YAMAHA HA HA HA ha..ha..ha! (Pianos, Keyboards & Synths in general)

Member Name: hugnluvable

Product:	Pianos, Keyboards & Synths in general
Date:	25/03/01 (6584 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to use, good, sound quality, a keyboard/piano to suit ALMOST everyone's needs,

Disadvantages: nothings perfect! Pianos need tuning, Keyboards go outof date quickly as new ones are frequently put into market, can be expensive

I've bought loads of Yamaha products (keyboards mainly) and I don't think I'd have chosen any other make. Plus working in a music shop means HUUUUGE discounts on what I want! And I know what pianos/digital pianos I'd love to get my hands on when my student debts are paid off.

So before you read this I think I'd better warn you that I work in a music shop during the holidays - selling Yamaha Keyboards/Pianos etc. BUT PLEEEAAASE DONT ACCUSE ME OF PLUGGING THEIR PRODUCTS - cus they aren't paying me for writing this! (I have a couple of comments about plugging the shop I work in on my opinion of Chappell of Bond Street although I wasn't intending to do that!)

Although I may be extremely happy with the Yamaha products that I buy YOU MIGHT NOT BE! There are other keyboard/digital piano manufacturers such as; Technics, Roland and Casio so look around and see what make is best for you. I'm writing this opinion to explain to you what Yamaha products offer and what they are like OUT OF EXPERIENCE! The fact that I sell them means that I know a lot about them, the problems some models have, what special features some offer, and the questions that people frequently ask, - thus saving you from having to spend hours asking questions in shops (but go in the shop and ask SOME questions) or having to read every last page of the catalogue (it is best to read through it though!) I like Yamaha products for their ease of use, sound quality and their GORGEOUS Grand Pianos, amongst other factors.

Yamaha sell a variety of different keyboards etc, suiting AMOST everyone's needs. They sell Acoustic Pianos (Yamaha/Kemble), Digital Pianos (Clavinovas) Synths, and Electronic Keyboards (PSRs)
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Electronic Keyboards
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Since I was six years old I have always had a Yamaha keyboard in the corner of my bedroom, and today while
I'm at uni I still do! (I own a PSR 620 - I shan't write about it cus its not in manufacture anymore!) Prices do indeed vary as sound quality and facilities get better as you go up the range. Apart from the PSR 73/76 and the PSS range all current keyboards are MIDI compatible (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) so you can plug them into your computer or any other MIDI compatible device. And as the years go by and technology develops Yamaha update and change their keyboards around every other year or so. At the moment the mainstream PSR range starts at the PSR 160 (£99.99 rrp) and then goes up to the PSR 9000 (£2999 rrp) Every keyboard has a variety of sounds and auto-accompaniments and there's always a Yamaha keyboard to suit anyone's needs.
The PSR 160/260/280 and GX76 are all ideal for those who are leaning to play. They have installed a Yamaha Educational Suite, which means there are various functions to help you learn to say; keep in time, play the right notes or chords etc. As you play there are notes that flash up on the stave on the LCD screen, which is quite cool as well. All keyboards in this range have 61 keys apart form the PSR 160, which has only 49, and the GX76, which has 76 keys. All Keyboards are touch sensitive, meaning the harder you touch the notes the louder it is played, apart from the PSR 160. The PSR 280/GX76/PSR340/540/640/ and 740 all have recording functions, only thing is the PSR280 and GX76 have no floppy disk drive which means things that have been saved to memory can at any time be lost. So if you're composing its best to get a keyboard with a disk drive which means that you can save information to a disk with the guarantee that you wont lose it (unless the disk gets lost in your mess of a bedroom - like mine!) With a disk drive you can also put information in and get the keyboard to play MIDI FILES and songs like S Club 7 and things (if you really wanted to!) You can get these from shops or off your computer
. So as you go on up the range you get more functions, disk drives, more voices, more accompaniments, better sound quality etc. This is just a brief overview of what is available - cus there is so much about each keyboard I could go on for ages? and I don't want to subject you to that! OH AND BE WARNED! If you go into a keyboard shop like Chappell's they tend to purposely forget to tell you about the extra £10 you'd need to pay for a power adaptor - I usually just throw one in for free but they usually don't. Also look out for Curry's and Argos cus they usually include an adaptor but the one with the least voltage, which can ruin the more powerful keyboards such as the PSR 340 upwards.

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Yamaha Clavinovas - Digital Pianos
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"What's the difference between an Acoustic Piano and a Digital Piano?"? Nope there's no funny punch line to this question! Believe me we've tried and tested so many answers on the shop floor when people ask us this question. Basically an Acoustic piano is your traditional piano, with strings, with pedals and that's it! A Digital Piano has everything an Acoustic piano has - only thing is you plug it in the wall! So therefore the music you play on a digital piano is electronically created through a speaker rather than the natural sound of an Acoustic. Yamaha have a wide range of Digital Pianos called "Clavinovas" and
these range from a basic piano sound to like hundreds of different features such as auto accompaniments, recording facilities and thousands of different sounds (or "voices" as Yamaha calls them!)

The great things about Clavinova are that

- they dont need tuning (so yu dont have to fork out any money to pay for a Piano Tuner - fork ... getit? doh!)

- they have headphone sockets! (so you can play at 2 o clock in the mor
ning without waking the neighbours)

- they have a volume switch (so you can annoy the neighbours)

- You can choose from different voices to play with

- They are just lke a Piano BUT they have everything that electronics benefit from.

- They are MIDI compatible (so you can plug other MIDI compatible things into it and plud it into the Computer)

There are two different types of Clavinova - the CLP and the CVP. The CLP stands for "Classical Piano" and these are the more basic Clavinova with just instruments/voices and recording facilities. But, the voices on the CLP 950+ are sampled - meaning a better sound quality making it sound even more like the real thing. You can record on these and can control what the sound is going to be like. You can control effects such as Reverb and brightness etc so if its in a small room the Reverb can be turned up to make the sound echoe a bit more.

The CVP offers what an electronic keyboard offers BUT with the feel of a piano, piano pedals etc. The sound quality differs from the CVP 103 up to the CVP 109, the CVP 109 being the top of the range model. With tese you can just play on one voice ie - Piano or you can use the auto accompaniment and play as if an orchestra is backing you. You can also plug a microphone into the CVP 109, sing into it and the piano will harmonise with your voice so there is no need for any backing singers! Only prob is its VERY not portable, so you will find it hard if you want to go gigging aroud the copuntry with it, also you cant choose what finishes they come in, the CVP 103 can come in Mahoganny or Rosewood but the CVP 105 can only come in Rosewood and the CVP 107 and 109 can only come in Black Gloss.


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Yamaha-Kemble Acoustic Pianos
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Um, well there's not much to say about a piano is there? Well, there is but I'
m not going to bore you! Really it's a personal preference with what piano you are comfortable with and what you like. I do like Yamaha pianos but they AINT perfect! I mean the feel of the keys are different to most pianos, if you press down quite softly NO sound will come out of them - there's a sort of delayed sound, but when you get used to this its ok (we have Yamaha's in our university practise rooms!) Depending on what you're looking for, prices with Yamahas start at £1,999 (for an "Eterna") and go way over £10,000 for Grands etc. You wonder why there is such a difference in cost? Well, its because each piano is made differently, with different material, different designs and functions, the best ones being the most expensive. You'd need to keep them dust free (or else it can get into the Piano and damage the insides!) and you need to keep them in tune regularly - either by getting a tuning fork and doing a DIY job or hiring a pro to do it instead (advised to get a pro!). A piano can get out of tune when its moved around a lot, and in fact a Yamaha are strung in such a way that they stay in tune for a longer period of time than other pianos. And Kemble have an offer when, and if, you buy a Kemble piano you get a free "limited edition" teddy (like - wow? oh don't you just love sarcasm!))
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With Yamaha, and like most other products, "You pay for what you get!" If it was my choice I would seriously get a Clavinova (in the CVP range) because they have everything a Keyboard player ever wanted! (Well? almost - as I said, nothings perfect" And dont buy a piano/keyboard without seeing it/trying it/having it demonstrated first! It really is a personal preference whether you like the idea of Digital pianos but they do have many benefits. And with new inverntions such as the Diskclavier you can have the best of both worlds - a fully strung piano but can
be used with a disk drive, sound module - so you can play using different voices, headphone sockets etc.

I could go on forever talking about keyboards - especially Yamahas but I'd think I'd better shut up now and stop boring you!!!

:-)
xxx

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