Yamaha P150

Much better thought out than korg. it looks pretty straight forward. should not take long to get the hang of programming midi functions. the effects are easy to use and so is the EQ. nice big fat buttons right in your face. easy to get to. in fact, this is an excellent midi controller. if that were all it did it would actually be worth more. i mean a really good controller.

The action is excellent. i think my clavinova is slightly better for some reason but they are both excellent. built in effects are good but as far as that goes, the on board sounds to me only sound good through the on board speakers. and fore me, they are not loud enough. so all though this might actually have some of the best on board sound i have ever heard it is still irrelevant because for what i am doing i don't use it. oh but don't let me forget, the on board sound does serve a very good purpose though. IT MAKES THE KEYS VIBRATE !!! thus making it feel like a real piano. and unlike my Clav, the on board sound is good enough to leave on even though i am running through the board and pa and monitors.

the onboard sound is the best in the business. it's for classical and the volume is not loud at all. on board effects are very good for onboard sounds. i think yamaha has the best velocity and after touch, at least on there older stuff. thus making this an awesome midi controller and while it's not very portable, it's way more portable than my Clavinova. on board sound is only for quiet classical playing, it is not as loud as a real piano.

Hears hopping. it looks and feels tuff. it's heavy for a controller. but they are cheep and good midi controllers.

yamaha, not the best customer service. online support is decent tough.

I'm not sure yet if i would buy another one but let me say this, it is a freeeking cool *** board. it really is. i don't like the weight of it because i need it to gig with. And while this is one of the best on board sound systems i have ever heard i don't need that either because i use a korg brain with mega pianos on it. however, i would not sell it either because it is such a well thought out board. it is a cool collector like my korg trinity. yamaha can actually be proud of this unit and that cant be said for all of there stuff. i have to give it a high score because as a controller the buttons are so easy to see and hit and use that is rules as a controller. this is actually a true hi bred board. overall a very well thought out board that has been kept simple enough to be useful and tuff enough to take some real stage abuse.

All the basics are very easy (selecting sounds, split, layers etc.), but if you want to use the more complicated features it can be difficult. But overall I would say the menus is pretty logical!

Piano 1 and 2 has a polyphony of 16 (stereo) and the rest is 32 (mono). This is not much, but on the other hand I have never experienced any problems with this. Of course if you hold down the sustain-pedal and slide over the keyboard you will hear notes stopping in order to let others sound, but hey, then just don't do that! :-)
I have had this piano since 1996, and I personally think that the keys on the p-150 is the best I've tried yet (2002). Of course that is because I've got used to it - but seriously: I would always prefer the keys on the p-150 rather than on the p-200!
The effects are nice. Especially the hall sounds good with piano 1. There are no possibilities of editing the effects (except the depth).
Of course it has every midi-function available, and there's both a continuos slider and a foot-controller, that can transmit midi signals. BUT, what REALLY BUGS ME (and always has!) is, that the cs and the foot controller setup is global! I.e. it doesn't follow the performance setup! That's annoying because, maybe you want your foot-controller to be a volume-pedal with one perfomance and an midi-expression-pedal with another. But then you have to enter the menu, and make the change between songs, which is hectic and annoying in a live-situation. I just never understood, why it was made this way.

By the way: To those who wants to use the p-150 as a motherkeyboard: You are probably better of with the Roland A-90 because of its many more features as a such, BUT I've found out (and this is not in the manual), that If you choose the split mode, the "sub" voice transmits midi on the midi-channel +1 to the "main" voice. For instance: You have a piano as a "main" voice, and a bass a "sub voice". If the global midi transmit channel is set to 1, the "sub" voice transmits on channel 2!

The sounds, and above all Piano 1 are great - no doubt about that! My objection is why on earth did Yamaha spend time and money on piano4 - hey, I know its a sample of the "Yamaha Grand Piano", but if you want that sound you buy a real "Yamaha Grand Piano" - you (I) don't want to use a sample!
I kind of like E.Piano 2 - it's actually an amazing sound. But the p-150 would have been the PERFECT piano of all times, if there had been a really good rhodes-sample. But instead there are useless sounds as e. piano 3, vibes, organ 1 and 2 (those are NOT good!)

P-150
Reliablity
I can't see any difference between those two above lines - can you?
I've used for 6 years now - never let me down!

Never used it

I love my P-150. It's the best peace of equipment I have.
I use it in a setup with a Korg N1R. Some setups I use both the sounds of the p-150 and the N1R, for instance with a piano in my left hand, and a lead sound in my right (from the N1R).
Before I bought it back in 1996 I compared it to the Roland A-90, which has many more features (and better Rhodes-sounds), but I chose the P-150 because of the fantastic keys, and the Piano 1 - sound.

The piano is userfriendly. Primary functions like presets, effects, reverb, transposing etc. are easily accessed by well positioned buttons. The buttons and the display are slightly angled towards the user which makes them easier to read and acces. But they're rather smalle and black, which doesn't help when performing on a dark stage.

Advanced features whithin the system are logically organised and easily controlled, also on behalf of the programmable data-entry slidebar, next to the main volume bar. Function names are often shortened because of the small display, so in the beginning the manual may be usefull.

First of all the P150 is a piano, so piano features are the most important. And all the important features are there. Next to sustain and expression, it even features a soft-switch.

The piano has sophisticated touch sensitivity; it features multiple hard, soft and 'fixed' options. Sensitivity is even separated in internal- and MIDI-sensitivity. Together with all the other MIDI-options, it makes the P150 a fine MIDI-masterboard.

Other usefull features are the internal speakers and the Line-in. This enables you to use 2 instruments (or a discman) without using a mixer. Playing the piano using the speakers and an external audio set makes it sound great. The speakers are well suited for playing in a livingroom, but they are useless on stage. They lack power, and often you'll have an instrument on top of the piano which blocks the sound.

I bought the P150 mainly because of its sound. The choice was down to the P150 and the Roland RD600. It's a matter of taste, but I deffinately prefer the warmth and body of the P150. It just has more depth (and the keyboard is dramatically better as well).

The main piano sounds very well. It's a neutral grand piano which can be used for practically everything. It just lacks a bit of power and body in the higher octaves. The second high quality piano features a 'normal' piano. The sound is more vintage and has a lot of body.
Besides the two 'high quality' piano's, it features some great other sounds. The sounds of the electronic pianos and the organ are stunning (in particular electric piano number 2, which has a great bite). The organ even features a digital drawbar.
The only thing I never liked is the stringssample. It just doesn't sound like strings! In higher octaves they are ok. In mid they aren't great but in the lower octaves, it's a disaster. I always use the strings on my Trinity tough, so I don't really bother.

Reliability is OK. It once fell down from the stand, and it was broken indeed. I was able to repair it myself and never had a technical problem since.

Only 'problems' I encounterd more than once, where transpose problems. Everytime you transpose, you transpose the main channel, the subchannel and the MIDI-channel individually. Sometimes it happens the piano seems to 'forget' a setting after you changed it. I don't know exactly what goes wrong, but it's very strange.

I never had direct contact with Yamaha, only with my local dealer. The user manuals were OK, tough the Dutch version was nothing more but a stapled copy of some translation. But it did the job.

The one time my piano had fallen, I needed 2 new keys. They had to be ordered at Yamaha Nederland and costed 36 euros. An awfull lot of money for two pieces of white plastic.

The P150 was a great buy. The soundquality of the piano kept surprising me, especially when I played it over several speakers.
In my opinion there are little pianos on the market that top the P150, even today. The Roland RD700 and the P200 are better but much more expensive. And I must say I notice little difference between the P150 en the P200. Internally they seem pretty much the same. The speakers have more power and the samples have been slightly improved, but I never even considered changing it for the P150.

The only problem the P150 has, is weight. Together with its flightcase, it takes 2 man to cary. When performing and travelling a lot, it's really a problem. That's the only reason why I'm now considering to buy antoher, smaller piano like the Technics P50 or the Yamaha P120.

The unit is very straight forward and easy to use without ever reading the manual. When you do have to consult the manual, it is fairly well written. There are not to many ways to edit the sounds, so basically what you hear upon original playing is what you get

The keyboard action is acceptable, but I find it too "mushy," especially in comparison to Kurzweil units. The effects couldn't be easier to use, and they sound fairly decent.

The piano sounds are pretty good. I find them not to have the punch that I really like for a group situation, but acceptable. The pianos tend to have a "cocktail piano" type of sound, and don't respond as well as I would like to percussive playing. I wish that there were a few more internal sounds, but the unit is adequate

I think that you can depend on the unit. I feel comfortable taking it out without a backup. I think that the action is probably not as prone to breakage as the Kurzweil/Fatar keybeds

Never dealt with the company

I think that the unit is acceptable for what it is. It doesn't excel in any area over the competition, but it has a great many strengths. Speaking of strength, this is not the kind of keyboard that you don't mind taking up to the second floor of you house to the music room when you get back home after a gig at 2 a.m. I definitely prefer lighter units to gig with!!!

This keyboard is very very easy to use. Just hit the voice key and you're playing. Dual voice is as easy as it gets too - press two voice keys sequentially and they're layered, with the second one softer (no control over second volume/octave/etc though). Never needed to even glance at the manual. Very intuitive. Can't edit the patches.

32 note polyphony, which is OK considering it can only handle two voices. You wouldn't want to go relying on it to do a long sustained Piano+Strings run though - things are going to drop out after 16 notes. The keyboard action is surprisingly playable. I have a hard time differentiating the actions of this keyboard and the acclaimed PA-4 action of the Rolands (which is my favourite). You can't change the weight of the keys, though, which is a shame. Standard built in effects Chorus/Tremolo/Symphonic, just press the button! It really is easy to use. No expansion. Has MIDI In/Out/Thru, and is a good controller. Has also got input jacks, which make expansion boxes like the SoundCanvas really simple to use. The speakers can be good for practise; I turn them off on stage to make life easier for the front of house guys. Three band EQ on board, which is good to fix up those sounds you don't like (see below). It does have a pitch bender and modulation wheel (modulation wheel is a waste of time...) It's designed to be simple, but because the feature set is limited, I limit my rating.

I was very surprised by the Piano sound on this keyboard. A really nice sound, perhaps a bit bright for an acoustic, but it's good for band playing. Cuts through the mix well. I scoop the sound a bit with the EQ - less treble, more bass. I like the Electric Pianos (number three gives a real padded, "Disney" sound!). No pad sounds :(. I wish they gave us more voices - only Piano 1 is worth playing, and the strings are useless on their own. You can't adjust attack/decay, which I would for those strings (pull the attack right back - gives more realistic string sounds when layered). Organs are a waste of time.

Use it every week at church without a hitch. Gets pounded by some other players and people who come in during the week and hasn't broken once in about six years (or more). No backup available, so I don't use one!

Never needed to talk to them, which should give bonus marks to reliability...

While I was and am pleasantly surprised by the Piano and action of this board, I'd not buy something with only 32 note poly. 64 is the only way to go if you have long sustain with two or three voices. No pad sounds <sigh> and poor strings - get a Roland and get more and better piano sounds, better strings, average organs (but who really does organs well?) and some pads as well. I recommend either the Roland FP-3 (64 poly, 2 voice layering w/control of layer volume) as a simple stage piano or the RD-600 (64 poly, 2 internal MIDI zones, 2 external [= 4 layered voices possible] w/individual sliders for layer volume and tons of voices to boot!).

just press the patch and play...
editing is as easy
manual ? I never took it out of the plastic bag...

32 polyphony notes - It seems to be perfect,
I never felt that it ran out of notes for me
and I use to play with sustain and big fat chords at time.
keyboard action is the best around.
all midi functions and more.

Now,
this is the main reason i bought it for - the sound.
It is by far the coolest piano sample around.
I did check many different electric/digital pianos
but somehow this was the only one
that after playing with no more than
5 minutes I already knew I'm buying it.
to my ears it sounds much better than the P-200
it has great speakers and great feel.
you can realy "feel" the sounds in your fingers while playing.
I also use it now as my main midi controller even though I own the
great KX-88.
the "vintage E. Piano" is a dream come thru,
I use it with the roland MKS-20 and they complete each other.

knock on wood, it is as good as the day I bought it 3 years ago...

Yamaha is the best in support.

I never thought that I will buy a digital/Sample piano
as I play my good old 1935 Steinway grand.
this one kust took be by storm - I admit, I fell in love with it.
it is very inspiring and I wrote many songs on it.
it is much easier to record the Yamaha P-150 to tape
than micing the real thing.
and it is a great perfomence master.
I love the Tone of the piano it is real yet modern
not to crisp not to warm right in the middle
and you have 2 sets of Eq per sound and reverb/chorus/Tremolo
Buy it - if you can play piano.

I hardly do anything but playing piano on it, so to me, it's fine. The rest seems easy, once you know how it works. But getting to know that seems to take some time.

It's a piano. You can turn off the speaker if you want. Very handy: audio input jacks. So you can send the sound of other devices into the thing so it's a simple mixer.
The organ part is said to be pretty full of features, but that's not important to me.

BUY THIS THING!
It doesn't sound as perfect as the P-200, but it feels better! Not that crisp, but more acoustic. You can feel the sound through the keys. The keys are fantastic. Electric pianos are so wonderful, it's the first time I see them as instruments.
The price is significantly lower than the only other digital piano that comes close: the P-200.

It's built like a truck, but pretty heavy. So I just use it at home. Never ever any problem.

It's exactly what I wanted. The only thing is that I'm sorry that I didn't buy the P-100 years before, because that one was at the time just as great.
The only technological progress in the field of digital pianos I could imagine is simulation of resonating snares when sustain pedal is pressed.