Category Archives: CSP-170

Yamaha stage keyboards: What’s next?

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Lately, I’ve been contemplating the future of the Yamaha Stage keyboard line: the YC organ and CP digital piano. Both keyboard lines are mature; the CPs were released in January 2019 and the YCs were launched a year later in January 2020. Both models have received updates (including new voices). The latest updates, however, feel like “life extension” updates while new models are in the latter stages of development.

Does it make sense to merge the two product lines and reduce the number of SKUs? That would be a bit of challenge for Yamaha as organ-focus and piano-focus are defining features for the YC and CP, repsectively. In terms of sound, the updates have brought both lines closer together even though the front panels and user interface remain distinct. The YC got a lot of additional AP and EP voices bringing it into CP territory.

Then there is the “CK effect.” The CK is an all-rounder with drawbars, CP-like front panel controls and a set of secondary sounds which, frankly, leave both YC and CP wanting. So, given CK, it should be possible to merge the two stage keyboard product lines. Right?

These thoughts prompted me to take a look under the hood of both YC and CP. Gigantic, purpose-built front panels aside, YC and CP are brother and sister as far as digital electronics are concerned. There are a few differences on the analog side such as CP’s balanced XLR outputs. Of course, the keybeds are different, too, in keeping with organ-, EP- and AP-focus.

Yamaha Stage CP block diagram (click to enlarge)

Let’s tour stage CP first. The primary digital components are:

  • Yamaha SWX09 CPU and DSP (248MHz internal clock)
  • Yamaha SWP70 tone generator (191.9232MHz internal clock)

The SWX09 integrates an ARM Cortex host processor, an unspecified DSP core, and a raft of external interfaces. SWX09 also contains an AWM2-compatible tone generator and effects/mixing section. In stage CP, the wave ROM, wave RAM and DSP RAM interfaces are unused. Board real estate is wired for DSP SDRAM; the board position is unpopulated.

Without SWX DSP RAM, the CP models cannot implement Virtual Resonance Modeling (VRM).

The SWX09 is a mainstay in the Yamaha CLP digital piano line. The SWX09 is the primary workhorse component in the CLP-685 and P-515 digital pianos, for example. The P-515 and CLP-685 each have 256MBytes of wave ROM which should give us a rough idea of the size of the CFX and Bösendorfer waveforms (samples). [The CLP and P-515 EPs are relatively old and probably aren’t very big in comparison.]

We see the SWP70 tone generator throughout Yamaha’s many product lines, so it’s not surprising to see it in the stage CP, too. The CP has 2GBytes of NAND flash waveform memory. Its SWP70 has DSP RAM and wave RAM. DSP RAM supports effect processing and Wave RAM caches in-flight (most recently used) waveform samples. The SWP70 has its own unpopulated DSP RAM position, labelled “For future model”.

Yamaha Stage YC block diagram (click to enlarge)

Not to leave anyone in suspense, the future model is YC. The YC SWX09 gets DSP SDRAM and the SWP70 gets its second DSP RAM channel filled. The CP is mainly a sample-playback engine while YC implements a Virtual Circuit Modeling organ engine in addition to sample-playback. I’m guessing that the SWX09 DSP hosts the all-important rotary speaker effect.

The YC’s waveform memory is the same capacity as CP: 2GBytes total waveform NAND flash. 2GBytes may seem gargantuan versus P-515’s 256MBytes. Pianos are memory hogs and with all of the updates, those 2GByte waveform memories may be full up (or close to capacity).

It will be interesting to see where Yamaha takes the Mark II stage keyboards. Here’s a few thoughts.

The CK61/CK88 gave Yamaha valuable experience with integration of organ, piano and other sampled voices. They have a lot of available content (voices, waveforms) and software IP (organ and rotary speaker simulation, AWM2, FM, VRM). If they combine their experience with existing technology, they could issue three models:

  • 61 Semi-weighted waterfall keys (organ focus)
  • 73 BHS weighted keys (EP focus)
  • 88 GEX piano-action keys (AP focus)

Unifying the YC and CP designs into one reduces the number of separate SKUs from five to three and increases economy through scale.

There’s a lot of competitive pressure to produce an all-in-one stage keyboard. Nord (Clavia) have not been sitting on their hands and the Nord Stage (4) marches on! Yamaha’s own Montage M series shows the way, packing all-rounder functionality into a single keyboard.

As to new technology, announcements for the CLP-800 series Clavinova pianos are touting “a new tone generator chip with increased computational power” and imply that the new TG chip enables enhanced Virtual Resonance Modeling. An SWX10, perhaps? I’d like to see both VRM and VCM organ technology in the same package.

      
                 Physical
    Keyboard   Waveform Mem  Expansion mem
    ---------  ------------  -------------
    CLP-685      256 MBytes
    P-515        256 MBytes
    PSR-SX900      2 GBytes     1 GByte
    PSR-SX700      1 GByte    400 MBytes
    DGX-670      512 MBytes
    CSP-170        1 GByte

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

Yamaha announce the Clavinova CLP-800 series

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Yamaha have announced the much-anticipated CLP-800 series Clavinova digital pianos.

Personally, I was hoping for a significant bump over the CLP-785, the main reference point for this post. The CLP-785 — and now the CLP-885 — are the flagship “spinet” models. Although I enjoy my CSP-170, my dealer offers an attractive trade-in, trade-up plan which I would exercise given the right motivation. After a quick glance through the Owner’s Manual and Data List, my ardor cooled, sad to say.

Yamaha CLP-845 digital piano

The user interface (i.e., front panel and key functions) and choice of keybed (e.g., GrandTouch and GrandTouch-S) remain largely the same. The piano engine features the same capabilities as the CLP-700 series:

Secondary voices and the XG (GS, GM2) sound set remain the same. Please see the CLP-800 series comparison table as lower-end models may elide specific features and voices.

The CFX Grand and Bösendorfer are the featured pianos, and include Binaural Sampling. The CLP-800 series adds two new acoustic piano voices: Chill Out Piano and Lo-Fi Piano. The same Fortepianos are offered: Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin Pianos. All other secondary voices are the same in the CLP-800 series. No big upgrades.

The classical and lesson song lists and rhythm list are the same.

The CLP-800 series Owner’s Manual has many revisions for readability. The different organization makes it difficult to make an exact features by feature comparison between the series. I haven’t spotted any gotta-have new features.

Yamaha have made significant changes in the built-in sound system(s):

Component      CLP-885                  CLP-785
-------------  ------------------------  ------------------------
Amplifiers     (45 W + 30 W + 40 W) × 2  (50 W + 50 W + 50 W) × 2

Speakers       (16 cm with diffuser +    (16 cm + 
               8 cm with diffuser +      8 cm + 
               2.5 cm (dome) with        2.5 cm (dome) +
               Bidirectional Horn) × 2,  transducer) × 2,
               Spruce Cone Speaker       Spruce Cone Speaker

You will find similar changes in spec for other models, should you look at the CLP-800 series comparison chart.

Yamaha have given the DSP effect types a modest boost by adding “Effect types used for a specific Voice”. These effect types are:

    VCM EQ 501             Virtual Circuit Modeling (VCM) vintage EQ
    Comp Distortion        Compressor stage followed by distortion
    Vintage Phaser Stereo  VCM analog vintage phaser
    Stereo Overdrive       Stereo overdrive distortion
    Damper Resonance       Simulates grand piano damper resonance
    Hall 5                 REV-X hall reverb

Yamaha arranger and synth enthusiasts will recognize these effect types. They are DSP algorithms that are typically applied to electric piano and other keyboard voices.

Initial Reaction

My initial reaction is “Big-whoop”. [“Disappointment” for those of you who are not familiar with American sarcasm.]

The big functional change appears to be the use of “diffusers” in the built-in sound system. The CLP-800 Web page has a big chart comparing sound system components. The chart made me feel like I was buying a PA system, not a piano. Yamaha need to find a different way to promote this technology — something to make the technology approachable and cuddly to the average customer. Way too techie!

Frankly, I’m left cold. Since I’m happy with my CSP-170, I cannot find a compelling reason to upgrade to the CLP-800 product line (or the CLP-885, in particular). Guess that trade-up option is going to go unexercised…

Why the underwhelming Clavinova Series 800 update?

We know — from Yamaha’s quarterly call with analysts and investors — that the bottom has fallen out of the world-wide market for home digital pianos. China, in particular, is slow. Possibly, Yamaha did not feel the need or want to drive the home digital piano market too hard at this point in time. Perhaps they are saving bigger updates for the future when the market is more favorable?

This doesn’t mean that the CLP-800 series are bad pianos. I liked the Yamaha CLP-785 very much. As far as I’m concerned, personally, CLP-885 doesn’t give me a compelling reason to upgrade.

Technical footnote

The CLP-700 and CLP-800 series generate high resolution velocity and acceleration data with each MIDI note ON message. Two MIDI continuous controller (CC) messages are generated:

    CC#19    Key acceleration
    CC#88    High-resolution velocity prefix

By “prefix”, I suspect Yamaha mean the high order byte of an extended velocity data value. If you intend to use a “Grand Expression” digital piano with a personal computer-based software instrument (e.g., Modartt Pianoteq, Arturia Piano V, etc.), you will need to filter out or map these “extra” MIDI messages. Check the MIDI Implementation Chart for your model and software instrument (VST).

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

Ain’t no April Fool: piano evoce ß

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The Japanese Yamaha site posted information about a new app called “piano evoce ß”. I’m going to quote the site as translated by the Google:

This is an AI ensemble app that extracts the vocal part of your song and plays it back along with your performance. Feel free to enjoy playing together with your favorite songs!

Practicing the assigned songs alone will not increase your motivation. I want a session buddy who can arrange things freely! I want to be able to play my favorite songs with chords!

This software is a beta version service released primarily for technical verification and service experiments. We hope to continue to make improvements based on the opinions of our users.

piano evoce ß appears to be the next evolutionary step in the Chord Tracker family:

1. Connect your electronic piano/keyboard to your Mac via MIDI.
2. Analyze your own songs.
3. Start playing! When you play the chord displayed on the screen, the vocal part will follow your performance.

To use piano evoce ß, you need to register for a Yamaha Music ID account (free of charge).

Now, that’s pretty neat. Here’s my guess: Yamaha combined a vocal stem extractor with Chord Tracker. The screens look very similar to Chord Tracker. Given the reference to “service” and the need to have a Yamaha account, the heavy lifting (vocal stem extraction) is performed by Yamaha software running on one of its servers. There’s a bunch of terms and conditions to read and accept — Yamaha and its friggin’ lawyers.

The app has two ways of following the vocal part (quoting the usual minimalist manual):

  • Gentle tracking mode: This mode gently follows your playing. The high degree of freedom allows you to arrange and play chords. Even if the performance stops in the middle of a song, the tempo will slow down, but playback will not stop. The AI listens to your chords and sense of rhythm, understands your playing pace, and sings in a way that feels natural to the AI. Avoid sudden tempo changes, and try playing together to create an ensemble.
  • Perfect tracking mode: This mode waits and follows your performance. It will wait until you play at least one note that makes up the correct chord. AI will play according to the timing of your performance. Be sure to play in time with the chord changes.

Can’t wait to try this! I’m guessing it will be available for Clavinova digital pianos and Yamaha arranger keyboards. Bad news for Windows users: “piano evoce ß can be used with macOS 12.0 or higher”. Not a word about Windows.

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

New year, new piano

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Happy New Year!

It’s been a pleasure to ring in the new year with a Yamaha CSP-170 Clavinova Smart Piano. If you’re not familiar with the CSPs, check out my articles about the CSP-100 series and the now current CSP-200 series.

In short, the CSP pianos combine Yamaha’s Clavinova piano technology, learning features (score display and playback, stream lights) and basic auto-accompaniment into a single traditional home piano form factor. The CSPs eschew a complicated user interface, opting for a minimalist, two-button front panel: power OFF/ON button, FUNCTION button, and volume slider.

First and foremost, CSPs are Yamaha digital pianos, as Yamaha likes to say. In this post, I concentrate on the CSP-170 as a home piano. I bought the CSP-170 at a close-out price as Yamaha was clearing inventory when Series 200 deliveries began.

Appearance

I rarely discuss an instrument’s physical appearance in much depth as synth and arranger front panels are “seen one, seen ’em all.” The CSP-170, however, sits in our high-traffic dining room. You can’t miss it!

Yamaha CSP-170 Smart Piano (matte black)

Our CSP-170 is the matte black model. The matte finish is the best match for our contemporary house. The matte black model costs a bit less than the polished ebony — not really a concern.

The CSP-170 looks like the traditional spinet piano — the old family piano that we ditched just before moving out West. The CSP-170 has attractive clean lines and fits into the contemporary styling of our home. As a piece of furniture, it is constructed solidly and feels like a quality instrument. Definitely a step up from Arius.

I originally considered a P-515 “portable” digital piano and stand. When Yamaha announced close-out pricing, it made sense to step up to the CSP-100 series. A P-515 on its stand is not as physically attractive or formal as the CSP. The CSP cabinet allows for a better more powerful sound system than the P-515 as well.

CSP-170? Heck, yeah.

The CSP-170 piano samples and playability are on par with the P-515. The main pianos are the Yamaha CFX and Bösendorfer Imperial. I played them both during my piano quest and I still enjoy playing them today.

I prefer the CSP-170 sound system over the P-515. The CSP-170 has bi-amplified speakers: woofers in a downward facing speaker box and mid/high ports left and right at chest level. The P-515, like many portables, has bi-amplified upward firing speakers. The P-515 sounds brighter due to the direct sound from its speakers. The CSP-170 sound field is similar to a spinet; the sound is indirect and takes some of the edge off the CFX. My only knock on the sound system — auto-accompaniment lacks air and sparkle. You won’t hear snappy snares.

I should note that I also play MODX and Genos, both through studio monitors. Thus, I’m used to a crisper sound for auto-accompaniment and percussion.

The CSP-170 provides plenty of volume. I don’t practice at thundering volume and setting the volume slider somewhere near the middle is adequate.

I’ve been playing the CSP-170 for one month, mainly piano. It is so convenient to push the ON switch and play. I can sneak in short playing sessions while waiting for my spouse to get ready for our daily walk, etc. The minimalist user interface is not an issue for quick play as one can select one of the main voices (CFX, Bösendorfer, Suitcase Rhodes, Wurli) by holding the FUNCTION button and hitting the appropriate key. I keep a function cheat-sheet on top of the piano for reference.

Full functionality requires the Yamaha Smart Pianist app. The app is handy, but most times, I haven’t needed it. I’ve tried a few of the Smart Pianist features: stream lights, score display, song and score playback, and auto-accompaniment. I’ll have more to say about them in future posts. So far, my only knock against them is the rather poor written documentation. Yamaha provides the bare minimum and neglects to explain certain notable features (e.g., adaptive styles). The written documentation understates the advanced capabilities built into the CSPs and the Smart Pianist app!

Smart Pianist Piano Room lets you set the lid position, brilliance, Virtual Resonance Modeling (VRM) and more. Once you get the desired piano tone, save all the settings in a Registration for recall later.

NWX keyboard action

I suspect that the CSP-170 is the last instrument which Yamaha will make with the Natural Wood Escapement (NWX) action. If you browse the forums, you’ll see all kinds of comments about NWX, or this, or that. My advice is to go out and play a variety of brands and actions. Then choose. Ignore “action trolls.”

I find the NWX to be smooth with a weight letting me control the piano sound — to play in a nuanced way. (It might not work for you and that’s OK.) The NWX does not trash my hands unlike GH3X, GHC and, yes, the new GEX Montage M8X keyboard. When you try and test, be sure to play for an extended period of time. Then ask, “How do my hands feel?” NWX passed this test for me several times over.

Dealers provide a valuable service in this regard. It took me months and multiple playing sessions to arrive at my choice. Be sure to patronize the dealers who help you out even if the price is a little higher. They’ve earned it.

Summing up

Would I buy the CSP-170 again? At the close-out price ($3,600 USD), absolutely. The CSP-200 series models have a number of improvements (GrandTouch, more voices, more styles, both CFX and Bösendorfer binaural) at a higher price. If you try an NWX (maybe a P-515?) or a GH3X and you like it, there are still CSP-100 series pianos available at close-out pricing. It’s first come, first served, limited quantity only.

Yamaha would need to completely blow me away with the CLP-800 series in order to get me to upgrade. Seriously, I’m good.

Copyright © 2023 Paul J. Drongowski

Yamaha CSP-170 in the house!

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At long last, my Yamaha CSP-170 Smart Piano arrived!

Classic Pianos Bellevue

Before saying anything else, I want to give a shout-out to Classic Pianos in Bellevue, Washington. I got a friendly and welcoming reception when I visited their showroom in August during my piano quest. I like to support local dealers when possible and Classic Pianos left me with a very positive first impression. [They had to endure my banging around, too.]

Yamaha CSP-170 Smart Piano (matte black)

So, when I heard about close-out pricing on CSP-100 series pianos, I gave them a call. They checked out the situation with Yamaha and offered the reduced price on the Yamaha CSP-170B (matte black) model. The only catch was availability because they needed to place an order with Yamaha. Classic Pianos staff were helpful and courteous during the wait — even checking on the status of their order with Yamaha.

Classic Piano rolled in “white glove” delivery which I did not expect at the close-out price. CSP pianos are quite heavy and assembly would have been a real chunk for two 70 year-olds. Thus, I’m really grateful for the extra service. Martinson Piano Moving handled delivery and in-home set-up.

At this point, all is well. Thank you, Classic Pianos (Bellevue).

Why CSP-170?

Yeah, why? The CSP-170 is the “old” CSP-100 series, right?

If you read my reviews of the Yamaha P-515 and CLP-785, you’ll know that I like the NWX keyboard action and the CFX/Bösendorfer piano sounds. I would have loved to buy the CLP-785, but its price is above my target budget.

My biggest beef with the P-515 (and the CLP series, for that matter) is the relative paucity of secondary sounds. Once you’ve tasted Yamaha MODX or Genos, you know what Yamaha is capable of. The P-515 XG sounds are sufficient for playing back XG MIDI files, but the voices aren’t up to the same quality level as mid- to upper-range Yamaha arranger keyboards or synths.

When the CSP-100 series was first announced, they struck me as innovative, but price-y. The CSP-170 (and 150) secondary sounds are roughly the same as the PSR-SX700 arranger. The extra sounds pushed the initial CSP-170 price ($5,400 USD) above the somewhat comparable CLP-745 (as far as base piano and sound system are concerned.)

Yamaha announced and began shipping the CSP-200 series last Summer. The second generation CSPs have a larger secondary sound set and GrandTouch keyboards. Pricing with respect to CLP remains high due to the CSP’s extra features.

For whatever reason, CSP-100 series were (are?) overstocked. [You can still find close-out CSP-150 and CSP-170 pianos today.] Yamaha reduced the price of the CSP-170B (matte black) model to $3,600 USD. A P-515 package for home costs about $2,000. So, the $1,600 delta above the P-515 buys a very nice cabinet, a superior amplification system, auto-accompaniment, learning features (stream lights) and a wealth of high-quality secondary sounds. Buying a CSP-170 for $3,600 is a bit of a “no brainer”, if you don’t want or need quasi-portability.

As I mentioned, the only catch is availability and waiting time. In a recent earnings call with financial analysts, Yamaha admitted that they have inventory issues and are over-stocked in certain specific product categories (e.g., entry-level digital pianos). Some of the glut is pandemic-related; some excess inventory is due to a slowed Chinese economy. Yamaha may be shifting stock from far away, for all we know. My CSP-170 was manufactured (Indonesia) in November 2022. I’d love to know its history!

Here I am today, a happy camper. I’ll be posting my initial impressions as a new owner/player and will have more to say about the Yamaha Smart Pianist app. Please, stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2023 Paul J. Drongowski