Yamaha P120

After putting together a DAW with lots of sounds and capabilities, I noticed that I wasn't just sitting down and figuring out tunes. I wanted something simple, that felt and sounded like a real piano and which would record ideas easily for working on later. The P120 hits it out of the park for these uses. Allows me just to focus on music.

Polyphony is 64, sufficient. The action is as good as it gets for a digital keyboard, which is superb, a joy to play. Has basic effects, easily applied and edited. Basic midi i/o, with serial midi as well. Two sets of outs, one on RCA, built in speakers which sound fine for practice or composing. Two-track sequencer, 3 songs, 10,000 notes. Well equipped for what it is.

The Grand Piano 1 sample is just excellent, fine for rock, jazz, and for basic composition. I'm not classically trained so I'm not qualified to comment. Better than any acoustic I've had access to. As others have mentioned, the EP2 Rhodes sample is really great, and I personally like the Wurlitzer variation as well. The EP1 FM sample blends with several of the other voices well. I've noticed that all of the voices on the keyboard blend well together; smartly chosen. Still, this is a stage piano, and for that purpose, the voices and effects are excellent. The effects are fine for playing, and can be run through an external box if you need more.

I've had it a couple of weeks, but it is very well built; I expect to mainly use it at home for composition, but may drag it to jam with others and I expect it will be fine. Yamaha's reputation is a main reason why I purchased this keyboard.

Never dealt with them. Their website is very informative.

I would buy it again, no doubts. This keyboard for me is the equivalent of the guitar that doesn't get put away, ready to grab to work on an idea. I've had an Alesis QS7 for about 3 years, and interviewed a lot of other keyboards in stores. The P120 is not some music production unit; it's an instrument. I sit down and the woodshed beckons.

What can I say...press a button and you are done! I have consulted the manual a few times...pretty easy to understand.

Polyphony is enough for any piano player, keyboard action is THE BEST ON THE MARKET. Before I bought my P120 I played about 25 different stage pianos and the P120 is the best, most expressive one out there.

All of the instruments patches are realistic especially the piano. Again, the best on the market. It has the basic onboard effects: delay, phaser, chorus...they are good no complaints. I play classical, jazz, and progressive metal and the only complaint I have from the metal aspect is that it only has about 15 or so sounds but buy yourself a good tone module and that does the trick.

Very well built...would gig without a backup.

I would buy this again over any board on the market today. The price the quality and the realistic touch make worth the $1100 or so I paid for it.

if you're looking for something that's simple this is it.
however to have a better mix of any 2 sounds you want to use, its rather complicated, and you'd need the manual.

Manual? mostly to the pt, not much of a hassel looking thru it...

Polyphonics? 64 is the basic requirements for a piano.
Whether you're playing contemporary or classical, 64 is the min.
they've got 4 built-in effects, and you can adjust their level... and they're stereo!!!
so, you can say, no worries, but at the same time, very rigid if you would like to use 2 or more effects at the same time.
the on-board seq, is rather basic. just record and play etc... up to 3 songs, but only 2 tracks.

This ain't no ordinary e.piano... its the piano you'd be looking for if you're looking for the quality of the instruments' sampling!!
nearly perfect.

Type of music? any... really. you've got the baroque favourite; harpsichord, all the way to jazzy off-beat stuffs like the e.piano and jazz organ (sounds pretty like a hammond, and you can change the rotor speed).

its touch sensitivity and after effects are excellent. has 3 variable levels, soft, med, heavy.

Definately. don't even have to spare a thot about it breaking down. it won't!!!
I spent 4mths trying it out in church when they got it in Jan'02 then got 1 for myself when I realised that it hasn't given me any problems.

You ought to know yamaha by now, you're professional.
They gave me a free delivery to my place.
Ain't easy running around with a 20kg keyboard

basically, when I was looking for a piano, I was looking for a 88key, with excellent controls and feel. Weight came in 2nd, number of sounds came in last.

if there's anything I don't like about it, would be its cost and weight and size. as much as its worth its cost, S$2k isn't something you'd like to throw around. 20kg at such a size, is real bulky bringing it around from place to place using public transport can prove to be a hassle.
last but not least, the min stand you might want to get for this guy, would be a double X. a single X is too unstable.

if theres' a modification suggestion, it'd be to have a stereo input.

Simple straight forward convenintly positioned buttons make it obvious to what you're doing. The fact that is has the interface on the left hand-side, makes it good to place the piano agains the wall without having those cables on the way.
The manual is pretty substantial and has all you need to know.

Good polyphony, Excelent Keyboard. Yamaha have the best keyboard feel, afterall they've been making grand pianos for years. I don't use effects, so I can't review on that. The onboard sequencer is a great tool. Now bear in mind that this is a Digital Piano, it's not a workstation, or a synthesizer, or even an arrager keyboard, so the 3 songs x 2 track sequencer is a bonus.

(read my comments on the bottom)

Solid as rock, firm and reliable. I just might want to get a case for it, so you don't scratch it when moving in and out of the car.

Never needed them, and hope not to.

A great upgrade from the P80, this baby kicks out all models it competes with. The action keyboard is awesome, and a little better than the P80 (I don't know how they did it). The speakers are a good sum to this piece, and the stand looks realy neat, and fits in any corner.
The 1st thing I look for in a piano, is the keyboard. THis one feels like you're playing a real baby grand. The second thing I look for in a piano, is the piano sounds. What happens with the Yamaha's voices is that they're so perfect, that they become unrealistic. The sound is more perfect that the real piano itself, so you end up losing the acoustic sensation of those one or two milimetrically offkey notes. That's why I'm not giving a 10 on this one.
Not for Roland though. The RD170 features the best piano sounds I've heard in the catergory. THey're sure realistic, and sound very accoustic. I really loved the RD170, but than again the keyboard on Roland's digital piano feels somehow spongy, and fake.
SInce a realistic piano keyboard is my top priority, I bought the P120. Now I'm looking for good deals on ROland's XV8080 sound module. We'll see how that works out.

The ease of use is kind of a split issue. On the one hand, it doesn't get any easier than plugging it in and playing that gorgeous piano sound through the built in speakers. One touch to get to a sweet Rhodes (or whatever else) and hit two buttons simutaneously for a dual voice. Shockingly intuitive. ;) On the other hand, all the editing of the charateristics of the sounds, the functions of the pedals, etc. is through a three-digit LED display and non-intuitive button combinations. Good ol' Yamaha -- the editing is reminiscent of the original DX7.

Here again is a split issue: on the one hand you have simply amazing sounds and a keyboard action that no joke really feels like a piano. On the other hand, you have fairly limited capabilities as far as recording/sequencing, layering, multi-timbre, etc. I was looking for a piano, not a production studio, and the P120 fit the bill perfectly. The keyboard instruments (piano, EP, Rhodes, harpsichord, clav, organs) capture and very faithfully reproduce the sounds and subtleties of the original material. The keyboard action is so natural that I can close my eyes and not tell the difference between the P120 and a reasonable quality grand. For 40 lbs. in a sexy chassis (goes great in just about any setting I'd care to play in), this is the ideal instrument.

Here is where the no-compromise shines through. As has been stated by nearly every reviewer, the sounds are just superb. My only beef is that there is a little bit of audible chassis-rattle when the volume is turned up more than about 1/3 through the internal speakers. The internal speakers do a very nice job of reproducing the sound and are great for both low-volume settings or low-volume monitors, but they do not deliver the bottom end you can get through external amplification or recording. The Rhodes sound particularly suffers from this (as a Rhodes player tired of hauling 300 lbs. around, I am particularly sensitive to this!).

I play the Grand Piano 1 and E. Piano 2 (Rhodes sample) patches almost exclusively. Each is so true to the original that it's almost hard to believe. The variation to the Rhodes patch is a funky Dyno-My-Rhodes sound that's awesome for ska or classic rock. Kudos to Yamaha for the inclusion!

The Strings patch is classic Yamaha cheeze, however, and is only "good" (IMHO) for playing dual with piano or electric piano on uber-saccharine love songs.

The Bass patches (upright, fretless, and electric) are good enough to layer under another part as filler until your bass player shows up to the gig. ;)

But enough of the negative. If the *only* sound this instrument had was the grand piano, I'd be happy. It's very nearly as expressive and true as the real thing. A major bonus is the included FC14 sustain pedal: *finally* someone has figured out that the sustain pedal is not a 1-bit binary device! There is a whole range on a real piano of possible positions for the sustain pedal (that I take advantage of in my own playing) and the P120 is the *only* instrument I've found that has got this feature right!

I'm very impressed with not only the feel of the keys, but the feel of the instrument as a whole. It is solid without being clunky, tough without being "over-engineered." I feel perfectly comfortable playing it hard and am not worried about its portablity. Although I'm sure it could survive a big drop, it would certainly suffer cosmetic damage. It is a very pretty instrument.... :)

Never had to deal with customer support, etc. and don't really expect to.

I never thought I'd buy a Yamaha. They set the standard on nearly everything, which means that for any one area, there's probably somebody with something better. I was sure that the Roland FC5 or the Korg SP300 would beat it out overall but I was mistaken. Yamaha put exactly the combination of features, quality and price that I was looking for.

I play jazz and Christian music, solo and ensemble and will be taking this instrument on the road, to the studio, and using it for composition. It is fitting the bill perfectly.

The feel is going to be the best or so close to it you might as well stop looking. I the P models all have similar feel. I have a stienway m10 baby grand, so i know how things feel, and to add to that i first owned a 2000 samach upright, which was weighted beyond anything i've ever felt. These keys have a "larger" feel to the keys. Not as weightless as my grand, but closer. I only care about feel so that's all I'm writing about. It has a better vertical feel in the keys and it responds well. Though, i noticed that it would give resistance, have a slight let up as you are halfway down, and the be back to the first resistance as you finish striking the key. MIND YOU THIS IS ALL VERY SLIGHT. Just trying to help those who care about feel most. I just want it for travel and practice. Best feel for good price. Im just going to add on to it.

This board is actually very, very simple and easy to use when wanting only a single voice type (e.g. a piano, or a rhodes, or only strings, etc), but on the fly in a live situation you'll have to make several key presses to get level balances between two sounds you want to hear at the same time (e.g. piano/strings) ... I don't like it but I deal with it because I love the P120 otherwise.

Not a lot of options, but this board is not intended to have such. It's meant to be a basic "preset, push a button and go" keyboard. In that regard, the ability TO make a few changes (reverb, or chorus, or flanger, etc) is nice to have. Useful in my opinion, although as with using dual-voice sounds, you're going to have to make a few button presses.

The little sequencer built in is very limited, but again it is not intended to be this boards strong point. However, the sequencer is very nice to use for recording yourself then stepping back to hear what you REALLY sound like, especially when you're practicing those Hannon licks! ;-) (slow it down and listen to your articulation and timing..try it..you might learn something!!)

The little built in speakers aren't the greatest sounding in the world, and you're not going to use then for actual gigs, but it's SO NICE to be able to turn this on and just START PLAYING, no matter where you are. Very nice for practicing..they sound plenty decent enough for that and just playing at home. Just don't expect a big bottom end.

I'm a professional keyboard player for a fairly major country star. I've played piano/keys for years...trained in classical, commercial styles, jazz, country, rock, etc. No matter what anyone else says, I say the piano on this board kicks butt. This is NOT a 12 foot Bosendorfer, people, its a "thousand dollar, practically carry it in your arm", portable, electronic instrument. With the inherent limitations to those facts, the piano is great.

Rhodes is awesome. I love it with the phase-shifter.

Electric piano very useful, nice when blended with acoustic piano. Good church praise music type sound for those of you who play at church.

I like the organ with the Leslie (hey, its not real OF COURSE! again, its not intended to be). My complaint with this patch is that the lower register (lower half of the keyboard) seems to scream out compared to the upper half. Not sure why. So I find myself sticking to playing above middle-C on the organ. Church organ patch is very good...get out your Bach! : )~

Strings...ehhh. They work, but not as good as I wished. But I use 'em and I get by satisfactorily. See note above (in "Ease of use" section)

Clav is nice and funky, especially with a little phase shifter. Its got bite.

I used the voice patch on a recent recording. Very eery, gave the track just what it needed. Just gotta try it to see if its the "ooh's and aah's" you're looking for.

Others...i don't really use 'em. I'm JUST a keyboard player! :-)

To sum it up, I use this board on the road and I'm very happy with the sound, particularly the piano. That's its main use.

I've had it a year and no problems so far. Yamaha has always had an excellent track record overall in this regard, so I feel like this board will be just fine too. I dont like the "hard cardboardy" bottom, though. Oh well, take it or leave it.

Never had to deal with this. No opinion.

I want another to have at home. The one I have now stays on the gear truck. I use it on the road pretty much only for the piano, electric piano, and rhodes. I love it. Yup, I would get another if something happened to it. And yea, I compared to other keyboard/pianos. The P120 was my choice. It does it's intended job...well.

Selecting sounds couldn't be either. Each sound has its own button which you can press a second time to access its variation. Pressing it again will return to the "normal" sound. Effects are selectable from dedicated buttons, changing effect depth is easy too. Just hold the effect button and use the +/- buttons to change them. Same goes for Transpose.

Key action is great... slightly heavy, but it could be 'cause I've been playing non-weighted for over 6 years. 64 poly is plenty, I havn't encountered any note cutoff yet. If it's there, it's very well hidden.

The effects are so-so ... good enough for anything outside the studio, but they lack the control and flexibility for serious work.

MIDI implimentation is strange ... soemtimes if I stop MIDI playback in Sonar, the keyboard no longer responds to my playing. And I can't get it to play any sound (over MIDI) aside from the piano sound.

The built in speakers are nice when you don't want to plug in an amp or headphones, but they don't really do the sound justice at all...

Piano 1: Simply amazing. I tried a bunch of keyboards before I made my purchase, and these sounds are second only to the P250. The realism is like nothing I've ever heard. I did notice some anomalies in the sounds when I was checking critically through some nice headphones, but nothing that seriously detracts from the sound. The variation for Piano 1 is a slightly brighter version, but the brightness isn't really necessary, since you can usually get what you want using Piano 1 and the Brilliance slider.

Piano 2: A Really Bright piano, more suitable for cutting through a live mix. Less likely to get "lost" in the sound if you're in a band situation. And again, use Brilliance slider to taste. The variation is a Honky Tonk piano. I wouldn't use it seriously.

E. Piano 1: A nice FM EP. Very smooth sound. The variation is similar to the "New Age" sound in the GM soundset.

E. Piano 2: Awesome Rhodes sound. Great bite, very playable. The variation is a Wurly, but it sounds much more synthesized than the Rhodes does. Still good, though.

Harpsichord: I've no use for it, but it's definetly a well-sampled sound. Even a good key-release sample!

Clav: Very usable, but again it's something I don't see myself using.

Vibes: Another great one. Very clear soft-mallet sound.

Churgh organ: Definlety usable in a church setting. Very full sound for both the default and the variation.

Jazz Organ: Useable, but the weighted keys don't lend themselves to organ chops.

Strings: So disappointing. They sound like they're out of a video game. They sound OK layered with the piano, but that's about it.

Choir: Suprisingly good for a choir sample. I only wish the strings were on the same level...

Guitar: I don't know why they even bother putting a guitar sound on keyboards...

Wood Bass: Rather good for filling in a jazzy bass sound under a piano.

E. Bass: OK sound, nothing spectacular.

This thing is built like a tank. I feel no remosre banging on the keys. The case may end up scrached if you take this to gigs and aren't careful with it though...

Never had to use Yamaha customer support :)

If you can't spring for the P250, or don't want to for portability reasons, I don't think you can beat the P120. Killer sounds, great feel, and it looks pretty damn good too! Having previously only occasional access to a real grand piano, and owning only a 61-key synth, this has really rekindled my love for piano playing... seriously!

If it were lost/stolen, I'd probably cry for a long time. A real long time. I admit it. But then I'd scrounge up money for a new one!

My second review of this instrument: I guess I'm fickle. I owned a P80 (loved the action and size; sounds were only OK; grand piano was good)), dumped it for a Roland FP3 (loved the bells and whistles like the drums, sounds ranged from good to OK; didn't like the action and dynamics, and high end reproduction through an amp), then dumped the Roland for a Yamaha P120.

So, the sounds range from very good to passable. The action is very good. I panned th eaction when it firstr came out, but I must have tested a bad uniut, or they improved it after the first production run. Editing is fairly easy. But I don't like the fact that your editing isn't saved and you have to set the keyboard up from scratch every time you turn it on. I would have paid more for a battery backup.

Action is my overall favorite of all brands. At NAMM I tried a preproduction Roland FP-5....nice, but I still prefer the Yamaha action. One thing I noticed is that the edges of the Yamaha keys are slightly rounded off a bit more, which makes glissandos and certain tricky blues licks much easier. The sharper edged keys on the Roland pianos is their biggest physical drawback in my opinion. Has basic MIDI capabilities. Built-in effects are OK, and have limited editing. But I often turn them off to use outboard effects. Variety of sounds are a little more useful than the P80. Has simple sequencer/song recorder and metronome. Built-in speakers are not sonically accurate, but OK for their size, and great to parctice with when you have no external amplification. But don't judge the sound of this piano by it's built-in speakers. Use a good monitor system to hear the sounds.

acoutic pianos are great with great dynamic variation. Rhodes is pretty good, but effects (trem or chorus) don't enhance it correctly, so I often use it w/o trem or wiht outboard effects. Wurli is OK, but suffers form the same problems when you use effects. Korg still has the best Wurli sound IMHO. Other sounds are OK when you need them, but I usually just use the basic pianos, along with an old CX-3. The feel is great overall on this piano. I can play ity for hours.

Yes, it's dependable and I would take it w/o a backup, although I do have a backup synth that I can use for every sound under the sun.

Haven't needed it yet.

It's the best portable piano out there right now, for my purposes (blues, gospel, some jazz and country). But I'm always looking for the next best thing. I haven't played the final release of the Roland FP-5 yet, to see if they changed anything from the input they received from NAMM

Couldn't be easier. Plug it in and voila!!

Bought mainly for the Grand Piano 1 sample which is completely new for the P120 I understand. There's more sample ROM than the P80 too.

Both the weighted keyboard action and the sound leave little to be desired. I've tried most of the stage pianos and the P120 can't be beaten at this price. The built in speakers sound fine in a small/medium sized room. In any case, they're really only for practicing. It seems that Yamaha have tried to design the P120 to be as versatile as possible, appealing to both the gigging musician via external amplification and/or those home players who want an excellent piano sound, but don't want another piece of furniture. IMHO they've done a superb job. I love the look of it (Cherry/Silver).

I've played mainly acoustic pianos in the past and the P120 has a very warm, not overbright piano sample. For my taste, it's just right. But in any case, there's a mellow/bright slider which alters the tone slightly. The Grand Piano 2 sample sounds fine for jazz/rock. As for the other sounds, I don't use them much, but the Vibraphone and Harpsichord deserve a mention because they're outstanding. I love the Choir and the Wood Bass with cymbal variation. V. Cool. All these are a bonus for me. The onboard 2-track Song Recorder is a very useful practising tool, too.

I've only had mine about three months, but as others have said, it's built like a tank. I practice an average of three hours a day and have had no problems (touch wood!) I'd have no hesitation in gigging with it without backup.

Never dealt with customer support.

At the moment, this is my only instrument and is a pleasure to own and to play. Definitely worth the money. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another.