Generalmusic turned heads and ears around the turn of the century with its high-end Promega line, a family of keyboards that feature a fabulous hammer action and remarkable piano and EP sounds. At the entry level, their RP-series pianos were just about the most affordable weighted-action digital pianos around. They’ve recently introduced a new line of digital pianos that currently includes the PRP700 and PRP800. The two instruments are identical, except for the addition of a built-in speaker system on the 800. Though perfect for the home musician, Generalmusic is aiming he pRP pianos at you professional, too. In my experience, the action and sounds on these ‘boards deserve your attention, Here’s why.

ACTION
While the Promega instruments used a Fatar keybed, the new PRP instruments have a new action designed by Generalmusic. It’s a joy to play, with a very snappy rebound. The graded weighting of the keys matches the sound very well, and I felt the experience of playing the 700 was realistic. I took the instrument on a gig that called for a lot of boogie-woogie and New Orleans styles, and the bounciness really helped me get into the groove; while playing the piano sounds, I never felt I was fighting the action or having to compensate for its idiosyncrasies. For playing the Rhodes, Wurly, and Clav sounds, the action is similarly well-matched. But I found the bounciness to be extreme when I wanted to really spank the thing: The keys bounce so much they double-trigger the note. It doesn’t happen on the piano sounds, and I soon learned to take it easy on the EP and Clav stuff. You can select a response curve from the front panel, or even have the key response be flat (i.e., plays the same dynamic no matter how hard or soft you play).
For practicing at home, I really enjoyed the feel of the keyboard. I worked on scales and arpeggios, dusted off some standard rep, and logged some time with jazz play-alongs. The PRP action felt great at all times.

SOUNDS
The main piano sound is rich and warm — sampled from a 9' Steinway, according to the specs. I had no sense of velocity switching, as the sound is very smooth from soft to loud, getting really bright only at the upper end of the dynamic spectrum. The second piano sound comes from a Fazioli, and it has a very bright, almost metallic quality to it. It’s impressive on busy passages, but its less-than-superb looping becomes evident when playing sustained soft music. There is a noticeable sampling artifact in the upper mid register. Each of the 16 sound select buttons on the PRP also have a variation; the variations for these pianos have the brightness dialed in even more, which came in handy when I needed to cut through the band.
The damper pedal has a physically modeled effect that you can disengage from within the MIDI settings. Its most prominent effect is rather subtle, giving you sympathetic resonance from the strings of any keys that are held down when you strike another note. In moderately busy passages, it gives you the sense of the case of the piano being there. In busier passages, I found it too soft to really notice — which is good, as it doesn’t sound artificial.
The electric pianos and Clav sounds are very playable and musical. The Rhodes have a pronounced attack and a beautiful tone, while the Wurly plays with a nice little purr to it. Very minor sampling sloppiness is noticeable among the EP sounds in a multisample here or there, but no big sonic deal. The Clav is pluckier than many sampled Clavs. Between these sounds and the Steinway program, I was happy all night long on my gig. Generalmusic has been doing a great job on these types of tones with their Promega instruments, and these are right up there, too.
Not everything is about rock ’n’ roll. The pipe and church organ programs would do fine in a worship setting. The harpsichord is particularly enjoyable to play; its two-stop setting is impressive. I didn’t particular care for the vibes and B-3 program, but they would certainly cut a gig if you had no clonewheel at hand. The strings, synth pads, and voice patches are quite good.
The PRP’s effects are editable, and your edits affect only the sound you’re using when you make the changes. You select reverb type and motion effects from dedicated front-panel buttons. Very handy. Though it’s possible to push the effects to a little bit of an extreme (in terms of rate, depth, and time), they sound best at conservative levels.
One very cool thing about using modeling as the main sound engine is hat the pRP instruments can have their soundsets upgraded. This is why the pRP pianos have a USB connector on their rear panel, and though it is not yet operational with Mac OS, I/m told that such functionality is planned for the near future.

IN USE
The PRP’s aluminum body sure looks cool, and it gives it a sturdy feel. Watch out when you lift it, though, as there is a rather sharp edge to the casing directly beneath the keys. After I hurt my hand and snagged the PRP on my car upholstery, I started thinking that maybe the PRP is better left in one place if you don’t have a serious case for it — even though it totally rocked on my gig. Speaking of gigging, I often find myself overplaying and coming home with some pain in my hands — but not with the PRP. Something about its action helped me to play appropriately all night long.
In my practice room, the PRP’s built-in library of standard piano repertoire and corresponding folio were fun to use. Just call up a song and push play on the sequencer. You can mute either hand in the recorded piece. The interpretations of some of the library songs leave a bit to be desired, however, with some pieces being too marcato and others not having the left- and right-hand parts playing in time. Most performances were better, both technically and musically. Overall, the pieces are good to have to help a budding pianist learn fingerings and hand coordination by practicing slowly along with one part or the other. But these aren’t the definitive performances of the standard rep.
It’s possible to loop sections of the library songs, which is very handy for setting up repetition drills. In practice, however, I found it difficult to set the “in” and “out” markers so that they were exactly where I wanted them to be. I had to settle for notes that got chopped or phrases that started a little off the beat. You may find it takes practice to get the hang of it.
I wanted to try my hand at coming up with some fun two-handed grooves, so I fired up the PRP’s two-track recorder. Plenty of metronome options made sure I laid my first track down in time. Recording the second part with a different sound went smoothly as well. I was disappointed to find that I couldn’t do a punch-in style replacement, since you can only begin a recording on bar 1. But the PRP isn’t designed to be a composer’s tool, after all. Recording to an external sequencer worked fine via the MIDI output and input, but not via the USB connector, which, according to Generalmusic, is as yet not supported for Macs.

CONCLUSIONS
This is a fine instrument. The PRP has some stiff competition from the Casio Privia line and Yamaha’s YPG models, which have lower price points and more sounds. But those pianos aside, PRP comes in at a lower price than most home-oriented digital pianos, and its quality in terms of sound and construction are undeniably superior. The action itself is well worth checking out. It may not be the ideal instrument to gig with, at least not without the proper gig case. If you’re looking for a home piano, definitely put the PRP700 and PRP800 on your list.

Claim Check
Dave McMahan of Generalmusic tells us, “The main goal of the PRP series is to offer at a price within everyone’s reach the unique sound characteristics of Generalmusic’s acclaimed stage piano, the Promega 3. The proprietary DRAKE physical modeling techniques used in Generalmusic digital pianos stand out for musicians who are disillusioned with purely sample-based pianos that utilize velocity switching of multiple samples to achieve the timbral changes that occur in acoustic pianos at varying playing force. The even transition of harmonics from pp to ff makes the PRP excellent for anyone who desires the authentic dynamic response of an acoustic piano. Another plus is the provision of two acoustic concert grand pianos with entirely different tonal and dynamic characteristics. This offers the player more flexibility in choosing an appropriate piano sound for a given piece of music. The vintage sounds are reproduced with superb accuracy, thanks to the physical modeling power of DRAKE.”