Fall 2026 new stuff is here already

Posted on October 22, 2026 by pj

So, how did my predictions (leaks) turn out?

Yamaha announced the new CK76 model this week. Expected price, $1,249.99, was right on.

Teenage Engineering announced previously leaked products and more!

EP-35 K.O. AMP: $399 USD, 399 Euro.
EP-127 K.O. PEDAL: $99 USD, 99 Euro
Amptenna: Surprise! 29 Euro
Handy Mic: Surprise! $29 USD, 29 Euro
16GB USB Drive: Surprise! $29 USD

I did pretty a good job predicting TE’s prices. TE don’t want to cannibalize OB-4 Magic Radio sales ($679 for a stereo unit).

TE love cases and docks. The K.O. Dock Kit sticks EP devices to the EP-35 grill. The Amptenna enables an FM radio through the AMP’s EP port. The EP-35 Eyelet Bag, Pocket Bag, Strap and Cylinder Case give you places to store EP-35 stuff. Cases for cases. 🙂 You can buy the mic, dock, USB drive and Amptenna in a bundle for 89 Euro.

“Amptenna” is sure to trigger everyone’s spelling corrector.

Does the Handy Mic have any tricks like the EP-2350 TING? Since it’s cheaper than TING, nope. Handy Mic is an XLR electret condenser microphone with push-to-talk button. It requires phantom power.

The 16GB USB Drive accessory plugs into the K.O. AMP and plays back instrumental jam tracks (SIDE A). It also has drum loops, live breaks and beats (SIDE B). I hope the content migrates over to the EP samplers — as if I don’t have enough content for the EP-40 RIDDIM already. 🙂

The two circular areas in the EP-127 K.O. PEDAL leak photo are pressure sensitive buttons for sending expression. Yep, the EP-127 has Bluetooth and! It includes a looper and a metronome. Basic specs from TE:

Wireless pedal controller for EP-35
Two pressure-sensitive buttons
FX, looper, metronome and playback control modes
Bluetooth LE and USB-C connectivity
MIDI and HID controller states
3.5 mm expression pedal input
3.5 mm MIDI out
Powered by 2x AAA batteries or USB-C
Dimensions: 176 x 84 x 26 mm
Weight: 0.2 kg

Teenage Engineering EP-127 K.O. PEDAL

As soon as I get a chance, I will dip into the K.O. Pedal and drop a few words about it. Its low price makes it a “no brainer.” The looper feature could be handy, especially if it retains loops in memory. I’m always trying to lighten my schlep and 0.5 pounds ain’t anything.

Winter holidays are coming…

I’ll close with a shameless plug for my EP-40 RIDDIM and EP-136 SIDEKICK PDFs.

Time passes…

Well, I did read the Teenage Engineering EP-127 K.O. PEDAL guide. I recommend reading it before buying to see if EP-127 is for you.

The big take-away: The EP-127 is first and foremost an accessory for the EP-35 K.O. AMP. The PEDAL itself does not possess looper, metronome or effects. Rather, the PEDAL controls the looper, metronome and effects inside the EP-35.

That makes the K.O. EP-35 AMP a sound beast that can loop, apply effects and so forth. It makes the EP-127 less desirable as it does not have any sound processing itself. TE don’t mislead; just be aware of what you’re buying.

The EP-127 can control external MIDI devices, instruments, modules and so forth (MIDI state). The PEDAL also can operate as a HID (Human Interface Device) controller (HID state), e.g., to flip screen pages. Again, read the MIDI and HID parts of the Guide carefully.

Out of the box, the EP-127 MIDI implementation is relatively limited. The MODE button cycles through four modes in the MIDI state:

Mode      Control/interaction        Channel CC/value range
--------- -------------------------- ------- ------------------
FX        Left button / force-press    1/2   CC#12 / 0-127
FX        Right button / force-press   1/2   CC#13 / 0-127
LOOP      Left button / press          1/2   CC#82 / 0 | 127
LOOP      Right button / press         1/2   CC#83 / 0 | 127
METRONOME Right button / press         1/2   Clock / Start | Stop
PLAYBACK  Left button / force-press    1/2   CC#1 / 0-127
PLAYBACK  Right button / force-press   1/2   CC#64 / 0 | 127

The EP-127 sends on either MIDI channel 1 or 2 (selected via the BT button). You can see that only the PLAYBACK mode is the most generally useful, sending modulation and sustain. The other MIDI CCs may or not be meaningful to the receiving MIDI device.

The EP-40 RIDDIM assigns CC#1 modulation to vibrate, CC#12 to FX parameter X, CC#13 to FX parameter Y, and CC#64 to sustain for key and legato voices. the EP-40 also should respond to CLOCK, Start and Stop. 3 modes out of 4 ain’t bad.

At the moment, the configuration is fixed. I hope Teenage Engineering will announce a configuration hack (via JSON?) like the effect hacks for EP samplers. Such a hack would make the EP-127 a more generally useful and desirable product.

Even better, it would be terrific if the EP-127 buttons could send MIDI notes. Those pressure sensitive buttons are dying to be finger-drum pads!

I always say, buy a product as it is today. Don’t buy something and hope for an update or a hack. In my own situation, I’m going to wait and see, especially since I have the Roland/Boss EV-1-WK among other options.

You may be curious about how EP devices dock to the EP-35 K.O. AMP, so here is one last snap.

Teenage Engineering EP-35 K.O. AMP docked

The EP-35 form factor is designed to accommodate full- (e.g., EP sampler) and half-sized (e.g., SIDEKICK) EP devices. One hopes those pegs are strong! More and more, the K.O. AMP looks like a consumer product, not PRO.

Review: HP OmniDesk AMD Ryzen 5

Posted on April 10, 2026 by pj

Sooner or later, it happens to everyone. Your main computing machine won’t boot.
It was a self-inflicted wound in my case. We have had a series of power outages. Each time, I had to turn off the UPS, forcing the old HP Slimline desktop to cold boot. Each time, the CMOS (BIOS) memory got wiped.

After 7+ years, the CR2032 coin cell battery had given up its ghost. I tore down the chassis — way too involved if you have ever been in an HP Slimline — and tried to pry the coin cell out of its clip with my fingers. No joy, so I tried needle nose pliers. One slip and the motherboard was toast. 🙁

Be careful with that axe, Eugene, when working around electronics. My bad.

Fortunately, I had just performed a major back-up during the previous week. Double lucky, the HP hard drive was and is still intact. Although I wouldn’t lose data, I knew that it would take some time and effort to get productive again.

I want it now

If you want a desktop home office computer today, there aren’t many brick and mortar retail options. I let my fingers do some shopping and settled on an HP OmniDesk M02-0224 Windows 11 PC. Best Buy had them in stock and on sale.

I didn’t want to go into Win 11 cold turkey, but now I didn’t have much choice. It pleased me to give two of my former employers a taste: HP and AMD. The OmniDesk has an AMD Ryzen 5 8500G (6 cores, 12 threads), 16GB DDR5 RAM, 512GB SSD and Radeon™ 740M graphics. That’s quite a step up from the old i5-8400, PC4 RAM and magnetic hard disk. Improved performance is palpable. No regrets, there.

The OmniDesk is a larger form factor and takes up more desk space. Compared to the Slimline, the OmniDesk is spacious inside and should be easier to work within. The OmniDesk is a bit short on expansion options. Open RAM slot, OK. The second MV.2 slot, though, is occupied by the network Ethernet interface. I will add a second drive using a PCIe adapter card — once memory prices stabilize or go down.

And holy smokes. Solid state memory prices! I browsed through the shelves at Best Buy and nearly had a heart attack. The AI bubble is driving end-user retail prices through the roof. I will wait until the bubble bursts [you know it will] and vendors start dumping DDR5 and SSDs.

Restoring files and apps

The Windows transition was quite smooth. HP and Microsoft have done a good job with the initial PC set-up. Windows retrieved my user account settings from my Microsoft account.

I was able to get going quickly because the original hard drive had not failed. I installed the hard drive in a Vantec NexStar external SATA hard drive enclosure. The Vantec enclosure is several years old. Vantec still makes enclosures and they know their business. I copied a zillion gigabytes from the old hard drive and restored some files from a Crucial X6 portable SSD.

The Windows 11 user interface is not too difficult to get used to and I now feel comfortable with it. No matter what version of Windows, I spend a lot of time in the Windows command console using Linux look-alike tools (e.g., ls, more, cd, pwd, etc.) After doing a ba-jillion installs at AMD, it’s second nature to install the Linux- and GNU-like tools including emacs (text editor) and MingGW C/C++ compiler.

Then it’s on to the apps. I decided to go slow and to install apps as I need them. The old hard drive was bloated with unused applications, samples and other media. A good purge is healthy. Up to this point, I’ve installed:

Adobe Acrobat Reader
Google Chrome
Magix Sound Forge Studio
Cakewalk SONAR Home Studio 6 (the original!)
Apache OpenOffice
Audacity
Ableton Live 12

Sometimes app configuration (i.e., getting things just the way you want them) is a royal pain; I’m looking at you Adobe.

I do a mess of stuff in Windows Paint and I was glad to see Paint in the Start menu. Windows 11 pulled the plug on Wordpad. Tsk-tsk. I copied Wordpad from the old hard drive and moved on. Yes, I work like a geezer, but I don’t have time to fumble around in overly complicated software tools.

External media

Cakewalk Home Studio 6 is from 2007 and for MIDI, it just works. My only copy installs from DVD. Uh-oh, the OmniDesk does not have a DVD drive. Pull out the old Apple external USB DVD drive. Uh-oh, it won’t accept disks. Windows 11 recognized the drive when plugged in, but the drive mechanism is busted.

I thought about cobbling together the old Slimline DVD drive and the OmniDesk. It just didn’t feel right. So, I bought an HP USB external DVDRW drive (F2B56AA) from Amazon (overnight delivery). It worked like a charm although this particular drive smells “grey market”. It is genuine HP even though the seller’s price was much less than HP, CDW, etc.

The old hard drive still has 300 GBytes free and will make a good back-up device. With the Vantec enclosure thus occupied, I scammed a Sabrent USB 3.0 SATA hard drive flat docking station. Open the top door, slide in a 3.5″/2.5″ drive, plug in, turn on and go. The plastic construction is not a deal-breaker; I won’t be using it as a wheel chock. I have several drives in storage and the Sabrent gives me an easy way to browse through them.

Conclusion

There you are. Overall, I’m quite happy with the surprise upgrade to the HP OmniDesk Ryzen 5. I didn’t lose any data because everything was backed up and the original hard drive was ship-shape. A drive dock is a very handy tool in an emergency.

The big take-away: Stay backed up. Your time is valuable and your created content is your time. Don’t lose it.

Yamaha announce MODX M synthesizers

Posted on October 14, 2025 by pj

Well, it turns out, yesterday’s picture was not fake. 🙂 So, yes, eight sliders and six additional knobs (under the touch display).

From what I’ve been able to gather, Yamaha MODX M is a nice slimmed down version of the Montage M series. Spiffy. It has three engines — AN-X, FM-X, AWM2 — and, ta-da!, has the VCM Rotary Speaker effect.

Here are a few key specifications:

Tone generator: Motion Control Synthesis Engine AMW2: 128 Elements (max.), FM-X: 8 Operators, 88 Algorithms, AN-X: 3 Oscillators, 1 Noise
Polyphony: AWM2: 128 (max.; stereo/mono waveforms), FM-X: 128 (max.), AN-X: 12 (max.)
Waveform memory: Preset: 10.7 GB (when converted to 16-bit linear format), User: 1.9 GB
Display: 7″ TFT Color Wide VGA LCD touch screen
Live Sets: Preset: 256, User: 2,048

The AWM2 engine has the Montage M upgrade allowing 128 Elements Per Part. Knobs, Super Knob, pitch bend, mod wheel and sound engine are now high resolution, another get from Montage M. MIDI 2.0 is supported. The eight sliders and Part/Scene buttons control 8 Parts per Performance.

As to ESP, I will quote Yamaha directly:

EXPANDED SOFTSYNTH PLUGIN (ESP) — AVAILABLE EARLY 2026: Free for all registered MODX M owners, the Expanded Softsynth Plugin (ESP) replicates MODX M in your favorite Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).

The 88-key model has a GHS keyboard and the 76- and 61-key models have a semi-weighted FSB keyboard. Sorry, none of the models have aftertouch.

Weights and measures are:

     Model    Weight       Dimensions (W x D x H)
    -------  --------  -------------------------------
    MODX M8  29.9 lbs  51-9/16" x 15-3/8"   x 5-15/16"
    MODX M7  16.7 lbs  42-7/9"  x 13-11/16" x 4-5/8"
    MODX M6  14.6 lbs  34-3/4"  x 13-11/16" x 4-5/8"

Right now, I’m playing MODX6 mainly for its weight. I could see slipping up to the MODX M7 at its modest weight.

USA prices are:

     Model     MSRP     MAP
    -------  -------  -------
    MODX M8   $3,099   $2,500
    MODX M7   $2,499   $2,000
    MODX M6   $2,199   $1,800

My, tariffs and inflation have taken a toll. On-line retailers already show “IN STOCK” status.

More to come. It’s getting late, here!

NAMM 2025: Korg miniKORG 700Sm

Posted on January 16, 2025 by pj

My heart leapt with joy when I saw Korg’s newly announced KORG miniKORG 700Sm.

I’ve been fascinated with the design of electronic musical instruments since teenage. I haunted musical instrument stores trying this and trying that — perpetually short on cash.

KORG miniKORG 700Sm [Source: Korg]

So, imagine wondering into a music store in a downtown Cleveland organ store (1973?) and seeing the Korg Minikorg 700 monophonic synth (Univox K1). It was like encountering an alien life-form for the first time. I didn’t know what to make of it and neither did the music store. I was hooked on synths thereafter.

Yes, you are feeling deja vu. Korg reissued the 700S in 2021: the full-size 700S FS. The 700Sm is a smaller, full-phat version of the reissue. Check the video. Korg set the shrink ray to 86% with the 700Sm weighing in at 12.8 pounds (5.8kg). Uh, yeah, that’s lighter than a KRONOS 3. 🙂 Cheaper, too: $1,199 USD.

The 700Sm uses new electronics, but quoting Korg:

We were able to bring the original sound to life thanks to our team of technicians, who have gained invaluable expertise over the years through their work on numerous synthesizer revival projects. This team was guided by the legendary Fumio Mieda, a KORG engineer since the early 1970s and one of the designers of the original miniKORG 700S. Working closely with Korg’s sound designers, they meticulously reproduced the original sound as faithfully as possible.. We hope that those who play the miniKORG 700Sm will experience it as a beautifully crafted and authentic recreation of the original.

This instrument is clearly a labor of love. I can’t wait to read Gorder Reid’s (SOS) take on it.

KORG miniKORG 700Sm [Source: Korg]

Look at the close-up above. My soul rejoices! Exactly what I remember — only better.

A smorgasbord of electric pianos

Posted on July 8, 2024 by pj

I’m well into the process of sampling Genos/CSP electric pianos using 1010Music tangerine. I’ll have more to say about the process of sampling the EPs in a later post. Today’s blog is laden with enough detail about EP velocity levels to make your eyes roll. Suffice to say, one needs to know where the levels are in the source material before choosing exact velocities for sampling.

There are so many Genos EP voices that I produced a short list of my favorites:

  Genos/PSR/CSP electric pianos

  Voice            MSB/LSB/PC1 Velocity ranges
  ---------------- ----------- --------------------------------------
  Magnetics          104/0/5   1-75  76-104  105-115 116-127
  Electric Piano 1   0/119/5   1-75  76-106  106-127
  Electric Piano 2   0/122/5   1-60  61- 81   82-112 113-127
  SmoothTine         0/119/6   1-70  71-100  101-127
  SuitcaseSoft       104/7/5   1-46  47- 75   76- 99 100-118  119-127
  SuitcaseWarmth     104/14/5  1-46  47- 75   76- 99 100-118  119-127

I like the warm bell-like character of Magnetics. This voice have been around for ages — Tyros 4! Still, oldies can be goodies. Electric Piano 2 is unique to the CSP/CLP instruments and has a nice, unaggressive character.

I decided to sample: Magnetics, Electric Piano 2, and SuitcaseSoft. Those three voices give me a big enough spectrum of tone colors. I determined source voice velocity ranges by sending fixed velocity values to Genos/CSP and listening for velocity steps. I verified the velocity ranges against UVF meta-data when possible.

For comparison’s sake, I took a brief look at a few MODX voices to identify the waveforms in use (and typical velocity ranges). Here’s a mini-dump:

    MODX/Motif electric pianos

    Performance      Wave
    ---------------- ----
    Vintage 74        EP1  3 levels: Soft, Med, Hard
    R&B Soft          EP3  4 levels: Soft1, Soft2, Hard1, Hard2
    Early 70s         EP1  
    Soft Case         EP3  
    Crunchy Comp      EP3
    Vintage Case      EP3
    Hard Vintage      EP1
    Sweetness         EP1
    Case 75 Amp       EP4  5 levels: p, mp, mf, f, ff
    Dyno Chorus Rd    EP2  4 levels: Soft1, Soft2, Hard1, Hard2
    Dyno Straight MW  EP2
    E.Piano 1         EP3

After A/B testing, MODX EP4 is the same multi-sample as the Genos Suitcase, that is, comparing “Case 75 Amp” versus “SuitcaseSoft” with all effects and EQ turned off. Yamaha added the EP4 waveforms with Montage along with the new, detailed “Rd” and “Wr” multi-samples. Yamaha probably captured EP4 during the long gap between Motif XF and Montage, then tossed it into Montage along with the other new electric piano waveforms.

I also like the MODX Performance “Case 73 Soft”. It uses the newer Rhodes 73 waveforms:

    Part 1                  Part 2
    ----------------------  -------------------------
    Rd73 p         1 -  49  Rd KeyNoise p     1 -  84
    Rd73 mp       50 -  85  Rd KeyNoise mf   85 - 116
    Rd73 mf       86 - 108  Rd KeyNoise f   117 - 127
    Rd73 f       109 - 119  Rd KeyOff mf    Keyoff
    Rd73 ff      120 - 127  Rd KeyOff f     Keyoff
    Rd73 KeyOff  Keyoff     EP2 Soft1+      Keyoff
    Rd73 KeyOff  Keyoff     EP2 Hard1+      Keyoff
    EP2 Hard1+   Keyoff     Rd Soft Keyoff  Keyoff

Yamaha paid far more attention to mechanical noises in Montage/MODX. I’m in the process of punching up this Performance. [Yet another small distractions er, project.]

After a number of “lessons learned”, sampling EPs has progressed well. More to come about the actual process later.

For more about 1010Music tangerine, please see:

Check out my article about Yamaha piano voice programming.

First take: 1010Music tangerine

Posted on June 6, 2024 by pj

This is the droid I’m looking for. 🙂

1010Music have released a line of colorful nanoboxes: razzmatazz drum sequencer (pink), fireball polyphonic wavetable synth (red), lemondrop polyphonic granular midi synth (yellow) and tangerine compact streaming sampler. All of the nanoboxes share the same 1.5″ x 3.75″ x 3″ form factor, have a touch display, two encoders and four buttons. They sip power through the USB-C port.

1010Music tangerine sampler

Even though the industrial design looks “Fisher Price”, the build is robust. The plastic case is sturdy, the encoders have a fair bit of resistance and the buttons feel solid. I would worry a lit bit about dinging up the display in a gig bag, so a little love and care is advised. 1010Music have a battery case on the way to enclose and power a nanobox. ($69 USD)

The 1010Music tangerine is the latest and I found its spec irresistible. The tangerine is a stereo sampler supporting both sequencing and multi-sampling. Functionally, the tangerine is like Samplerobot in a tiny box! When connected to an external synth, module, whatever, it will capture a range of notes and will do so at different velocity levels (max 16 levels). Poly is 24 stereo notes when samples fit into the 64 MByte internal memory; poly is eight when streaming large samples from a microSD card.

I’ve been waiting a long time for a portable multi-sample recording and playback engine like this. I intend to use tangerine as a portable MIDI module to augment other tools like Yamaha Reface or Arturia Keylab Essential. tangerine plus a small ‘board will give me a compact, ultra-light gig rig. I might be able to play under full battery power!

I will definitely exploit tangerine’s multi-sampling capability to capture sounds from my Yamaha CSP-170 digital piano and the Arturia Augumented 6 instruments collection. I recently purchased the Augmented collection as a way of evaluating the sounds in Arturia AstroLab. If I capture my favorite woodwind patches, etc., I may forego AstroLab, which is a bit heavy for my blown-out body.

What you see if what you get

I spent quality time with tangerine yesterday and feel like my enthusiasm (and plans) are justified. 1010Music have written an excellent user manual which helped me dive in. The tangerine menus are easy to navigate and there are navigation shortcuts (e.g., hold the HOME button and enter the Teleporter screen to jump directly to a screen).

Mainly, I explored the factory content which includes big and small acoustic pianos, drum and percussion kits, loops and clips, and a smattering of multi-sampled instrument sounds. I suggest reading and learning about the sample types and how pads, samples, presets, files, etc. are organized. If you’re familiar with typical sampling and synth concepts (loop parameters, envelopes, filters, effects), everything else will drop into place intuitively.

If you dive right into the presets, please be aware that clip samples need to have a running sequencer clock to play back. Else, you’ll wonder, “Why isn’t that clip playing?” Touch the “measure:beat” in the upper right corner of the display to go to Transport screen. You’ll find the START and STOP buttons there.

tangerine’s $400 USD selling price might give you pause when considering a purchase. Even with the tangerine in hand, I questioned dropping $400. However, this box is deep. Sure, there are some fancy-Dan features which you may not find. (For me, no way to change sampling rate.) Rest assured, 1010Music have invested a lot of engineering and software development time. Engineers need to eat and sleep indoors, too. 🙂 I suspect there is a lot of commonality and code reuse across the nanobox product line, so hopefully, that will help 1010Music roll out new upgrades at a faster pace.

Bottom line, I’m looking forward to good times ahead!

Montage M: It’s official

Posted on October 9, 2023 by pj

Yamaha Montage M documentation is now on-line: Quick Guide, Operation Manual and Data List.

The M8x is really hefty. Weight M8x: 28.1 kg (61 lbs. 15 oz.); M7 Weight: 17.6 kg (38 lbs., 13 oz.); M6 weight: 15.3 kg (33 lbs., 12 oz.)

Basic specs are confirmed as to keyboard type (M8x only is GEX with PAT; M6 and M7 are FSX).

AWM2 polyphony is 256 (max); FM-X is 128 (max) and AN-X is 16 (max). Preset wave memory is 10GB (when converted to 16-bit linear format. User wave memory is 3.7GB.

Main display is 7″ TFT Color Wide VGA LCD touch screen, 512 x 64 Full-dot LCD.

I think you can read the rest on line. 🙂 The product pages are up, too.

Pianos galore: CFX, C7, Nashville C3, CF3, S6, S700, Imperial, Hamburg Grand, U1 Upright, Felt. This instrument will give the Stage CP its own competition.

Drawbar waveforms look the same. However! Montage M has a new rotary speaker effect type: VCM ROTARY SPEAKER CLASSIC, VCM ROTARY SPEAKER, OVERDRIVE, VCM ROTARY SPEAKER STUDIO. There is now a “Rotary Speaker Block”. Its effect parameters differ from the old ROTARY SPEAKER 1 and ROTARY SPEAKER2. Do we dare allow ourselves optimism?! 🙂 I’ll be looking for an effects routing diagram as this new block is listed at the same level as the Master Effect Block.

Montage M8x: $4,999 USD (MSRP), Montage M7: $4,499 (MSRP), Montage M6: $3,999 (MSRP).

Montage M8x: $4,500 USD (MAP), Montage M7: $4,000 (MAP), Montage M6: $3,500 (MAP).

Expanded Softsynth Plugin (E.S.P.) — Montage M sound in your DAW — Coming in 2024. Looks like we will have to wait for E.S.P.

AN-X engine:

Three Oscillators with 5 waveforms (Saw 1, Saw2, Triangle, Square and Sine) and Noise Generator
Two filters with 10 filter types
Pulse width modulation
Oscillator Self Sync
Ring modulation, FM, and wave shaper
Amp EG with drive
LFO for both amplitude and filter
Voltage drift and aging settings to simulate vintage synth behavior

Yamaha P-525 digital piano announced

Posted on October 5, 2023 by pj

As predicted, the Yamaha portable digital piano line has a new flagship — the Yamaha P-525 — replacing the popular P-515.

Lucky for all of us, the price has not gone up. USA MAP is $1,600 USD ($2,000 MSRP). It is already appearing on retailer sites for pre-order.

The P-525 web page is up. Here are the improvements over the P-515 and a few extra highlights (for the impatient):

GrandTouch-S wooden (white) keys
Grand Expression Modeling
Registration memories
Bluetooth audio
USB to HOST (MIDI and audio)
Amplification: 2 x (20W + 6W)
Speakers: 2 x (Oval (12cm x 6 cm) + 2.5 cm (dome))
Sound Boost and adjustable EQ

A number of features carry over from the P-515: CFX and Bösendorfer Imperial featured pianos, binaural sampling (CFX only), VRM, and half damper pedal. The P-525 amplifiers got a small bump.

The big change is the GrandTouch-S keybed, replacing the NWX keybed. I really liked playing the P-515’s NWX. Here’s hoping that the P-525 has the same non-fatiguing action and key-to-sound connection. [I’m dying to try it.]

Giggers will truly welcome the registration memories and adjustable EQ. Now you’ll be able to store panel settings in the piano itself without resorting to the Yamaha Smart Pianist app. Nothing against Smart Pianist, but a tablet (or phone) is yet another thing to carry and set-up at the job.

The P-525 brought over the XG sound set and drum kits (480 voices and 18 drum/SFX kits). These are mainly used for MIDI file playback, but feel free to dip in. The P-525 adds four new effect types for specific voices (and cannot be selected by the Voice menu):

VCM EQ 501
CompDistortion
VintagePhaserStereo
StereoOverdrive

The new effect types bring the P-525 closer to CP88 territory although the P-525 still lacks several important stage piano features (zones, front panel gizmos to control effects in real time, etc., etc.)

The P-525 adds a few voices that make use of the new, voice-specific effect types:

Dance Grand (AP)
Old School Pf (AP)
Auto Pan EP (EP)
Dyno E.Piano (EP)

I noted inconsistencies in the MSB/LSB/PC numbers between the P-515 and P-525 (Data List PDF). I don’t know if these differences are significant. Perhaps Yamaha need to proofread the MIDI voice assignments? One PDF claims “1-128” numbering and the other PDF claims “0-127” numbering WRT program change numbers.

Also predicted, Yamaha have a new, portable triple pedal unit, the FC35. The FC35 plugs into the P-525 triple pedal port. The FC35 is compatible with other Yamaha digital pianos which implement the triple pedal port (e.g., DGX-670 and P-225). The FC35 retails for $100.

I’m going to call it a night and will take a close look at the Owner’s Manual tomorrow. Start browsing for deals on the P-515, if the 525 doesn’t float your boat!

Update (after a good night’s sleep)

I didn’t catch it last night, but the P-525 has an updated speaker box. Yamaha claim:

We also made significant improvements to the speaker boxes. Flared bass reflex ports and proprietary sound-absorbing tubes substantially reduce wind noise, vibration noise, and other excess noise, which helps to deliver a higher quality of sound.

The P-525 is also the first digital piano equipped with an FIR filter, which makes fine adjustments to the phase of the sound. This allows your audience to hear a naturally pleasing sound as you play.

I don’t think they’re lyin’ because I have not seen the FIR filter touted in other Yamaha digital piano blurbs.

The FIR filter is a digital crossover between the mid-range woofer and the tweeter. I haven’t reviewed it yet, but I’ve been playing through a Yamaha Stagepas 100BTR, which features a digital FIR crossover filter. It’s good stuff.

The P-525 adopts the registration memory scheme which should be familiar to Yamaha arranger people. The software engineers overloaded the “Piano Room” button with a REGIST operation, i.e., press and hold the button for registration operations. Use the arrow buttons to navigate to a bank, then press a (voice) button to select a registration within a bank. The bad news here is holding the REGIST button while hitting a second button to execute the selection. This would be an awkward gesture if you’re trying to change registration while playing.

The P-525 has a 3-band Master EQ (low, mid and high). You can select from three EQ presets or create your own USER setting. The Master EQ setting is saved in a registration along with a bunch of other important panel settings. Check the manual.

There is only one thing to bust Yamaha’s chops. The feature overview video demo claims “542 attractive voices.” The number is incorrect: 44 panel voices plus 480 XG voices is 524. Further, the 480 XG voices are really intended for MIDI file playback. There are some usable XG voices, but the entire lot of them smells like the 1990s. I laud the new AP/EP voices (and DSP effects), but C’mon man!

I have played the P-515 several times since my initial review. Each time, the P-515 left me favorably impressed. If the GrandTouch-S action is non-fatiguing and playable, the P-525 should be everybody’s serious candidate. You will get most of the benefits of a full-blown CLP in a quasi-portable package — $2,000 USD (street) for a slab, stand, bench and pedal unit. That’s excellent value.

Yamaha CSP Gen 2 digital pianos

Posted on July 13, 2023 by pj

Yamaha are on a tear. In recent months, they have announced major additions to their digital piano product lines:

That is an impressive list of new product announcements. Clearly, Yamaha’s engineering and manufacturing teams were quite busy during the pandemic and global slow-down.

Yamaha have not yet updated all of its regional Web sites. If you can’t find the new Piaggero models on the USA site, check the European site.

Yesterday, Yamaha announced the second generation CSP series 200 digital pianos! I’m awaiting a P-515 successor — shouldn’t be long now that Yamaha have updated virtually every other digital piano offering.

Yamaha are reinventing the home digital piano. Yeah, every manufacturer offers a range of models from value-oriented entry pianos to mid-life crisis parlor toys. 🙂 The Yamaha CSP series are an interesting take on home players. The CSP front panel has exactly one button — the ubiquitous Yamaha FUNCTION button. The button is a minimalist’s gateway to the internal functions within, if you want them.

By minimizing front panel controls, customers aren’t confronted by a panel full of buttons, lights, knobs, sliders and other off-putting (and confusing) gizmos. A player can walk up to a CSP, turn it on and play a decent digital representation of an acoustic piano, both touch and sound. CSPs aren’t stripped down and have all the good stuff like CFX, Bösendorfer Imperial, Virtual Resonance Modeling (VRM) and GrandTouch.

A CSP piano really comes alive through the Smart Pianist app. In fact, the Smart Pianist app is required in order to make the most of the CSP’s capabilities. The CSP is designed for people who want to learn piano and have fun doing it. A matrix of LEDs above the keys create a waterfall display showing when and where to strike the keys. Smart Pianist knows the score [pun] and controls all of this. When the player is ready for reading, Smart Pianist displays the score. Thanks to Chord Tracker and other software smarts, Smart Pianist can generate a score from audio. Thus, Smart Pianist and CSP gamify the experience of learning piano.

Play-along is an important aspect of the CSP approach. I don’t know about you, but I have the most fun playing along with other people, a backing track or creating my own backing through auto-accompaniment. Yes, the CSP has auto-accompaniment with a zillion styles.

The new CSP models are CSP-295GP, CSP-295, CSP-275 and CSP-255. Judging from the initial pricing, I expect these models to replace the CSP-150 and CSP-170.

I read through the data list PDF. The new CSPs have more voices and styles than the Yamaha DGX-670. In terms of voices, drum kits, styles and chord recognition, you have all the main elements of a Yamaha mid-level arranger (PSR-SX700 and PSR-SX900). In this respect, the new CSP models are a terrific value and, frankly, I’m jealous! I doubt if the forthcoming P-515 successor will have such outstanding non-piano voices.

If you own an arranger keyboard, you’re already set although you probably don’t have Bösendorfer, GrandTouch, VRM, streaming LED lights or Smart Pianist. You might think that the CSP is lacking for style control buttons and such, but please consider this notion — Yamaha are evolving the CSP and other digital pianos to be “adaptive instruments.” An adaptive instrument follows chords across the entire keyboard (i.e., AI Full Keyboard fingering) and changes style sections depending upon your playing strength and the number of notes you play (i.e., Adaptive Styles). Brilliant! The instrument should and can follow the player instead of the other way around. Who needs buttons?

The Yamaha P-S500 has many features in common with the CSP series including the streaming light note display. The P-S500 puts it all into a quasi-portable form factor. I would jump at the P-S500 except for its Graded Hammer Standard (GHS) keyboard. After playing P-515 (NWX action), I just can’t return to GHS. I need to switch to a for-real Petrof acoustic grand at church and I don’t want to compromise. [Stubborn me!]

I’ve collected links to my remarks about CSP Gen 1, DGX-670, etc.:

Thanks for reading!

Ludlow, VT (7/10/2023)

Posted on July 10, 2023 by pj

My heart and prayers go out to family, friends and other folks in Ludlow, Cavendish, Perkinsville and Weathersfield VT. I just spent several days in Ludlow and the surrounding area.

Today, Ludlow and the region have been devastated by heavy rain and flooding. The area was struck hard by Hurricane Irene (August 2011). The steep canyons channel rain water, which quickly rises to flood level.

I drove Vermont 131 between Ludlow and Perkinsville quite frequently over the last few days. Today, the road is flooded out and blocked in many locations.

Please keep these communities in your prayers and send assistance.

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Electronics and computing for the fun of it

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