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I have been reading a few older comments on the CP5 and was surprised to see so many were negative.I was especially surprised to see a few complaining about the touch and sound!In my opinion and after checking all the top models ,I was sold on the CP5 as far as realism and warmth.I am curious to hear from anyone in regards to the CP5,,if not for nothing else,,just to have a friendly debate!

Lawrence, it really doesn't matter what anyone thinks about the CP5 except for you.

Some folks love the action while others, like myself, prefer the heavier action that was used in the CP300 and P250. It's a matter of preference.

The user interface of the CP5 is not friendly. Once you understand that you can simply press a button quickly or hold it longer to bring up other options, opens up more possibilities ... but that's not intuitive; you really have to read the book.

It took me several days before I 'got it'.

I complained that several notes of the default piano had a more sensitive velocity setting than their surrounding notes. It took me though several weeks before I noticed that.

I wasn't knocked out by the Rhodes on that piano and was forced to create my own version by layering.

The piano voice does sound great and if you can live with what I think are some flaws, good for you.

When the next generation is offered by Yamaha I'll sell my CP5 privately and buy it. I'm sure I'll have some issues then to pass on as well.

I played a CP5 for 20 mins or so, only on the piano sound, and didn't really have time to get in to it properly.

I would say it's a fine keyboard, very playable, good tone. For my taste the keyboard touch is too light, and I prefer the CP300 for realism. But it's horses for courses. I'm used to playing acoustic pianos. Synth players may prefer the lighter touch on the CP5. It seems to be a good machine.

I recently purchased a CP5 and I am loving it. I like the keyboard feel but especially like the connection between the keys and the sound - finger to sound it is sometimes called.

I don't think it is an intuitive board to use, but it is easy after you read the manual, though I have not tried to program anything too complex.

I love the sound, it sounded great at a jam session I had at my house a couple of weeks ago.

It could be lighter and have a mod wheel and some midi controller features but otherwise I love it.

Lawrence, I think the CP5 is great.

There were some negative opinions at the time of its release and there are some complex reasons for that. Yamaha's marketing lacked focus in my opinion. It was touted as being a new hybrid sampled/modelled sound engine but the fact is that it is basically sampled for the acoustic piano tones. The action is ungraded and that caused a little convulsion among those who thought it should be graded. In addition, the action is a tad lighter than some digital piano hammer actions and some people like a heavier action. Yamaha gave equal emphasis to electric piano sounds as well as acoustic pianos and that caused some to question just how focused Yamaha was when designing the thing. There's other factors too. But a lot of the negativity came from people who had never played one.

But people that actually play the CP5 are very often impressed. I have the CP1 and the action is sublime in my opinion and I like the piano sounds a lot. And I agree with you, it is realistic and warm sounding. And powerful, articulate and above all, musical. There are other great stage pianos for a similar price but I think the CP5 is competitive with any of them.

Cheers,

Steve

Steve,

The CP1 sounds like a very responsive piano as I am sure that is due to it having some modeling parameters along with the sampling which is a combination of the two features.

I also look forward to getting a Yamaha although it is going to be the now 12-year-old Clavinova CLP-990M which is far ahead of many of the newer models, as for specs.

I've been one of the most vocal and ardent supporters of the CP5. I did sell my original one a year ago but due more to weight/schlep issues on gigs. The only electronic keyboard I regret selling in my 45 years of playing. I'm currently shopping for a lightly used one on the LA CL to replace it.

For me, it was the best alternative to an acoustic in anything currently available; Avant Grand aside of course....and that's not portable at all. Great sound and super responsive, even action in all registers.

I still remember getting kind of jumped on for reporting the stretching and looping in the CP1. I sure didn't make any BFFs that day. I keep meaning to search one out again and try the key actions, many seem to really like them.

Haha, yes you got jumped on alright. I revisited the original thread prior to getting my CP1. The wicked Dewster raining on everyone's parade! But the fact is that whatever fancy nomenclature Yamaha apply to their sound engine, it is basically a sampled DP (for AP sounds) like most of the others. What the specs and testing don't show you though is just how well it plays and sounds on a subjective level. In that regard I think they are quite special.

And OT now but I also refreshed my memory on that thread about snazzyplayer and his cohort Colleen (anyone else remember?). Someone alleged they were one and the same and I think it was eventually proved they had the same IP address or something like that. Quite the little controversy at the time. I note that the most contentious posts/allegations were removed (or at least I couldn't find them). But in any event they both went away.

Who could forget that tag team, with Colleen ordering flagship DPs sight unseen and inexplicably quite proud of it.


Snazzy (interesting guy) sold everything and moved to Nova Scotia. It's likely the plethora of social programs and breathtaking scenery (and perhaps the robust Canadian micro brew industry?) calmed him down. I'd love to end up there some day myself.

If the others were like myself, we didn't want to be negative. We had high hopes for the CP5. I couldn't wait to get it - I was really looking forward to it.

But right from the get go, it started letting me down. Crucial functions for a controller keyboard were left off, and when I contacted customer support about it, they were defensive and said they left them off on purpose. I then supposed they left them off so you would still need to buy their previous model, which did have those functions...?

But that was a mystery. What else turned out to be a mystery was how it was impossible to get any electric piano sound that had good body and attack and sustain and grit and everything else it should have. Their advertising was so enticing, but the actual thing did not live up to it. I know others have said they were able to layer electric pianos and get a good sound. I layered them up and stood them on their heads and put them on the merry-go-round and swung them around and they still didn't sound good to me.

The action didn't bother me. It was light, but that was cool, I didn't care. But like Dave said earlier, some notes had different dynamics to them, and that made it difficult to play with a nice touch. You had to think ahead "now where are those notes that jump out" etc.

After 3 weeks I gave up and sent it back. I haven't missed it for a second. I'm getting by with a CP33 and a Muse. Works good enough I guess - nothing touches a good real piano, real synths, etc.

Mychal

Which controllers do you believe were left off, just out of curiosity?

Cheers,
James
x

The firmware update in late 2011 has largely sorted this (for the CP1 at any rate). I think the EPs are just outstanding. No complaints at all. In fact I am totally smitten with the first two DX sounds on the CP1. Never was a DX fan really and the "emulations" you get on DPs are woefully cheesy. Academic for this thread because the DX sounds are not on the CP5 - but I thought I'd mention it anyway!

James, I wish I could remember. It's been over two years now. I looked around in my email, and couldn't find anything. Then I remembered I was communicating with them through their own message system, so I have no record of it.

Btw, I just went to Yamaha instruments customer support to look at it, and now if you want to contact them they make you create an account, and it's all linked to facebook and twitter and what not.

Anyway, there were several things that stopped short of what I would expect them to do. But since it's been two years, and I've been programming all kinds of other stuff since then, I'm sorry I don't remember exactly what the frustrations were. I just tried searching on this forum, thinking I might have posted them in a thread about the CP5 a couple of years ago, but I wasn't able to find any threads about the CP5. I must not be using the search function right...

Mychal

Cool. That's good they figured that out.




I never was a DX fan either, but that's great those sounds work well on the CP1!

Mychal

If anyone is looking for a CP5, there is a used one available on the eBay US site. Says only used once. I really wish I could grab it myself. Looks in great shape. Free shipping too.

I don't know the seller. I have no connection to it at all, other than just keeping an eye out for good deals. Maybe it's not even a good deal. Anyways, I figured I would through it out there for anyone interested.

Yeah, there was a very clean looking barely used one on eBay for less than the average used CP5 listing from a very reputable looking seller 2~3 weeks ago -- we might have seen the same listing. I even showed it to my family, but we passed on bidding on it (or was it a buy-now, I forget). I've been pondering about picking one up. But is it due for an update? I haven't follow Yamaha's product update schedule at all.