Korg B2
Pros
- Decent Key Action
- Rich & Detailed Sound
- Powerful Speakers
Cons
- No Bluetooth
- No Internal Recording
The Korg B2 was released in July 019. It’s a digital piano that has a new, improved sound, speakers, and features compare to the Korg B1. In this Korg B2 review, we are going to take an in-depth look, and I will try to show you why this might be the one you are looking for.
Before it confuses you, the Korg B2, B2SP are the same piano with different accessories. The Korg B2N however, has a different lighter key action.
DESIGN
The Look
The Korg B2 looks great and clean and you got this nice speaker grill. It’s kind of fabric, and the piano is skinny as well.
I’m not sure if it’s the material but overall, this piano looks very plastic.
As for the color, the Korg B2 comes in black and white, just like the old Korg B1.
Music Rest
The Korg B2 comes with a detachable music rest just like other digital pianos.
The music rest is wide and clean, and you can easily display multiple pages at once.
It is also quite tall that it does an excellent job of holding any scorebook or printed sheets.
I also like the look and the angel of the music rest because it makes the reading sheet music comfortable.
The music rest is stable and won’t wobble when installed.
Control
The Korg B2 comes with four basic buttons: the power button, piano play, sound, and metronome.
The buttons don’t have a lot of travel and don’t protrude much, making them feel less intuitive.
The knob, however, it feels a little bit cheap because it doesn’t have much resistance, but at least precise volume changes are possible.
While I always prefer dedicated buttons for each specific feature, this is standard practice, and we can’t nit-pick at this price point.
All I wish is that Korg should have included a simple LCD display with the update because it will be hard to tell what sound is active and what tempo the metronome is currently set.
Keys
The Korg B2 comes with a full 88 keyboard with white and black key surfaces.
The white key surfaces are glossy, and the black keys have a matte finish, differing from the textured synthetic ivory and ebony surfaces featured on many modern digital pianos.
This is not a big deal, especially since a lot of real pianos are glossy.
However, you might have some slippage issues while playing.
Size And Weight
The Korg B2 weighs around 11.4 kg / 25.13 lbs. and the dimension is around 51.6″ x 13.2″ x 4.6″ (131.2 x 33.6 x 11.7 cm)
As you can see, the piano is not that heavy, and you can easily carry it around.
KEY ACTION
The Korg B2 uses Korg’s NH (Natural Weighted Hammer Action) keyboard, which is identical to the keys of the previous B1 series.
The keys are graded, so the keys at the lower registers are heavier than those at higher registers.
The Korg B2 has a velocity-sensitive, so the harder keypresses emit, the louder the sounds.
The response can be modified on the front panel of the keyboard, and you can choose between 3 preset levels (light, normal, and heavy).
The normal preset is the default and feels perfectly fine for typical piano playing.
The keybed responds as you’d expect, though rapidly repeated keypresses sometimes fail to register.
SOUND
The Korg B2 includes a sympathetic and damper resonance and all its variations.
These simulations emulate how the neighboring strings are vibrated when you play a note, which further enhances realism.
If you were to play one key three times in a row, the B2 each time has the chance to trigger different samples, recreating the experience of playing a real piano, where no two notes ever sound the same.
I love the attention to detail of this piano, and it sounds great, especially when you run them through the direct outputs.
The Korg B2 has 12 different sound including 5 Grand Pianos (German, Italian, Classic, Jazz, Ballad), Stage Electric Piano (Wurlitzer-style preset), 60’s Electric Piano (Rhodes-like preset), Digital Electric Piano (DX7-style synthesizer), Harpsichord, Pipe Organ, Electric Organ, Orchestral Strings.
The German Concert Piano is a default sound that is more suited for classical pieces with its deep bass frequencies.
The Classic Piano preset, which has a less-roomy, more intimate tone.
The Italian concert piano has beautiful bright expression and satisfying sustain that its rich resonance and sensitive responsiveness enrapture the Pianists around the world.
As for the Jazz, it has a bright-toned to it, and the Ballad piano it has a beautifully resonant sound.
The organs and electric pianos are also good. However, it was a bit limited in terms of malleability.
Also, the Korg B2 has a maximum of 120 voices of polyphony, in line with the other competitors in this price range.
The 120 notes of polyphony are good enough for most pieces, classical or modern.
The Korg B2 has two built-in 15 watts speaker located on the front panel, above the keys and controls.
The speakers have Front-firing speakers that the sound projects towards you rather than reflecting back at you after reverberating a certain distance.
It also means that your sound is less affected by the room’s shape, which is a plus.
Now having front-firing speakers mean a better, cleaner sound less affected by surface reflections.
Also, Korg implements Motional Feedback (MFB) technology, which reproduces bass frequencies by moving the speaker cone to correspond with the necessary frequencies.
The Motional Feedback prevents the common ‘tinny’ tone that you might hear from other instruments in this price range.
The speakers sound good and don’t break up easily. Even at full volume, distortions are minimal.
FEATURES
The Korg B2 is an entry-level digital piano that has all the standard connections you expect for a beginner’s digital piano.
It has a 1/8″ headphone out enables you to practice without disturbing the people around you. You can also plug in external amplifiers and speakers if you want to.
The pedal jack, however, Korg, continues to use their proprietary jack last seen in the Korg B1.
This jack is incompatible with all quarter-inch damper pedals available elsewhere, and it is quite disappointing.
There is also another one is the lack of half-damper support. That feature is only available if you shell out for the PU-2 triple pedal unit, which adds quite a bit to the cost.
The lack of Bluetooth certainly isn’t earning any point for the B2.
My biggest complain in terms of features is the lack of internal recording capability. You will have to connect the instrument to an external smart device to be able to record any of your performance.
The Aux In mini-jack allows you to connect your phone or music player to play along with backing tracks or lessons.
The Korg B2 has a USB Type B port is also included and supports both MIDI and Audio data exchange.
The USB port also allows you to connect mobile apps, such as the Skoove online lessons and the Korg Module app, for more sounds.
The Korg B2 has an app called Korg Module. It is an app for iOS, and it has a high-quality library of sounds that you can plug it into the USB to Host port.
You can download this app in the App Store, and you get 100 presets split across pianos, organs, clavinets, strings, brass and synth sounds.
If you don’t like the sound that includes in the Korg B2, you can change the sound to your liking using the app.
There are other features included with the app, and that is recorders, PDF sheet music support, and also practice features.
The practice features are pretty handy and allow you to upload your own tracks and slow them down at will.
The other downside of the Korg B2 is that it doesn’t have a battery slot on it, so you have to use an AC adapter every you use it.
And lastly, the Korg B2 has an app called Korg Module. It is an app for iOS, and it has a high-quality library of sounds that you can plug it into the USB to Host port.
You can download this app in the App Store, and you get 100 presets split across pianos, organs, clavinets, strings, brass and synth sounds.
If you don’t like the sound that includes in the Korg B2, you can change the sound to your liking using the app.
There are other features included with the app, and that is recorders, PDF sheet music support, and also practice features.
The practice features are pretty handy and allow you to upload your own tracks and slow them down at will.
Here’s a list of features on the Korg B2:
Sound (12 Total)
- 5 Grand Pianos (German, Italian, Classic, Jazz, Ballad)
- Stage Electric Piano (Wurlitzer-style preset)
- 60’s Electric Piano (Rhodes-like preset)
- Digital Electric Piano (DX7-style synthesizer)
- Harpsichord
- Pipe Organ
- Electric Organ
- Orchestral Strings
Sound: Stereo PCM
Polyphony: 120-note polyphony
Modes: Duo (Partner Mode) Metronome, Transpose, Fine-tuning
Speakers: 15W + 15W
Connections: Headphone jack, Audio In jack, Damper Pedal jack, USB type B (Audio and MIDI support)
ACCESSORIES
You can get a furniture style stand, or a portable one depends on what you like.
The furniture style stand has 2 colors black and white, so you can choose the color that matches the piano.
The Korg B2 also includes a Damper Pedal. However, the pedal acts as a simple binary on-off switch, meaning half-pedaling isn’t supported.
So, I recommend you upgrade the pedal since half-pedaling support is important for playing the piano.
Not just that, this digital piano also has a detachable music rest features a wide, spacious design.
A good pair of headphones is always recommended for any digital piano.
WHO IT’S FOR
The Korg B2 is excellent for beginners and intermediate players alike.
The keys feel good, and the sounds are well sampled for its price.
If you want to practice and you want to learn how to play the piano, this piano is for you. It is portable and usable, no matter where you are.
Here is why I say it is good for beginners and intermediate players because this piano has a mode called Partner Mode, which splits the keyboard into two halves, and each having the same key range.
This allows teachers and students to play alongside for easy reference and is quite effective, especially for one-on-one lessons.
Here is another one on why it’s good for the teacher and student.
The Korge B2 has a 3 Month Premium Skoove Plan. It is an online piano tutorial platform that’s gaining traction, and the Korg B2 comes with 3 months free.
This will benefit more for beginners. While using the app, you can choose which level to start from, whether beginner, intermediate, or advanced.
The app is innovative, too, as you don’t even need to connect your digital piano to the app by USB (though it would be ideal).
The device’s microphone can be used as an input as well, and note detection is spot on from our limited testing with an old iPad 2.
CONCLUSION
Thanks to the multisampling, the Korg B2 has one of the best sounding digitals for its price.
Also, the piano sounds are nice, and the electric sounds are pure but not overly simplistic.
And also, what makes this model looks great is that it has software for you to learn how to play the piano like the Scoove and Korg Module.
All in all the Korg B2 instruments sound great, and the B2 is a worthy addition to their lineup.
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 Korg B2, please share with us in the comment below.
PRICE AND AVAILABILITY in Australia ???
Korg B2 is out of stock at the moment in Australia…Sorry