Yamaha CP73 and CP88: Da manuals - Sand, software and sound

The Yamaha CP73 and CP88 Owner’s Manual (PDF) and Supplementary Manual (PDF) are now on-line at the CP products download page.

The Supplementary Manual has a compact list of CP voices, including the new voices added in OS Version 1.10.

All right, all right, you’re wondering about the organ voices:

     # Name            CC#
    -- --------------  ---
    01 Bright Bars     33
    02 Click Organ     34
    03 Draw Organ 1    35
    04 All Bars Out    36
    05 Draw Organ 2    37
    06 60s Combo       38
    07 Compact         39
    08 Panther         40
    09 Pipe Organ 1    41
    10 Pipe Organ 2    42

These look like voices that are copped from the Motif/Montage. It’s a little disappointing to not have drawbar control and so forth. I’m not sure what “CC#” means in this context.

The “other” voice category is quite limited, too:

     # Name            CC#
    -- --------------  ---
    01 Syn Lead 1      50
    02 Syn Lead 2      51
    03 Syn Bass        52
    04 E.Bass          53
    05 A.Bass          54
    06 Steel Gt        55
    07 Clean Gt        56
    08 Syn Brass       57

Forget woodwinds and acoustic brass. Forget voice editing. All you get is attack and release parameters to tweeze in the Sub section. You’ll need to buy a synth.

I think the CP73/CP88 are the “pro” version of Reface CP. Surely, their design was influenced by the immediacy of the Reface CP front panel — very intuitive and easy to change effects while playing. The CP73/CP88 are stage pianos. They are “bottom boards” in need of a “top board” for woodwinds, brass, lead, organ and all of the other stuff multi-keyboardists need to cover. The “other” voices are just enough to cover the odd non-piano part at a gig.

The CP73/CP88 have master keyboard capability with four zones. All of the usual configuration parameters are provided including bank select(s) and program change.

Check out the latest issue of the Yamaha Production Guide, too.