Alesis Prestige and Prestige Artist: New Digital Pianos for Beginners

Alesis has announced the new Prestige series of digital pianos. The Prestige and Prestige Artist electronic piano keyboard models score with hammer action keyboards and a new micro-array loudspeaker system.

Alesis is expanding its range of digital pianos. With the new Prestige series, the manufacturer has introduced two new, compact digital pianos that can be used both at home and on stage. The most important features: electronic keyboard piano with a graduated hammer mechanism and a new loudspeaker system.

The Alesis Prestige comes up with 16 sounds, which in addition to grand piano sounds also include other instruments such as electric piano, strings, and organ. In the split and layer modes, two sounds can be distributed or superimposed on the keyboard. A reverb effect with five effect types is available for further sound tuning. The piano digital has 128-note polyphony.

With the new Alesis Prestige Artist, the range of sounds is even bigger. Here you will find 30 sounds that can be played with a polyphony of 256 voices. Other unique selling points of the Prestige Artist are the integrated arpeggiator, an OLED display for easier setting, and a high-quality sustain pedal.

The rest of the equipment is identical for both new digital pianos. The keyboards are weighted graduated and equipped with a hammer mechanism. The new speaker system is interesting. The micro-array systems, which each consist of several loudspeakers that are specially matched to one another, should deliver a “rich and brilliant sound” regardless of the location of the piano, according to Alesis.

In addition to two headphone outputs, the instruments of the Prestige series offer stereo outputs for connection to a mixer as well as a USB port. This is used to transmit MIDI data, which means that the pianos can be used with educational software and other music software. The integrated metronome and the recording function are also useful extras for practicing.

With the Prestige series, Alesis offers beginners a choice of three learning systems. In addition to 60 interactive free lessons from Melodics, trial subscriptions for Skoove (3 months) and TakeLessions | Live (2 months) are included.

Price and availability

You can get the Alesis Prestige and Prestige Artist digital pianos here at Bhphotovideo.com and Amazon.com for $449 and $599, respectively.

Recently, Kurzweil has also introduced the new KM88, a pure 4-zone keyboard MIDI controller with an 88-key hammer-action keyboard control with an offering of a combination of physical and virtual controllers. It can be configured using editor software to adapt it to your production style.