Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards I've finally tested a Yamaha CP5. WOW!!!

KarelG, no offense taken, my English is far from perfect too (we are both slavic languages speakers) and sometimes we get lost in translation when speaking English

By the way, my Scholze acoustic piano is manufactured in the former Czechoslovakia (to my knowledge that's a german brand owned currently by Petrof), so I admire the experience Czechs have in manufacturing fine acoustic pianos Ohh, I almost forgot, at this very moment I am drinking a Staropramen beer, one of my favorite beers!

Cheers from Sofia!

The 1.2 firmware update for the CP5 was mentioned earlier. I knew that I had updated the CP5 but had forgotten how to know that for a fact.

From the zip file that Yamaha offers for the update ...

Hold down the [USER] and [EXT] buttons, then power on the CP5 to check the firmware version to confirm that the CP5 has been successfully updated.
If "Version 1.20" is shown in the display, that the unit has been successfully updated.

An interesting fact is that prior to 1.20 you can't check the firmware version by holding USER and EXT while powering on. This functionality was introduced only with the 1.20.

Dave, can you confirm that you can observe the bug with the louder notes even with 1.20?

Yea, the update did not correct that issue. Dewster analyzed the patch and posted the information here.

Hmm, that sounds really weird. Is this noticeable on other CP5-s? I am really concerned about that since I already put my CA63 on sale and will probably order a CP5 or its successor (if there is such announced on NAMM).

I noticed it on the first demo play in the store but to tell you the truth, after using it for a year and half, at least for me, it's a total non-issue.

I should now refer to you both Daves by your full name

Dave Ferris, have you noticed it after you've already known this issue existed or you discovered it yourself?

For me, when I play the default piano patch and play those four offending notes, I expect to hear a slightly softer sound than what I hear (when I play ff or fff); that compounded with a lighter action makes recording the CP5 slightly more problematic at least for me.

On jobs it's less of an issue simply because there's more background noise and more flaws (of all flavors) go unnoticed. On recordings it's another story. You have to be consciously aware that a few notes will respond differently than what you expect ... and that's the issue for me.

I would think this could be corrected with an update (focusing in on those offending notes). But as I wrote earlier, I didn't notice those notes at first.

I believe my first post regarding this issue was here ... http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1441711/CP5%20...%20some%20thoughts.html

(I was Googling for the results Dewster posted. Perhaps someone can locate the post with those results.)

Found it ...

link

Listening to the test, it sounds fairly pronounced. I am wondering how noticeable it would be in real playing. Maybe I'll have to repeat my CP5 test or better wait for its replacement NAMM is coming, there's already NP2, rumors of SN2 are spreading and hopefully CP6 would kick them all

P.S. I am wondering whether Yamaha could have silently fixed this issue with a newer wave-ROM update in their recent boards. How many people have confirmed this issue with their CP5-s?

I think the sterility is due to the very short, over processed loop samples. When I listened to the first videos from NAMM where someone whacked a low note and held it I though it sounded pretty nice, but up close and personal in the DPBSD looping test not so much.

I do wish someone would take a screwdriver to their CP1/5 and post some nekid pix of the key mechanism. Does anyone know what the down-weight is (nickles it takes to float middle C)?

The CP-5 is a wonderful piano mainly because of its keybed and instant connection which makes it seem so much more musical then many other instruments. I have a CP-1 and its easily the best sounding board I've ever played (even though I'm not a S6 fan) The EP's are the best out there and the AP's sound so good live that indeed they transcend any technical shortcomings. This is a board for a true gigging musician...... and its going to get better soon.

When Dave Horne posted his discovery about the notes sticking out, I went to the GC with 240 headphones in tow, and definitely did hear it. I made a mental note of it the next half dozen times I played the CP5 in various stores before I finally pulled the trigger on one.

The more I played the CP5, actually playing music on it- Jazz heads, tunes, improvising over the changes, excerpts of Chopin & Debussy Etudes and Bach preludes, etc.--the less those particular notes stood out to me. Everything just blended in as a whole. I was so caught up in the overall expressiveness and playability of the CP5 over the CP300 (which I owned at the time) that those notes didn't bother me. It was simply the best portable DP I'd ever played- Avant Grand aside of course. Again YMMV there.




Another way I'd put things.

Again my only complaint about the CP5 is that in certain smaller type rooms and gigging situations, the portability factor makes the CP5 less then an ideal first choice--thus why I have the Nord Piano.

And my only regret is that I didn't take advantage of Hidecki's (another PW contributor here) generous offer and purchase his barely used CP1 early last summer.

Hi CyberGene, reading this thread, I wonder if you do not suffer from NSBDP syndrome (never satisfied by digital piano). I'm curious why you put so much energy into DP when you do have AP? For example here, I do have wife's old August Fo"rster upright made in Czechoslovakia. I've invested $250 into two tunings and renovation of hammers and dumpers and overall action adjustment/fix and viola the piano plays much better now. Perhaps if you do the same with your Scholze your DPs might find harder competitor?
Anyway, as I've seen you already put your CA63 on sale and thinking about CP5 or successor, I'm still curious have your tried some member of AvantGrand's line? I've thought it's nearly consensus on this forum that this is the best DP money can buy in these times (minus V-Piano fans) and would like to know your opinion on this piano (N1 preferably). :-)
BTW: the trip I'm going to do for DP/AP testing is to Hradec Kralove, the town where Petrof and Bohemia pianos are made. I'm glad you enjoy drinking Staropramen. :-)

I'm certainly suffering from NSBDP syndrome The only problem is I live in a flat where it could be a problem with my neighbors and the upright is in my parents' house not in Sofia I am thinking of doing a sound insulation to a room in the flat or maybe someday move to my own house but until then I have to stick to digital pianos. Besides, I use to play with bands say once a month so I need a stage piano.

Regarding the AvantGrand, I am afraid it's way out of my budget and my wife would certainly divorce me if I spend so much money on a piano I would be interested to test it though, however there's no AG in the Yamaha showroom here and it's a huge showroom with so many pianos that I am wondering if they would ever bring one here.

Mine doesn't :-) I feel pretty much the same about my CP5. With decent speakers the thing simply sounds good and blends extremely well with other instruments. I also have found out that, although there's no dedicated mono patch, the CFIII is very easy to handle in that respect. In fact, even simply summing the two XLR outputs worked surprisingly well.

Concerning other Yamaha actions … I used to be a big fan of the CP33. Back then it was the best portable DP I knew and I liked it even more than the Kawai MP8. I almost bought one in 2009 and opted for it when my university jazz orchestra bought a stage piano, but now I'm so happy I went for the CP5 two years later. When I played a gig on "our" 33 recently, I didn't feel very much "at home" on the keyboard. It has some sort of initial stiffness or resistance that even most acoustic pianos don't have, which somehow connects with what's been posted before about exaggerated stiffness in some keybeds.
While the CP5 is pretty light for a Yamaha, the keys do have some weight and they do feel solid, so together with the sound engine they literally invite me to play through all the nuances from ppp to fff. No other keyboard – especially none from Yamaha – has come close to that for me. YMMV, of course.


You made me curious. What is going to get better? :-)

I agree, the connection between player, keybed and sound engine is unmatched so far. As for the S6, I think it's a lot less versatile and easy to handle than the CFIII. It's extremely sensitive to good playback equipment and sounds horrible in mono. Still, I've come to like it for its rather "woody" texture and its more personal sound – but only in the studio. For live use I generally prefer the CFIII.

The EPs were the biggest surprise for me. I absolutely hated the EPs on the P80, P90 and CP33, but the CP5 surpasses even some of the Nord stuff. I still have my Electro 2 and love it for its user interface, but I primarily use it as a one-manual organ substitute now.

But anyway, those are my personal observations – and of course they may be biased by myself being a CP5 owner :-)

Yamaha will develop the CP line further to keep it competitive in the market

I agree very much with this statement. There's too much effort required to get it moving. After playing something (anything) else I found on returning to my CP33 that sometimes I wasn't pushing the key to the bottom of its travel and this, coupled with the fact I felt the key has to pretty much completely bottom out for a note to sound, was causing notes to drop. May well be a problem with my technique but in any event I am fine with other key actions. I had a short try on a CP5 recently and really enjoyed it.

Cheers,

Steve

Right. A pretty obvious point that I somehow missed entirely. I'm curious how a future CP6 or CP5II etc. might sound & play …

how do you check the os version again?