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Yamaha Clavinova
by gravityguy
Let me start off by saying that I am a relatively beginner pianist. I actually first started when I was around 10 years old and went for maybe a year before I got bored; more with my very old piano teacher that was going deaf than with playing the piano. As a 10 year old though I couldn't pick my teacher as our family didn't have a lot ... of money, and the old 'going deaf' piano teacher was very cheap.
I am now 30 and for quite a while I have thought that I would like to learn again, so 4 months ago I decided that is was time to recommence my piano journey. I looked on ebay and found a Casio CPS-85. As a complete beginner, I was more than happy with the piano; to me it sounded and felt very realistic. Once I started with my formal lessons, it soon became apparent that my Casio was not actually like a real piano at all. Although it had 'semi weighted' keys, they were nowhere near as heavy as my teachers Yamaha U3 and the sound quality did not even compare. Despite this, I was still more than happy practicing on my Casio. It got to a stage however where I found I was struggling to replicate what I was practicing on my Casio, on my teachers U3 due to the big difference in the weight and feel of the keys.
I then began looking at other digital pianos and saw that Yamaha had brought out a new range of Clavinova; the 400 series, specifically the 430, 440, 470 and 480. After much deliberation I decided to go with the 440 due to the extra sound quality over the 430, along with the additional functionality. When it arrived yesterday, I was delighted. I had deliberated for quite a while as to whether or not to go for the polished ebony over the black walnut, but eventually decided that for £300 I could do without the gloss finish. I am certainly not sad as the piano looks absolutely wonderful in black walnut. The piano itself looks remarkably similar to a Yamaha acoustic; which I believe was Yamaha's aim. Yamaha believe that the sound quality of the piano is so realistic that they have added the Yamaha logo for the first time in the Clavinova's history. I am very much inclined to agree! The quality of the sound is so good, I can hear almost no difference between the 440 and an acoustic. And I am sure that the 470 and 480 are even better.
As for the playability, due to the fact that I am a beginner, I suppose I am not best placed to say. As a beginner though, I know for certain that the 'enjoyability' factor over a cheaper piano is immense. It has various functions that I love, such as a USB port to add a USB/flash drive. This enables you to play MIDI files through the piano and hear what a song is supposed to sound like when played on a Yamaha 440. Although not at the stage yet where I can play particularly good pieces, it is great to hear what something like Beethoven's Sonata No. 14 or No. 8 sounds like when played properly. It sounds like someone is sitting at your piano playing the piece.
As for the other functions, there are 14 voices including 4 grand piano voices for varying types of music. One of my other favourites is Choir; it really does sound like the name! It also enables you to split the keyboard and play 2 different voices, 1 at each end of the keyboard. It also allows you to play in dual mode where 2 voices are played together on the same note. For example, you can set it to grand piano 1 and choir, so when any note is pressed, both voices are heard.
Another great function is the ability to record your tracks and then save them as either midi files or audio (.wav) files onto a USB stick to be played back wherever you want.
As with a lot of other digital pianos, there is a metronome built in which is very handy.
In Summary: At almost £1,700 it is not the cheapest of digital pianos for a beginner, however I would say that if you can afford it as a beginner, your whole experience of learning to play will be far greater than if you purchased a cheaper piano. This will ultimately mean you will practice more and improve at a greater rate. For me, the extra £300 for the 440 over the 430 is justified on the sound quality alone. Added to this the extra functionality of the 440 and it is a no brainer. The time that I have spent writing this review is probably the longest I have spent away from the piano since yesterday (other than sleeping).
In my opinion, if it makes learning more pleasurable, it is worth it. It does and so it is!
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Yamaha PSR-270
by andyoz
I would not consider myself musically gifted, I have never been able to learn music with ease, I can't read music very well and I'm not the best singer. I do however try my best, I play guitar at a reasonable level, I sometimes play and sing in front of people and I also have a small dabble on the piano. My piano skill are very basic, ... they came from simply playing on my sisters keyboard back in the day. Recently though my sister was selling off some of her worldly goods in an effort to raise funds for a move to Kenya. One of the things she was parting with was this Yamaha keyboard.
This is quite an old model and there are certainly better ones on the market. However, she only wanted £10 for the keyboard so I tonight I would snap it up and have a play. There was no charger with this as hers had broken, so I had to buy one of eBay but this only cost me £8. So now I have it set up and have been playing around on it for a few weeks.
The Yamaha PSR-270 has lots of interesting functions and different things you can play around with. To be honest I don't use them all and don't even understand some of them and as I have no instruction booklet some are still a bit of a mystery to me. The function I use most often is without a doubt the voices. There are loads of different sounds you can play. So basically when you play the notes, they sound like different instruments. The most well known is obviously piano, but I also really like the strings. There are instruments ranging from guitars to drums so you can really make a vast mix of sounds.
Another feature that some will enjoy is the list of backing tracks you can get going. Lots of different beats and styles of music that you can play along to. There is also a six track recording function, with this you can record some chords or notes and then play it back, then you can play over it to make a song. There is a simple little LCD display which tells you what settings you are using and what the options are.
The sound this makes is pretty good. The volume control is easy to work and you can get it quite loud if that is what you want. There are 61 keys in total on the keyboard so this is a decent size and will give you a good variety of notes that you can play. It's not the lightest keyboard in the world so if you are planning on transporting it about with you it can be a little bit bulky.
Back in the day these keyboards were over £100 but now you can pick up a second hand one for next to nothing. The technology and sound has moved on so for the pros these keyboards are not really up to scratch anymore. However, if like me you just want something to play around on then this keyboard should suit you just fine. This one has been in our family for around ten years now and it still works very well and produces a good quality sound, so obviously this has been a good value keyboard for us over the years. So my overall impression of this keyboard is that whilst there are certainly much better ones out there now, this still is nice for a bit of a practice and would be good for someone learning.
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