Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards My p105 has entered the building

Well my Yamaha p105 has been delivered (actually about a week ago) and I have it setup and working with the eMedia Piano and Keyboard Method. I am mostly using my Bose QC3 headphones with it, but I have also listened to it through my Yamaha computer speakers/subwoffer and my Bose Stereo system. While I like the sound from the built in speakers, each step up in speakers makes it a different piano.

I had a “hard budget” and it was between a bundled PX-150 and the p105. As an absolute newbie I read everything I could and asked several folks, in the end it came down to actually seeing both and hear/evaluating the different tools. As I am only interested in learning about music and using the panio as my discovery tool, I felt for me the various differences in the two and the fact that piano1 (the CFIII sample) sounded so good to me in ear phones (which I learned to take with me to evaluate here – thanks) that it made the decision for me . I don’t think that a person would be disappointed with either.

Reading here that taking your time in learning and because I wanted to learn about music as well as how to play the piano, I bought the eMedia Piano and Keyboard Method – as I know which type of pedagogical model works best for me for learning. I expect to take lessons but I want to take several months and explore and so far this software has been worth its price. My biggest fear in buying a piano was that after a week or month I’d say “its not for me”.
The p105 bundle price kept me from worrying about spending too much and I felt that since it is a new model, I’d get back at least 50% of the money I spent, and thus a new learning experience is worth several hundreds dollars to me.
I don’t plan on playing anything else but an EP, and this key action (I have arthritis in several fingers) being adjustable is a nice feature. Over I like the build of the Yamaha, it is definitely not “toy” like. It is very light and due to my limited space setup and takes down in less than 5 minutes.
Would I have liked it to have a few more voices? It might be fun in the long run, but what it does have seems to be fine, and really I only expect to use the strings and bass at various times.
The setup was very easy with the computer. I downloaded the Yamaha driver and when I installed the eMedia software I selected the Yamaha in the instrument selection and it was recognized instantly. I just looped to the aux in line from the Ear Plugs on my computer and I hear the piano generated sounds and all of the functions of the software work. I use the line outs for the stereo system and can only says that the included songs sound incredible. The subwoofers on the computer or stereo system brings real dynamics to the lower end.

No buyer post purchase dissonance with this buyer for this product for the purpose I bought it. Yes this is a basic model, but for me it had the right set of features, fit my budget, and most important has been fun in my first few learning experiences. I thought the “no screen” for setting functions would be a pain, but since it has just a few things to set I haven’t minded. So now the search is done and its time to learn.

Congrats. The P105 is a good value entry level DP for a beginner, and beyond. It should fare you well for a couple of years or more.

That's great! I wish you much joy in your voyage of discovery. Yamaha makes good keyboards. I have an old P-250 and that thing still plays like new 8 or 9 years on. It's built like a tank. As far as the limited sound palette goes, you should be able to use your P105 as a midi controller to control any number of virtual instruments on your computer. So you can expand its capabilities as your abilities and desires to experiment grow.

Just got the P-105 myself, and i'm real happy with it so far. The controls can be a bit obscure, but i'm just learning a bit at a time -- i can do the "split mode" now, and control the reverb level for example. What all those different reverb types really do I can't explain -- the level seems to matter more.

Having only sampled it at the GC, i was really even happier with how it sounded when I got it home -- i wanted a keyboard for a different floor because I'm limited in piano time (piano is too close to everything else). But hey, the P-105 actually sounds *better* than the real piano.

I'm looking forward to playing some games with transferring the MIDI recordings over to the computer, but it looks fairly involved and it's hard to make it a bigger priority than real practice. (I also use only Linux, so that will be another twist.)

As for the voices, the Grand Piano 1 sounds far and away the best -- i like the EP settings with the dynamics. While the harpsichord sounds nice, I can't imagine using it for the music I like. Ditto for the strings.

The speakers sound great, and I've plugged it into a small guitar amp as well just to test that -- sounded fine. The crappy headphones I tried didn't do it any justice.

Blotchy:

I have both AcidPro and Soundforge and it is very much fun to mix and match (I have a large collection of Loops from Sony that I use in my videos). I sure making it work with Linux is going to be "fun".

Piano2 and the bass sounds I think are very good. I thought the strings when the volume was turned down to be very much a background sound work ok.

Good luck, after I can play and not just learn, I might get a good synth to work with my sony software. Lets hope a fewer other p105 folks join in.

I am enjoying it a lot- but have driven myself somewhat insane as I did not do a good job on connecting it to the custom stand I had from my P95. Stripped one of the screws connecting the piano to the stand and am going to have someone extract the screw for me and start over- sometimes I hear a click where the screw is when playing too hard.

One of the sounds I enjoy is a mix of the Grand Piano 1 and Fender Rhodes sound- (sounds great for Billy Joel's a room of our own)

I think it is a great piano for someone whether they are a beginner or advanced player.

In particular, the speakers are much improved over the previous model and the bright piano is very improved as well

Possum - if you have the CP350 why did you get the Yamaha p105 also?

I'm loving my little p105.

I'm even enjoying the 2nd grand piano setting now -- seems sometimes a bit cleaner for lower pitch chords. Here's a stupid question: which digital piano sound is supposed to be the "Rhodes" sound? Guess i spend some time on #3 & #4, with #4 being a bit sharper -- reminds me of some Ray Charles stuff.

Bunch of different things-
I had the P95 for awhile but the more I listened to it on headphones; the more the speakers bothered me. So I ended up selling it and upgrading to the 105.

I ended up getting a very good deal in the spring on a PX130 and to my surprise was playing it more than the P95. I found it more expressive, better speakers and liked the action better.
Right then I decided to get the PX350.
Come October and for my 40th,since I sold the P95 and still had the custom stand and pedals, I ended up with the P105 and PX350.
I'm playing a lot, enjoying it so went for both.
However- the first P105 had a broken key- damaged and the second one which I just returned was not assembled correctly- any time I played closer to the left side of the piano the right side would make a click.
MF has been great and is refunding me on the P105.
However- if I don't sell the stand I would consider just driving to GC or SAM Ash and picking it up there again.
I would have been better off logistically keeping the P95, but the 105 is a general improvement

Sorry you got some with problems. I am having a great intro to the piano with the p105. Weveral of the "features" are really useful to a newbie like me. I'm quite pleased with the feel of the keys, and so far the USB midi and AcidPro7 have really liked each other. I've been pleased with the build also, very good and every key seems to play the same.

Glad to hear all the good reports of the P105's, I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on one soon.

@D7K, Jeff I sent you a forum message regarding your P105 stand. Thx.

Rob

Does anyone need a stand and pedals close to NJ?