This is the transcript of Donner Music Canada's popular video review on the DEP-20 portable digital piano, by Argentine Producer/Pianist Musa.
As a professional pianist, Musa's musical journey had extended across different music scenes of Asia, North and South America, and Europe, featuring various artists/singers such as Olivia Ong, A-Lin, and so on. The Album ALL KINDS OF GOOD produced by Musa had been nominated for 3 Golden Melody Awards and had won 2 Golden Indie Music Awards with the Best Jazz Album and Best Musician.
¡Hola! Hello, my name is Musa. And I'm here to talk to you about this beautiful thing that I have behind me, which is the Donner DEP-20 by Donner Instruments.
The DEP-20 has fully weighted 88 keys (full size) and four adjustable touch levels. This allows you to have the experience, a very similar experience to the one of playing an acoustic piano.
Not only that, but also it has graded hammer actions. What is that? that's that on the left side on the lower register, it's heavier; And on the higher register, it is lighter. This emulates an acoustic piano.
Another thing to say about the keyboard is that it's on the heavier side, which is great to train beginners and intermediate players and get them used to the experience of playing on an acoustic piano. An acoustic piano does not have volume knobs so the sound is in your hands. Okay. This heavier keyboard allows you to prepare yourself for that.
Also, it has really great speakers. When you get this, you're also getting a stereo. Why? I will say that a little bit later. Just it has an input so you can plug anything in and listen to music. The speakers sound amazing.
Another important thing- very important thing- is that it comes with a zinc alloy sustain pedal, an actual pedal. For us when we play piano we really want that. We don't want that square little thing that is pretty annoying that it moves around. It actually has a long pedal. Not only that but you can actually plug a triple pedal. How great is that! You know again features like that are way more expensive.
Also in the back panel, it has a USB connection for it to become a controller. For those who know what I'm talking about, this can plug into any DAW, either on your phone, on your tablet, or on your laptop computer.
Besides that USB it has another USB for you to plug in a thumb drive with MP3s on it that you can control also from the front panel. In the back, it has a quarter-inch stereo input and output. As I said before, you can plug anything with a quarter-inch and listen to any music you want.
(Which is) important for me at least, it has here the headphone jack. This is because the people in the R&D department did their research, and they understood that we don't want the cable from the back coming all the way to the front, and being so annoying and getting entangled on this here behind underneath the keyboard and stuff. W we really want it straight to us. So having the headphone jacks here is great.
And finally, it comes with an attachable music stand and a power supply, so you just get it out of the box, plug (it) in, and start playing.
Regarding the internal machine, what's under the hood of the DEP-20 I'll let you know. The sound system uses Advanced Wave Memory (AWM) which gives you - listen to this - 238 sounds. How great is that! I think it's great. I think it's awesome.
You know usually when you get an 88-key for under a thousand USD, you pretty much get stuck with the piano: maybe an EP, or things like that. But here you have 238 sounds. With a library that brings things from all over the world. It also has 128 notes of polyphony, which gives you this kind of sound.
I think it sounds really really great. It has a great piano sample. Again, we are talking about something that is very very affordable, so we have to keep that in mind, that it's really an affordable instrument. It has a DSP button that will add something like a reverb type of effect.
And then another thing that comes with it that I've never seen before in such an inexpensive budget-friendly keyboard is the Double button, which actually we call layering, (that) allows you to put two instruments together. Let me show you that double voice.
Here I chose a bass synthesizer on top of the piano. It also can have a split section, which is great. Let me show you could have actually. The split section is here. You have the piano. And here (is another piano). This can be a teacher teaching a scale, and then the student, and then both together.
You see? (It) is a great tool, a really really great tool for using this keyboard as an educational tool. It also comes with a built-in section of 200 rhythms, really
off the charts!
I take off the Split mode and I get my bass back, and then I start. Great. Okay. We also have a Drum Kit designated button.
Usually smaller keyboards come with all these features. This is the first time that I actually see a full 88-key okay with a graded hammer action that also brings you all the things that an arranger keyboard usually brings.
It also brings a Record and Playback button that allows you to record yourself and then play that back to you to see how it is that you are playing. Let me do the layering, and then record. Let's hear that.
You get the idea. It also brings a Transpose button that pretty every keyboard has. So if you cannot play with different keys, it will change the keys straight from this button right here.
And finally, something that is important is that it has a two-layer LCD screen that usually 88-key keyboards such as this one under a thousand USD usually don't bring. So that's great because you always know what you are playing what sounds etc.
Okay, that's it. From us here at Donner, this is the DEP-20. That was the review. If you're still not sure, please go and check all the other videos that we made. I played many different styles. I went through the 238 sounds so you can actually get a feel of how this beautiful keyboard sounds. If you still are not sure, please go to the Donner website. They have a lot of products, very very high quality and very very affordable.
But if you're sure or you want to try it, please buy one. Get one for yourself and try it for yourself. It's really really really affordable and it will help you get a feel for how it is to play on an actual acoustic piano.
My name is Musa and I'm very very very thankful to Donner Music Canada for inviting me to do this review. And as I always say ,please never stop playing. Bye!
