Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Possible Yamaha CP4 in the future?

True, it's not mentioned in the ad, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's been omitted.

James
x

Wow, on paper, specs-wise, that looks like it ticks a lot of boxes. Let's hope the finished product lives up to expectations.

I'm still really happy with my CP33, but if it were lost, broken or stolen, this would likely be at the top of the list.

Heck, I'd be fine without all the extra 300+ synth / XM / XG / Motif sounds, since I have the XP-30. Maybe they have something like the next generation CP33 in the wings as well. I mean, it's only been on the market since 2006...better late than never.

Not to get off topic but the CP50 is the replacement for the CP33, just like the CP5 is the replacement for the CP300, but they sold/sell so well that Yamaha never officially discontinued them.

As for the action on the new CP4 I really would like more info on it because I would assume that Yamaha would either use the NW (Natural Wood) or a reivised NW-Stage action found in the current CP1/5. The NW action is basically a GH3 with wood components added. While I always felt the NW-Stage to be a BH (balanced hammer) action with wood components. Neither has wood keys like the Kawai wooden key actions and the black keys are all plastic. I know this for a fact because I've opened keyboards with both actions. Still though I really don't care about that and am really interested in the shaved off pounds of the CP4. Hopefully it still has balanced outs, internal power supply, piano and electric piano customizing feature and mounts for the CP music rest. I find having a detachable music rest very convienent on stage.

I'm hoping it has the lighter feel of the NW-Stage (CP5) rather than the heavier feel of the GH (CP50), though of course it will still have the variation that it will be relatively heavier on bottom and lighter on top.

Perhaps so, but, depending on price point, the CP4 could potentially be a replacement for both the CP5 and the CP50. Neither were huge sellers, and they had / have enough leftover 33s and 300s in inventory, making for five pro level stage pianos.

Three probably is / was the sweet spot, having a choice of good, better, and best. I can see them wanting to get to that model.

So they fire sale the 5, 50, 33, and 300, keeping the flagship CP1 ( maybe updated ), the CP4 in the middle, and a dumbed-down 4 in the vein of the 33, updated.

That way, they have the top shelf, pure DP in the 1, primarily living in studios ( against the V-P ). The 4 is the 700NX killer, all-in-one board, and another pure-ish piano-oriented stage board in the 33.1, for multi-board setups, against the 300NX.

Just spit-balling here, I have no insider info.

It wouldn't happen to have built in speakers would it?

Thanks so much for posting this. I love my CP5 too. However I was never too impressed with the NW keyboard. It was a bit too light for me. I areally look forward trying the new GH action out.

38.5 lbs sounds like wall wart to me.

Same goes for the ES100 ;-)

No


It's possible that they have just been keeping them around until inventory was exhausted, but it's also possible that Yamaha wants to keep them around to fill niches. The CP300 is still their only high end stage piano with speakers, the CP33 is still their only sub-$1k piano/controller combo. I guess what I'm saying is, if these were slow sellers, yes, they are probably only around until inventory is exhausted. However, if they have still been selling well, Yamaha may be intentionally keeping them in production, until they come out with a new model that truly replaces them in functionality.

must know shipping date, getting weak, can't hold on much longer, gasp, gasp...;-)

And that's from just thinking about moving the CP5 in two weeks...lol

As far as I'm aware, there is a fairly short lead time on the CP4.

I was in a Yamaha shop last week and tried out most of their digitals and was comparing their actions to the Avant Grande which felt very much like their acoustics. I wasn't that impressed with the actions on the CP1 and 5 in that sense and the NW action on the CVP 609 didn't feel as close as I was expecting (for it's price). The P-155's GH action really felt the closest and did impress me this time.

In terms of sounds, don't know why exactly but I didn't like most of them despite using my Sennheiser HD 558 headphones. There was crackling on one of the CP's. The studio grand sound on the CVP 609 was my favourite by far and may also be on the other CVP's too.

I'd really be interested in something with an evolution of the GH action and that studio grand sound from the CVP.

Info posted by a Yamaha rep in another forum...

On September 9th at 1 PM PST Yamaha's website and dealer websites will be opened with complete information, movies and interviews with artists.

The CP4 will start appearing in stores in the US around October 1st. The MAP price of the CP4 in the US is $2199.99.

It does feature Spectral Component Modeling . It is a Graded Wooden Hammer action (the CP5 was balanced so the weight did not change over the keyboard).

The CP4 Stage is the first pro stage piano to feature a CFX,Yamaha' flagship 9' Concert Grand. . It also has a CFIII and S6 pianos so the entire Yamaha Premium Piano Collection is represented. By the way, the S6 piano is very similar in design and part of the same family as the S700. It was specifically designed to have a warmer, more intimate sound than the CFX and CFIII.

At the same time we are releasing the CP40 , a baby brother to the CP4 which has fewer sounds (no CFX and one tine EP model). This will be a MAP price of $1699.99 in the US and replaces the CP50.

One of the biggest improvements on the new CP series is the user interface. It's very easy to understand and quick to get around on. We think people will really like it. There is also direct audio recording and playback to USB memory devices.

Boosh! Called it!

Nice price points as well.

Sweet. So is the CP40 going to have this graded wooden action as well? I'm quite curious about it as Yamaha doesn't come out with a new action just every day.

You should tell that Yamaha rep to stop being lame and hang out at PW instead.

Yeh, join the club and meet Mike and James ! If we could have equally good and involved people of all brands that would enrich the forum tremendously. Now Mike and James are representing Casio and Kawai very well , but the other brands seem completely absent. So if anyone knows this rep (and/or a similar guy from Roland) , please invite ; it would benefit the forum tremendously.

No. The old GH standby on that one.

Hmmm. Oh well. Until I can try the graded NW-stage I guess I can't say with certainty whether that's a bad thing or not. I do like the NW action in the higher clavinovas very well.

BTW I finally found that thread and resurrected an account I've had since who knows when. I wish everyone there would just come here so I could keep all my foruming in one place.

Can someone tell me what these sample sets mean exactly ? In which current Yamaha DP's can you find CFX , CFIII and/or S6 sample sets. E.g. ; what set(s) can be found in the CLP470 and 480 ? Also which is the latest (and best ? ) in terms of sample quality / layers and sustain lengths ? Yamaha just lists preset names in their manuals, by which it remains a mystery to me if it's CFX , CFIII, S6 with or without SCM or something else.

The CLP470 I tried sounded pretty good , but in the highest octaves , the sustain was very short and the looping jumps in early and very audible (almost a high static squeak when listening over headphones). I wonder if the CP4 will have the same sound, or if the promised SCM will rsolve the obvious looping in the high octaves.

Any Yamaha connoisseur knows ?

For the most part the primary piano voice in Yamaha's pianos comes from a sampling for their CFIII acoustic concert piano and has for many years. For this reason Yamaha digitals of all levels have had a very similar tone to each other for a looong time.

Yamaha came out with a replacement for the CFIII, called the CFX (first use that I know of was in the 2010 Chopin Competition). It has been a very well-reviewed acoustic. A sample from the CFX was used for the first time that I know of in the NU1--the N1, N2, and N3 still use the older CFIII sample. Newer Yamaha pianos are likely to use CFX going forward. Like Kawai, Yamaha likes to sample from their own pianos in order to use digitals to advertise for their acoustics.

The S6 is a smaller premium piano in the Yamaha line. I'm not sure which digitals use samples from it.