Yamaha CP50 Reviews

“Overall I am so thrilled with my new CP50, sound is so much better then I had expected. But other than the Piano, some sounds are far from perfect”

I am pleased with my new Yamaha CP50, but now that some time has past I can also give a more realistic opinion
about it, because of the enthusiasm of a new purchase..

Good things:

Piano sound:

Awesome piano sound, very warm and harmonic and realistic.

Very balanced play from low to high, but in the very high not perfect, but compared to Roland far
better.

When played hard and fast and lot’s of tones are played together the thing really comes to
life,

and seems to get excited about my play, and throws in some details and resonance, really nice,
but on the other hand the DP also stays cool saying, is that all you got, give me more. So there is a lot of
interaction when playing, it’s really quite the opposite of flat and dull, and so much better than I hoped and
wished.

My previous piano P80 Yamaha lacked this thrill and was a bit flat and when played hard and fast,
individual tones and snares were not as noticable. So I hope this is SCM I hear when I play. In combination with
the adjustable(!) 3 band EQ (which can be internally programmed by 5 bands) and so many reverbs and effects, just
perfect. A piano sound for each song is so easily programmed. Also there are lot´s of presets of piano sounds, the
Latinpiano is great, also the Rockpiano is awesome. So it is very versatile.

Other sounds:

Strings: (32 in total) just superb, really!! Guitar: awesome, so alive and realistic Flute: funny
and realistic. Lots of usable and good quality FX and Synths and presets. Far beyond what I expected.

Display:

Very bright and easy to read, much better than backlight displays like Roland FP7. Or compared to
the annoying constantly displayed ´120´ on a P80 or P155 it is heaven.

Keys:

I am not to familiar anymore with real piano’s but compared to my previous P80 this board plays a
bit more easy but still keeps the piano feel.

And there is a discussion about the keys, are they weighted or graded. To my opinion not really
noticable, but I checked it with a remote control unit that acted as a weight and the lower keys are not so easily
pressed down as the upper keys. (measuring the distance from the top of the keys)

So pleased that I waited and hesitated which one to buy untill the CP50 was here. I had no clue
they were launching this new line. (hesitating between CP-300, CP30, P155, Roland FP7)

Also I couldn’t hear any difference between the Pianosound on the CP5 and CP50, and I also like
the non pretentious look of the CP50 compared to the aluminium CP5. So that was an easy choice, saving some bucks,
and having an instrument that more then adequately suits my needs. The CP5 has wooden keys and fake ivory finish,
nice.. but adds nothing to the sound or feel.

Bad things:

Church organ and Choir:

I hate to say just terrible, and I believe a Stage piano made by YAMAHA these kinds of sounds
should be perfect, but they are short sampled rubish.

A bit what you would expect from a keyboard from the late 90’s. My dad used to own an expensive
oldschool Kurzweil 15 years ago and that sounded

much better in that respect.

Electric Piano:

Very nice, but they all sound alike… It would have been better if they had dropped some of the
Electric Piano sounds and add a second Grandpiano instead.

Since the pianosound and the electric piano sounds go thru the SCM, it is a waste of precious
space to have a ton of EP’s, or they could have added a String or a Guitar. EP´s can also easily be modified by the
FX´s, so there is no need to have them all installed. The CP5 has got a second grandpiano…
Other sounds:

The instrument claims to be a good stage piano, but I think a live performer would have liked
some more Organs on it. Although the preset Wurlizer is terrific. So I hope there will downloadable presets to
choose from made by CP owners soon.

Noise in recordings with the usb connector saving to wavefile. I assume the sound is not really
stored digital right from the internals, but resampeled from the analogue output, interesting for you I hope, and i
would like to know more about it. Also recording volume is not adjustable.

When I sample the sound with my Creative Xfi on my PC, set to 24 bit and 96 khz the sound is much
more clear when tones fade away and has only normal, expectable noise.

So I presume using the usb wave storage is not a good idea for professionals, or mixing with
other tracks made with this usb device.

Using the CP-50’s features are not always logic and the Yamaha manual offcourse is terrible.
Getting the sound you want and then storing it is a bit difficult for instance.

Selecting a voice is also not logical since the knob ‘voice’ is all the way on the other
side.

The CP5 is a bit more easy on that matter I asume.

Also I believe the product finish is not really profesional, there is a small noticable gap
between two keys and the knobs are a bit out of place.

I think the previous line (CP300 and CP30) are a bit more solid and had some more labour hours
put into it.

So overall I am so thrilled with my new CP50, sound is so much better then I had expected. But
other than the Piano, some sounds are far from perfect. And also storing wave files is cool, but the noise is
noticable. The bitter part for me is that the soundfx and usb wave storage abillity were an important factor in
choice of purchase. I would have saved a few euro’s if I bought a Yamaha P155 instead. Also I am pleased with the
way it sounds on my PA, I use a regular home Sony

2×70 watts ampifier connected to a pair of 200 watts Eltax Symphony 8.2. I feel no need to
upgrade to a designated instrument PA. Also this gives my room a bit more of a home feeling, rather then getting
the feeling living in a equipment store. When I play a rhythm and a bass loud on my CP50, my dish cabinet doesn´t
like it, but I do. People really think I have a real piano inside when I play some tunes on it.

The shop I bought it from is Oostendorp in Wezep. Really nice shop, real piano’s also, homemade
DP’s in an upright!!, Nice people, put a bit pushy towards Roland and older generations they want to get rid
of.

They have their own repair shop and they custom build some DP’s.

For instance they have a nice Yamaha P155(PE) fitted with a nice polished finished real wood
surface, only 50 euro extra. Really beautifull.

Review by Roald Smits, Netherlands

 

“Feels solid and has a very good keyboard action”

The main reason I chose the CP50 was because of the weight (only 20kg), it is very good quality for what you pay for, feels solid and has a very good keyboard action and is graded hammer. It also has newer Yamaha sound  technology allowing you to customise the piano sounds more; even though there is only one piano voice, you can do so much with that one voice with all the options you can get.

Review by Barry Chesterman

 

“These are customer reviews from actual owners of this piano.
The most recent review is at the top of this page “, Graham Howard, Piano Advisor

Send me an email if you have any questions or need advice: grahamhoward@ukpianos.co.uk
Or call 020 8367 5107

 

>> For Yamaha CP50 information, specifications and prices, click here