Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Best sounding Grand Piano -- in a synth!

There apparently is no debate that the finest sounding Grand Piano sound comes from a synth -- the Yamaha S90 ES. I've read tons of user reviews and word from Yamaha is that it produces the best sound because it utilizes the largest wave ROM (53MB) dedicated to the Grand Piano sound alone. None of Yamahas other synths or digital pianos has anything close to this when it comes to the piano sound. I'm just curious why Yamaha would not incorporate their largest ROM in one of their digital pianos like the P series or CLP/CVP and instead put it in a synth. For a short while I tested out this synth and they are right but I couldn't justify spending $2000 and not use 95% of the synths other features that I'm not interested in. Hmmm, just thinking out loud here.

I have owned and played a lot on Yamaha S90 ES.
I bought it only for the piano sound.

You can listen to a recording with it here.
http://www.solopiano.se/mp3downloads.html (the 5th Track)

After a while you start missing the correct key action and velocity combination.
The keyboard is done to attract synt players who wants to have a 88 Key for live situations.
When you play it for mainly piano you have to be very careful not to push the keys to hard, then the tone hits the top velocity and the dynamics gets killed.

I have sold it, and is aiming for a Grand Touch or similiar.

Linken --------

Excellent playing and recording. There will apparently be a replacement model soon for the S90 ES but again it is still a syth --- which I really haven't played and the action of a synth is probably just a little to light for me. A great idea for Yamaha though is to put a Grand Piano patch the size of the S90 into one of their regular digital pianos. That's a mystery to me why they haven't. That would be a digital I would buy.

Actually, the S90ES action isn't what I'd call "light" or "synthy". It's very pianistic, it just lacks graded hammer action.

LesCharles73 -----

Would you agree with most all of the users' comments that the sound of the GP is better than other Yamahas? It sounded great to me for the few minutes I played it but I'm definitely no expert.

I do agree that it sounds very good. I haven't played enough Yamaha's to be able to come to a definite conclusion, but it does sound better than most (if not all) P and YDP series instruments to my ears. I haven't played a Clavinova in a really long time so I'm no help there. I like how bright the S90ES sounds, however I do agree that it tops out too quickly. But I'd still play it any day over any low end or mid range DP's.

I think that the reason Yamaha doesn't put this 53MB ROM into their digital pianos is because it would bring up the cost too much. Right now, most of what you pay for is in sampling, action design and cabinet design (plus R&D). We would be paying a lot more if they added the ROM of the S90ES.

the S90ES is fantastic, but in my opinion, the Motif XS8 is better. http://www.guitarcenter.com/Yamaha-...rkstation-Keyboard-104221585-i1172640.gc
I've played both fairly extensively, and my goodness...the Motif sounds like a real piano, it's absolutely incredible. The touch is perfect. I love it. I wish I owned one....

I agree that the XS8 is fabulous but you do realise that they both have the Balanced Hammer Effect Keyboard installed?

If my K2600X didn't exist I would probably go with the XS8. It is a very good balance of Synth and piano. I bought my Kurzweil mainly for the orchestral suite which is where (in my opinion) Yamaha lacks. Yamaha does have better organization of programs/voices than the Kurz though. A not-so-distant 3rd would be the Korg Triton Extreme or Studio, even though they have been discontinued AFAIK.

Yeah, and I think both the S90 and XS8 have a great feel. For some reason when I play them back to back, the XS8 just feels better to me. Could just be opinion.