Yamaha P120

First of all: This board is not mine.
I am currently taking part in a project, it is sort of a musical. I have composed background music, which I play almost all the time during the musical. In addition I play a few better-known pieces as interludes with the band. This keyboard belongs to a music teacher who is organising the project, and I use this so I don't have to lug around my P80.


Ease of use, huh? Electronic instruments don't come easier than this. Plug 'n' play...

You know all the specs. Polyphony should be 128 in my opinion. Feature-wise, this is just the same as the P80, only has a few different sounds, is a bit bigger and has an ugly brown fake-wood casing (how much gigging will it endure before looking like shit?). The action is very very very good for playing piano (but not for playing any of the other voices included (harpsichord, clavinet, organ, strings etc.)!).

All the connections are still on the left side of the keyboard, which is a little naff in my opinion. Why can't they be in the back, just like in every other board? This would also save some width and make the outs less vulnerable to being hit by something, anything ;)

It has an external power supply. WHAT THE FUCK? WHEN WILL THE MANUFACTURERS LEARN????!! External PSU's are disgusting, unreliable piles of shit. How many dollars more would it cost to make the board with an external PSU? I really hope that the manufacturers are reading these reviews.

Omigod. I tried this board a few months ago in a music store. It sounded metallic and unrealistic to me, but then I thought that this must have been because of the tiny internal speakers. Now I've played this through a high-quality PA system, and it sounds just the same. Now, true, the dynamics and the 'musical connection' between the keys and the sound is better than on the P80, for example. But: It just lacks the roundness and finesse (??? funny word, but I can't find a better one) that is so well present in previous Yamahas, again the P80 for example. To me, this thing sounds like a bright rock/pop piano with some chorus effect, and all the four presets sound roughly the same (Yes, only four different pianos, what the hell? The P80 has 8). Needless to say, playing solo piano, especially classical music and "soundtrack music" is not very nice, terrible in fact. On the other hand, the sound cuts well through a mix and is better than my P80 for eg playing with a rock band. But for what I do, I'd definitely stick to my P80. Besides, it's smaller than this thing.

Remember, this opinion is subjective, _MY_ opinion. If you are a prospective buyer or something like that, GO TRY EVERY BOARD YOURSELF! That's the only way you can really decide what's for you. Everything depends on what you want to do with it; for me the P120 isn't good.

Don't know, as I've only used it for a week or so. It has a cardboard bottom though, which scares me a bit, and that goddamn fucking external power supply, which scares me even more. It had better not crap out on me during the series of gigs, starting this week.

As I said I have a P80 myself, and it's unbreakable, like nearly all Yamahas.

Don't know.. if you really want solutions to your problems, look for them in the Net, not some stupid CS phone number. In my very limited experience, Yamaha's customer support is definitely the best of the three big Japanese names.

For me, the Overall Rating score is almost the same as the Expressiveness/Sounds score. Without the great, great action this would be a 6. A nice instrument in its in own right, but it seems to be more geared toward musicians playing primarily in a rock band (with its new Clavinet sounds and whatnot), and I'm not one of those. If I would be, I'd buy a friggin' Nord Electro!

I've been playing classical piano for, er.. 13 or 14 years, electronic instruments and non-classical music for only a couple of years. I own a Yamaha P80 (still one of the best digital pianos IMO), and two non-weighted Korg synthesizers. I've played most Korg and Roland synths released in the past 5 years. As stated elsewhere, I play classical music, but also "soundtrack"-style music and prog/power/death/black/whatever metal with LOTS of classical influences (but not with my acoustic piano ;D) Hell, I don't want to bore you with this.

If it were mine, I'd be very disappointed, take it back to the store and buy something better suited to my needs (A Bosendorfer grand...?). Perhaps it's just a fact of marketing that it doesn't make sense to build stage pianos with sounds suited for classical playing.

I wish it had an internal PSU (get the hint, Yamaha?) instead of those little speakers, and a more reliable casing (My P80 is all metal, except for the ABS plastic ends).

For me, this is a big disappointment for the world's best manufacturer of digital pianos. Do all the pianos in their new stuff (P250, PF1000, PF500, S90) sound like this? Hope not...

In response to the previous poster, I record with my P-120 and it does great in a mix--very quiet, no ambient noise, very natural sound. I am a professional jazz pianist and I also own a Yamaha C5E Grand Piano and I think it compares nicely. Does it sound exactly like a 6 foot 7 grand piano? No, of course not. But it blows away the Alesis.

Can't get any easier than this, pull it out of the box, and plug it in.

Forget editing patches, there aren't any. The manual is ok, but you don't really need one, although trying to (at first) adjust the level of the splits in relationship to each other is not very straight forwar

I will be honest, I tried my alesis 7.1 for this keyboard, and I have regretted the decision ever since. The driving factor was that my son's music teacher kept harping that he needed a weighted keyboard, so hence the decision. Should have went with the Alesis QS 8.1.

This unit is ok, if you do not intend to do any recording with it. It is worthless in a mix, but I'll into that later.

It does have a simple sequencer, not bad, easy to you. No expansion. Isn't worth .02 for a midi controller. It has pressure sensitive keys, no aftertouch (pooh)

Well, here's where I differ from most of the crew here. Hands down, the alesis qs .1 series (hence no the qs 7, or qs 8, etc) have great piano's (strings stink tho).

Put the p120 in a mix with anything - I used cool-edit pro, and it just plain vanishes. The piano sounds have an obnoxious "ring" to them, worthless for recording.

The action is good, although not great, and for $1000, I'm pretty dissappointed. (thank God for e-bay!)

Play this machine a lot before you decide on it. Play it through some real speakers, not the Cracko speakers that are included. Try phones too, and you hear split points that are bad, ringing, just in general, poor sounds.

Built like a tank, and plays like one. Would gig without a backup, but would probably get booed of the stage.

I haven't had to deal with them, but I have called yamaha before, and they have been good.

If it were stolen, I would hope for insurance money, and get something else. It isn't worth more than $400.

I have been playing keyboards for about 30 years. I have a kawai k4, and intend to have an alesis qs8.1 soon.

I like the key action, but hate the sound.

I wish it had a 180 day return policy.

I'd like to share that you shouldn't buy one for the piano sound

For basic functions, it is very easy to use. The presets are excellent, especially th accoustic pianos and the electric pianos. Patches can't be edited, but effects can be altered. It is simple to use.

64 note polyphony. Should be adequate for any live performance situation. Not really intended as a midi slave instrument. The effects, in my opinion, are clean and nice. It is not expandible. The sequencer is more of a scratch pad, not a serious sequencer. A pitch bend wheel and aftertouch control would have been nice additional features.

The piano sound is the primary reason to buy this (it IS a digital piano after all, not a synth). It is excellent. The action is wonderful for an electronic instrument. Much better than Roland.

Yamaha is rock solid (unlike Roland where keys mysteriously stop working)

Yamaha's customer support is excellent. Again, I hate to keep picking on Roland, but their customer service is horrible.

This is a terrific instrument. It is sleek, and comparatively light. It is perfect for gigging. The P-250 looks beautiful and has lots of nice features, but is not a gigging instrument due to its huge size and weight. The P-120 isn't perfect (I'd like to see a pitch bend and mod wheel and aftertouch), but it is the best I've ever seen in terms of the overall package of portability, sound and keyboard action.

Very intuitive....simple to use....played for hours before looking up a couple of seldom used functions (function settings) in the manual.

Excellent Piano sound...looks and feels like a real piano

I'm comparing this board to a KORG SP500.....the KORG has more voices and effects etc however, the Yamaha's sound quality blows it away...no comparison. Depends on what you are looking for ....special effects that are seldom used or a keyboard that sounds great.

Anything Yamaha makes it built well.....no except here.

Definitely would buy again.

This keyboard was very easy to just pull out of the box and set up so I could start playing. Once you've got it set up you just plug it in and turn it on and it automatically defaults to the wonderful Piano 1 patch. There is no patch editor but this is really just a piano, not a full on synth like the Motif or something. The owner's manual is very precise and easy to read. Yamaha has always been about user friendliness.

The P-120 digital piano has 64 polyphony which is really nice, you rarely have notes cut out on you. The action is not that of a true grand piano or even an upright, but, considering how much the entire board weighs and the fact that it is not a whole action like an acoustic, it does a pretty good job of simulating the "real thing". The effects are ok, nice for adding some spaciousness, easy to use and disable if so disired. There are no expansion capabilities, but I can't imagine anything topping this thing in the near future. As for MIDI it has standard In/Out hook-ups and then the Host plug for a computer or something. Sequencer is nice because, I just record a song into it then play the recording from the board straight to 2 tracks on a digital multi-tracker. Nice

Of course the whole reason to really buy this board is for the Piano 1 and 2 patches. I Don't really care for the Piano 2 variation because it sounds like a hokie version of a honky-tonk piano. The winning feature to me on this board is the incredible realism of the harmonic resonance. The first 2 or 3 seconds when you strike any of the keys from C4 on up with the damper pedal pressed is just incredible, sounds just like you are hearing all of the strings actually vibrating along with that one note. Awesome! The Harpsichord is very good with its percussion key-off samples. And the Wood Bass is very nice if not entirely practical. The Rhodes is very good and the FM synth sounds are also good. The Wood Bass with it's cymbal variation is cool. The Choir is good in some ways but you can tell that they saved the bulk of the memory for the piano sounds as the choir one seems to loop to quickly. I don't like the strings really at all. The velocity sensitive keys are very expressive and the touch sensitivity is adjustable. This board is very expressive and adapts to your playing style and dynamics very well. I like to use the AUX pedal plug in for the soft pedal which make real soft passages in a song super mellow and adds just that much more expressiveness.

I definitely believe this is a sturdy and dependable board, even though I do not gig, I would not hesitate to use it if I did therefore I do not know if I would use it on a gig without a backup.

Never had to deal with them and just looking at how this thing is built I don't think I will ever have to!

If it got stolen I would probably wait until Yamaha comes out with another fabulous board just like the p-120 with top notch piano sounds, string patches and maybe a few brass sounds in there but not much else. I definitely think it was worth what I paid especially since I saved 50 dollars just by waiting a few days until it went on sale at Guitar Center. I have been playing since I was 5 years old and I have a Yamaha PSR-520 which has never had a problem so i figure you are safe with Yamaha. I compared it very closely with the Roland FP-3 but the highs on the piano in the Roland faded away to quickly for me. Yamaha rings loud and clear! Thats it, thanks for reading!

The presets are very easy to use. It did take a few sessions to notice the variation button. It actually was a nice surprise to find another layer of sound patches. The Sequencer is a bit awkward to use. I find myself accidently overwriting tracks I had just completed because I didn't switch off the record button for that particular track. The transpose button required bringing out the user manual to figure it out. I rarely spend time to figure out the MIDI stuff on any of my keyboards. It only complicates things anyway....I just want to play!

Keyboard action is great. I prefer it to my acoustic piano. I believe it's as close to a Yamaha acoustic as you can possibly get. Since this is my main keyboard, I've adapted my playing to it and I'm quite comfortable with it. I don't mess with the MIDI at all. I DO plug directly (via a ART Tube Pre-Amp) into my computer to record tracks. I really like the convienience of the on board speakers. Sometimes I just don't feel like booting up all the other equipment to just play a little. The speakers work fine for practicing. They are also quite passable for bringing the unit to a small jam session, thus reducing the need to lug tons of equipment.

I bought this for the Piano sounds first (Grand Piano 1 & 2). The jazz organ sound was passible (I used that patch on a few gigs...until I got a Korg CX-3) The Fender Rhodes sounds are real nice. There are about 4 that are all are quite usable. There is one (Electric Piano w/variation) that I find myself very much in love with. I dont find much use for the reverb and chourus effects. I'm using outboard units that provide stronger effects

I've gigged without a backup. It's very durable and well build. I now do have a backup keyboard. I would rather be safe then sorry.

No contact with Yamaha for this keyboard, but I have used their website a number of times to download user manuals for other products. Website is a little difficult to find things on. Just keep pluggin along and you will find what you need.

It was well worth what I paid for it. I plan on keeping it for as long as I can. I prefer it over my acoustic. The woodgrain finish is really cool. My model is black w/woodgrain, I love the look of it. I play with a folky bluesy group and it fits in nicely without looking to techno(I've noticed they've changed the latest models to grey w/woodgrain...yuk)

As others have noted, the main reason to get this unit is for the Grand Piano 1 preset and its variation. The FM piano, the Rhodes, the Wurli, the harpsichord, the vibes, and the various organs and basses are all of useful quality. The guitar is passable. The strings are mediocre, subtractively synthesized strings that sound very much "canned" and processed; a throwaway preset. The choir is acceptable, as choir patches go.

As a performance instrument, this piano's uses are obvious. If you want to alter the temperament, use the sequencer, transpose, etc. it's not as immediately obvious what to do, but the manual is perfectly adequate.

This piano has 64 notes of polyphony, enough for most purposes.

The keyboard action is quite decent, certainly comparable to anything in its class. I found it amusing to read that someone thought it wasn't as good as the P80's, and I suppose this must be a matter of taste. I've been playing classical music on a wide assortment of acoustic pianos (and more recently, digital ones) for 25 years, and while it seems obvious that no digital piano is going to do more than approximate the action of a grand piano, Yamaha has the best approximation, and the actions in their digital instruments are virtually indistinguishable from one model to the next. I can readily identify major acoustic brands by feel, and I detect no appreciable difference among Yamaha's digital models. These are in any case superior to digital piano actions by other makers.

The built-in effects are subtle, not particularly fine, but they don't get in the way, and can easily be deactivated.

It is not expandable, but neither is an acoustic piano. :-)

The MIDI implementation is quite meager, but adequate for my purposes. Strictly notes, velocity, and damper.

Speaking of damper... this piano has half-pedaling support. I've never been that interested in half-pedaling techniques, and they don't apply to most of the music I enjoy playing, but I can verify that it does in fact have half-pedaling support. It doesn't sound terribly realistic, but it doesn't sound terrible, either. To obtain realistic half-pedaling sound would be a tremendous feat, indeed.

I haven't done much with the sequencer, which is a simple two-track affair with three sequence memories. If you need a sequencer, you should really have a computer anyway. Dedicated sequencers are seldom as good as software sequencers.

The layering/velocity scaling of this sampled piano is quite good for this price range. I am surprised to read that so many others thought these samples were too bright. On the contrary... they are very warm and realistically balanced in tone and amplitude, even in my Grado SR-60's, which are notoriously bright even when well broken-in. If you think the samples are too bright, you should try listening to them through a good pair of AKG or Sennheiser phones. The "brilliance" slider does a useful job of adjusting the brightness of the tone. The built-in audio system definitely has excessive brightness, but given the small speakers and low-power amplifier, it does a respectable job of reproduction, providing a bit of "woody" resonance. If it doesn't sound reasonably decent, try adjusting the volume control.

The onboard effects are nothing special, but they don't really get in the way, and it is simple enough to just turn them off. Compared with a Roland piano, you can't tell there any effects running at all. :-)

The presets are reasonably dynamic, except where they shouldn't be (harpsichord, organ patches). Of course, it's not identical to the dynamics of an acoustic piano, but it's close enough for government work.

The presets should satisfy people who enjoy playing jazz and classical music primarily, possibly excepting the snobbiest acoustic aficionados (even I'm not quite there yet). I have a fondness for Baroque, so I'm quite happy to have the unusually good harpsichord samples. The church organs are fine, but I would like to have the mellow stops from the Roland F-90 also. :-) The vibes, Rhodes, and Wurli are excellent, and the jazz organ is utilitarian.

Since I do like early music, it is a real pleasure to play the Kirnberger and Werckmeister temperaments. Pure major, pure minor, mean tone, and Pythagorean are also available, besides good old equal temperament.

Overall, an impressive showing. The sampled grand exhibits the least aliasing / distortion / artifacting of any sampled grand I've yet tried, and shows acceptable balance in tone amplitude throughout its 88-note range.

It feels solid. Like others, I've never had a problem with Yamaha gear. My gigging days are probably over, but I would take this instrument to a performance unhesitatingly, without backup.

Never had a reason to deal with Yamaha support.

I'd get the same one again. It's definitely worth what I paid. As mentioned, I've been playing for 25 years. This is currently my only such instrument. I like the samples and the action is fine for my purposes. I do wish it would remember my effects settings across power cycles. I spent about a year comparing various digital pianos from different makers, including Yamaha, Korg, Roland, and Technics, before deciding on this one. This piano represented the best combination of sample quality, features (not too many) and playable action. I'm still getting used to its velocity switching and keyboard feel, but it resembles an acoustic piano as closely as any digital I've tried.

Very simple to use- you can set it up, turn it on and play away without any difficulty. Adjusting some of the settings (ex. = tuning the piano to a slightly different pitch to match your friends) can be hard to remember.
The manual is nicely laid out in English, French, German and Spanish- although people who speak the latter three will have some difficulty with the general sections of the instructions since they are ONLY in English. All in all, no real complaints.

Polyphony: 64 notes- more than enough for the average player
Effects: Haven't played much with these, probably because they sound kind of cheesy and I don't see much of use for them. The Keyboard feels superb. I see quite a few people have had minor gripes; however I find the action almost perfect. I'm not a concert pianist, mind you- so I can't detect the subtle nuances between a real grand and the 120 and express them with indignation. I just know it feels good. They keys have a quick return and are sufficient to play most anything.
Expandability: Nope, but this is a basic piano replacement and you don't really need it (can you expand your baby grand? Okay...)
MIDI- Whatever you need. Although the sequencer can't export anything you've recorded which is kind of sad.
Sequencer: 2 track, almost as basic as they come (but you can store three songs). Still, it really is a valuable practice too and composing aid. The 10,000 note limit can be insubstantial is you're using all three song slots.
I really like the metronome too. The sound doesn't get on my nerves!
The built in speakers are a big plus too. You don't find too many models with them; and lugging around an external set is just a real pain. For the size they are super. You can't really perform with them, but for practice they are fine.
For what the 120 is supposed to be it's super. Sure, it doesn't have a lot of the features other electric pianos have, but you'll have enough money left over to take a cruise to the Bahamas.

The piano sounds beautiful (piano 1). Through a nice set of headphones I can easily forget that I'm not playing the real thing (disclaimer: I do not know what the "real thing" is exactly, I'm just comparing it to others grands I've tickled). I have no problem using the p120 as a replacement for ANY upright (and it's WAY cheaper than any at that... and no tuning, no broken strings, it's portable, and it can be hidden from little hands). Other instruments are decent- The STRINGS sound nice if you layer then with the piano. The CHORUS is surprisingly good (although sounds artificial for certain notes). The ORGAN, HARPSICORD, and GUITAR, are nice as well. Others are, as I said, descent.
The P120 works for any type of music. It's been a true champ as I?ve hammered out all my favorite Billy Joel, the best of Bach, the worst of my own.
I already feel like I'm one with this little guy. I haven't had to change the way I play or adjust my touch (as the keyboard will take care of that). I can recreate the softest touch or the hardest slam and I get a superb sounding not every time. Maybe it doesn't sound exactly like a Steinway, but it's good enough for anything a regular player needs it for.

This thing is built like a rock. Never had any trouble with any Yamaha product and would not hesitate to use it w/o a backup.

Never had to deal with them.

If I ever lost this piano or if it were swiped I would buy another (most likely the same day). The p120 is worth every penny I paid. Much as I'd like to waltz over to the local piano dealer and plop down fifteen grand for a "real" piano, I just don't see the need. For a guy who just likes to play, for a family to learn on, even for band use (remember to have your own drummer!) the 120 is a star.
I've been playing the piano for about 7 years, owned tons of keyboards, and this one is my favorite. Even the way it looks makes me smile (the cherry "wood" feels kind of funny, but it looks great and the silver finish screams style- I have the p120S).
If I could have one wish then I'd want expandability. Not for more voices/instruments... but some percussion would be nice. A snare drum here and there can do wonders. But that's not what this piano is for, is it?
I dare say it sounded better than most of the Rolands I tried. Just as good as the Korgs and Tritons (yes, there will be many who gasp and protest...). And then there were the built in speakers... that made taking it somewhere far less complicated. They never cease to be handy.
Finally, I'll just add that I bought my p120 at The Guitar Center. I'm in Salt Lake, and I just want to say that's one of the finest musical establishments anywhere, with some of the finest people I've ever met. A big thumbs up to them.

Very easy to use the basic functions. Manual is necessary for some advanced functions (for example, split/layer balance, or metronome volume).

64-voice polyphony. Wonderful, realistic piano action.
Standard entry-level effects--reverb, chorus, etc.
No expansion capability. That's not what this piano is for.
No pressure sensitity--again, not what this keyboard is about.
2-track sequencer. Better than nothing.
Basic MIDI ports.

Piano sounds are excellent. A little bright, but there is a brilliance slider. If it's still too bright, you can set the touch sensitivity to "Hard" thus making the sound a bit less bright.

Pipe organ is excellent. With adequate amplification, and good finger technique, these sounds could really fool you. Nice to have a variation of the pipe organ sound, too.

Layering of piano with strings (the slow variation) or choir (the slow variation) is very effective.

Very reliable, so far.

No experience with this yet. Predict good support.

I would get the same one again, if stolen.

This is a beautiful piano. Great keyboard feel, great piano sounds. I love it.

I wish it had: 1) a USB port 2) a GM soundset.

The Yamaha S 08 has those, and 88 keys, but the piano sounds are not as good, and the action is very light. Not a piano action.