Yamaha CP-33

If you want to plug it in and play it, it's quite easy to use with the most important controls such as voice, touch, volume, and effects right at your fingertips But, once you get into setting up the settings for MIDI, tuning, and even the Master settings, you will need the manual because of the way the menus are set up.

As you read in the other reviews, the polyphony is 64 notes. I use this board for a stage piano on gigs, so I'm not interested much in the built-in effects. The keyboard action is absolutely amazing. Growing up with a Yamaha P2 upright, I feel right at home with the Grand Hammer keys-it doesn't get much more genuine than this. The keyboard has MIDI features, including it can be a "Master" keyboard in Master mode and control two different tone generators. It can be a little confusing the first time you try to set it up, but it actually works well. Though I wish you could edit more parameters. AND I thought my days with an external power transformer supply was over.

Tue rating I gave applies to the Grand Piano 1 sound only. The Grand Piano sound is absolutely amazing. I thought my 9000Pro Live Grand piano sounded real-the CP33 puts it to shame. It's been out on three gigs with me so far and every one comments on how real it sounds. I bought this specifically because of the weighted keys and the Piano sound, as I intend on using this as a piano replacement at home. The touch is a little sensitive but there are three touch sensitivity modes. I find my preference would be between the medium and heavy setting. But the way the piano sound reacts to the touch is simply unexplainable how real it sounds (and feels). As for the rest of the sounds, they are either average or above average. I am a bit disappointed in the electric piano sounds however. And, yes, as a review said before, I think Yamaha should have included the CP80's sound. A major oversight.

Since I can't afford two of these, I have to use it without a back up. But then again, I've been gigging with Yamaha products since high school and I have never had any of them fail right before a performance. I feel more confident with a 3 year warranty from Yamaha on it. The keyboard seems to be very solid and well-built.

It this were stolen, I would buy it again. In my opinion, it was a little pricey, but then again, the Grand Piano sound was worth it. I have been playing the piano for 28 years and have been playing around with keyboards for about 20 of those years and I have never played on a digital piano that sounded or felt more real.

CP33 is very easy to use. The presets for the acoustic pianos are good. I play in a band and use the mono piano setting most of the time. The clav setting combined with variation button is useful also.

The keyboard action can be adjusted via a button for Hard, Med, Soft and off. "off" is good if using the CP33 as a controller for an organ setting. I play on the Medium and Hard settings most of the time using piano sounds.

The sustain pedal works well. However, DO NOT accidentally connect it to the AUX input, which is next to the sustain input. It will kill your sound everytime you step on the pedal. I found this out the hard way. It was two hours into a gig after replacing cables and checking AC power that I discovered my stupid mistake.

I don't like the cheesy power adapter. It won't last long. I bought a backup adapter when I bought the piano. If the piano is built like other Yamaha products, it should last and be relatively trouble-free.

I like the piano a lot. It does the job for what I use it for. Live gigs in a rock band. I just don't understand why Yamaha chose the cheap power adapter for a "stage piano". They need to improve this.

Nothing to learn. Very easy and logical.

It has the stuff a stagepiano should have and the added bonus of two controllerwheels (pitchbend, modulation).
Both USB and Midi works like a charm with both PC and Mac (yes, I have tried both).
Yamaha did a clever thing when they decided to put the wheels on top of the piano instead of the usual place, on the side. This saves space were it is needed, stagepianos are long enough as they are.

I play rather complicated stuff, many notes, fast tempo with the sustainpedal down and I have not had any tones that gets cut off - Polyphony is more than enough.

I bought it for two reasons:

THE SOUND!!!
It sounds GREAT!
Some sounds (the not important ones) are a bit thin but all the important keyboardsounds are very good and the two pianosounds are soooooooo good. Actually, it's the best stagepiano I've ever tried so far.

THE KEYES!
The expressiveness is also top notch! Oh Buddah! I really like the way the keys respond to my playing. It feels like a grand piano for real (not an ordinary piano).

My fourth Yamaha piano. Never any problems.

Yamaha has always made the best pianos in my opinion (but never the best synths). Other companys simply don't have the same qualitysounds or fantastic weighted keys.
I play both the piano and the guitar and have been working as a professional musician for about 12 years but been playing for most of my life (43 years). I choose my instrumnets with great care.
And this is just that - A REAL INSTRUMENT!
Best buy of the year for me.
It won't get stolen, it's too heavy.
If anyone tried to steal it, I would smash him over the head with one of my guitars (not my Martin tough)...

It's very easy to use. You get going right away. If you just wanna play, you don't really need the manual. It just works. However, you do need the manual to change things like pitch etc. The manual is pretty easy to use.

I doesn't have many features, and that's fine with me, ??cause I just wanna play. I do like the two "zone"-faders, though.

Most of the sounds are really good. The piano is really really good. It's not as good as in CP-300, but still very good. It also good to make a dual with piano and strings. It has a very warm sound.

Seems VERY good. No problems. I will definetly use it on a gig without a backup

Fine

I would buy it again if it were stolen. The only piano in the world that is better is the CP-300, but it is also way more expensive and heavy.

So I went to the music store to try out the CP-33. I'm trying to find something that sounds $1000-$2000 better than sound number 4 on my Roland P-55 module.

I was prepared to buy it from what I'd read on Yamaha's website.
I thought for sure they'd finally figured out the piano sound for a decent price.

I didn't see any improvement in sound over the P-70.
The touch of the keyboard was OK...nothing special compared to my SL-880. Better, but not $1000 better.

Why they can't make a better piano sound in this day and age of computer modeling and VST's, I don't know. Even the CP-300 seemed contrived for that kind of money. They should be able to do everything a piano is required to do from solo to church to stage.

Maybe the Roland dealer set up the Yamaha's so they wouldn't sound very good next to the RD-700. But they were going through the same amp, and I powered down and rebooted the CP-300 to get to the first grand setting. Still not quite the $2000 dollar sound I was looking for.

Back to the CP-33. Looks like a decent controller with some average piano sounds as a bonus...instead of killer piano sounds with some decent midi controller functions as a bonus.

No problems at all - just "plug and play". Instrument remembers all the sound settings, so that you'll be ready to play immediately after turning it on.

The action is harder than Petrof I play and compared to some Clavinovas (GH3 keyboard). You can't also play so quickly - e.g. scales are problem for me, but after an hour, I got used to, but it is different compared to acoustic piano. But some people find it very good. No sequencer, MIDI I havent tested, but assume it is ok, no expansion capabilities, but you can buy a standalone sound module.

Dynamics are ok, the touch setting "hard" is acceptable for me, but it is a little harder. Medium is too "soft". Piano sound realistic if you play a single tone, but octaves in lower keys aren't in tune because of strictly equal temperament tuning, no stretch tuning typical for piano sounds are supported and it is a big problem for me. Nothing for classical music, for some styles acceptable. Other instruments are ok, I will find useful to have some mellow strings. The strings that are present here are a little agressive. Church organs ok, electric piano is better on GEM instruments.

Have it a few days - don't know.

Don't know.

For my purposes (Big Band) it is acceptable, but not good. Piano tunning and the action are the biggest problems for me. I bought it as a "late in the night alternative to acoustic piano with more sounds" and I'm very disappointed about it. It is better than GEM pRP-700/800, but I think KORGs will be better.

It's designed as a stage piano, so there aren't a lot of bells and whistles to make it complicated.

The function method of configuring the keyboard is a little cumbersome, but implementing it in a more intuitive way would probably have added significantly to the price.

The keyboard doesn't read the position of the zone control faders at power on. It defaults to a high value. I keep mine at the middle point to give plenty of room to move in both directions. I have to move the faders each time I power on to get the positions read. It also forgets the function settings (at least the one I've used so far). It's annoying because things like the selected instrument and variation are remembered across power cycles.

I've only had to refer to the manual to look up function edit codes. I haven't used the Master Edit function, so I can't say how good it is in documenting that.

64 voice polyphony, which isn't as much as some other instruments, but it's enough for a stage piano. I haven't noticed any drop outs yet, and I'm heavy on the damper pedal so there is plenty going on when I play.

The graded hammer action is excellent. It's the closest to a real piano I've seen, which should be expected from a company that also makes acoustic pianos. The weighting is heavier on the low end and lighter on the high end, like a real piano.

I've only used the piano sounds so far. The sound reproduction is excellent. I've skimmed through the other sounds. They're usable, but by no means as good as the grand pianos.

There are only three levels of velocity sensitivity. My ideal setting falls between two of them , so I find myself switching back and forth depending on the song. On the other hand, the setting has a button on the front panel, so I just press it rather than having to dig through menus.

It has basic MIDI capabilities. I've used it to control a rack synth for basic stuff, but not editing or any advanced MIDI functions.

The piano sounds are excellent. The other sounds are usable, but not as good as what I have in my rack synth. 99% of my work is on the piano, so I didn't care much about the other sounds.

There are basic built in effects: Chorus, Phaser, Tremolo, and Rotary speaker, plus four reverb settings. So far I've only used the reverb. I think my home studio is a rather live room, so I haven't gotten a good read on it yet.

I've only had it a few weeks, but so far it hasn't glitched once with several hours of use every day.

I haven't had to call Yamaha (yet!), so no opinion here.

Overall I'm quite happy with it. It has a better action and piano sounds than keyboards that cost twice as much, which were my primary criteria in choosing it. I wish it had the bigger display and sequencer of the CP-300, but at a little over half the weight of its bigger brother and $600 less it was a no brainer, especially after carrying around a 51 pound keyboard previously.

This piano is very easy to use initially, like many others it's just a case of turning it on and all the buttons are intuitive. However if you want to adjust anything (like the voice 2 effect depth or octave offset) then it's a case of negotiating yamaha's function menu. Given there is only a 3 digit display, the menu is as good as it can be but is certainly frustrating without a bigger screen or the ability to call back presets. The manual is good though.

64 note polyphony is enough, more would be better. The action of the keys is one of the best things about this piano, it feels much more solid than similar pianos and really has the touch of something like a bechstein. The effects are good, particularly the reverb which is very crisp and sounds fantastic, the chorus, phaser, rotary speaker and tremolo are as expected. There are enough effects to create some unique sounds for most purposes after a bit of playing around. The piano is perfectly adequate for controlling a couple of midi devices but again setting this up is not that easy. The zone controls are incredibly useful.

It seems yamaha have put a lot of effort into the new grand piano sound and it has certainly paid off, this is the best of any stage piano I have heard. The sound blew me away and you would not be dissapointed if you bought the piano on the strength of the grand sound alone. Mono piano is a welcome addition and gets rid of the annoying phase cancellations etc when reducing the stereo mix. The vibes sound is definately an improvement from the p-series as are the bass sounds. Sadly the 4 electric piano sounds seem a bit thin and lacking compared to ones on previous models but they are ok if you play around with the fx. One of them unfortunately sounds like it's sole use is for playing the synth part in 'starlight express'...

panel lock button is handy but strangely on a piano that is meant for the stage ie. will be plugged into a sound desk, the volume control cannot be locked. I think it's a sound engineers worst nightmare to find the pianist keeps knocking the volume control. Otherwise the usual gripe about the external power supply is another thing to worry about. However the piano has a very high build quality and feels like it would be pretty hard to break, that's all I can say having only had the piano a few weeks.

Not needed yet!

This piano was worth every penny, it's strengths are the fantastic grand sound, the key action and the size, much smaller and lighter than the cp300. In my opinion yamaha still produce the best piano sounds. The electric piano sounds are not that good but I expect I will end up using an external midi device for those sounds anyway. The piano is well designed for it's purpose - a portable great sounding stage piano.

I found it very easy to use which is surprising since this is my first digital piano purchase. I like the look of this, not flashy, quite subdued.

Polyphony is 64. The keyboard feels very solid and the keys have the perfect... I don't know the right word... 'bounce' is all I can think of. I've tried some cheaper ones like the m-audio pro keys 88 which felt flimsy and I was wary of playing on it just in case I broke it in the shop. The sound of the Yamaha is the best so far. Pro keys sound very artificial; you can't forget you're only playing a digital, but Yamaha sounds way better. Some say they prefer the sound of the Roland Fantom, which costs ??1000 more, but I found it to be quite fake. I don't like the Korg sound at all. The grand piano 1 is my favourite sound so far. I do not like the mono piano, but if the 'master' volume is on, it sounds a lot better. However, the 'master' volume with the sound layer control does not do much to improve the grands, because they already sound excellent.

I like the touch of this piano, as it mimics acoustic pianos closely. It stil feels a bit light compared to some acoustics, but it actually feels heavier than the baby grand I tried. It is a solid instrument, and I am not afraid to pound away on it.
The shop assistant thought the more expensive cp300 had slightly better sample sounds, but is the difference really the extra money? I think the grands on this piano sound expressive and fluid.

I have only had this for a few days, I cannot say much about its reliability. It feels reliable, but fingers crossed it will prove itself to be true to the stereotypical Yamaha quality!

Cannot comment

It is a wonderfully solid piano. I am very happy with my purchase. After all, I could have saved money by buying a cheaper one, but there is no point because I will not enjoy playing my music. This, on the other hand, is worth every penny.

It's pretty simple, except the 'function' settings. You realy need the manual, if you want to change something there.
Typical issue:
Your DAW software turnes off the local control, and you only recognize it during the souncheck of your next gig... If you don't know, how to turn it back, and you don't have the manual with you, you are lost. (You may loopback your MIDI, as I did :) )

Ok, it does not have aftertuoch, but who cares? It's a stage piano...
External power supply... arghhhhhh....

Great. Just great.

I have it in two months, so I don't know. It's ok so far.

I had a P80 before, and I experienced the so called key-breaking issue.
3 years after the garantee, the changed the full keyboard mechanics for me, so I can't say any negative about Yamaha support.

Regarding to CP 33 no experiences yet, but I hope the same attitude...

Great value for your money.
If it were lost or stolen, I would buy it again.