Wow. The last 8 days we've had an education in confusion. Started wanting a digital piano for three purposes:

* Daughters with 3 and 1 year of lessons under belt and vintage upright acoustic piano in storage for 6-9 months. Need to keep them playing on a realistic instrument.

* Amazed by motivation/fun available - kids karaoke, other voices, rhythms vs. metronomes for exercises, etc. The girls love 'em!

* Dad (me) regularaly arranges for contemporary worship at church. Want to use with Cakewalk to score vocal and instrumental parts. Interested in using to burn audio CD's for rehearsal. Also interested in composition and helping daughters learn some composition and theory with recording/sequencing.

First question - how important is the USB connection to get .wav or .mp3 files of the actual audio to CD vs. just MIDI instructions that will sound like cheese from a basic computer soundcard - essential?

Next - we LOVE the touch/feel and piano sound of the Yamaha, but think the other voices are less than the Technics. Technics seems a bit more intuitive in the controls, but (we think) lacks some of the richness of the Yamaha. Technics is a deal at $5K plus tax, etc. Yamaha 207 is also on sale at $5K or $5500 if wait for the 208 w/USB in a couple weeks. 210 is beautiful in polished ebony but is $7300 and doesn't seem to add much in features beyond the cabinet. We started at a $2500 - $3000 budget, so pushing to $5K is doable but a big deal for us. $7300 is a huge stretch.

Final note. Yamaha CLP-170 also had a wonderful sound and feel w/USB, but lacks the screen and microphone input. It's only $3200. Is there another way to get the mike in, and can you let the kids play karaoke via the PC some other way?

Many thanks.

Check out this link, it might be helpfull. Thats all the info that I have unfortunatly.

CVP Users Group

Let us know what you decide on as lots of people here are interested in the Yamaha CVP line.

If I understand the question, you're asking what role does the CVPs USB connection play in acquiring .wav or .mp3 data on a host computer.

Near as I can tell, none. I have a Yamaha P-250, which shares some hardware with the CVP line. The USB port carries only MIDI data. I also checked this against the Yamahasynth.com site, harmony-central.com, and the cvpug.org that AkKr mentioned. It doesn't look like they changed the function in the CVP.

So you'll need some other A/D capability elsewhere. I'm looking into this myself, I want to capture my kids' recitals to CD.

...

It does look from the specs that you could get a mike to go in on the aux input, just need an external pre-amp to bring it up to level. I'd ask the dealer to demonstrate it just to be sure, though.

PC Karaoke looks like a bigger market that I knew. These links might have something you could use.

http://www.vanbasco.com/

http://www.delmp3karaoke.com/index_en.shtml

Please keep us all posted on how your search goes. You've got some similar interests to mine and I'd like to hear about what you select.

Jeff

As long as you are looking at highend digitals, may I suggest you look at Kawai and the Roland KR5 or KR7. You might be able to find the perfect instrument that provides you all of the things you are looking for. Including superior piano sound and touch, great additional sounds, intuitive and easy to use features, and educational benefits. When spending that kind of money, it's important to know all of the options. Good luck!

I've owned several digital pianos and keyboard (currently the Yamaha CVP900, same as the 209 in a mini-grand cabinet with a different keyboard). In my opinion, the quality if the piano sound and keyboard touch are by far the most important parameters. You'll play the piano 90% of the time; you can always add sound modules for more or better sounds via midi; and of course the keyboard is the fundamental interface (and can't be modified!) Based on what you said, I'd go with the Yamaha, although you should also look at the Roland line to see if you like the sound and keyboard better.

There is a difference between the 207 and 209/210 besides the cabinet - don't recall exactly what, but the Yamaha specs will tell you. (www.yamahaclavinova.com) A few more instruments, more polyphony, styles, etc. May or may not be important to you. Now that the "even series" CVPs are out you should be able to get a good deal on an "odd series" and other than the USB connection they aren't materially different. www.pianodepot.com currently sells the 209 for $4493 plus shipping (they're in Europe) and the 207 for $3310. Also try Keyboard Centre in Canada - many US buyers have had very good experience with them and they're materially cheaper than your local dealer, plus the warranty and power supplies are the US model. (905) 639 4465, ask for Pat Alspaugh. Good people.

You can't send audio files like .wav via USB or midi - you have to use the piano's analog audio outs. Not a big deal. I don't have a USB interface on my piano but can do anything I want over midi, just a little slower.

I think you could get microphone input via a small mixer/preamp - shouldn't cost much. Ask the dealer. Don't know about karaoke.

Let us know what you decide to do!
jim