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

I agree, ando. I didn't expect much different from the video - I generally "listen between the lines" and ignore the sales waffle. I did think it was a little silly making such a song and dance about the reverb button, which should be there on any stage board (and pretty much used to be). That said, the guy demonstrated it quite well.

I'll go for CP-400 as the CP-4 series version of the CP-300. ;-)

Back to the Kraft video, I agree, I think it was very well done.

If there was any indication that Kawai and Roland won't just repeat the pattern of reserving their better sound/action for their heavyweight boards then I'd be inclined to hold off. It's worth noting that both the CP4 and the lesser CP40 weigh essentially the same (except that one includes an internal power supply), and that that weight is manageable.

Kawai seems to have no interest in making a lighter board as their "best stage piano ever." Roland could conceivably come out with something at the weight of the 300NX that includes all their best SN pianos/EPs, but I'm not holding my breath.

The CP4 seems to tick a lot of boxes. However, if the stretching, looping and lack of sympathetic resonance impact the overall sound noticeably, then it might be worth holding off until the expected announcements. Both Kawai and Roland provide 88-note sampling, full resonance, and, in Roland's case, no overt looping.

Why can some manufacturers put together a DP with built-in speakers and keep the weight light enough, while "Y" makes tanks. Sure, they'll probably say using small light speakers is not up to our standards. Maybe, my Roland isn't the greatest fidelity, but it's very handy for many situations.

I guess I just expect more from Yamaha. I mean, it's not like they're scrabbling up from the bottom, they're probably #1 in name recognition and sales. Why is their marketing department playing the refs so hard when they've arguably dominated the game for quite some time now?

For me their lies by omission and half truths have added up to the point where I don't trust anything they say about their keys or sound engines. Which hurts their brand / image, which you would think would be a corporate cardinal sin.

This is one instance where I wish "jumping off of cliffs" were a part of "but, but they all do it!"

The emphasis put on how easy the CP4 is to use in the video is basically admitting that the CP5 was hard to use. I think they deserve some credit for at least acknowledging that they are aware of the issue, even if this is the way they chose to do it.

Claiming that the keys are "natural wood" is not classy, though.

Anyway, both the various piano sounds and the Rhodes sound great in the video. Guess I'll have to check it out when it arrives at the stores. Crossing fingers it's not better than my RD

I'm not so sure that is true. I do believe the CP-4 is after a different market. Two One items to note, 1) no three pedal support, 2) lack of a "furniture" stand. I just think it's a different type of player all together.


I completely agree. And that would compete with the FP50/80 and ES7 market, I think.

I'm not sure that's quite right. From what I recall, the CP4 has four sockets for pedals, so I believe you can attach the three standard piano pedals plus something like an expression pedal, for example.

You are correct. I misread the specifications. Thank you!

Does the CP4 support a continuous pedal like the CP5?

From here up thread:


I assume that answers the question? I'd be kind of amazed if the CP4 didn't have sympathetic resonance. "String resonance" usually means key sympathetic resonance, but DPs that have key sympathetic resonance always have pedal sympathetic resonance. Roundabout semi-proof.

Thanks, dewster, I missed that (or spaced out at the critical moment!).

I'd strongly advise all those that are talking about placing preorders to wait until the board is released and you can actually play it and hear the sound yourself.

Doesn't string resonance mean the pedal is held down?

There seem to be slightly different terms floating around for the same thing. Nearly all current DPs have damper resonance, but only a few have sympathetic resonance. I think it needs to be confirmed what Athan means by string resonance.

He means It does not have sympathetic resonance.

Of course the cp4 will be best at AP and EP, but what can I expect from the other sounds, strings, synth and organ. They say all these sounds are from the motif? I have no experiance of the motif so it doesn´t help me so much.

This probably isn't very helpful but I was messing around with a little digital recorder the other day and my CP1. I recorded something, can't remember what, using the S6 voice, which I quite like for slower, more reflective type of stuff.

Anyway I listened back to it later that day and the recorder (one of those funny little Zoom things) just went on to play through other stuff I had left on it. Started with some weird quadrophonic transcriptions into stereo I'd found on YouTube (Marvin Gaye's Let's Get it On among them - worth a listen to hear how a 70s quad mix reduces to stereo!). Anyway there was about a dozen audio files on the thing some of which I probably had never played back.

Towards the end there was more of me on a DP, which I struggled to place initially (I've had so many of the bloody things). Then it all came flooding back and it was the Nord Piano's Fazioli. Let me tell you it is MILES and MILES ahead of anything else on a hardware DP in terms of realism. I actually wondered if it was something I had recorded off a real piano for the first few seconds.

I think there is maybe one and a half advantages the Yamahas have over the Nord. The first full point goes to the action. That is beyond debate. I'd give a half point to the Yamaha for its EPs, which although not sonically nicer or more accurate or more varied than the Nord's, are of what I'd call higher resolution and yes, they are better for that.

But key action aside, the Nord is easy to use (the most intuitive of all in my opinion), light, and just has totally killer AP sounds with more variety and character than anything else - by a huge margin.

With the CP4 I don't see that Yamaha has moved the game forward in a wider sense at all. They have moved the game forward for Yamaha, yes, due to the UI and lower weight. But they've brought nothing new to the table for those used to the other leading DPs out there.

I really miss my Nord Piano for its AP sounds. I don't regret getting the CP1 because the action is just sublime and I like the EPs and APs and it is a beautiful thing. But as Dr Popper says above, play the CP4 before ordering. I can promise you that it will get nowhere near the Nord's APs.

Steve

Steve, thanks for this post - I can fully underwrite everything you say about the Nord and its comparison with Yamaha offerings. While I have not yet played the new CP4 I tried out the CP5 several times and its action was classy, much better than the Nord, and I equally like the good old Yamaha GH action. However, in terms of sound, with the Fazioli or the Bösendorfer, the Nord is still a substantial step up, and for me there is no contest which AP sound I prefer. Add to that, as you say, the extremely intuitive interface of the Nords.

Since I play the AP's of my Nord from Kawai's VPC1 (at home - out and about its still the Nord) the big point in favour of the Yamahas is gone (action), and actually if I should buy a new DP now my main desire would be to get even better sounds from Clavia, with the same intuitive interface, and - finally - a pianistically serious action.

Nevertheless, the CP4 seems a very interesting offering for an allround package and I'd like to test it out.

Of course the *real* desire always goes to the real thing, an acoustic piano, and I bet you'd agree

Regarding the "other sounds":

I owned a motif classic for years. That was replaced by the ES, then the XS, then the XF. I'm not sure whether the Motif sounds on this board are from the XS or XF.

In any event, from what I've heard of the mox8 and s90XS--both of which have Motif XS sounds, and I've played them a number of times as possible purchases--the XS sounds are very nice. I think they are a fair bit better than my original Motif, and that did a good job as a "cover all bases" board in my cover band. Organ was definitely not a strong point though. My Motif sounded thin and wimpy when it came to the "fat synth" department IMO, but the XS seems better on the synths. EP, strings, horns, pads all sound good to me.

As others have mentioned, if Yamaha would develop a modeled organ similar to the KB3 on the Kurzweils--which I like a lot--they'd have a monster, at least for a certain group that would include me! While I don't play organ primarily on a weighted board, ideally for live use I'd like either of my two boards to be able to cover everything to some extent. That's the database programmer side of me, I like safety and backups Never mind that keyboards rarely fail...but I have had that happen to me years ago. It also helps with practice and small gigs (like 1-set benefits) to get by with one board--though I'd probably bring my Kurzweil anyway since I play organ slightly more than piano.