Yamaha P120

Another digital piano made specifically to be user friendly. So of course its easy to use. Fewer buttons means some controls are hidden and need to be discovered by reading the manual. But a child could figure it out.

In this keyboard Yamaha "fixed" some of the more prominent "problems" of the P80. Some people will still prefer the P80, but for me, the P120 is a vast improvement. The action on the P80 was problematic for me, in that the key travel was very long, and it consistently felt like there was a delay between depressing the key and triggering the sound, the result being a nagging feeling of being unconnected to the sounds. I owned a P80 and eventually sold it primarily because of that problem. The connection betweenn keys and sound on the 120 is far better. I've never encounted a digital piano that really gets this "right," in the sense of equaling the key-sound connection one feels playing an acoustic piano or rhodes -- maybe its not possible. But the P120 basically works pretty well in this regard. I don't know whether the action is heavier or lighter. It feels a bit lighter, but that could also be a function of shorter key travel and the better connection. My fingers definitely get a workout playing the P120, so there must be substantial weight behind those keys.

Next to, or perhaps equal to, the quality of the sounds, the action of a digital piano is the most important feature for me. If I don't feel good playing it, it doesn't matter how many features there are. The P120 feels better than any other digitial piano in its class. To top it, I'd have to go to the Kawai MP9000.

The onboard sequencer is your basic scratchpad that most of these low-end digital pianos have. Nice for capturing your inspired ideas on the fly without having to pause to set up a sequencer etc . . . Not a serious composing tool.

I don't like digital piano sounds, so I don't spend alot of time comparing them. When I use a digitial piano, its usually in a band context where the piano is pretty deep in the mix, so the subtelties don't matter so much anyway. My point is, I don't care to comment on whether the piano sounds on the 120 are better than the P80. They sound about the same to me.

The rhodes sound of the P120 is vastly better than the P80. I think the main P120 rhodes is taken from the library of S80 sounds, and as everyone knows, the S80 rocks when it comes to electric pianos. Its very midrangy, punchy, dynamic, and fun. Sounds great cutting through a band mix. The P80 rhodes sound was very problematic because the cross-switching was so ridiculous. It was unusuable. Cross-switching on the 120 is much more realistic and useable.

The P120 includes a clav sound, which the P80 did not -- another serious oversight of the P80. The P80 clav sound is very good. B-3 patch is also excellent, though I'm not sure I would ever use it if I'm triggering it through the weighted keys.

The effects on the P120 are very good, for this class of keyboard. Again, sounding like the S80. My favorite is to dial in a fat, swirly phaser. Chorus doesn't thrill me, but then they usually don't in general.

Yamaha is generally reliable in my experience. I would say its "built like a tank," but somehow the cliched habit of analogizing a musical instrument to a weapon of destruction seems inappropriate, not to mention inaccurate. Call me crazy.

Never used it.

If I lost it, I would consider myself a remedial idiot for losing something so large. If it were stolen, I would hunt down the thief and punish them with violence -- because as everyone knows, musicians, and keyboard players in particular, have a propensity to do that sort of thing. That's why no one messes with us.

Seriously, I think the P120 is a fine representative of its class. People will have subjective opinions about sounds and key action, etc. . . I think Yamaha took the P80 and generally improved on it, eliminating some of the more glaring omissions.

The P120 of course also feature built-in speakers. I like to use these because they create a vibration through the keyboard that begins to approximate the feeling of strings vibrating through an acoustic piano. But the actual sound of the speakers doesn't do much for me. Its simply impossible to get enough bass from such a tiny, inexpensive speaker system.

The P120 weighs about 41 pounds, which is very manageable. Yamaha deserves credit as the first manufacturer to catch on to the fact that people don't want to haul around 50+ lb digital pianos. Roland eventually followed suit with the lightweight FP-3. Anyone looking for a keyboard in this class should definitely compare the P120, the FP-3, and the Kawai ES-1.

I'm still waiting to see someone produce as 76 or 73-key weighted action keyboard. I really believe there would be a significant market for that. The vast majority of keyboardist who are hauling around weighted action keyboards to their gigs don't need 88 keys, and would greatly appreciate the weight advantage of chopping off a few, particular from the high end of the board. It makes so much sense, I can't believe no one has tested the market with such a product. The only such keyboard I know of is the workstation made by Ensonique, and that weighs around 50 lbs anyway -- probably because its a workstation and so is loaded with bells and whistles.

I conpared P-80 and P-120 at GC. I palyed them with power off (No sound) and I felt they had excactly same keyboard. Then i played them with Piano1 sound, I thought P120 had a bit faster sample responce (The Piano sample starts faster) and that makes me feel P120's action is lighter. Maybe the CPU is faster? Anyway, P120 had more realistic feel to me.

I brought my Senheiser headphone to GC to conpaire their sound in the same situation. P120 sounds closer to the real Yamaha C grand. Yamaha still needs to do a lot of work to make it indistinguishable though. I understand some players prefer P80. P80 has more "playable" piano sound. Realistic doesn't always mean better as a digital music instrument. It is like GIGA sampler's 1GigaBite nothing but fantastic piano sound is not as playable as P80's tiny sample rom's sound. But remember, THE REAL INSTRUMENT IS ALWAYS HARDER TO PLAY THAN THE DIGITAL FAKE!

No problem. Just another solid Japanese product.

I bought P120 and still very happy after 3 weeks. Yamaha did a great job so far!

I also think, as other reviews, that the grand piano sound is not very good, less realistic than the P80 and the ES1. Higher octaves are too bright while lower octaves are not warm enough. Playing Debussy "Clair de Lune" or Satie "Gymnopedies" is not convincing at all.

Quite easy to use. Can't really edit sounds, except brightness control. Manual is straightforward and understandable (in other words, it was not written by Roland)

The real selling point for me was the piano action, which is the BEST of all of the current digital pianos (far better than the Roland RD700). The built in effects are adequate. It is a very bare bones midi implementation. It does not (but should) respond to modulation and pitch bend messages.

Great grand piano sound. I don't know why some posters on this site have said that it sounds too "metallic". It is VERY close to the real thing (and I own a Yamaha C5E grand). The electric pianos are very good (better than on the P80). The Jazz Organ is pretty good too. The really selling point of this keyboard is its grand piano.

so far, no problems. I've found Yamaha to be rock solid.

No need to contact yet

This is the best portable digital piano I've ever played. I've tried them all. While no one is perfect, this is really nice. The built in speakers are nice not only for monitoring purposes, but also for adding the "vibration feedback" that you get with a real accoustic piano. At 40 pounds, Yamaha has a winner on its hands.

I prefer this really good keyboard action that the p120 gave me. Some say the keyboard is to light but I disagree.

Some say that the p120 sounds to bright. Ofcourse they nee the really deep notes a akoestic piano can give you, but let me give you one tip. If you use a simple amplifier and 2 x 60w speakers, the p120 does create a really good piano sound (both for grand piano 1 and 2 and the honky tonk piano variation) So cut the crap when you that the notes ar not deep enough. Use an amplifier !

Buy one, you won't regret it !

Easy to use - right out of the box. The layout and function of the various buttons (Piano1, Bass, Clav, Variation, reverb, and so forth) and the two sliders (volume and Mellow-to-Bright) are straight forward, simple, and intuitive. The record and split funtions are simple. All of the midi and pedal connections on the side (as in the p80) are clearly marked and need not reference to a manual. Not alot of clutter and no blinking lights or cryptically labeled buttons. Open it up, plug it in, and away you go !

64 note polyphony. Effects are limited to slight variations of the primarily voices (Piano, Harpsichord, Guitar, Choir, Clav, E Piano, and such) and the usual reverb effects (none, hall, stage, etc). The action of this keyboard is perhaps just slightly less "heavy" than the p80. Midi capability is respectably functional(for something more in the way of midi control, get a controller). For what it is, a stand alone digital piano, I say it ranks a 10.

The piano sounds are very good. The e. piano sounds are quite improved over the p80 (and the p200). The harpsichord is somewhat more realistic (in that you can actually hear the mechanical plucking sound of an acoustic harpsichord) the organ voices carry a bit more heft than in the p80 (and certainly surpass those on the p200).

I did not hear any of the metallic ringing noted by a previous. I a/b the p120s with the p80. My complaint is the instrument is too (way too bright, giving it a harsh almost metallic quality --think Roland on steroids). Even when the brilliance slider is pushed all the way to the mellow side, it is still harsh. There is a certain "realism" --soundboard and strings are captured-- to it that gives it a very slight edge over the p80 (and, of course, blows the p200 out of the water). But the grand piano sounds are too bright --especially if your main interest is classical piano and you want something that's very responsive to dynamics, phrase, and so forth. In addition, with the damper pedal down the decay is not consistent nor totally believable. Strike chords at the outter most octaves and then quickly play chords in the middle and listen- outter octaves almost completely overwhelm the middle as the decay is not where it should be. The pedal --which is supposed to pick up soundboard and pedal action sounds-- tends to create a muddiness taht I found unpleasant. Played quickly or in short staccato like bursts it's quite decent. Among other things, I played a Brahms intermezzo on it and it sounded just awful. On p80, it sounded very good (believable) and was more responsive. The ragtime and jazz numbers sounded much better and more suited to the piano voices on this board. In fact, I think that this instrument was crafted primarily for jazz/rock keyboardists. I guess it does a good job in this arena. By contrast, I think the p80 is really the way to go if you're main interest is classical piano. And, happily, it's cheaper by a shade or two.

I ended up returning this keyboard and getting the p80. I struggled with returning it as I really liked the additional voices (guitar, choir, bass, clav, and such) over the p80's. But, in the end, what matters to me is a having a fantastic grand piano sound. So I took it back and got the p80. I am very happy with the p80 -it's just flat out amazaing as digital pianos go.

Can't say - I took it back.

Overall, I give it a 7. There's much to love about this instrument. But the quality of the piano sounds is just not what it should be for something touted as an "improvement" on the p80. But it leaves me anxious to see what's next from Yamaha. Until the, the p80 will do just fine.

I play piano for quite a few years by now. I was raised playing classical oriented piano music yet now have more a penchant for jazz piano on an ambitioned amateur level. It is now about a year ago that I bought a P80 as stage piano for a jazz band and I wonder whether I should trade in my P80 to upgrade to a P120. I went to two different shops in town to benchmark the P120 particularly against the P80. The Specs of the new piano look promising. I am still on the prowl for a decent speaker system for the P80 when it?s just sitting in my studio - maybe the built in speakers of the P120 would make such external speakers obsolete?

Here is a summary of my impression.

The Yamaha P120 is a fine portable digital piano with a big problem. Its piano sound has an obnoxious metallic ringing sound to it. Below octave 5 this metallic ringing sound is virtually not around, yet odd enough, notes B3 and C4 have it. It basically appears in octave 5 and is there most prominent around G5. This metallic ringing sound in general is most prominent in the octave range 5 and 6. This ringing sound is not present at such an obnoxious level in the samples of the P80. It was a killer impression against the P120. I talked to the salesman in one shop with respect to this effect. He agreed and even compared this effect with s.b. having lost a triangle in the grand that was sampled. Strange effect. If I had the choice today between a P80 and a P120 I?d definitely choose the P80, just because of its samples.

Which is a pity, because there are many features of the P120 that in my opinion are definitely better than those of the P80. I like the keys of the P120 very much more than those of the P80. They are a tad lighter in touch and more direct in their response. The P80 keys feel a bit mushy against those of the P120. The keys of the P80 got pretty good reviews in many postings on the Internet. They are ok in my opinion. But they are a bit on the tight or heavy side for my taste. I was very reluctant to buy the P80 last year because of its keys. Playing them, I got pretty much used to them, but I still do prefer a slightly lighter and more direct response of the keys. The P120 is definitely more down the alley in this respect. If I could get a P120 with the piano samples of a P80 I'd immediately go for it.

There are other things I like very much with the P120. The selection of sounds such as the Choir option is pretty nifty. If you have a singer in your combo you could support her at times pretty well with these samples. It is a good design idea to jettison the Jazz Piano and Rock Piano samples of the P80. Who uses them anyway? There is now room for s.th like Guitar sounds, which some people may like at times and the E-piano sounds of the P120 sound sounder than those of the P80, although this is very much a matter of taste.

What about the built in speakers? I have a 9-year-old kid who potentially might like to play this piano. Well, the built in speakers sound like one would expect from speakers of such size. My kid would probably be better off with some external speaker system anyway, probably s.th. like those Yamaha MSP5 type active speakers.

The P120 specs talk about a half pedal effect for the sustain pedal and support of an AUX pedal. I think that?s good news and this extra pedal is certainly a very good feature particularly compared to the P80.

In summary, I think the P120 is a good evolutionary step in the right direction. I like the selection of the samples. I like very much the key action. Yet the grand piano samples drive me crazy; they just make me nervous. Two pianos at two different shops exhibited the very same sample impressions. It is a design accident that keeps me stay clear of the P120 and makes me wait for a future model. Yamaha, keep the action and change the samples.

It weighs a couple lbs. more than P80, but still only 41 lbs, so that's still ok with me.

This is a quick review. I played a P120 in a store last night, and I will be buying one soon to replace my P80.

I personally like the action better on the P120 (it's a bit different than the P80). I found the P80's action a bit too heavy and sluggish. P120's action is slightly faster and more responsive. I'll guess I'll have to live with it for a while to see if I really like it long term.

The sounds are great. I read somewhere that it has a significantly bigger sample ROM. There's basically two piano sounds. If you turn off the effects, Grand Piano 1 is the same as its variation to my ears (again, maybe when I have it for a while I'll notice a difference). Grand 2 is brighter than Grand 1, and it's variation has a detuning effect to make it sound like an upright, I suppose. In any case, the two basic choices are fine with me as long as they sound good, which they do. I mean, how many choices do you have on a real piano? One, right?

The electric piano sounds are a big improvement over P80. El. Pno1 is a "DX7 Rhodes" sound, and it's good. El.Pno1 variation is a pleasant synth-like sound. El.Pno 2 (Rhodes) sound is way better than the P80's. ElPno 2 main voice still has a noticeable velocity switch, but it's not nearly as obvious as on the P80. This one is actually useable! E.Pno2's variation is a Wurlitzer, with no noticeable velocity switching. Both sounds are good. There's additional sounds not on the P80 like ac.gtr, vibes, electric bass, etc., all of which sound good and are useable. Once I get it home and A/B it with my P80 for a while, and come back and give it a more detailed review.

Overall I'd say it's a definite improvement over the P80.

See my earlier comments

see my earlier ocmments

OK, THIS IS WHERE I MUST UPDATE MY PREVIOUS REVIEW:

I played a different P120 and this tim eI found the action exactly like a P80. So, maybe I had a defctive unit on my first test. Also, They did indeed keep th eaxoustic bass with cymbal ;layered sound...and improved it. I don't know why I couldn't hear it before. All of the sounds are usuable than the P80. I read that some prefer the grand sound in the P80 over the P120. I think they have EQed these pianos a little differently. They are the same samples but sound slightly different. The Wurli is very good and the jazz organ is more uselful than in the P80.

I owned an older Yamaha digital piano (PF80) and it was built like a tank. No worries for me.

I've had no problems with Yanaha's tech support for other products.

I think I'm going to buy it. My apologies to the Ymaha marketing department. It may be a more a matter of quality control, i.e., unit-tounit-consistency. I'm going to play another before I purchase.

By the way, someone compared this to a Roland FP-3. The FP-3 offers many cool features for the money, but the Roland action just IS NOT like any decent grand I've ever played (many different ones). The grand sound isn't as good as the Yamaha either (I use Roland sounds now). For real piano players (and "pianists"), the P series is better. I've also played the Technics P-50 and still prefer the Yamaha.

Easy to use. All push-button controls. Patches are fixed pretty much, although you can change the effects on them. Not mean to be edited very much.

64-notes like the P80. A better selection of sounds than the P80. They sound better overll and are more useful. Not expandable, not meant to be a super controller, but will act as a weighted keyboard for another synth or module. Built-in speakers are nice but no subsitute for full-range monitors or a good keybpoard amp. They've upgraded the sequencer a little but fornm the P80, but it's basically the same.

THE BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: I was so blown away by the action on the P80 that I just had to have one, despite some of the other weaknesses of that keyboard. Then I heard about the P120 and thought I'd wait. It advertised the same "graded-hammer" action as the P80, but with better sounds. So, I went to GC the minute they unboxed their first unit. YAMAHA CHANGED THE ACTION!!! It's still decent, but worse than the P80, and much closer to the Roland action now. What a waste. Why Yamaha would take the hot new action that helped them sell tens of thousands of P80s and make it SPONGY like a Roland hammer action I'll never know. If I wanted that kind of action in that price range, I'd buy a Roland. They have more features and useful sounds. The main winning point on the P80 was the action. Now that is gone on the P120. Yamaha has done stupid things before, but this takes the case. It sort of reminds me when Coke tried to change their formula. I don't know whether to attribute this to idiocy in the marketing department or in the engineering dept. My guess is marketing wanted to try to steal some share from Roland, so they mushed up their action. I'm sickened. I wonder if they'll build me a P120 with P80 action in it...

Sounds are generally better than the P80. They added guitar and a detuned piano. The acoustic bass with cymbal osund on the P80 wasn't very good, but it was passable in a pinch. On the P120 they simply eliminated the cymbal variation. Again, what's with them? Overall though the sounds are better than the P80.

Can't say. I didn't buy it.

Can't say

ATTENTION YAMAHA of USA:

Here's my advice to you guys:

1. Put the P80 action on the P120
2. Reissue the KX88 with a P80-like action.
3. Fire your top marketing execs.

I just like to correct my review earlier. I meant to say that the Grand Piano 1 sounds a lot like Jazz Piano of the P-80 to me, *NOT* the Rock Piano. They're both really too bright for me...

Very easy to set up. Lump in the middle power transformer.

This keyboard is an upgraded version of the P-80, and has the same action the P-80, with built in speakers, half pedal effect, and new sound sample sets.

Ok, here's the low down. I bought a P-80 because the music store didn't have P-120's in hand. I really wanted the built in speakers and the half pedal effect. The music store received a few units around 2 weeks later, so I went to try it out, with the option of exchanging it. But I didn't take it! Why? The Grad piano 1 sample is new, and in my opinion sounded a lot worse that the P-80. The P-80 has more of a nice rounded, classical piano sound, which I really liked, but the P-120 has an extremely bright piano sound, like the "rock piano" of the P-80. With the Brightness slider all the way down, it makes it more bearable, but even then, if I play a little harder the rock piano sound reveals itself. Why Yamaha why???

I play mostly classical piano pieces, have been playing since childhood. The action on the P-120 and also the P-80 digital pianos are awsome. But I disliked Grand Piano 1 sample (and other acoustic piano samples), which in my opinion is worse that the P-80's. If you're in the market for inexpensive digital pianos with realistic action, Yamaha is great, but make sure you listen to the piano samples carefully.

All the listening tests were done with headphones.

This is an update to my previous review (below) ... I went for a more in-depth second look today. This time I took my own headphones, and compared the P120 side by side with the P80.

I particularly wanted to check out all four (i.e. 2x2) piano voices, to see how they compared to the eight piano voices in the P80. The salesman had told me last time that the main piano-1 voice in the P120 is the same as the one in the P80. It's not! I switched my headphones back and forth several times, and I'm certain that the main P120 piano-1 voice is not the same as any of the P80 voices. It's different ... better ... more high fidelity. The piano-1 variation is a little brighter. The two piano-2 voices sounded like the "Rock" piano voices in the P80 - i.e. pretty useless as far as I'm concerned.

And there's more good news. I played the e-piano-2 Rhodes voice some more. I found the velocity-sensitive sample switching still noticeable, but it's a huge improvement over the P80. It's also quite a different Rhodes sound to the one in the P80. More raunchy. I tried out the e-piano-2 variation voice this time too, and was *very* pleasantly surprised to discover that it's a really good Wurlitzer sample, unlike its equivalent in the P80 which isn't a sample of anything that I know of. Yet more good news ... I hadn't spotted last time that the "Symphonic" effect has been replaced by a much more useful "Phaser" effect.

So, to summarise again, I was even more impressed this time than I was last time. My concern about the absent "Classical" piano voice has evaporated, so I'm just left with the reluctant wife. And I can handle her.

10 out of 10 ... no hesitation this time!

I've just seen/played Yamaha's new P120 piano! It's in Yamaha's Ginza showroom in central Tokyo. (I'm here just for a few months - in January I go back to London.) It's priced at about 20% higher than the P80, and there was a notice saying that it would be available from October 15. I emailed Yamaha to check whether it will soon be available internationally, and they said yes. I would not have submitted this review had the answer been no.

This is my first posting to Harmony-Central. I've found the site a very useful source of info/advice in the past, so thought I'd add this review for the benefit of others interested in the new P120 (aka P-120, just so that this article will get found when searching for either expression!). Apologies to Yamaha if this review results in slightly reduced sales of P80s or P200s while people wait for the new P120 to appear in showrooms worldwide! In case you're wondering about my credentials ... I'm just an amateur jazz pianist, but a very keen one. Over the past 25 years I've owned quite a few epianos, including a Hohner Pianet-T, Wurlitzer, Fender Rhodes Stage 73, Roland RD250s, Kurzweil RG100 and Yamaha P150. I now have a Yamaha P80, which I consider to be the best epiano available (pre-P120!). I also have a good upright piano in London, and very occasionally get to play on grands.

So, what did I think? The P120 is clearly derived from the P80 rather than the P200. The salesman confirmed that it has the same grand piano voice as the P80 and the same graded hammer action. (The piano samples in the P200 sound inferior to my ears.) It also has 64-note polyphony. The positioning and sound of the built-in speakers reminds me of the Kawai ES1. A bit weedy, but fine for bedroom practice. Also worth having for on-stage monitoring - I personally find that playing through remote speakers alone can be a little disconcerting. The P200 has much better built-in amplification, but then it's a much bigger and heavier beast. The P120 weighs a little under 19kg, and is slightly bigger than the P80. There's a wood-grain effect covering which looks quite good from a distance but a bit tacky close up. You can see a picture of it at [http://the-soundfactory.net/TPS_El_Piano.htm]. I noticed that it uses an external AC-DC transformer, like the P80.

There are other improvements apart from the speakers. There's now "user 1,2,3" two-track recording - i.e. three times the recording capacity of the P80 - and some additional sounds including vibes, choir, electric bass, clavinet and guitar. Each sound has a variation, as in the P80. I didn't try them all, but I did try out the epiano voices. As in the P80 the epiano1 voice is a horrid DX7 sound, but the epiano2 Rhodes voice has been improved. The P80 Rhodes voice is pretty good if you set the touch sensitivity to hard and take care to avoid the awful velocity-sensitive sample switching, where the tone is either bell-like or quack-like with nothing inbetween, but thank god the P120 doesn't suffer from that problem. The P120 is the first digital piano I've played - and I think I've tried nearly all of them - that really does sound like my old Fender Rhodes. It sounded even better to me than the GEM Real Piano and Yamaha's own S80 synth in this respect, which were the two best that I'd heard prior to this.

That epiano2 voice alone makes me want to replace my P80 with a P120. However, apart from a reluctant wife, there's just one thing that might prevent me from doing this. I need to investigate further, but as far as I remember there are only two piano sounds (four including the variations) - i.e. only half as many as in the P80. In particular I don't think the P120 has the "classical" piano voice of the P80, and that's the one I think I like best. (I use the variation, set to soft touch, no reverb and with the brilliance slider pushed towards bright.) The question of which piano voice sounds best of course depends on factors such as amplification and

I'm giving it ten marks out of ten in spite of the absent classical piano voice!