Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Yamaha CP88 - new Steinway piano voice!

Guys, I would have merely added this to a previous CP88 thread but I thought it was somewhat newsworthy that Yamaha has recorded what it is calling a 'Hamburg' grand piano in a concert hall as a free new voice for existing CP88 and CP73 owners.

I know there doesn't seem to be very much love for the CP around here but I love mine. I find it an interesting development that Yamaha should finally concede and offer a Steinway sound.

I'm going to update my CP over the next day or two - hopefully the new sample plays well. There are other developments including a new U1 sample (Felt piano), other new instruments and what might be some way in software of customising your own touch curve.

Youtube demo of the new acoustic piano sounds here:

+1 to Nahre Sol.

And +1 to Yamaha releasing a new premium grand piano tone (rather than just misc pads/rhythm/fillers). They're making good on the promise of the CP88!

Also, I think the piano sounds great. I assume there's some natural ambiance in the recording that makes it quite lifelike (and yes, a good pianist makes everything sound good).

They've done a very good job with this Steinway sample I think.

It's even, linear, woody, pleasingly dynamic and with a nice warm softness when played quietly. There's no odd anomalies or spiky notes that stand out. There's a large room kind of vibe with it but it's not excessive. The only downside is that, like all CP88/73 piano sounds, it lacks some of the resonance implementations that have become typical these days such as Yamaha's own VRM. It doesn't have sympathetic resonance for instance although there is a basic 'damper resonance' effect that be applied to all the acoustic pianos.

I could make a pretty good guess that this new 'Hamburg' sample is about 1GB in size, possible slightly more than that. The entire update is 1.84GB and the U1 felt piano I doubt is more than 500MB. The other few additional voices won't be using much memory I shouldn't think.

And that's supposed to sound like a Steinway? Doesn't even sound like a piano, even at her hands.
These things are not worth investing money in; they're no better imo than those from the 90's.
Come to think of it , my old DGX620 sounded far better than that.
What is going on, guys?

Ask your audiologist.

Sounds nice! However, it kind of annoys me that Yamaha provides updates like this for a stage piano but not for Avantgrands that cost 2-5x as much.

Sadly, the AGs are not designed for this kind of update. Relatively few DPs are, actually.

The samples sound very nice to my ears. My only complaint is the archaic resonance effect that is audible in many sections of the video. It actually is an effect! and it has been there for decades.

I think it's good that Yamaha have done this. I agree adding a Steinway is an interesting departure from their past.

Several points to consider:
The CP series unlike the P515 is designed specifically with the stage in mind so up until now Yamaha chose not to give the CP piano the same quality keybed (NWX) as the P515 (The CP series has the old graded hammer action) and they only provided overly bright piano samples with no proper sympathetic resonance.

So now they've added a Steinway with built in room ambience.. to a stage piano!! LMAO. That's a logical choice. Not!

It would have been much better if they'd have offered some enhanced versions of the CFX and Bosendorfer. Stuff that went some way to sounding like a real piano.

I suppose the proof of the pudding is actually playing these new sample sets from the CP keybed. Just hearing them on YouTube is no way to judge. It is how well they are articulated and controllable from the instrument keybed. I'm a pianist at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if I'm playing on stage, in the studio or at home I want an instrument that I can use in all these places and respects my skills not patronises me.

So have Yamaha actually given the CP some real life or is it going to continue to be yet another one dimensional Nord clone?


.

I wish hardware digitals, whether stage, home or slab, would consider adding an una corda sample set to their sound chip? Is that so difficult?

Recently a friend wanted to host an out-door concert, and I suggested her to be on the VST train with Garritan CFX. She loved it instantly. And that -- that has una corda, folks!

It's exactly the same action as the P515 with the exception of the escapement simulation, which on all digital pianos is just a little rubber flap.

I don't find the piano sounds overly bright at all. I really have to wonder if you've played a CP88 with a recent software version. I played an early one and do recall thinking it was a bit brighter but that's not something I'd say now.

As you rightly point out, playing it is the key to understanding what they've done. Pontificating without hands-on knowledge is rather pointless.

If your signature is suggesting you are the owner of the RD-2000 then all bets are off - there's not a decent sounding piano on that board. You either have the spiky metallic twangy old supernatural sounds or the artificial, synthy, sine-wavy fully modelled nonsense to contend with. And yes, I HAVE played the RD-2000 (lovely feeling and quiet action, albeit a bit slow-witted feeling compared with the Yamaha NW action).

Nice demo video, I'd like to hear it with the update. But then again, my issue with the CP88 wasn't with the sound, which I thought was excellent. It was more in the action when trying to match, or come up to, the same energy level as the bass & drums live. It wasn't giving me back enough.

Playing the CP88 by itself, it was fine.

In the latest update (v1.5) they've introduced quite a nifty depth and offset control for the touch curve Dave. The little demo on Yamaha Synth YouTube stream looked very interesting for live players...

(this video about 12 minutes in...)

Same thing already present in the cp4 and cp5 also and removed for 2 years { now reintroduced in the cp88. I guess some features' marketing designer has been fired for selling loss during these 2 years. I'm a lost unit sold for example. A thing of primarly importance indeed and I'm thinking to give this board a second chance now thank's to this 'little' thing.

The 1.5 update is about 250 mb bigger thn the previous update (1.41). Since each update includes everything from the previous ones (you don't have to download and install all the previous ones to have all their sounds), the two new pianos and extra sounds should be about 250 mb in total. (Each "update file" may in fact even be re-loading every sound from scratch.)

Oh well. That's me told.

I have a (possibly) naive question. Does somebody know the tunes she plays in this demo? A suspect most if not all are hers. The last one sounds nice, though it is probably an improv or warm-up exercise.

I have CP88 #2 on order after returning the P-515 after two days. The CP88 is in stock in Guitar Center chain, I received an email today saying it shipped out, so possibly Friday or Sat. I'll have it. They gave 15% off so I ended up paying less for this one then the first one I had.

The P-515 while having an action that appealed to me, had a section from F#6 to C7 in the high register where the sound became thin, tinny and cheap sounding. The rest of the registers sounded rich and full bodied. I don't what happened but it sounds like a different instrument up there. It reminded me of when I played one of those Numa Pianos at NAMM a few years back. It was around G6 or 7 but I hit that note and said to myself, whoa they left it like that ?! Forget that one.

It was less pronounced through my Senn HD650s but through the internals and my gigging set up - RCF TT08As and JMK Audio JM-110 di/pre - it was highly noticeable. I simply couldn't live with that playing Jazz single note lines up there, it would drive me insane.

Also another impression- while the case build and power supply were of solid build quality, the overall feel of the instrument was not the same Pro quality I feel and hear with the CP models. It is obvious they are targeting a more home enthusiast market as opposed to Pro. And then there's the price point. I really feel that's part of the reason for the wonky sounding register on the 515.

It had been almost two years, since NAMM 2020, since I last played the 515. And that was in the most extreme, over the top, noisy environment I'd ever experienced in 32 years of attending NAMM. I think the 515 is still a very nice home dp but again I couldn't live with that high register.

Hoping I find satisfaction with the new touch velocity update on CP88 #2.

Let us know how you get on Dave, especially what you think of the new Steinway sound and the touch curve customisations etc.