Are you looking for a digital piano that provides the best tweaking options, sound quality, and key sensitivity? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Although there are not as many options at this level of keyboards as it is for beginner level keyboards the higher price of these keyboards creates the pressure of avoiding the mistake.
With cheaper keyboards, you can try one and change it later when you feel like its not the right one for you but with an expensive you that mistake will cost you too much. As they say its lonelier at the top, the keyboards you do find at this level are all very good and featuristic. The only problem is that whether they match your needs or not.
To help you find the right keyboard, we’ve done a review of the Yamaha CP4 stage piano. Check it out and see if this is the right stage piano for you.
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Features Of Yamaha CP4 Stage Piano:
Before we dive deep into the features of the Yamaha CP4 stage piano, know that the CP series has been the frontrunner for Yamaha since the 1970s. Therefore, you’ll find some of the best digital piano players and even your favorite music bands using keyboards from this series. Today the CP series has two keyboards; CP4 and CP40.
While this review of the CP4, we would encourage you to check the CP40 as well and see which one of them suits your requirements the most. However, the CP4 is still better in all aspects and therefore also costs more.
Build Quality
The CP4 has a slightly retro design but one can guess just by looking at it, that it’s meant for serious players and not beginners. Since this is a stage piano and it mimics acoustic piano as much as it could, it packs on a lot of weight. Weighing 48 lbs makes it difficult to carry.
Furthermore, it’s 59.1 inches long and 17.7 inches wide, which means that the CP4 will take a lot more space than beginner or intermediate level keyboards.
Professional pianists don’t have to worry about portability as much because they rarely carry their pianos to different places. However, when they do need to carry their pianos around, they have their staff who do it for them. If you can afford to carry such a heavy piano yourself or have a staff to do it for you, then this should not be a problem for you.
Sound quality and memory
The sound quality and memory that the Yamaha CP4 is providing are insane. There’s nothing better you can expect from a digital piano. Even the Pros will have a hard time calling out the difference its sound has from the sound of an acoustic piano. The velocity switching and sudden key–mapping lurches are very hard to notice in this keyboard.
It’s packed with all the sound from Yamaha’s premium grand pianos CFX, CFIIIS, and S6 as well as Yamaha’s Motif Synth. It has been equipped with 48 grand piano presets, 47 electric piano presets, 341 voices in total, and 62 VCM effect patches. What’s more worth appreciating is that every instrument sound is included and none of them sound artificial. What more would a pianist want?
More so the damper pedal down provides extra breadth and complexity. However, it does lack the Sympathetic resonance, the harmonic interactions between held notes which is found in its competing keyboards by Nord and Roland. The Sympathetic response goes unnoticed in concerts and performances where multiple instruments are played simultaneously but are noticed in solo performances.
In our opinion, this is a complete production sound set and can be used to make an amazing variety of mixes. However, the CP4 is still a mono timbral instrument, which is not a con but still something you should know about.
Key sensitivity
Like the sound quality, the key sensitivity of the Yamaha CP4 does not lack anything a pianist wants. The weighted hammer keys can hardly be differentiated from that of an acoustic piano. The keys are durable and have ivory feel with thin wood veneer over plastic.
Moreover, the keys are graded and touch-sensitive, meaning each key will respond according to its position in the keyboard and the intensity it is touched with. We played this keyboard and we don’t think the difference between this, and an acoustic piano is easily noticeable.
We found that not only were these keys playing the piano sounds too well but also the non-piano sounds. This is a rare thing to happen and we value the Yamaha CP4 for this.
Other features
For an expensive and flagship keyboard, the Yamaha CP4 stage piano is totally worth it. Besides providing great sounds and key sensitivity, it’s packed with a lot of other features. It allows you to layer tones and split the keyboard for different players or into different instruments. The editing options provided in this keyboard are so abundant and so easy to apply.
The Yamaha CP4 stage piano has been equipped with 128 performance slots so that you can immediately save your creations without needing to connect it to some external computer or device.
One problem that we noticed was that the main function did not have a dedicated button to turn it off and on like it has for the split and laying function.
Nonetheless, it has two multi-effects generators allowing you to play reverbs, delays, tremolos and Leslie speakers, distortion, lo-fi treatments, wahs, and EQs at the same time. Having independent send levels for main, split, and layer parts allows you to adjust them on the fly. However, when we tried switching the parts on the fly, a short interruption was evident.
Pros and Cons Of Yamaha CP4 Stage Piano:
As you have realized by now that this is a piano for the experts. If you are one you need to weigh these pros and cons to see if it suits your needs.
Pros:
- Beautiful looking
- Sturdy and durable body
- Great quality of keys and sound
- A plethora of sounds, editing options, and effects
- Includes the best sounds all three series of Yamaha pianos have to offer
- 128 performance slots
- Fully weighted and graded keys
Cons:
- Heavy and bigger in size
- Lacks Sympathetic resonance
- The main function doesn’t turn off
- Switching effects on the fly cause a short but noticeable interruption
- Expensive but meant for pros only
Conclusion
If we look at each con one by one, we can see that they don’t really matter when weighed against the pros the Yamaha CP4 has to provide. If you are looking for a less expensive piano, we suggest you check out Korg SV1. Whereas if more real-time control, better effects, and more extensive sound editing is what you’ll be satisfied with then check out Roland RD800.
Our purpose is to guide you to the product that is best for your needs rather than making you buy what we are writing about. We hope we have achieved that with this Yamaha CP4 stage piano review. If there is something, we’ve missed let us know and we would be happy to answer.