Casio GP-310 Grand Hybrid Piano

Product Overview

Despite a 40 year history of building musical instruments, Casio has traditionally dominated the entry-level and intermediate markets, with a lesser presence in the high-end world. This has changed over the last several years, due in large part to the advancements made by the Celviano Grand Hybrid GP series instruments, which absolutely hold their own against similar offerings from the ‘Big 3’ of Kawai, Roland, and Yamaha.

The Casio GP-310 grand hybrid is a very recent arrival in celebration of Casio’s 40 year anniversary of building musical instruments and serves as an upgraded version of the well-regarded GP300. One of the top actions on the market, Casio’s Natural Grand Hammer Action keyboard, made with full-length wooden concert grand piano keys, has been enhanced with greater touch sensitivity. They’ve further improved on the samples of the three legendary grand pianos delivered via the AiR Grand Sound Source – the Berlin, Hamburg, and Vienna grand pianos – with longer, more natural decay than its predecessor, creating a more refined level of authenticity.

They’ve also improved on the speaker system; the GP-310’s speaker system is more powerful than the system in the GP300, with larger drivers that better utilize the built-in amplifiers. You’ve also got an improved damper pedal capable of more realistic half-pedaling. Adding it all up, you’re left with a total package sure to turns heads and meet the demands of folks seeking a high-quality hybrid piano.

Action

The action featured in the GP310 really showcases how far digital piano manufacturers have come. The Natural Grand Hammer Action keyboard, utilizing the same materials (Austrian spruce) and processes as the C. Bechstein concert grand piano actions, is one of the most advanced actions currently available in a digital piano. The full-length wooden keys are close in length to a real grand piano and provide the player with better control and touch response than your typical digital piano action.

The mechanism here is built to mimic the same path of motion the hammer takes as it does as in a grand piano. With the lid open, you can actually see the hammers in motion through a clear panel, offering a unique glimpse inside the inner workings of the instrument.

Overall, there’s no doubt the dynamic range or sensitivity levels available have been improved, due to what Casio refers to as their touch response algorithm. There’s no doubt that this action is easier to control when playing pianissimo as opposed to the action found in the GP300, and the repetition speed seems to be improved as well.

Piano Sound

The GP310 features Casio’s AiR Grand Sound Source, which is the top sound engine Casio produces and features 256 note polyphony. They’ve incorporated something they refer to as Multi-dimensional Morphing here, which essentially mimics the way an acoustic piano’s volume and character of sound change from the time the keys are struck, until the note fades away, one of the many subtle nuances of this tone engine.

The main selling point of the tone engine here is of course the three main grand piano sounds it features. The first of the three, the Berlin Grand sound, was developed in collaboration with C. Bechstein. The 9 foot D 282, C. Bechstein’s finest instrument and one of the finest concert instruments in the world, is the model Casio sample for this tone. Mr. Albrecht, Service Director, and Master Piano Maker at C. Bechstein, actually visited the Casio R&D department to supervise the development process of this particular sample. Overall, this sample is super clear and colorful.

The Hamburg grand sound is of course based on the Hamburg Steinway Model D, and definitely stands out for its brilliance and power, whereas the Vienna sound is based on the Bosendorfer Imperial, is the warmest of the three piano tones. In addition to three main grand sounds, there are an additional 23 tones present in the GP310.

The speakers have been beefed up offering a whopping 100 watts of speaker power and is part of what Casios is calling their Grand Acoustic System. The speaker configuration is said to reproduce the three-dimensional sound field generated by an acoustic grand piano. The upper speakers produce sounds normally heard rising upwards, and the downward-facing speakers produce sounds heard from below the soundboard. The overall tonal improvement over the GP300 is definitely obvious.

Connectivity

When it comes to connectivity the grand hybrid GP310 checks off a lot of boxes. You’ve got MIDI OUT/IN terminals, LINE IN R, L/MONO jacks, LINE OUT R, L/MONO jacks, USB port: Type B, and USB flash drive port: Type A. It is a little curious they chose not to feature Bluetooth Audio here, however, that’s not a dealer breaker. There are also 2 standard stereo headphone jacks for quiet playing.

Notable Features

Something definitely worth drawing extra attention to is the adjustable lid, which can be manually raised and closed. The lid’s position physically alters the sound from the upper speakers and also compliments the “Lid Position” setting to duplicate the characteristics of the adjustable lid on an acoustic grand piano.

The volume and character of the sound of a grand piano changes depending on which position the lid is set to. The Lid Simulator setting simulates these acoustic effects digitally. There are four settings for the opening and closing stages and enjoy playing music with the piano sound effect of their choice. This is just super cool.

• AiR Grand Sound Source tone engine
• 26 onboard sounds
• 256 note polyphony
• Acoustic Simulator Paramaters: String resonance, Damper resonance, Damper noise, Key on action noise, Key off action noise, Hammer response, Lid simulator
• 88 wooden key Natural Grand Hammer Action keyboard
• Layer, split, duet, transpose, octave shift
• Effects: Hall simulator (12 types), Chorus (4 types), Brilliance, DSP, Headphone mode
• 15 built-in songs
• On-board audio recorder with space for 99 songs
• Metronome

Conclusion

Casio deserves some serious credit for everything they’ve accomplished here. With a great tone engine and innovative, impressive action, the GP310 is one of the top home digital pianos in its class.

Casio GP-310 Owner’s Manual

• [English] GP-310 Owner’s Manual