Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Yamaha CP4 vs Roland RD800?

There is the TP400 as well which they could have chosen. This is the TP40Wood but with plastic keys.

Exactly. As far as the sounds and the user interface are concerned... let's keep silent about the action

If they had a decent action instead of awful and 4 times the memory maybe it would be ... but as they stand Nord's are extremely limited tools. Great for stage, lousy for everything else.

My next board will be an Artis.

Unplayable ...

I'd just say...not fun to play. I'd play it first David before getting one.

A top notch player can make most anything sound good on a gig. The Artis certainly falls within those *most anything* parameters but it would be far from my first choice.

I´ve been searching for the perfect stage piano for a while and was hoping for something more from kawai and nord at the Namm-show. For now it´s down to rd800 or cp4. The cp4 is a little more slim size and that can be important when it comes to loading it in my car.
The Roland seems to have the better organ and that is also something I think is important.

I was hoping for a Kawai mp7, because the mp6 seems to have a lot what I seek but I´ve never tried one. And the kawai mp6 is almost half price if I you compare with roland and yamaha. That keeps me wonder, if it is so much cheaper, can it really be as good?

If we forget about the internal sounds, but focus on key action and realistic/satisfying piano feel, how do these two respective stage pianos compare to the much heavier Kawai boards such as the VPC1 and the MP10?

In other words, what's the upside to spending almost as much $$$ on a controller only (VPC1) or on the both pricier and heavier MP10(MP11?)? In terms of key action, what (if anything) are we compromising by getting either the CP4 or the RD800 instead?

Not much, I personally far prefer the lighter more playable actions of the Roland or Yamaha to the Kawai. The Kawai action is trying too hard to be very piano like as isn't as playable as the others.
If I had my pick I'd get the RD800 for action but the CP4 is very close.
Its really a matter of playing them and choosing the one that suits you best personally.

To me, the MP6 feels pretty similar to Yamaha's GH (i.e. P155/P255, CP33/40/50). The MP10 is very different. It's a heavier action, but also somehow "elegant" feeling, if that makes sense. If you prefer lighter actions, though, Yamaha CP4 and Roland RD800 would be lighter than the Kawais.

Listening to more demos the CP4 sounds really good to me, though not as good as random demonstration on you tube. I'm not sure if this is just due to recording quality.

I wonder if the yamaha demos sneakily show off their best notes in their demos (eg: any notes which are stretched they restrict to just passing notes, and sustained notes are just long enough so that you don't get to hear the looping.)

Yamaha's voicing is very good .. very very good. And unless your specifically listening for it you can't really notice the looping in general solo play until your specifically listening for it and playing stuff to expose it. But once you get ... well then you always hear it but it took me a long time to notice it but after that I was always listening for it ...couldn't help myself. You can never hear it in a mix or playing most songs ...but its like a dormant disease you know its there and it annoys me on sheer principle. Stretching is very difficult to detect without software but its possible it could be noticed on a very small number of solo passages. Yamaha's pianos sound great listening to them ...the sound isn't the issue its the underlying gnawing feeling your being taken for a ride and basically paying for 10 year old sampling technology. The CPX is a absolutely fantastic piano voice its 88 key sampled actually (the only one that is) and deserves its place ...but it is looped. But seriously for 99% of situations it isn't a issue. I think the RD800 is a far better all round board but you could arguably say the Roland has only 1 really great AP itself. Its organs, clav's and 1100 odd other sounds are pretty good. And its controls and 4 part layering make it more versatile for live work.

I am very interested in the Yamaha CP4.

It sounds very good to me in the video demos on youtube. I was impressed that it sounds good on the videos where a direct feed into the video recorder was used(Kraft Music especially and Sweetwater as well)but also, and more importantly, it still sounded good on the videos which were not a direct feed, but instead recorded the room. (I noticed this in the 5 or so videos recorded by the Japanese pianist, Masataka Kono. He was running the cp4 through a Pa system((a Yamaha PA system if I remember correctly)) and the sound was recorded with external mics or simply the video recorders mics.)

I plan to use the CP4 to perform for gigs(mainly solo classical music and jazz with a duo and trio) but also to record demos.

The CP4 has a recording function that records directly to USB.
Has anyone used this feature? Does the cp4 USB recording feature produce professional quality recordings?

I heard something in this video that I haven't heard Nord or any other DP produce. That is the tape echo thing the player was doing live. Pretty cool. That and the live stereo vibrato controls really is making me think about the 800. Starts around 1:10.

I've now got them set up side by side ... the Roland kills the Yamaha except its got only one really great AP while the Yamaha has three quite acceptable (but by no means technically good) But the roland does have the one great one. AP's. The Roland has a big lead in Synth sounds, strings, massive in Organs and Clav's etc ...while I'd say they are about equal in EP's with the Yammie having perhaps a slight edge in the Rhodes but the RD has got some better Wurli's.

The Roland is the better all round board.

When you consider you can nearly buy both for the price of one Nord Stage 2 ...what's Nord doing ?

Nice comparison. How would you say the actions compare? Is one noticeably lighter or heavier than the other?

Yamaha is heavier then the Roland both are very good actions but the Rolands is probably the best graded action I've played.

Is there a video yet of the Roland in a Live situation?

That is the real test.

Most of the higher-end DP's sound good with a direct feed to a recording device.
It is how they perform through PA speakers(in a live gigging situation) that is most important.

Selling lots of keyboards. ;-)

Really, it's a very different board. Knobby VA synth, aftertouch, full clonewheel functionality, custom sample loading, ability to load completely different sounding grands and uprights into them, etc. Also, a decent number of people still seem to think that their pianos simply sound better. (Well, I don't know if anyone has directly compared RD800 to Nord yet. I did think the CP4 would kinda knock off the Nord Piano 2, but I have seen a number of posts from people who still just prefer the sound of the Nord.) And while Roland has gotten the weight down some, the Nord is still lighter.

I agree with Kevin Keys, I like the pianosound in the sweatwater demo.
To me it will come down to all other sounds to, does the cp4 have enough other usable sounds for live situations, organ, strings, pads.... I don´t know. I think the rd800 has more of that.
On the other hand, how many do I really use. A couple of string sounds, organ, a couple of pads, It´s all about how usable they are.

Negative for Roland is that it is a little bit longer, can be a problem in a small car. The weight differance is nothing I care to much about.