Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Big problem with some P-140's piano samples

Hi,

As I mentioned in another post, I've had this P-140 for about six months. I've noticed a very strange (and I think serious) problem with it. I'm wondering if anyone else has also noticed this (or can confirm it), or if it just happens to be an isolated problem with the unit I have--lucky me.

The problem is mostly with the Piano 3 patch. Roughly around F4 (349 Hz) through F5 (698 Hz), but especially around C5 through E5, those notes can cause speakers (especially smaller ones) to crackle and distort, even if the volume is at a fairly conservative level in both recording and playback, but pushing the playback level makes it worse. I've had to perform drastic cuts in the EQ to save a track. When a track/song is mastered the problem can be even more apparent due to how compression and limiting bring up the lower level sounds.

I don't know if it's the samples or the P-140's D/A converters. All I know is that I traced it back to the piano by triple checking and swapping out everything in the signal path--cables, A/D converters, preamps, levels, effects, the works. One thing I didn't try (because I just now thought of it) is using one of the headphone outs as the source instead of the fixed-level RCA jacks.

I have sound samples if anyone is interested in hearing them. I just need to find the time to prepare and upload them.

Thanks...

How about with a decent keyboard amp? Take it into a music store and plug into a Roland KC550 or Peavy KB4 keyboard amp (both have the 15" speaker).

If you still are getting distortion, get it back to Yamaha before the warantee runs out.

It doesn't tend to be noticeable when played over larger speakers unless the volume is turned way up, and then it could just be considered normal overload distortion.

I didn't notice it over my nearfields until I knew what to listen for. Sure enough there is some weird distortion down under the regular tone, and for whatever reason it seems to over-excite speakers. I didn't even know there was a problem until I burned some reference CDs of a song that has only piano and vocal. I, and others, heard it on just about every system it was played on. At first I thought I had overloaded a digital EQ or FX processor, but when I want back to the automated mix there was no signs of that happening. That's when I started exploring and troubleshooting and traced it back to the piano samples or the internal D/A which may be ringing. My mastering engineer says he's heard of this problem before on other digital pianos.

Being that this is a stage piano, I guess it's not that big of a deal. But for us who do record with it, it can be a real nuisance. The dealer is sending this unit in to Yamaha for repair (it also has a MIDI problem), but I doubt anything can or will be done about the distortion problem. It's a weird problem. After it's repaired, the dealer is going to buy it back from me and then I'm getting a CP300, which suites my needs much better. I plan on checking it out thoroughly.

Thanks...

I had similar trouble with the P120. I traded it in on a P250.

The 'crackle and distort' went away if I got the volume low enough. I blamed the problem on the amplifier/speakers, but never really proved it. I didn't think it was in the samples, but I guess it could have been.

I found this problem long ago. No matter how low the volume is, as soon as there's a dense chord - voila, cracking.

Looks like it is internal Pre-amp (or D/A) being oversaturated.

No cure possible short of soldering the pre-amp inside, if you are lucky.

Another P140 I cheked out at GC had EXACT same problem.

Yamaha should recall P140, If you ask me...

I just bought a p140 a few days ago, and I am experiencign the exact same problem. Running through the rca out -> headphone amp -> headphones, the cracking/distorting is still noticable. I can't remember if the same problem occurs through the headphone out..