we just played what we wanted to play, and instinctively things came out that way.

“I’ll sit back and make sure everybody gets the chance. It’s something that we learned in the original band, with just the four of us, that we loved the space. The space between the notes, to me, is as important is the notes themselves.

“That’s really important in music as a whole – the tension that you can build that with space. Instead of filling every nook and cranny up with a lick or a line or whatever, I always feel that it’s important to let the thing breathe on its own.”

• Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy 50th Anniversary is out now via UMR.

The trance DJ Armin Van Buuren has a new album out today (31 October). Nothing unusual about that, you might say - he’s released eight before, usually with one word titles (Shivers, Intense, Embrace, etc). But Piano is different: it’s his first venture into the classical field.

It’s also coming out exclusively on Apple Music and Apple Music Classical for a week and, to tie in with that, the Dutch DJ has given an interview to Zane Lowe of Apple Music 1 about the new project.

He admitted to feeling nervous about the whole venture, saying: “Playing the piano, I feel more naked than on the cover of Men’s Health magazine... If people will dislike this or be critical of this, because it’s so personal, that will hit me harder than when I do release another dance track. But I feel I’m looking for that vulnerability right now in my life and this is exactly where I need to be.”

(For those of you who are unfamiliar with Dutch men’s periodicals… Van Buuren wasn’t speaking metaphorically. He actually was on the cover of Men’s Health Magazine in the Netherlands earlier this year.)

The classical album, he explained, came out of a period of intense self-doubt. “The cave you fear holds the treasure you seek... really looking that animal in the face was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Who am I? What kind of person do I want to be? And yeah, I’ve hurt a lot of people… but most of all, I was hurting myself.”

He says that Covid felt like a relief. “All of a sudden, I didn’t have to play anymore. And that’s when I seriously considered quitting music.”

Van Buuren started piano lessons in 2018, which led naturally onto composition. “I feel a freedom behind the piano that I don’t feel behind the sequencer,” he explained to Lowe. “What I learned mostly recording all these pieces is the power of breath. There’s music without any note being played. And that’s something I didn’t understand being a DJ. Now I understand how fundamental that is and how all the composers already knew that, the power of breathing.”

Van Buuren said he wasn’t sure if Piano (for which every track was, remarkably, recorded in one take) marks a new chapter for him, or whether it’s merely an interesting diversion.

“At this point, there’s no plan... Everybody’s asking me, ‘Are you going to do the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam?’ (The city’s main concert hall). I have no idea. The only thing I can tell you is that it’s genuine. It comes straight from the heart and it’s in one take... It’s the most honest music I’ve ever made.”

What is it?

The PSR series, originally known as PortaSound Regular, is Yamaha’s long-running line of portable arranger keyboards, and chances are you’ve encountered one before. The PSR-E models in particular are aimed at beginners, offering an accessible entry point into playing.

The PSR-E360, one of Yamaha’s more recent models designed with beginners in mind, retains the familiar layout of the series while introducing a refreshed design. This time, Yamaha has opted for a more understated aesthetic, featuring clean lines, rounded edges, and natural wood-inspired finishes that blend effortlessly into any home setting; it comes in two wood-effect finishes, Dark Walnut and Maple.

In terms of features available from the buttons on the front, the PSR-E360 offers quick access to the different sounds, accompaniment, metronome, lesson function as well as two useful switches: the ultra-wide stereo which enhance the sonic field resulting in a more immersive sound, and the ‘the portable grand’ switch that allows player to very easily go back to the main piano voice of the instrument.

The Yamaha PSR-E360 is fairly compact and lightweight, only 4kg, which means it can easily be carried around or put away after use. It can be plugged into the mains, but it also works with 6 AA batteries.

It’s a standard 61-key, full-size touch-sensitive keyboard, meaning the keys respond to how firmly they’re pressed, allowing for expressive control. The white keys feature a soft, glossy finish, while the black keys have a matte, slightly textured surface for improved grip and a more natural feel.

As opposed to digital pianos that often only come with a dozen sounds, arranger keyboards are known to support a wide variety of voices. The PSR-E360 features 354 voices or pianos, woodwind, strings, and synthesiser sounds as well as 16 drum kits and sFX.

You will also find a list of effects to use on your sound, nine reverbs, choruses and EQs, adding a sound design element to the experience.

The PSR-E360 also includes 130 auto-accompaniment styles for play-along practice. To make learning these songs easier, Yamaha provides the Easy Song Book, a downloadable collection of sheet music and practice parts. The book breaks down each song into right-hand melodies, left-hand chords, and optional chord symbols, helping beginners follow along, practice timing, and get the most out of the keyboard’s lesson modes. 112 songs of Yamaha’s leaning platform are available on the PSR-E360.

The PSR-E360 features an onboard recorder and an AUX IN jack for connecting external audio devices.

Build & features

When it comes to light and compact beginner keyboards, the Yamaha PSR-E series is often a simple and affordable choice, and the PSR-E360 is no exception.

Unlike some entry-level instruments that rely on bright, flashy colours, the PSR-E360 keeps things subtle. The function buttons are small and unobtrusive, blending naturally into the panel, while the central screen sits quietly within the overall layout, contributing to the keyboard’s understated design.

Although the build leans more toward plastic than premium materials, the wood-print finish on the top adds a touch of elegance, giving the instrument a simple, refined look. We particularly appreciated the speaker design, which feels clean and harmonious, complementing the keyboard’s overall aesthetic.

From a 2025 perspective, the PSR-E360 lacks certain modern features, such as Bluetooth connectivity. However, it does allow you to connect a phone or tablet via the AUX IN jack. Newer models, such as Yamaha’s PSR-E383 with USB connectivity or the Roland EX50 with Bluetooth, show how entry-level keyboards are evolving.

A particularly handy feature on the PSR-E360 is the ‘Portable Grand’ button, which instantly returns the instrument to the main piano sound; a simple but valuable touch when navigating the many voices and effects. Similarly, the ‘Ultra Wide Stereo’ effect is best experienced through headphones, adding a noticeable sense of depth to the sound.

For beginners, the inclusion of 120 songs along with the corresponding charts in Yamaha’s Easy Song Book is a standout feature. It provides a structured path for learning, allowing new players to practice step by step while staying engaged with a variety of genres and styles. The charts make it easy to follow along, reinforcing note reading and timing, and the pre-set songs give instant feedback, helping learners feel a sense of accomplishment. Combined with the keyboard’s built-in voices and accompaniment styles, this feature turns practice sessions into an interactive and enjoyable experience rather than a repetitive chore.

The PSR-E360 retails for around £200, while the newer PSR-E383, with its enhanced features, is available for approximately £170. The E360’s main appeal lies in its sleek, versatile design. Whether it’s worth the extra £30 is ultimately a personal choice.

Playability & sound

This understated impression extends to the keyboard itself. Despite being aimed at beginners, the keys offer a surprisingly nice bounce and tactile response, making the instrument accessible and enjoyable for new players.

In terms of sound, the built-in speakers can sound thin and boxy – typical for entry-level portable keyboards. You’ll get a much more enjoyable experience with headphones.

With 354 voices, the PSR-E360 provides a wide range of options for beginners. The main piano tone is quite good, but many of the other voices feel somewhat dated. That said, the keyboard still includes inspiring synths, interesting world instruments, and dual patches that blend sounds creatively. One highlight is the soft, mellow string voice, which stands out. The accompaniment tracks, although seemingly unchanged for decades, remain a fun and useful feature for practising.

Verdict

While the Yamaha PSR-E360 may not include all the digital and connectivity features found in 2025 keyboards, it remains a solid choice as one of the best keyboards for beginners. Its clean, simple design allows it to blend seamlessly into any home, and it is light and easy to store. If simplicity is your priority, the E360 is a good option.

That said, it is not the newest model in the PSR-E series; Yamaha has since released the PSR-E383 and PSR-E473, both of which offer a variety of enhanced features. The PSR-E383, in particular, provides a more affordable option with improvements over the E360.

In short, you’re always in safe hands with Yamaha. Keyboards in the PSR series don’t drastically change from model to model, but if you’re looking for the latest technology in arranger keyboards at a better price, then the PSR-E383 and PSR-E473 are worth considering.

Hands-on demo

Specifications

• Dimensions: Width: 940 mm (37”) X Height: 100 mm (3-15/16”) X Depth: 316 mm (12-1/2”)
• Weight: 4.0 kg (8 lb, 13 oz) (excluding batteries)
• Number of Keys: 61
• Display Type: LCD display
• Tone Generating Technology: AWM Stereo Sampling
• Maximum Polyphony: 32
• Number of Voices: 384 Voices + 16 drum/SFX kits
• Sustain Button: Yes
• Number of Preset Backing Styles: 130
• Duo Mode: Yes
• DC Power Input: 12 V
• Headphone Connection: Standard stereo phone jack (PHONES/OUTPUT)
• Sustain Pedal Connector: Yes
• AUX IN Connection: Stereo mini jack
• Amplifiers: 2.5 W + 2.5 W
• Speakers: 12 cm × 2
• Power Consumption: 6 W (using included Yamaha PA-130 AC adapter)
• Contact: Yamaha

What is it?

One company that has become inextricably linked with exceptional performance keyboards is Nord. Its dominance in the pro-keyboard market is an indication of its enduring reliability, coupled with unquestionable levels of flexibility and on-the-fly functionality, which provides performers with the tools they need for the live environment.

While products such as the Stage series provide a host of features across a number of different performance scenarios, products such as the Nord Piano and Organ are more focused. The former being recently released in its latest guise, the Nord Piano 6, and now the Nord Organ pitches to version 3.

Performance

Nord Organ 3 is inspired by traditional organ heritage. It is equipped with two manuals (aka keyboards) both of which are five octaves in range. Described as upper and lower manuals, it is bedecked with drawbars across the top of the instrument. There are four full sets of nine drawbars: two for the upper and two for the lower manual. Residing in the centre are two drawbars, which are associated with bass (more on that later!).

Given the predominance of these essential performance features, at least in organ terms, it’s fairly easy to comprehend its position in the keyboard hierarchy. The included Fatar keybeds adopt Nord’s Triple Sensor technology, in a semi-weighted waterfall style feel. Unsurprisingly, it is incredibly playable, with a beautiful level of interaction, although the internal sounds do not react to velocity from the keyboard itself. The keys do send velocity over MIDI, but just like an organ, the sounds do not address velocity values. Even so, the technology is there, should Nord decide to offer additional velocity functionality to the internal sounds, in the future.

B3 or not B3?

Organ 3 is equipped with the capacity to save up to 400 patches, and Nord gets us underway with the provision of a host of impressive programmed sounds. These sounds are initially drawn from its models of the B3, Vox and Farfisa, with two further pipe organ models available too. All of these provide full polyphony.

It’s fair to say that the Hammond B3 model rules the roost for the most part, with both a full-fat B3 and a new softer tone B3. There are also controls for percussion upfront, and of course an internal emulation of the legendary rotary speaker system. This is controlled from the bottom-left of the keyboard, with slow and fast buttons, as well as a complete stop. This can also be controlled from a foot switch, or you could invest in the Nord half-moon switch, for a more Hammond-like interaction. There is also provision for a swell pedal, through the addition of any of the usual see-saw expression pedals.

As we get underway, the sound of Organ 3 is unbelievably impressive. Thanks to the nine drawbars, you find yourself quickly morphing the sound in real time, while engaging the rotary speaker at will. Classic sounds literally fall out of Organ 3, but it is far more flexible, than just a simple Hammond emulation.

As each manual is equipped with two sets of drawbars, you’re just a mere button press away from shifting to a different sound, meaning that you can escalate your playing quickly, or reduce it to a shimmering pianissimo, with immediacy. The upper harmonics sound beautiful, just like the originals.

Meanwhile, the Vox and Farfisa models offer their own level of endearing kitsch, and have been heavily revised and improved for Organ 3. Functionality across the keyboard also switches; when working in the Farfisa domain, the drawbars revert to an on/off mode, to replicate the original.

The rockier side of Organ 3 is almighty, but what of the pipe organs? Without casting aspersions, this was always going to be a difficult task to fulfil, predominantly because a pipe organ is such a large and intrinsically acoustic affair. It’s often dependent upon its acoustic environment, and while the pipe organ emulation is attractive, it inevitably struggles to capture the scale and acoustic nuance of the real thing.

As a creative instrument, the ability to explore the harmonic content of the pipe section is wonderful, particularly for softer and more pad-like tones, but it will struggle to sound mighty, mainly because it cannot compete with the full gamut of pipe organ sounds, particularly in the pedal section. There is a Tuba available, but it will struggle to endorse its full potential in the classical domain, in anything other than a chamber setting, which is arguably its ideal placement for such a portable device. Nevertheless, it is sonically very good, but limited, and is a welcome addition to an instrument which excels in so many other areas.

Bass pedal section

While Organ 3 does not ship with any accessories, Nord offers a number of different accessory options, which include the Pedal Keys 25 & 27. These will only be useful to you if you fancy playing low notes with your feet. It’s an attractive proposition, as Organ 3 is equipped with its own Bass Pedal section. But if the idea of playing a keyboard with your feet does not endear, you can redirect the same sounds to the lower two octaves of the lower manual. There is a hard split point, between the notes B-C, where the bass pedal patch will reside, although this split point cannot be altered.

The Bass sounds available within this section are limited, but impressive. They are designed to complement your chosen upper sounds, with options for B3 bass, Tuba, Trek strings and even Moog Taurus pedals. These sounds are complemented further by volume and tone control, provided by the two drawbars from within this section. You can also easily switch between manual and pedal control, via a single button press.

Rotary and effects

One of the most useful performance features of this instrument, is not only inclusion of an impressive rotary/amp effects section, but also EQ, delay, modulation and reverb. These are all equipped with a basic set of controls, but provide instant access to whatever you need during a live performance. These are also linked to the 400 patch locations, so effects will be saved alongside your organ settings. It’s also possible to route the effects to the upper manual only, leaving the lower manual uncluttered by effects, which is useful if playing bass with the left hand.

The rotary simulation section has had an impressive makeover, now with five distinct mic perspectives for the treble horn. This allows for a broadening or narrowing of the stereo image, catering for all mix eventualities. There are also amplifier simulations for Jazz Chorus, 4x12 British Tube cabinet and Classic Twin, with a revised overdrive which sounds amazingly authentic – it really rips! As you’ve got control right in front of you, you can sculpt your sound as you feel it.

Should you prefer not to use the internal rotary effect, you can divert your signal via a dedicated output, taking advantage of the 11-pin Leslie format, directly from the rear panel.

Verdict

When you purchase a Nord product, it’s a surefire thing that you know what you are going to get. This is a beautifully made, quality instrument. The panel is metal, with red wooden end cheeks to the left and right. The drawbars, pots and buttons all feel very solid, and while the central OLED screen is not huge, it is functional, and arguably there in a supporting role. After all, everything you really need is right on the panel.

It is this concept that endears so many keyboard players to Nord products, and Organ 3 is no exception. It’s a time-vacuum of organistic nirvana, inviting you to lose yourself for hours. The only question, for the end user, is whether you really need to inhabit the traditional organ domain, to the extent of buying a bespoke keyboard for purpose. It will function well as a MIDI controller, but its main allure is obvious, and it’s Hammond shaped!

Hands-on demos

nordkeyboards

Alternatives

Specifications

RECORDING WEEK 2025: The upright piano is so much more than a dusty piece of furniture in the corner of your lounge. The average upright contains around 12,000 parts - and 80% of those are moving. It certainly puts the petrol engine in its place! The physical stress of the strings across the piano’s frame is equal to around 20 tons. And you thought life was stressful enough?

Recording a live piano isn’t the easiest task, but it is one of the most rewarding. Part of the problem with relying on DAWs is that it is all too tempting to hit the Quantise button the moment you have recorded a track.

When you play a chord on a piano, you don't play all the notes at the same time. Arguably, you do this when using samples too, but the temptation to quantise is often just too great!

The subtle imperfection of timing is one of the key elements that will truly bring your track to life, but there is another detail, all to do with the piano’s tuning.

If you take a look inside your upright piano, you can't help but notice the incredible number of strings. Most contemporary pianos have 88 notes; higher notes use three strings per note, the middle register uses two, and the low notes just one. This string arrangement helps to balance the volume and sustain of the instrument across registers, but it also means that notes can easily go out of tune.

In an ideal world, acoustic pianos would reside in their own humidity-controlled environments, maintained at a constant temperature of around 20°C. In these conditions, any piano in a reasonable condition should hold its tuning fairly well. Just like any stringed instrument, the more it is played, the more likely the tuning will move.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as a little detuning can add to that ‘organic’ quality, and there are many examples of classic recordings where pianos are a little bit out of tune with themselves.

Where tuning becomes a bigger issue is when it has dropped significantly in pitch across the board. Unlike a sampled instrument, your best bet is to call upon the assistance of a piano tuning professional.

Tuning a piano is not a prohibitive task, providing you have the ears and the tools to undertake it, but it is not for the faint-hearted. It is certainly not as simple as merely tuning each string to a tuning app, thanks to the physics of sympathetic resonance and harmonics.

Having established that you have an instrument which is worthy of recording, the next step is to think about microphone placement.

Having access to the front and back of the piano is not essential, but may prove helpful if experimenting. If your piano is up against a wall, the decision is probably made, so don’t worry!

If you do have access to the rear of the piano (which is the side opposite to the keyboard side) it will most likely have the appearance of wood, or be covered by a layer of fabric. What you are seeing here is the underside of the soundboard. This is a crucial component in the piano’s architecture, as it helps the instrument maintain resonance and project its sound.

The opposite side of the piano, where the keyboard lives, will have upper and lower compartments, above and below the keyboard. In terms of recording, we are not terribly bothered about the lower section, as this is where the pedal mechanism lives.

This can often be a little ‘creaky’, meaning that it's not the best place to position a microphone for recording purposes. The upper section, on the other hand, is perfect for recording.

Remove the panel protecting the internal strings by lifting the lid at the top of the instrument and undoing the latches at either end. Once unsecured, the front panel should lift out, revealing the inner workings of the piano mechanism and the strings themselves.

When recording an acoustic piano, the way you approach miking will be informed by the style of music you are recording. In classical recording, the ideal is to have a beautifully engineered, sonically rich room, which will ultimately sound ideal for piano.
As most of us do not have this luxury, we tend to go for close microphone techniques, as it will eliminate the additional sound of the room in the recording, offering more control in the DAW.

Mic selection is a consideration, but it is possible to record a piano with any mic you may have available. Unsurprisingly, the best results come from using at least two mics, ideally as a stereo pair. Condenser or ribbon microphones tend to yield the best results, but good dynamic microphones can perform very well, particularly in certain placements.

Before you start putting microphones in certain places, it can be exceptionally helpful to listen to somebody else play the instrument, allowing you the opportunity to listen closely in a number of different areas. If it sounds good to your ear, in a certain place, the chances are a microphone will sound just as good.

Let's begin considering some popular options for placement of a pair of microphones.

With the front panel removed, you should hear a bright sound, as the hammers hit the strings. Given the simplicity of the instrument, you will hear lower notes to the left and higher notes to the right.

This can be very useful when dictating where to place microphones, as it can immediately eliminate frequencies that you don't necessarily require. Many commercial recordings do not need much in the way of low frequency content, in fact this content can clutter a mix, so try placing microphones spaced apart, with one a little way below middle C, and another an octave or so above middle C.

In terms of height and distance from the strings you will generally get a harsher sound the closer you are to the hammers.

This can be useful, particularly for percussive material, or if employing the soft or practice pedals, but in terms of blending in a more usual mix, you will probably want to place the mics a few inches away from the strings and hammers. You also have the option to move the microphones higher, so they are still close to the strings, but away from the hammers.

This ‘spaced pair’ technique will give an excellent performance, but for an option, try placing the microphones closer together, as a coincident pair. This arrangement involves placing the mics at an angle of approximately 90° to each other, so that one microphone is aimed towards the lower strings, and the other the upper strings.

This creates a wonderful effect when the microphones are panned in the mix, where you hear the full range of the piano moving across the stereo spectrum, according to played register. The sound moves fluidly from one side of the keyboard to the other, but it can dominate a mix and may not be the best choice if you don’t want the piano front and centre.

If you have access to more than just two microphones, and want to experiment, it is worth accessing the rear of the instrument, to capture a different tonal colour.

By placing the mics about 30cm apart, halfway down the back of the piano and up close to the soundboard, you'll find a sound which is much darker in timbre, but one that is ideal for blending with the brighter sound emitted from the front of the instrument.

Moreover, many engineers find that this darker tone is captured beautifully by dynamic microphones, particularly inexpensive classics like the Shure SM57. Being dynamic, you can get them exceptionally close to the soundboard, though harder playing can sound harsh, requiring the mic to be backed off slightly. Once recorded, this signal can be blended with other mic signals to create the perfect piano sound.

Whether you have an old upright which is in need of tuning, one that has broken strings or even compacted hammers, you will be surprised how much character a piano can bring to a composition and recording. Even a single dynamic microphone can yield something useful, and while we all lust for the ‘perfect’ piano sound, any usage that brings magic to a track has to be worthwhile.

What is it?

The Roland E-X50 is the latest in Roland’s E-series of arranger keyboards, building on the legacy of the original E-20, which launched over thirty years ago as one of the first “professional” arranger keyboards. Advancements in digital piano technology, changing consumer preferences, and increased demand for versatile keyboards have transformed electronic musical instruments. Designed for beginners and hobbyists, the E-X50 continues the E-series legacy with a familiar interface and features that will feel comfortable to players used to classic Roland arranger keyboards.

The E-X50 features an elegant matte-black design, with top-mounted speakers that combine woofers, tweeters, and a bass-reflex port for punchy yet crystal-clear sound. The E-X50 comes with a standard 61-key synth-style keyboard, with velocity-sensitive keys and a glossy finish. The velocity response can be adjusted, with three different curves as well as a fixed option for consistent key sensitivity.

What distinguishes an arranger keyboard like the Roland E-X50 from a traditional digital piano is its expansive tone library and built-in accompaniment. The E-X50 provides 433 instrument sounds, including pianos, organs, strings, brass, world instruments, synths, and drums, plus an additional 256 GM2 sounds, ensuring full General MIDI 2 compatibility. This means songs created on other GM2-compatible devices will play back accurately on the E-X50. Altogether, you have 689 sounds at your disposal, combining Roland’s curated tones with the GM2 library. The instrument also includes 9 drum sets.

The Roland E-X50 includes 300 built-in automatic accompaniment patterns – called 'Preset Styles' by Roland. Each provides a full backing band (drums, bass, chords, and more) that follows chords played with the left hand and spans a wide range of genres. The keyboard supports user-defined tone and style combinations for fast, customised performances.

The E-X50 offers a variety of effects, including 11 types of reverb, 12 types of chorus, and 6 EQ presets. You can use these effects on the keyboard’s sounds or on external sources connected through the rear input for a microphone or instrument.

A standout feature of the Roland E-X50 is its performance pads. You can assign these pads to trigger quarter-tone scales, which helps when playing non-Western music. They can also trigger samples you import with a USB stick, giving you more options for live performances.

The Roland E-X50 allows streaming via Bluetooth or cable connection for playing along with backing tracks, practising with songs from your device, or integrating external audio into live performances.

Build quality

Arranger keyboards are hard to define these days, positioned somewhere between digital pianos and professional stage keyboards. The key question is whether they strike the right balance of features, feel, and value.

The Roland E-X50 looks sleek and feels solid, living up to Roland’s reputation for quality. Even though it’s affordable, the build stands out. Its sharp edges and matte finish give it a classic look that I very much enjoy. Now, while the E-X50 is larger and heavier than some of its rivals, I'd argue that its layout is more spacious and easier to use - a definite plus for beginners, for sure.

At the back of the instrument, you’ll find a jack input, allowing you to connect a microphone or guitar directly to it and use Roland’s built-in effects for added versatility and fun. The instrument also features assignable pads that can trigger your own imported samples, providing greater flexibility and allowing for truly personalised sounds and effects.

The E-X50 is also well-connected, offering USB, memory stick, and Bluetooth options that facilitate streaming and triggering samples. For instance, you can stream a Spotify backing track via Bluetooth while triggering custom samples from the assignable pads. This setup enhances performance dynamics, providing a seamless transition between streaming and live play, tailored to your creative needs.

Playability

The keyboard on the E-X50 feels solid, but the keys are quite stiff and don’t move very far. This can make it harder for beginners, as it takes more finger control and might feel tiring after a while. It’s also missing aftertouch, a feature found on many modern synths and keyboards, which some advanced players might miss.

On the plus side, the Roland E-X50 offers 256-note polyphony, which offers a substantial advantage over its competitors, ensuring that even the most intricate performances are delivered with full clarity and without note dropout.

Sounds

Okay, let's now move to the sound of the Roland EX50. For me, a standout feature of the E-X50 is its speaker system, which delivers a punchy, lively sound, making it enjoyable to play even without headphones.

Arranger keyboards are great for creativity, thanks to their many sounds and accompaniment styles. The E-X50 offers a wide range, including interesting world instruments from Southeast Asia. The core piano sounds have a rich tone with a surprising amount of depth. The E. Piano voices are also very colourful, and the brass and woodwind patches are brought to life by a warm, organic vibrato.

That said, there aren’t many improvements over older models. The string voices, for instance, can feel reminiscent of ’90s GM patches when contrasted with Roland’s higher-end instruments that use SuperNATURAL technology. Many other sounds in the E-X50 feel overly synthetic, and the accompaniments will seem dated to many players.

The E-X50 offers a wide range of effects, including reverbs, EQs, choruses, and delays. However, some effects are already embedded in certain voices and cannot be edited individually, which could be important to consider for those seeking maximum flexibility in sound customisation.

And we saved perhaps the best feature of the E-X50 for last. The keyboard makes it remarkably easy to switch between different scales and tunings, opening the door to quarter-tone playing. This feature is particularly exciting for musicians interested in exploring music beyond the standard Western system, adding a new dimension to performance and creativity.

Verdict

Does the Roland E-X50 live up to its legendary predecessors as a safe choice as a beginner keyboard, or a fun, creative instrument for those seeking versatility and a one-man-band experience? As expected from a Roland E-series arranger keyboard, it offers some impressive features, but there are important considerations before making a purchase.

While it benefits from Roland’s renowned build quality and expertise, the E-X50 may fall short in the sound department for many pianists. Still, the E-X50 has some strong points. The built-in speakers produce sound that is full and powerful, Bluetooth makes streaming simple, and features like quarter-tone scales and assignable pads provide you with more creative options. The keyboard also feels sturdy and well-made.

MusicRadar verdict: The Roland E-X50 is a good choice for beginners, offering creative features, strong connectivity, and a sturdy build. However, the keys feel stiff, and some sounds seem outdated for the price.

Hands-on demos

RolandChannel

Kraft Music

Georgy Hesky

Specifications

• Type: Arranger keyboard
• Maximum Polyphony: 256 voices
• Tones: 433 main tones + 256 GM2 tones
• Drum Sets: 9 main + 9 GM2
• Effects: Equaliser: 6 types, Reverb: 11 types, Chorus: 12 types
• Keys: 61 (with velocity sensitivity)
• Touch Sensitivity: 3 levels + fixed touch
• Speakers: 12 cm (4-3/4 inches) × 2
• Tweeters: 3 cm (1-1/4 inch) × 2
• Rated Power Output: 10 W × 2
• Styles: 300 styles
• Headphones: Stereo 1/4-inch
• Output: 1/4-inch
• Pedal Jack: 1/4-inch
• USB: USB B type
• AC Adaptor: Included
• Power Consumption: 30 W
• Contact: Roland

Few people know the Rhodes piano as well as Herbie Hancock. In fact, he actually knew the instrument’s inventor, Harold Rhodes.

It turns out, though, that one of Hancock’s early encounters with Rhodes was a little awkward, with Harold not taking too kindly to some of the modifications that Herbie had made to one of his instruments.

Speaking in a newly released video from Spectrasonics, in which Hancock is seen playing the Rhodes emulation from the company’s Keyscape software, the jazz great reminisces about the time that Rhodes came down to watch him and his band performing at The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, where he was playing one of the early versions of his piano.

“Harold came down to see me and the band… to see how his instrument was being used,” Hancock remembers. “So we play and afterwards he comes up to me and says ‘you cannibalised my instrument! Why did you do that?’”

Rhodes was referring to the fact that Hancock had equipped his piano with inputs and outputs, something that he felt was going to be useful going forward. And not only for him, but for other musicians.

“‘Harold, I think that what I’m doing - which is using other devices with the instrument - I think a lot of other guys are going to want to do this,’” Hancock told Rhodes. “So I said, ‘Why don’t you put some inputs and outputs over on the side?’ And I started thinking about the studio. I said, ‘Why not put XLR [in the piano] also?’ And he did.”

Those familiar with their Harold Rhodes history will know that the first pianos he created were made from aeroplane parts and built for wounded US soldiers who were convalescing after World War 2, and elsewhere in the video, Spectrasonics’ Eric Persing brings in one of these mini instruments - its toy piano-like sound was sampled for Keyscape - so that Hancock can take a look at it.

“It doesn’t have audio outs because he hadn’t met you yet,” jokes Persing.

When you think of rock anthems, the roaring riffs of electric guitars often steal the spotlight. Yet, tucked away beneath the layers of distortion, many of your favourite hits have a surprising origin: they were initially crafted on the humble piano before transforming into the powerhouse, guitar-driven masterpieces we adore today.

From the haunting melodies of Fleetwood Mac to the hard-hitting nu metal tracks of Papa Roach, the piano has played a crucial role in shaping the sound of rock music. These timeless classics might even inspire you to ditch the guitar and explore the sonic possibilities of a digital piano when searching for fresh songwriting inspiration.

Today, we delve into the stories behind legendary tracks from artists like Ozzy Osbourne and George Harrison, revealing how a simple piano riff can evolve into rock magic. Get ready to view your favourite songs in an entirely new light.

1. Ozzy Osbourne – Mama, I’m Coming Home

Ozzy Osbourne's Mama, I’m Coming Home is a heartfelt ballad that has resonated deeply with metal fans since its release in 1991, and its impact has only intensified following the legendary singer's passing. The song serves as a poignant reflection on love and longing, highlighting the raw vulnerability that lies beneath Ozzy's heavy metal persona.

The powerful lyrics were written by another metal icon, Lemmy of Motörhead, while the music was created by Ozzy’s longtime collaborator, Zakk Wylde. In an interview with our sister publication, Guitar World, Zakk explained that the song initially began as a piano piece that he and Ozzy were experimenting with.

“That actually came from me and Oz jamming on the piano in my apartment in North Hollywood,” he recalls. “So it started on piano, and then when we got in the studio, I transposed it to guitar. It’s in open E, which is where I developed the guitar line that moves from E to A. My love for the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd also influenced the Albert Lee-style country bends at the beginning."

2. Papa Roach – Last Resort

When discussing nu metal anthems, Last Resort by Papa Roach stands out as one of the most enduring tracks of the decade. Released as the lead single from the band's Infest album in early 2000, the song explores struggles with mental health and the isolation that often accompanies such challenges. Its candid lyrics tackle themes of depression and suicidal thoughts, giving voice to those who face similar experiences.

At the heart of the track is an infectious, looping guitar riff that drives the entire song. Interestingly, this metal classic originated as a classical-inspired piano line crafted by bassist Tobin Esperance.

In an interview with Metal Hammer, lead vocalist Jacoby Shaddix reveals the story behind the now-iconic riff: “We were living in this infamous house in Sacramento with some other bands from the scene, and we were rehearsing in there at the time. The first time the Last Resort riff came around, Tobin was playing it on piano. It sounded like a classical music piece, but we put it on the guitar, gave it that beat, and I remember our manager heard it through the wall and he barged through, like, ‘Play that again, man! That was sick!’ I was like, ‘We need to put this on the record.’”

3. Argent – God Gave Rock and Roll to You

God Gave Rock And Roll To You is such a positive and uplifting track that it's hard to imagine its writer, Russ Ballard, going through one of the darkest periods of his life while composing this classic.

Written during a tumultuous time for Ballard, the song reflects his journey from despair to hope, showcasing the emotional depth rock music can convey. With its uplifting lyrics and infectious energy, the track celebrates the joy of creativity and the belief that music can serve as a guiding light in challenging times.

“I felt blissful when I started writing 'God Gave Rock And Roll To You,'” Ballard recalls in Classic Rock issue 0271. “That was the opposite of how I’d felt the year before. My parents had both been really ill; my dad had prostate cancer, and my mum had bowel cancer simultaneously. I had felt so low.”

However, "God Gave Rock And Roll To You" marked the end of his darkness. “It was wonderful to feel myself come out of that depression,” Ballard remembers. “I felt so uplifted. It probably only took me twenty minutes to write it. I’ve always liked gospel music. With the lyrics, I was expressing that we live on this incredible planet, and when you find a passion, everything makes sense. On the other hand, if you settle for just a job to pay the bills, that’s very sad.”

He adds, “The song was written on this heavy Eavestaff upright piano I received for my twenty-first birthday. That may seem strange for a rock song, but I also wrote Since You’ve Been Gone on a piano. As a kid, I learned classical piano, and as soon as my mum and dad left the room, I would play like Jerry Lee Lewis."

4. Fleetwood Mac – Rhiannon

Inspired by the Welsh mythological figure, the haunting Rhiannon tells the story of a woman who embodies freedom and independence. With Stevie Nicks’ ethereal vocals leading the way, andLindsey Buckingham's now legendary guitar riff providing the backing, it's difficult to imagine Nicks sitting down at the piano to write the song - and it's even more difficult to comprehend that it only took her 10 minutes!

“I just fell in love with the name, sat down, and wrote the song in about 10 minutes," Nicks says. "I found out later that the whole story is already written in Welsh mythology,” she explained. “I play piano terribly, [but I] can sit down, and 20 minutes later come up with a complete song, lyrics and all,” she mused. “Lindsey’s going, ‘I’ve been playing since I was eight years old, and I practise every day, and I have to kill myself to write a song’.”

5. George Harrison - Something

Considered one of the finest songs in Harrison’s catalogue, Something was written in 1968 during the White Album sessions. As with other Harrison tracks, such as Old Brown Shoe, he would use the piano rather than a guitar to write the song. It’s difficult to separate the song from its rather unique and very Harrison guitar tone, but we can certainly see how the song would start life as a piano-based song.

Taken from a Guitar Player interview, Harrison talks about writing the song, saying, “There was a period during that album when we were all in different studios doing different things trying to get it finished, and I used to take some time out,” he says. “So I went into an empty studio and wrote Something.”

In hindsight, Something is seen as one of the most beautiful love songs ever written, but fellow Beatles Paul McCartney and John Lennon were initially lukewarm about the track, questioning its commercial appeal and Harrison's ability as a songwriter. Despite this doubt, Something would go on to earn immense acclaim, with Frank Sinatra famously calling it “the greatest love song ever written.” Its heartfelt lyrics and enchanting melody have ultimately secured its place in music history, showcasing Harrison's exceptional talent and the complex dynamics within the band at the time.

Feeling inspired? 

If you’re feeling inspired by the stories of these piano-based songs, it might be the perfect time to ditch the guitar and jump on the piano! Check out our guide to the best beginner digital pianos to help you find the right instrument to channel your new found creativity.

Whether you're just starting out or looking for an upgrade, our guide has got you covered for your musical journey – and if you fancy getting better at playing, be sure to take a look at our guide to the best online piano lessons.

Casio is excited to announce a new promotion aimed at enhancing the piano-playing experience for musicians of all skill levels. Starting now, customers who purchase a new Celviano digital piano, specifically models AP-S200, AP-300, AP-S450, AP-550, or AP-750, will receive a complimentary one-year subscription to Tomplay Pro, valued at £98 RRP.

Tomplay is an innovative platform offering online piano lessons, as well as instruction for drums, guitar, bass, violin, saxophone, and more. It features over 90,000 pieces of interactive sheet music, making the process of learning and practising music both engaging and enjoyable.

With tools like real-time feedback and various performance options, Tomplay supports both beginners and experienced musicians, helping them improve their skills while playing along with their favourite songs.

This promotion is a fantastic opportunity for anyone looking to elevate their piano-playing potential. By combining Casio's beloved beginner instruments with Tomplay's extensive library and interactive features, rookie pianists can completely transform their practice sessions.

This limited-time offer is available immediately and will run until December 31, 2025, perfect for those considering a new beginner digital piano for Christmas! To claim your complimentary one-year subscription to Tomplay, simply visit the Casio website, fill out the form with your details, and attach a copy of your proof of purchase.

If you were contemplating the purchase of a new Casio piano, this promotion might just make your decision easier. Whether you are a beginner eager to learn or an experienced player looking to expand your repertoire, this offer could be the key to unlocking your musical potential.

To learn more about the Tomplay platform and how it can enhance your musical experience, visit the Tomplay site.