Alesis Prestige 88-Key Digital Piano w/ Graded Hammer-Action Keys

I bought this piano for my adult son who wanted to expand his musical talents. It appeared to be an affordable keyboard for this purpose. To be quite honest, my expectations were not very high given the price and the fact that I’m accustomed to paying much more for the keyboards we have purchased over the years . However, I was more than pleasantly surprised when we unboxed it and fired it up. The touch is as good as any piano we have owned, including some we payed up to 3k for. The voices are of equal quality. All in all it is a bargain for the price and I would recommend this to anyone wanting a great piano for under a thousand dollars.

Brand new to Piano playing so review shouldn't be taken from the perspective of an experienced pianist. That being said as a beginner I love this piano! Has enough features to discover fun new sounds without coming across as gimmicky or a "toy", feels as real as any piano I've played (briefly) before and I love the relaxed aesthetic.

Awesome Sauce!

This keyboard is amazing! I put stickers on it so I'm not fumbling for keys. Sounds great through an amp or acoustic. Can't beat this price for a great keyboard. I am learning slowly with YouTube but I bought a great keyboard to fool around with.

Excellent choice for hammer/graded 88 keyboard.

After extensive research, I arrived at the conclusion that the Alesis Prestige Artist was an excellent choice for an 88 key digital piano. It has outstanding piano 'voice', with 256 polyphony. Other pianos in the price range offer 64 or 128 polyphony. One that did merit consideration offers 192 polyphony, but the price was a few hundred dollars more. So, this digital piano, with many sought after features, delivers a cost effective option for the beginner/intermediate and home musician.I think if you're an advanced player, and/or perform in public, or in a band. You might justify spending much more for a more 'serious' digital piano.The key action mimics a real piano very nicely. You do have the option to adjust the sensitivity of the touch. In fact, if you've ... MoreAfter extensive research, I arrived at the conclusion that the Alesis Prestige Artist was an excellent choice for an 88 key digital piano. It has outstanding piano 'voice', with 256 polyphony. Other pianos in the price range offer 64 or 128 polyphony. One that did merit consideration offers 192 polyphony, but the price was a few hundred dollars more. So, this digital piano, with many sought after features, delivers a cost effective option for the beginner/intermediate and home musician.I think if you're an advanced player, and/or perform in public, or in a band. You might justify spending much more for a more 'serious' digital piano.The key action mimics a real piano very nicely. You do have the option to adjust the sensitivity of the touch. In fact, if you've been learning on a keyboard with no or little weighting, you can select 'Fixed which will duplicate that key action. Then you can practice and gradually adjust to the more real piano key weighting.Controls are user friendly and intuitive. The OLED display, while a bit on the small side, is clear and very legible.While I intend to use this primarily as a piano, the additional voices are robust. I am impressed with the quality of the piano offerings.I took piano lessons for one term in Junior High School. haha. I could play a few songs and 'fake' knowing how to play. Recently, decades later, I decided to actually learn how to play piano. I took out the decades old Yamaha 61 key. It's okay to learn the basics, but the keys are not weighted.Of course nothing is perfect. There are some compromises with this device. Key (pardon the pun) issue is the physical feel of the keys. They are smooth plastic. Having some texture, or some material to simulate actual piano ivories would make this keyboard almost perfect.In defense of the keys, the only other digital piano that offers such keys, that closely simulates actual piano keys, costs much more. Unless you're an advanced user, this compromise is acceptable.Graded Hammer Action keyboards are heavier digital pianos (as opposed to semi-weighted or non-weighted products). As such, this does have some heft. It's perfect for home setup, but not amenable to transporting. However. the weight is comparable to other digital pianos in it's class and cost.Currently, B&H offers a fantastic promotion on this digital piano. It matches the lowest cost for the Prestige Artist (especially at reputable sources). In addition, the promotion includes the AHB-1: the wooden stand, three pedals and cushioned piano bench. This is a savings of over $250!!!Factoring in the audio quality, build quality, feature set, promotional additions and cost/value, this is a winner.

Excellent value for money

If you're looking for an excellent digital piano at a budget price, this thing will do the job. The action is a pleasure to play, and the piano sounds are very good. The rest of the tones range from decent to not very exciting at all. It's particularly disappointing that there's no way to introduce vibrato or a rotating speaker effect to the organ and electric piano tones. (Regarding the latter, the Wurlitzer emulation is more convincing than the Rhodes.) The builtin speakers are more than good enough for practice and home performance.The instrument seems solidly built, but I wonder how the plastic body would stand up to stage use. I'd recommend a hard case if you plan to haul this thing around frequently.Finally, the sustain pedal works but isn't nearly as ... MoreIf you're looking for an excellent digital piano at a budget price, this thing will do the job. The action is a pleasure to play, and the piano sounds are very good. The rest of the tones range from decent to not very exciting at all. It's particularly disappointing that there's no way to introduce vibrato or a rotating speaker effect to the organ and electric piano tones. (Regarding the latter, the Wurlitzer emulation is more convincing than the Rhodes.) The builtin speakers are more than good enough for practice and home performance.The instrument seems solidly built, but I wonder how the plastic body would stand up to stage use. I'd recommend a hard case if you plan to haul this thing around frequently.Finally, the sustain pedal works but isn't nearly as functional as a pedal modeled on a real sustain pedal. Serious players and students will want to replace that sustain pedal with something more robust at the earliest opportunity.As I said up front, this instrument does piano very well. For home use in that context, it's a bargain. It looks good, it's lightweight, it plays well, and it sounds good. Be sure to budget for a keyboard stand if you don't already have one. For less than $100, the Musicians' gear X-stand is a solid platform.

Good hammer action, onboard sounds are okay. Good midi use

I purchased this instrument for two reasons: I wanted a full 88 keyboard graded hammer action. The sounds onboard and the reverb effect onboard the piano are really cool touches. You get a few pianos, strings, harpsichord, etc. Keyboard speaker is good for practice or playing for family. It has audio outs for traditional speakers.secondly, My main purpose was to plug this into FL Studioo and play Addictive Keys stage grand, the uvi digital keysuite, the korg m1 vst. If you need great keys with realistic action, this is a good entry point. I had it set up with my VST instruments, and the expression from this Alexis prestige through my DAW was realistic. The sustain pedal might take some elbow grease.in had to manually assign it to midi channel 64 with XLN addictive ... MoreI purchased this instrument for two reasons: I wanted a full 88 keyboard graded hammer action. The sounds onboard and the reverb effect onboard the piano are really cool touches. You get a few pianos, strings, harpsichord, etc. Keyboard speaker is good for practice or playing for family. It has audio outs for traditional speakers.secondly, My main purpose was to plug this into FL Studioo and play Addictive Keys stage grand, the uvi digital keysuite, the korg m1 vst. If you need great keys with realistic action, this is a good entry point. I had it set up with my VST instruments, and the expression from this Alexis prestige through my DAW was realistic. The sustain pedal might take some elbow grease.in had to manually assign it to midi channel 64 with XLN addictive keys and the uvi keysuite. But once you do that the sustain works great.All in all, the digital piano would be worth it if you want to practice traditional piano. however, being able to use these wonderful keys through a DAW makes this an essential purchase for me.

Leader of the pack

I am learning piano as an adult and this checks most of the boxes at the price point. Good quality polyphony, weighted action, dual headphone jacks in front, l/r 1/4 line outs, easy to use lighted buttons and clearly labeled functions above the keys so no manual diving. I am really enjoying it.Once I learn the fundamentaIs I might buy an arranger type keyboard so I can start making my own compositions since this doesn't have any of those features. I like its simplicity for now because it allows me to focus on technique.

Purely for Beginners

Solid electric piano, but I out-grew it pretty fast. I have a real piano that I cannot practice on at night, so I throw on the headphones as to not disturb the rest of the household. Obviously, the action on my piano is much better than this Alesis Prestige 88, and at first it did not bother me, but now I wish I had spent a little more to get a keyboard with better action. This is a fantastic keyboard for beginners, but if you really need that hammer action feel, I suggest paying for the upgrade.

Sound Quality Is Angelic

This is an amazing product. After traveling around to different music stores and sampling the different models in this price point, I settled on the Recital Grand.The sound quality is fantastic. The play and feel quality is pro. When using the layer mode, and using the feature that turns the volume down for the layered mode,the sound quality through the 10 built in speakers is angelic. Enjoy your instrument. Enjoy playing again. Love making music with the Recital Grand.

Substantial piece.

Overall great build quality of keyboard, stand, bench & pedal. Great amount of features on keyboard. Bought because of advertised hammer graded action on keys. Actually keys feel a bit too stiff to me--more than a real piano. Makes it hard to play soft notes. Perhaps in time they will soften up but still a very good keyboard!!