Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards New stage pianos from Yamaha!

I bought a CP5 two weeks ago, and I can hardly stop playing the thing.

Such a clear, expressive piano. Fat and funky electric pianos. All the organs a guy could ask for.

The action might not be GH, but I don't miss it. It's as though the keys enjoy being played.

However...

Every now and then a few of the keys (2 or 3) produce a clicking sound. Has anyone encountered anything like this with a Yamaha? Just a very light, very quick click. But noticeably not the soft frump of the other keys when pressed. And not every time. I'd hate to think I've got a defective $2,600 piano.

And I might be a complete moron, but I'm certainly not a sound engineer with a degree from MIT. Which it appears you must be to understand much of the absurd language in the owner's manual. (I remember buying two separate third-party spriral books for my Korg M1 just to explain the basics).

So can anyone help me figure out how to get the drum kits to play? I can play all the pre-recorded patterns (there are 100), but I imagine there must be a way to lay down original drum tracks using the keys. I'm pretty good at figuring out how these consoles work, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to do this. Anyone? Thanks.

I went from a 700gx to cp50 just yesterday...I really like it.

Greetings, Yamaha aficionados, and others. I've read each post here and now feel I already know some of you, lol. Ordered my CP5 a couple weeks ago. On delayed delivery to the store. The wait is killing me!

My introductory thread:

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1439708.html#Post1439708

Is it just me, or has the silence has become almost deafening on the CP line? Can't help but wonder if I'm making the right decision.

Everyone is over on the RD-700GXF threads.

I'm sure your decision was a good one.
I've not yet had the chance to try the CP5 here in Europe, but am looking forward to when my nearest dealer gets one set up for demo purposes.

Yes. Those beautiful SN sounds aren't helping any.

That's just it. There doesn't seem to be a rush to post positive experience with the CP5, (or the CP1 for that matter), and the CP5 reportedly hit the streets a while ago. :crickets:

I'm excited to try one but need to wait until late June/July before I can commit to a purchase. The 700GXF is certainly in contention and perhaps by the time I'm ready the Casio PX-3 will be available to test out. Still reading all I can about the CP-5

The most positive posts on the CP1/CP5 date to before dewster's squiggly lines and the first purchasers' lament and subsequent returns. Hopefully most of those satisfied with their new CPs are too busy playing them to care about posting here.

Did you see the thread 'CP5 ... some thoughts'
https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubb...20...%20some%20thoughts.html#Post1441711

From my own experience, it's a mixed bag. Some good, some bad.

I've had a CP5 here for two weeks. I've spent a lot of time with it, so while I don't know everything, I can get around on it well. I've done a lot of editing, and stored those edits maybe two hundred times or so.

Initially I had a good impression, because as the next generation of the Yamaha CP line, there are some improvements. Smaller profile, lighter weight, better layout regarding output jacks, etc. But then Yamaha Support told me that these CPs are NOT a next generation of anything - they are apparently some kind of branch of the tree all their own. Yamaha wants to keep selling their CP33 and CP300, so they intentionally left off of the new CPs some critical features that the old CPs had.

One in particular is probably going to be a deal breaker for me - the fact that the left/right part volume knobs are only good for controlling internal sounds. I think it is very close to deceptive advertising, because they are in the exact same place as on the CP300 and CP33, they do the exact same things, only they left off the crucial function of being able to assign them to external midi control. The CP stage pianos are minimally capable of being controllers in the first place, so why they would strip them down even more makes no sense, unless it's purely to keep customers buying the earlier models.

The sound of the instrument does not knock me out. I've got other synths and keyboards that sound better - bigger, deeper, fuller, more musical sounds. All of the parameter controls in the world won't make up for a generally smaller less musical sound. I was counting on this thing taking me back to when I had a Rhodes electric piano, and Yamaha marketing has been trumpeting the amazing EPs in it. But to my ear, they are just so-so. Nothing amazing about them. The main piano sample/model is fine, but again, I'm not amazed by it or anything. It's workable in a mix.

The action is lighter than other Yamaha keyboards, which could be a plus, depending on what you like. I've never been a big fan of any Yamaha actions, including their acoustic grands. They are ok, but they always seems heavier than necessary or optimal to me. It's a nice action on the CP5 and CP1, BUT, there are some problems with inconsistent velocity levels from note to note, and I sometimes wonder if this new action they've built is part of the culprit.

The knobs and switches are ok, but nothing to write home about. The small gray plastic knobs seem pretty cheap, but they work ok. The middle large black knobs for editing work well, but as mentioned previously are somewhat worrisome because they could be damaged easily because they stick up pretty far.

Personally, there are enough cons to this new CP5 that I have two other stage pianos coming here in the next few days that I will consider buying instead. I was really pumped to get a new CP5, but for me, the reality does not live up to the hype.

Just for the record, the reality has lived up to the hype for me before, so it can happen. My Bosendorfer piano, Cranesong STC-8 compressor, and GML 8200 EQ all come to mind in that regard. For me, the Yamaha CP5 stage piano is not in their league.

Mychal

This evening I went down to the local Guitar Center to take a look at the Roland RD-700GX. After playing with it for a while I noticed the CP5 and CP50 sitting there. Amazingly, they were all plugged in and connected to working amps. This was my first time seeing any of these keyboards.

The keys of the CP50 feel like standard plastic Yamaha, which is to say not bad, and the wooden keys of the CP5 are interesting and a bit lighter. I played around with the CP5 and really couldn't figure out what mode it was in. For all the dedicated buttons and knobs and stuff, the interface was beyond my comprehension. Which is kind of strange because I can usually figure interfaces out rather quickly.

The RD on the other hand is pretty simple. Voice selection is pressing a button and spinning the dial, layering happens when you press the part buttons, layer mix is the associated slider, transpose works logically, effects have an on/off button and depth dial - the only thing I didn't get was how to select different patterns for the arpeggiator. Even the drawbar organ is fairly easy to adjust. I'm pretty sure my wife and her students could thrash about on it and come up with useful results.

I hadn't looked at the operating manuals for any of them before I entered the store. IMO Yamaha seriously needs to work on their user interfaces, they are exceedingly and unnecessarily cryptic.

I'm glad you finally got a look at the keyboards, but sorry to hear you couldn't get the CP5 up and running. Maybe take a quick look at the manual online and give it another chance when you can. I'd be interested to hear what you think.

Before I try a keyboard, especially a Yamaha, I always check out their manual, because like you said, you have to know their secret codes! I've even written certain key menu things down to take along, because I know once I get in that store with the dude jamming away on the rap sequencer who always seems to be there, I'll forget what the heck I'm doing.

A good thing to do for the CP5 might be to get it into its preset mode, and then just start scrolling through them. There are a lot of dumb ones, but there are some that show the keyboard better. To your left are part buttons and knobs, so you can turn those off and on to hear the stacked parts on the performances they've created. And right in front of you turn off and on the pre-amp, mod-fx, and pwr amp buttons to hear them go on and off. And to look inside their menus, just hold any of those switches down, and you can start scrolling through the different parameters.

I have to tell you, I actually like a lot of how they've laid out the editing part of the keyboard. I got used to it fast once I saw what was going on. But it also revealed what I think is another serious omission on the machine - the inability to copy parts and fx around inside the keyboard. It can take hours to get a decent patch, and it would be very helpful if you could copy and paste that around more freely.

Mychal

Lol!

While visiting the US on business a few years ago I visited a handful of the large musical instrument chain stores - without fail each one had a chap working on a R&B/hip-hop sequence on a Fantom or Motif.

Cheers,
James
x

I always recommend knowing the basics ahead of time, starting with how to do a factory reset.

I played around with the CP5 and really couldn't figure out what mode it was in. For all the dedicated buttons and knobs and stuff, the interface was beyond my comprehension. Which is kind of strange because I can usually figure interfaces out rather quickly.

That was also my first impression ... and I've owned the P250 and CP300. It took me about a week of playing with the keyboard and rereading the owner's manual to become fairly comfortable with it.

That's hilarious. In the GC last night there was a guy at a Motif with a canned hip-hop riff on infinite repeat, speakers all the way up. I'm not sure what he was doing, the loop never changed and he seemed to be just sitting there. Luckily for me the DPs were located in a separate DP room. There was a little kid in there playing some built-in rhythms and dancing around, but he was no match for my sealed headphones.

I normally prepare for these things, but it was a spur-of-the-moment trip. I wanted to be out of the house for a couple of hours while my wife was giving a group class, so I figured, what the heck, go hit the GC and check out the RD.

On the CP, every time I played a key a automatic rhythm would start and I'd have to hit the stop button. Pressing the bank buttons changed the voice, but not to what I expected. There were strange characters on the little blue display that looked like Klingon. I was completely baffled. It's a little too much like our Motif rack unit, where, even with the manual in front of me, I'm never really sure what I'm doing, and I'm constantly scolded by the LCD to not turn the unit off while it's busy doing something or other (writing to flash I presume, rather hair-raising).

I'll give it another go when my wife demos the RD, but I'm looking through the manual right now and getting an instant headache.

For example, here is the text introducing the EXIT/jump to edit button:


Who in their right mind would make a button as basic and essential as the exit button do anything but exit? And the store button should never, ever be touched unless you want to store something, period. But pressing both of these essential / scary buttons at the same time and in a particular way inexplicably takes you to a screen where you can assign functions to the knobs? It's like there's some kind of UI obfuscation contest going on in the Yamaha software lab.

User interface design isn't easy, and they often get it VERY wrong. There are plenty of good guidelines to work from. Yet designers commit the same atrocious errors time after time. Sux, dunit?