Alesis Recital
Pros
- Unbeatable Price
- Very Strong Speakers
Cons
- Semi-Weighted Key Action
- Sustain Pedal Not Included
- No Internal Recording
Alesis Recital digital piano was made by Alesis, a renowned electronic musical instruments manufacturer. The instrument has gained a lot of fans due to its educational features, sound quality, ergonomic design, ease of control, and feature simplicity. It is currently the best selling digital piano on Amazon. There is also a Pro version, but we’ll review that one in another time. This Alesis Recital review will dissect the details behind each of these features that have made Alesis Recital the toast of many.
DESIGN
The Look
Alesis Recital digital piano comes so simple, compact, sleek, and beautiful. Its masterful shape and simple style confer on it a touch of excellence, while its slim body and wonderful surface finishing (matte finish of the black keys and glossy finish of the white keys) give it a premium look that will be appreciated in any space. It comes in two colors: black and white. The white one can be hard to find depending on your region.
It features the control buttons and knob at the top-center while its speakers flaunt the extreme ends from the top. Alesis is boldly written below the broad speaker at the extreme left and Recital boldly written below the speaker at the extreme right to complete a stylized Alesis finishing.
Music Rest
Alesis Recital has a broad music rest, covering more than one-third of the piano’s length and as tall as the width of the instrument. It can accommodate multiple music sheets or a TAB at a time for display without any inconvenience.
The music rest features a base through which the height of the music sheets or tablet placed on it can be adjusted. The base is strong enough that it will conveniently carry the tablet without breaking. I found it a very nice feature to be able to adjust your viewing angel.
However, such a design does create issues with printed sheet music. I found my A4 papers keep sliding through the big hollow space in the middle. Of course, that shouldn’t be a deal breaker for anyone. Putting a score book behind as support is a quick and easy solution.
Control
The Alesis Recital comes in a very simple style. Since it was made with the piano beginners in mind, Alesis did not pack it with excessive functionalities and the function navigation is also very simple and easy.
This digital piano features eleven functional buttons and one knob. Each of the buttons come with LED lights that brighten them up when the piano is on, enabling them to be seen and distinguished by the player in the dark or dim light.
These LED buttons are divided into four sections: the Power button, the Demo modes (that include the Reverb and Chorus), the function buttons (that include the Metronome and Lesson), the Voice Select buttons (that include the Piano, Electric Piano, Organ, Synthensizer, and Bass), and the Split mode button.
The knob has no LED light and is used for increasing and reducing the piano’s volume.
Through these buttons and knob, even a novice piano player can navigate all the functions of this piano without any difficulty.
Keys
The Alesis Recital comes with the standard 88 keys keyboard, with the black notes and white notes evenly spaced and smooth, just like in any other piano.
While this piano only gets so much acoustic features appropriate for its price, the size and shape of its keys are exactly the same with those of acoustic pianos.
Size and Weight
Alesis Recital digital piano has a compact design with dimensions 3.6 x 11.52 x 50.52 inches (128.3 x 29.3 x 9.1 cm) and a weight of 15.7 lbs (7.1 kg). This piano is lightweight and portable with respect to market standard.
KEY ACTION
As mentioned before, this digital piano 88 keys. But what is unique about this piano is that the keys are semi-weighted. This means the keys are neither too heavy nor too light and the feel of the keys is just as close to that of an acoustic piano as it is far from the feel of the keys of an unweighted digital piano.
Therefore, you will not get that true acoustic feel from this piano, but the feel of this has just been made right for comfort of piano beginners. After all, the Alesis Recital was not made for expert players that have been in the game for many years whose fingers would need something heavier and more realistic.
Apart from the semi-weighted keys, Alesis Recital keys also comes with touch sensitivity response that is adjustable by the player and touch velocity response.
The touch sensitivity and velocity features regulate the key volume with respect to how hard or soft the player presses the keys. They are some of the few features incorporated into this instrument that is supposed to prepare the player for a real acoustic experience in the future.
SOUND
The piano features five built-in premium instruments that include an Electric Piano, an Acoustic Piano, a Bass, an Organ, and a Synthesizer. Indeed, these voices were carefully selected by Alesis for this instrument with the level of quality sounds they all give. Since this piano was made with the piano trainees in mind, Alesis has ensured that they are not met with overwhelming alternatives that will lead to confusion and that reasonably justifies the very limited options for built-in voices in this instrument.
The Alesis Recital has 128-note polyphony. This means you can play up to a maximum of 128 notes at a time. This polyphony number is not the least in the industry, but its not the best either. However, its adequate for the purpose of this instrument and it’s more than appropriate for its price.
Alesis Recital also comes with two sound/demo customization modes: the Reverb mode and the Chorus mode. These two modes will let you customize the built-in sounds and others into what you really like. Although the instrument was not made for that, Alesis has made sure that a piano beginner’s music making journey can start here.
FEATURES
Moreover, this Alesis Recital has two built-in speakers, 20 Watts each. Combine these with the volume control knob and you will enjoy every time you take charge of this piano with the incredible sound output of the speakers at every decibel. When you press the lower notes, they mostly come from the left speaker, higher notes mostly come from the right speaker, while the middle notes are evenly distributed between the two speakers.
If you need to make things personal, you can connect a good piano headphone to the headphone jack at the back of the piano. This way, the speakers are deactivated and you can immerse yourself into what you’re doing without any distraction.
When it comes to connectivity, the Alesis Recital has the basic connectivity features. Apart from the headphone jack, it features a USB port, an RCA output port, and a power adapter port. Although it lacks Bluetooth connectivity, its USB port will come in handy.
Through the USB port, you can play MIDI songs directly into an external device or play MIDI songs with it from an external device such as a workstation. The RCA port, on the other hand, can be plug to an external speaker or an amplifier.
It features two important mode settings: The Layer and Lesson modes. The layer mode allows the player to play two instruments at a time. You can choose to play the built-in Electric piano and the Bass. Each key will layer both instruments together so that you hear both the piano and bass sounds as you press the keys. With this feature, you can make music using your choice instruments.
The Lesson mode is the most important feature of Alesis Recital digital piano. This mode allows two players to conveniently use the piano at once as it divided the piano into two equal parts, each parts having complete keyboard features. This mode appeal to the educational intentions of the piano and it’s the selling point of the model.
The free three months premium Skoove subscription attached to the instrument adds to the benefits beginners enjoy. Skoove is a piano learning App with tremendous learning features. For a fact, three months are enough to learn all you need to learn in piano that can be found on the App, but you can decide to extend your premium membership after three months yourself.
Other Features
5 built-in voices
128-note polyphony
Metronome range: 30 to 280 Beats Per Minute
Connectivity: Headphone jack, USB port, RCA port, and Power adapter port.
ACCESSORIES
- Power adaptor
- Safety and warranty manual
- Music rest
- User guide
WHO IT’S FOR
As mentioned before, Alesis Recital is ideal for piano beginners, but intermediate players and enthusiasts will find it handy as well. The three month premium Skoove subscription and the Lesson mode will be immensely useful for these three categories of players. Enthusiasts can develop greater interest in the instrument while beginners and intermediates have opportunities to hone their skills during those few months.
Moreover, at around $200, beginners, intermediates, and enthusiasts have the advantage of spending so less to get a taste of what a good digital piano is and decide if they want to continue in that path or not.
Another advantage of the Alesis Recital piano is that it allows its players to create music and fine-tune sounds to their hearts’ desires. This quality does not only attract piano beginners and enthusiasts, but it also puts the instrument in the good books of piano experts.
CONCLUSION
By all standards, Alesis has demonstrated that the Alesis Recital was not made to be like an acoustic piano and truly, this piano isn’t trying to be one. However, the Alesis Recital has all the necessary features that one would need in a digital piano if the aim is to get a piano to train with for the moment before the time for transitioning into a real acoustic piano or something very close to an acoustic piano comes.
PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
Leave a comment to let me know what you think of this review. And if you happen to have some experience with the Alesis Recital, please share with us in the comment below.