Alesis Recital 88-Key Beginner Digital Piano with Full-Size Semi-Weighted Keys and Included Power Supply

The Alesis Recital is a full-featured digital piano with the features to make it easy to learn, teach, and perform at any level.

The 88 full-sized semi-weighted keys include adjustable sensitivity to fit your playing style, with built-in speakers and effects, so you're ready to start playing right out of the box. Recital includes a power adapter, so you can plug it into the wall and play all day, but it also can go mobile running on six of your own D cell batteries.

Where the Recital really sets itself apart is with its teaching tools. In addition to Split mode for different keyboard voices on the left and right sides, a Lesson mode separates the keyboard into two areas with the same pitch and voice. That means a student can sit next to their teacher with both playing the same notes, for a simpler learning experience.

But what about when an instructor isn't available?

Recital is compatible with Skoove, an online piano-instruction service. Skoove listens to your performance to give real-time feedback, with adjustable tempo settings to match your skill level. Better yet, Recital isn't just compatible with the standard Skoove: it also comes with a free three-month subscription to Skoove Premium to unlock all of the lessons and songs.

Finally, when you know you're a virtuoso, the Recital has a sustain pedal input, USB-MIDI connectivity, and RCA stereo output, so you can expand your keyboard's capabilities to meet your own.

The Alesis Recital is everything you need to get from fumbling in your living room to finessing up on stage.

Excellent intro digital piano, sound quality & action is solid - it's a winner
By Kenneth Calhoun

This is a super value, a full-size 88-key digital piano that works very well. Sound quality is excellent; the piano & other patches are solid. Key action is in between a keyboard & hammer-action; good spring action. It's full-size fun. At 15 pounds, it's solid and doesn't slip around, it's built strong and sturdy.

I've been a lifelong keyboard player, since my Roland D-50 and Alesis HR16/MMT8 in the 80s (all of which still work fine).

I was looking for a starter digital piano, and this one is a new release. I normally never buy new-release Anything with no reviews. but I thought I'd take a chance on this, and I'm glad I did. Just got it today and thought I'd write this to help anyone on the fence (and as a thanks to Alesis, I've enjoyed the HR16/MMT8 drum mach/sequencer for decades).

The 2 main criteria I wanted are:

a) piano sound: how realistic, the timbre and depth? This one is as good or better than my $1k pro keyboards. I'll likely make a review video soon so you can all hear. Much better than expected piano sound; pro-quality at a consumer price, super value.

b) key action: how solid, responsive, playable? I'm thoroughly impressed, very pro build quality, solid and fun to play. I've just played it 2 hours today and am thrilled. Solid, responsive and sounds great. And I really like they are full-size keys, a must.

I like the ease-of-use in layering 2 patches (like piano/synth), for different sounds; for variety, though mostly all I care about is the piano sound, which is superb. . Walter, your product review video sold me; thanks Alesis team for an affordable high-quality dp. Also the velocity sensitivity is excellent, a must-have for a digital piano.

Highly recommended, very good playability, tone, features & value. Bravo Alesis, thanks. Worth a lot more than they're asking, it's a very satisfying instrument at a great price.

Will surpass the correct expectations
By Eric Sedensky

Despite the fact that I own multiple pianos including a Yamaha grand, I was quite excited to try this Alesis Recital electric piano. Alesis makes a lot of high quality music gear (I have one of their MIDI controllers), and a full size piano with weighted keys for around two hundred bucks sounded good to me.

And speaking of sounding good, this piano for the most part really does. Although it only comes with five sounds, you can split the keyboard to play two sounds on separate sections of the keyboard, or you can layer one on top of another for a much denser, richer sound. There is also a reverb and chorus feature to round out the sounds a little more.

These are really key features because to be honest, the sounds themselves are quite thin. I think they are sampled sounds that were done at a very low rate, so they tend to fade or wash out as they move up and down. Especially the bass, which you would expect to do well in the lower registers, it instead turns into a slow, non-melodic wub-wub-wub as it goes down the keyboard. Hitting the key harder helped a little, but the sound was just not very good. I thought maybe the speakers were the issue, but the speakers on the keyboard are adequate enough. Still, you can really get more out of the keyboard by adding your own speakers. Youll need your own sustain pedal (and bench, and stand), too, which is not provided with the keyboard.

The keys themselves are full size, thankfully, and it has the requisite 88 keys found on a regular piano, but the claim of them being weighted is simply not true. They have a spring action which simulates the real action of a piano, but the keys are very light and the action is more along the lines of a synthesizer. They are speed and force sensitive, so it is possible to get the effect of playing on a real piano, but the physicality is very different.

I would not recommend this as a learning instrument for that reason, but it makes a good starter for someone who isnt sure about sticking to playing the piano for the long run. (I doubt any performing musician would ever use this as a gig piano, although, it fits nicely on a typical "X" stand - see photo.) The sustain, also, is pretty much all or nothing. I did not notice any sounds fade as long as you hold down the sustain pedal, which is not the case with a real piano. Again, this is more like a synthesizer in that respect.

I didnt try out the MIDI connectivity, which is through USB, but assuming that works as it should, this could make a pretty decent sound controller. With 128-note polyphony, you can really go to extremes of sound mixing and duration, but there are only 88 keys, so Im not sure why Alesis bothered with that much sound making ability. The music stand is adequate, but you wont be able to put much more than a medium sized lesson book on it. It is light, so the keyboard should travel well.

While playing and experimenting with this keyboard, I constantly reminded myself that it was not a real piano, but I ended up playing it, and enjoying it, for quite a while. My wife even said it sounded good, or in the case of the organ sound, too good. Really the only expectation that was not met was the feel of the keys, which are too light to be considered true weighted piano keys. Other than that, this versatile keyboard performs above a set of average expectations, which is why I rate it at four stars.

High quality product without frills
By Reading Minds

Happy parents! I purchased this as a starter piano because of the price point hoping that it would deliver adequate sound. I am so glad that I purchased this one. I tested out the Williams Legato which I found to be lacking the real piano timbre. This baby sounds like a real piano. I also wanted a keyboard with minimal distractions for my son. There are only a few buttons on top which minimizes off-task behavior. Great price for high quality product.