If you want a digital piano that looks great in your living room but does not break your bank, then prepare your coffee and relax while we review the Williams Rhapsody 2. The William Rhapsody 2 is a beginner level full-sized keyboard that comes with a great looking stand.
However, in a world full of misinformation our goal is to provide our readers with the right information no matter what. We don’t care if the product sells or not, we want to provide the most authentic content here. We will mention all the bad thing that we found in this product and therefore we will leave an honest Williams Rhapsody 2 review.
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Features Of Williams Rhapsody 2:
Before we dive deep into this review, we want you to know about Williams as a keyboard manufacturer. Williams joined late compared to other keyboard manufacturers and therefore it tried to break in by selling low cost pianos. With low cost, comes low quality and less features but beginners can have a great time with these digital pianos.
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is probably the feature in which the Rhapsody 2 outperforms and by aesthetics we mean how good it looks, not portability.
The Rhapsody 2 is a great digital piano for decorating your living room, mainly due to the stand that comes with it. We have to admit that it’s an elegant PVC stand with a wood-like finish that makes it a great addition to your living room. This is something we were not expecting. Furthermore, this stand comes with a sustain pedal and a sostenuto. This becomes a complete set and novices will feel as if they are playing an acoustic piano.
However, due to its stand the Rhapsody 2 becomes too heavy to be carried around. Although it can be unplugged from the stand and carried but since that’s not what it was made for the weight and dimensions of the Rhapsody 2 make it harder to do so.
On the other hand, the stand isn’t as big as an acoustic piano, its just a little more spacious than a digital piano. So, finding a space for the Rhapsody 2 won’t be that hard. Despite the low price, the body of the Rhapsody 2 is not fragile. In fact, the music rest is always a welcoming feature but a music rest as sturdy as the one found in Rhapsody is seldom found.
Sound
Now we are down to an aspect of keyboard that matters the most. A keyboard may have the most-fanciest features and the biggest brand’s tag on it but if the sound quality doesn’t stand up its worth nothing.
Fortunately, the Williams Rhapsody 2 holds up quite well in this regard and provides more than its worth. It features 12 custom sounds that resemble in quality with that of a grand piano. These sounds include synths, nylon guitar, electric bass, upright bass and many more.
For a beginner, it seems that the 32-megabyte sample ROM has been used resourcefully and fulfils all practice and educational demands. The Rhapsody 2 also provides realistic rotary and vibrato effects, which provides beginners with an easier path in understanding effects. The maximum number of polyphonies supported by the Rhapsody 2 are 64 and although this is not a lot but for the price range its more than what its competitors provide.
However, we admit that the quality of the sound will not meet the level of expensive pianos. Some experts are even against such sound quality for beginners because they believe that such quality will leave a long-lasting impression of these unrealistic sounds on the novice player. That might be true, but you’ll have to see for yourself if that’s applicable in your case.
Also check out Williams Allegro 2 Review & Williams Legato III Review.
Key sensitivity
Key sensitivity is the second most important aspect in a keyboard. Most affordable keyboards compromise on key sensitivity. Beginners or people who are not aware of the downside of bad key sensitivity and have a low budget fell prey to such compromises, only to regret later.
Keys that provide no resistance to your touch will train your fingers accordingly, but you’ll find moving to an acoustic piano difficult. Players who learn on digital pianos of low sensitivity also find it difficult to play high performance digital pianos because of the way they have developed their skill.
So, when we analyzed the key sensitivity of Williams Rhapsody 2, we discovered that despite having some graded hammer action, the keys felt plasticky. High end keyboards provide ivory white keys to replicate the keys of an acoustic piano, but the Rhapsody 2 lags in this area.
However, beginners don’t have to worry about the plasticky feeling when they are getting graded hammer action in a piano at this price.
Other features
We were disappointed with the speakers that are built-in into the Rhapsody 2 and we found that they were somewhat responsible for the lack of nuance in the music. As we plugged in headphones, we felt the nuance much better than before. This goes to show that external speakers will also do the trick.
A two-track recorder has been provided in the Rhapsody 2 and we were relieved to find it. This can be so helpful for beginners in understanding their mistakes as well as saving their best recordings as their achievements.
A MIDI connection has also been provided that runs effortlessly with the Logic Pro X, but you can chose whatever DAW you like. It was also good to find the basic effects namely metronome, transpose, split and laying.
Pros and Cons Of Williams Rhapsody 2:
With such an elaborative review, we might have put you in a state of confusion, but our goal was to make minute detail clear to you. However, we would like to simplify it for you by putting them into separate baskets of pros and cons.
Pros
- Affordable
- Beautiful furniture stand
- Good enough sound quality and memory
- Hammer action keys
- 64 note polyphony
- Two-track recorder
- USB and MIDI connectivity
Cons
- Heavy and therefore, not portable
- Sound quality not to high
- Plasticky feeling keys
- Speakers are not good enough
Conclusion
Overall, the price of a keyboard or any musical instrument determines its skill level and its service. The Williams Rhapsody has not digressed much from this pattern, but it does outstand in being a full-sized piano that looks great in living rooms. However, that does not mean it can’t be of much use in learning and progressing your piano playing skills.
We hope this Williams Rhapsody 2 review has answered most of your queries but still if some remain, let us know in the comment box down below.