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Folks, now that Yamaha CLP-775 and CLP-785 make use of touch screens -- meaning they have become totally inaccessible to the visually impaired, do you know if there are alternative ways to modify the pianos' settings and options? Could this be achieved via Bluetooth using some sort of iOS app? And could it control all aspects of the pianos like initiating/stopping recording, altering Piano Room settings, layering the keyboard, etc? With the older interface at least we could initiate many actions via buttons or even alter settings by memorizing important places in the menu interface. But the touch interface offers none of that. And since we're talking about Yamaha, my concern is that some countries (including mine in the Middle East) might not receive the Bluetooth functionality -- similar to what happened with the CLP-6XX series. Yamaha has apparently -- and sadly -- joined Kawai in keeping the visually impaired further away from modern digital pianos! 😞 It's saddening to bid farewell to the best of Yamaha offerings in the CLP range. It might be wishful thinking on my part, but why can't digital piano manufacturers make the touch screen interface accessible to the visually impaired -- like what Apple and Google have done to iPhone and Android phones?
Thanks.

Many or most of the functions on my ancient Clavinova can be controlled remotely by sending MIDI commands from a computer.
I've sent a few commands that way, and it's not difficult to learn ... just turning local-control on and off.

If these CLP700 series pianos have similar capability, the it wouldn't take much to implement a full set of controls on a computer. Sending MIDI messages is easy.

For me the hard part would be creating a nice user interface.

Maybe with a fully programmable surface/midi controller in the midi input !?

May I ask where (website/social media platform etc.) did you discuss this platform?

Kind regards,
James
x

Amirhsol,

I expect the CLP-700 models will still be compatible with Yamaha's SmartPianist control app.

I wonder if it may even be technically possible to swap the CLP-775/CLP-785 touchpanel with a CLP-745 control panel, as the interface is essentially the same, just with touch areas where the buttons would normally be.

Kind regards,
James
x

So can SmartPianist control every aspect of the piano -- like switching to other instruments, recording, metronome use, etc? Of course, I should check to see if the app itself is accessible in the first place.
Thanks.

Do you mean the piano should always be connected to a computer via a cable all the time? Hope it's at least possible via Bluetooth through a smart phone. And can this control something like the volume of the speakers? Since 775 and 785 are button-less, I'm assuming that even something as basic as volume control has become inaccessible to me and other blind people.
Thanks.

I haven't seen the right cheekblock panel of the CLP-775/CLP-785, however I expect these models use the same power button and master volume slider as their predecessors.

My recommendation would be to contact Yamaha to confirm this and other queries you may have regarding the user interface.

Kind regards,
James
x

Sorry, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to share this information with you. I know that many pages with leaks and information that forum members share here are blocked thanks to you. ) And some forum participants were even banned, because of the leak provided about upcoming Kawai products, and inflated the problem of Universal scale (his last message for reference). Of course, no one will close that official group, but I don't want them to have any possible problems or stop sharing useful information.

I can only assure you once again that this is a large official Yamaha group on a large well-known social network. I think this information should be enough.

Okay, that's fine.


This is not correct, nor is it relevant to the topic of this thread.

Kind regards,
James
x

How do you think the price difference between the NV5 and the CLP785PE will be?
Or will the CA99PE be more comparable in price to the CL785PE?

My take is that the CLP-785PE will be more in line with the CA-99PE.
Personally, I would not pay more than $4,500\$5,000 for either instrument (and that might be pushing it).

While the staggered balance rail is a welcome change, I wonder if it has any meaningful impact since it's only the sharps that are lengthened. I've never really had a problems striking black keys even on short pivot DPs, since they're raised and have a lot of leverage. It's the sunken white keys you have to reach between the black keys that present the most problems IMO. Lightening up the black keys doesn't really help with this (but then again, I've never had a problem with the ~21cm pivot length of the GH/NW actions, IMO they're adequate, if not class leading.


Tony's gone to the extraordinary step (at least for a retailer "review" video) of breaking out gram weights to demonstrate how the original GrandTouch action was heavy. So I wouldn't be surprised if he does the same with the "new/improved" GrandTouch.

It would be nice if Tony did the same kind of ‘weighing’ with the CLP-785 indeed.
Now, some people also complained about an unnatural on/off ‘clicky’ feel to the keys amongst other things, so it seems like the complains regarding the GrandTouch went beyond the keys being heavy.

I never played the action, and of course there will always be someone who finds this action too heavy and the other too bouncy, whilst someone else finds this one too light and the other too fluffy, but the GrandTouch action has been one of the most collectively hated actions in this forum, so it made me wonder if it was more than just subjectivity when people said ‘there’s something wrong with this action’; and some of these were people who seemed to like the NWX.

Hopefully Yamaha has been listening and improving the GrandTouch action over the last three years (assuming there truly was something ‘wrong’ with it).

Agreed, Pete.
I would like to see reviews talking about this new way of distributing the speakers inside the piano and how much impact those transducers made....if was a sound/touch change or just touch (almost like rumble pack in the N64..LOL hehehe)

I noticed Yamaha is now ‘modeling’ duplex scaling instead of aliquot; is this better? Why not keep aliquot alongside the duplex scaling? Would this be redundant?

I have to wonder how much of a difference either really is!

The string, damper, and body modeled resonances do make a difference, but I also wonder how much of a difference duplex and aliquot make.

It would’ve been nice if Yamaha modeled the decay, but I’m guessing it’s just a matter of time before they go full modeling; 5 years, give or take?

When I search (Google), Yamaha CFX Aliquot, the only answer with all these terms are about Clavinova which does support it. Then I don’t think the CFX has aliquot strings, but there are always undamped strings in the treble.

About the duplex scales, on a photo, I see that half the strings are damped on the non-speaking portion. And for other strings, these portions are very short (I don’t expect many added partials excepted in the higher pitches).

Oh, resonances do make sense. The thing is, I'm not sure whether there is any difference between "aliquot resonance" and "duplex scaling." Isn't it the same thing--the use of aliquots or frames to tune the "non-speaking" portion of struck strings rather than mute them with felt runners?

Also, I don't think any current Yamaha or Bosendorfer actually uses true aliquot stringing (a non-struck, non-damped 4th [or extra] string per note), and I don't think "aliquot resonance" has generally been used to apply to true aliquot stringing.

My meta point is that there is so much effort spent in fine-tuning these relatively minor features such as aliquot/duplex resonances, but generally, full-scale piano resonances are IMO sorely lacking. Leave any 1yo kid in a room with a piano and what happens? They stomp the damper pedal and smash all the key over and over. There's a HUGE wall of sound that crashes and grows and rings out, louder and louder and louder. It's a cacophony of complex interactions, and even if you play "properly" you always need to modulate the damper more on an acoustic in order to avoid overpowering the music with a sloshy, muddy mess. That characteristic of an acoustic is so pronounced that you can immediately hear and identify it even in a low-fidelity Zoom meeting. No DP or VST even comes close to an old spinet in this regard, the resonances are too weak, hollow, and individualized. So I just find it funny that generation after generation, there's a little fine tuning here and there but the elephant in the room gets ignored.

IMO, Kawai's SK-EX Rendering takes quite a big step in the right direction here, but it's heavily biased to the treble range (as it emphasizes resonances from the top undamped octaves) and makes the top end sound quite bright in many rendering characters.

Hearkening back to Roland SuperNATURAL in the RD-700NX? Who knows where Yamaha/Kawai/Casio/Korg/Dexibell will go with this. I really have high hopes for modeling, but sampling is so mature now that it's hard for new technology to make headway just on the basis of a higher potential "ceiling."