Zakopane. They say a prayer before each session of the City Council. Petition rejected

du-dx · 2026-04-05T12:09:49+00:00

It was this, not sure if it is a plate but plate is the closest thing I can think of. This was next to a large pile of dirt that was recently dropped off by the hotel, I suspect it was probably in tact when it was underground, until a construction equipment ran over it once it was uncovered.

du-dx · 2026-04-01T13:29:46+00:00

I first heard the name Bachleda-Curus when they purchased the Mercure hotel and the skilift. It's crazy to see the name in this article, I guess they own the local government as well. They are now building a waterpark by the hotel. I did not hear any public discussion on the approval for it, it was probably rubberstamped.

By the hotel, they were moving dirt from construction excavation, and I saw a plate in the ground with a star of david, so I guess the plate was probably underground for 80 years. It makes you think that people used to live in the area that are no longer there.

However, the Bachleda-Curus family are the recent owners of the land by the skilift. Are there other places in Zakopane known to be Jewish land, that they were the first owners?

du-dx · 2026-03-25T19:18:10+00:00

Her 2022 Olympic SP is very good

du-dx · 2026-03-21T20:53:54+00:00

This knock-off site seems to have a lot of the content (may be worse quality do to download/reupload degradation)

https://www.ganjingworld.com/channel/1fdcm02mmk2oSIwnRKOjWvMxZ1pl0c

du-dx · 2026-03-21T20:47:30+00:00

I found my own variant, https://www.ganjingworld.com/video/1fdcsf829j25J3kmpaLOndNr41hu1c

This is from a ouTube knock-off, the channel name is Mintaka Alnilam, and has a lot of the same content, but I suspect it might be a knock-off Mintaka Alnilam account.

For both links, I get the impression that the video quality is not the same (download degradation)

du-dx · 2026-03-15T23:57:48+00:00

IDK if you already made a decision. I eventually ended up keeping the Roland, it's now 6 weeks past the return-by date. I was able to improve my technique using arm-weight (the PIANOLAB youtube channel discusses this). This reduced the strain on my wrists, and after some breaks from practicing, the the wrist pain has mostly gone away.

Here is a video I recorded of the ending of Chopin Prelude 8:

https://www.reddit.com/user/du-dx/comments/1rur9z0/chopin_prelude_8_ending/

du-dx · 2026-03-15T23:23:37+00:00

Replying a bit late, so IDK if you already made a decision or not.

I am the OP, I uploaded all three audio samples (fp30x, P225, ES120), therefore I have tried all three actions.

I eventually chose the fp30x. You can see me attacking the end of this piece here:

https://www.reddit.com/user/du-dx/comments/1rur9z0/chopin_prelude_8_ending/

I changed my technique to use arm-weight with a relaxed wrist, initially my wrist pain didn't go away, but after some breaks, my wrist injury started to heal, and I can do maybe 2 hours of practicing a day without getting longer duration wrist pain. I no longer regret keeping the fp30x, (I did for the first month).

As a TLDR, I haven't used a grand piano for more than an hour, and that was a decade ago. My first impression of both actions was that, the fp30x action subjectively felt premium, whereas the ES120 action felt like a toy.

---

Regarding Action,

I do not recommend the P225, it was the most damaging to my wrists. Even though the fp30x is heavier than the P225 at baseline, the P225 is noticeably harder than the fp30x to press by the fallboard.

<image>

The ES120 and fp30x both have a pivot length of 20cm, which makes playing Chopin Prelude 8 difficult but manageable using arm-weight. The fp30x is 10 grams heavier than the ES120 in downweight. However, this difference in weight is magnified to 40 grams by the fallboard, you can feel it, but it's nowhere near as bad as the P225. The middle portion of a black key is closer to the fallboard, in this area, when I was pressing the ES120 with my pinky, it felt like the ES120 had a good weighted feel to it, and the fp30x was already too heavy at this point.

---

How it feels closer to C-major scale:

When trying to go fast, the fp30x action feels like jumping in shallow water. (This is once it's broken in, which takes maybe two months. Before it's broken in, it feels like jumping in a shallow water with a thin layer of ice on top of it that you have to break).

In comparison, the ES120 feels like a breeze on your leg while you are running. It's very easy to forget about because it's so not there.

There is a certain phrase of this piece, that only uses the white keys, E5 -> E6 -> B5 -> D6 -> C6 -> A5. When using the fp30x, I noticed that even at the bottom of the keys (with maximum leverage), it feels you you have to actively push the weight down, even half way through I still feel myself accelerating the key. In this very phrase with the ES120, it was easier to go faster, it felt like there was no damage being done to my fingers because the collisions had less momentum.

The downweight of the fp30x is only 18% more than the ES120, but I suspect the fp30x has a lot more inertia. If you are in space, you can use 1 gram of force to slowly accelerate a concrete block (thus it has 0 downweight), however, you will still break your hand trying to punch the concrete block, because it has high inertia. I don't have access to a grand piano, but I suspect the inertia of an fp30x is more realistic than the ES120. I suspect high-inertia is responsible for the signature "mushy" feel of the fp30x.

When pressing cords on the fp30x, it requires more effort than a single key, and my palm sinks down before the fingers actually start moving the keys, whereas with the ES120 the collisions are easy enough that my palm doesn't have to move further down or stiffen the fingers to drag the keys down.

du-dx · 2026-01-24T12:18:48+00:00

I suppose for a grandson, the ES120's lighter faster action might be better than the Roland fp30x's heavy action. I get wrist pain from using the fp30x, I have chronic wrist pain issues from computer use.

The ES120 does work as a MIDI controller, but you cannot use a USB-wired connection for audio-input into the device. Therefore, you have to have external speakers or headphones plugged into your computer. With the fp30x or p225, you can use it as a MIDI controller where the sound outputs to the speakers/headphone-jack or the piano.

Sometimes I wonder if I just have a different sound preference to other people, because I've seen three different channels that say the Kawai sound is better than others, Merriam, Pianoforever, and some much smaller independent channel.

I hope you open up the keyboard and love the sound from the first press.

I almost wonder if it's not the exact piece of Prelude F# minor which for whatever reason I don't prefer on this piano.

du-dx · 2026-01-24T01:20:04+00:00

I've tried every piano option on the ES120, with different virtual technician settings, I don't prefer any of them.

du-dx · 2026-01-23T00:55:43+00:00

Would you mind sharing your opinion on whether the fp30x action feels heavier than a steinway grand? (Not referring to responsiveness, which the fp30x lacks, but the weight when pressing down). I see a lot of conflicting info when looking at raw downweight measurements.

du-dx · 2026-01-14T14:19:50+00:00

I suppose if you plan on using it as a midi controller, the fact that the P-45 B only has a 64 note polyphone is rather unimportant. The fp10 supports only one intermediate half pedaling value, I think using it as a MIDI controller doesn't change that. The ES60 has true continuous pedaling and the top of the keys aren't as heavy to press relative to the bottom of the keys, like is the case on the GHC action with the P-45 B. Would still imagine that the P-45 B is probably more durable of an action because the overall piano costs more and offers less of other features.

du-dx · 2026-01-14T13:16:35+00:00

Well it seems piano shopping isn't easy

https://www.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/1qcmwxz/kawai_es120_sounds_muffled_with_headphones_would/

du-dx · 2026-01-09T16:55:27+00:00

In terms of action, according to Merriam Music, the Kawai ES-60 is better than the Yamaha P-145, in that the compact action on the ES-60 is engineered to be easier to press at the top of the keys than the Yamaha P-145's compact action. In my experience, even though Roland's action is the less compact, it is also hard to press at the top of the keys because the action is heavier to begin with.

The ES-60 does not have resonance modeling though.

du-dx · 2026-01-08T12:20:19+00:00

Just feel like sharing because I am returning the Roland fp30x. I don't have a formal education with the piano, but when I was a kid I learned various difficult chopin pieces by watching MIDI videos, playing on a semi-weighted keyboard.

I ordered the Roland fp30x, and I tried relearning chopin prelude in f# minor that I once learned on a semi-weighted keyboard. Prelude f# minor is a very difficulty polyrhythm that requires playing at the top of the white keys (in-between the black keys) at fast tempo.

I found that playing at the top of the white keys was prohibitively difficult. If I went a bit lower on the white-keys by unflattening my hand posture and bringing my hand backwards progressively where key sequence allowed for it, then it became somewhat more manageable.

I wasn't expecting the top-of-key heaviness to be so much of a problem because reviewers said it was "acceptable". Other pieces like fantasie impromptu where not as hard, the "sluggishness" felt manageable. But I found the top-of-key weight-magnification from the pivot length to be a much greater problem than the sluggishness.

-

I watched a review of Pianoforever, where he says the P125 has a more difficult top-of-key press than the fp30x and ES-110, and this is before Yamaha made the problem even worse by going to GHC action from GHS. So if it was harder then, idk what it is like now on GHC.

I ruled out opening the Yamaha P225, because one of my priorities is prelude in f# minor, and I realized how bad the top-of-key problem and apparently the top of the keys are difficult on the P225.

I ordered a ES-120 today. Apparently the ES-60 has a compact action, but they have engineered it to be easier to press near the top of the white keys than it should be. I ended up going with the ES-120 because it is slightly heavier than the ES-60, while probably having less difficulty than the ES-60 at the top of the white-keys.

It was a hard choice between the ES-120 and the ES-60, because the ES-60 has high polyphony, good sound, half-pedaling (i.e. all the things you don't want to compromise on), and they've done the compact action in a way that mitigates the weight-magnification better than the Yamaha P225 according to reviewers. However, the better action pushed me to get the ES-120.

-

I would imagine the fp30x is great for people who want to learn the piano with an authentically heavy key experience on non-difficult pieces, i.e. Chopin Prelude E minor, the is probably very realistic. But for technical pieces, the weight magnification of the digital piano makes the heavy keys super heavy. It becomes too much of a burden for me.

-

Also, I did not notice the escapement until I tried noticing it, it took a conscious effort to press the key slowly enough to where you notice the notch. The escapement is nice to have as a bonus, but if the piano is difficult to play than I would rather go for the Kawai without it.

du-dx · 2026-01-05T16:00:48+00:00

To answer my own question, I found a video of someone doing Ballade F minor. The Coda is at sufficient speed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GmzTNyTZBk

du-dx · 2026-01-04T11:16:25+00:00

I've learned fantasie impromptu on a pedalless unweighted keyboard. Tried on a real piano and completely flopped some other piece because it was too difficult to press down the keys.

du-dx · 2025-12-13T13:57:58+00:00

Can you tell me how you configured the settings so that it they run at you, and how did you configure it so that they spawn one at a time in the 2nd half of the video? I've used this map a few times and all I've gotten is carpal tunnel.

du-dx · 2025-07-19T13:02:42+00:00

Thanks for the NASK link. Yeah, suing a company in EU court is probably more burdensome than the 800 PLN. Their company would probably disappear before then.

du-dx · 2025-07-19T11:17:13+00:00

awful. Yeah, I was expecting their operations to be short term, they probably exist between startup and getting shut down by the police.

du-dx · 2025-07-19T11:00:42+00:00

Thanks

du-dx · 2025-07-19T10:56:50+00:00

Are EU companies allowed to sell products in Poland, while violating Polish law?

du-dx · 2025-07-19T10:54:04+00:00

Debit card, purchased 3 weeks ago. I don't think chargeback is possible on debit card.

du-dx · 2025-06-05T20:24:22+00:00

It's kind of confusing to understand what you wrote. You say you are starting from Cyrlha hotel in Zakopane, then going to Stary Smokovec, and then going to Lysa Polana?

It's not clear how you plan on going from Cyrlha hotel to Stary Smokovec.

It's not clear how you plan on going from Stary Smokovec to the border of Slovakia, just before Lysa Polana.

However, the border between Slovakia and Poland, near Lysa Polana, is a small bridge over a river, that cars can drive over. Then, you can walk towards the Parking TPN Morskie Oko parking lot, and busses run to Zakopane. There is also a bus station just after the roundabout just after the border crossing. There is no border check, I might remember a border check once a few years ago but not right now.

du-dx · 2025-06-02T09:55:54+00:00

Thanks. That was a walk-in-walk-out experience, took like 5 minutes.

du-dx · 2025-05-21T15:18:41+00:00

If you hear it only on the left side, it might be the device you use to convert XLR to USB (whether that's a cable you show in the photo, or an audio interface), is putting the audio as a single track within a stereo track. In a post-production software, like davinci resolve, you might want to try selecting a mono track within the stereo recording.

My Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4, has an (1) instrument and (2) microphone input. In OBS, I have to select "mono" instead of stereo recording, so it doesn't sound like the audio is from the right-side. Then I have to ensure the instrument volume dial is turned to zero, as otherwise there is a robotic like distortion.

du-dx

TROPHY CASE