Yamaha P200

Playing it is the easy part...lugging it around to gigs makes you tough (or gives you a hernia). I bought this thing quite some time ago...maybe I opened the manual once...I haven't really needed it.

This review is acutally a follow up from a previous one I left quite some time ago. I still have the board and I haven't had one problem with it (well unless you count the time I was cursing about the speakers going out (while using it at home without the amps) only to find out that some bonehead (this would be me) hadn't noticed the speaker "on/off" switch on the back had inadvertantly gotten switched off while carrying the bohemeth. I gig a couple-few times a week plus practices provides this board with plenty of loading, unloading and bouncing around. Ladies and Gentlemen: I am here to tell you that this thing is still the sh*t. Hasn't missed a beat, ever....period. I have a hardshell case for it but at the end of the night and I want to get the h*ll out of the nightclub, I am borderline abusive with my gear while loading (for starters I have too much crap so it is a race to get it all in the van before the bartender charges me rent). This thing has been TOP SHELF. Use it for a piano (#1 & #2), I don't recommend relying on it for the other voices, they are only mediocre.

Blah blah blah....I said it all already: This thing is the sh*t

Read my ramblings above about reliability. It is more reliable than I am...in fact I think it has driven me home from a few gigs...or maybe that was Elvis...I can't really remember clearly.

I still (knock on wood) haven't had a need to call them. Maybe they are like the Maytag repairmen....maybe I should call them just to let them know the phone still rings and someone out there loves them. If I need to use these guys I am sure I wont have a problem.

BUY THIS BOARD IF YOU NEED THE BEST PIANO VOICE AND ACTION AVAILABLE! If you want it for other sounds (other than piano) or if you are a pencil-neck with a weak back that plans on gigging with this "hernia in a box", buy something else. I am a big guy so I don't have a problem with it but with the hardshell case and the board you are looking at 100 pounds. I still can't wait for the end of the night after a long show and after the 150 free beers the bar forced me to guzzle, when it is time to lift this monster off the stand and somehow get it into the case without dropping a male part down to my socks. Buy the board, you wont be disappointed and your chiropractor needs a new pair of shoes anyway.

Very easy to get around. I used the presets right out of the box for
backing country females in a singing contest a couple years ago when I
first got the machine. It took me all of 20 minutes or so to program
all the sounds and transpositions needed for some of the songs. The
manual is pretty clear, yet like everything, not perfect!!

Polyphony is great...never had any huge runs cut out of me either live
or in the studio. The effects were set a bit hot, in my opinion, so I
tamed them down a bit from their factory settings. Using the midi
frustrates me, as I keep forgetting to turn the midi button ON sometimes
when I'm recording!!

This is where she shines, boys!! When all is said and done, the amount
of control and expressiveness to my hands was a winner the very first
time I touched a P200!! When I play in my Country band or Rock band,
I usually lighten up the velocity response, so the sound cuts thru with-
out juicing up the treble or mid EQ. When I perform solo or in a small
situation, I use the stock #1 Piano with a bit of verb turned down, and
I feel it is part of me!! The electric pianos are nice, but I wish it
had the Wurly sound thats in the P120!!

Her's a good on-stage story to pass down to the kids!! I set up one
nite at our usuall watering hole Country Saloon, when to my dismay, one
of my keys seemed a bit sticky!! Being a tech, I popped the hood, which,
by the way, wins many kudos from me surpassing any instrument I have
seen to date...two front screws and that's all she wrote!! To make
a long story even longer, when I lifted the front panel, something
small caught my eye rolling towards the back of said key...it was a
dime!!! Due to the incredible design of the P200, there is no way that
it could have even rolled further into the machine causing any damage.
Also impressive is the fact that it was soooo darn easy to fix on-stage,
where it counts!! So please excuse me if I cannot give this category
more than a 10!!

Being a technician myself and working in a music store, I can honestly
and without any prejudice claim that Yamaha Canada has perhaps the best
customer support I have ever witnessed, with Korg in solid second place!!
This actually stems from my being a customer years ago when I was but
15, and had a broken out-of-warranty CS-01 that Yamaha attempted to fix.
When I returned it the second time with a letter explaining exactly
what the problem was, they sent me the new CS-01 11, in cool black
instead of grey!!!

If my baby was lost or stolen, I've already insured it for full
replacement value!!! If it were not availiable, then I would probably
move to getting a P120, which is a bit lighter, but lacks the controller
functions that I sometimes use!!

don't know the software version.

the presets are really good except the organs are really muddy in my opinon. The piano 1 and 2 are amazingly great.

Editing the patchs well are ok. I ddin't have too much trouble.

the manual was not bad in explaning things.

Polyphony is 64 notes

the built in effects are pretty good. Hall, Stage, Room. MODULATIONS: Chorus, Symphonic, Tremelo. All these can be change in depth with the CS key and saved too.

no expansion that i see.

midi, transmit and recieve.midi in out thru. NO AFTER TOUCH.

no onboard sequencer.

the sounds are amazing. The pianos are by far the best grand piano and uprights i have ever heard. it blew away the Clavinova seris. it has overtone that sound as realistic as ever! why i bought it! the low end and upper end are amazingly perfect! a grand in a digital form. you hardly can tell the diff.

it reacts awsome to my playing. but for controlling ext midi, it is ok but if you want AFTERTOUCH best use another keyboard. it has features to how the keys react to your playing (hard soft fixed) for both midi and internal sounds.

100% realiable!!

of course i would use this as a gig machine! it is awsomely built and heavy!~ *L*

N/A never used.

This Keyboard is my writting unit. The Piano is perfect. in all my systems this is my piano and a amazing one. very nice. it has a small low mid high eq and it works pretty well with that. you don't need much for piano *S*.

I was looking for a piano that was REAL without being NON digital. and well Yamaha's clavinovs is nice. . but not as nice as this sound! mmmmmm GOOD!

it is the best piano ever. enough said? at least my opinon.

I own other synths: Roland JV2080, D-70, TD10 VDRUMS, Korg Triton, O1R/W, Alesis D4 & D5, Oberhiem Matrix 1000, EMU 6400 sampler.

For what I bought it for, an authentic piano sound, this thing is simple
to use. In fact, all 12 preset sampled sounds (13 if you count stand-up bass
and electric bass as 2 sounds) have dedicated buttons so you know what
you are doing the first time you sit down and play. If you want to create
your own parameters or combine 2 sounds or split the keyboard, etc. it's
still not difficult once you read the manual.

64-note polyphony (32 in stereo), but I've never run out of notes on
this thing. The effects are surprisingly good. I suppose they are DSP
effects. There are dedicated levels for Room, Hall or Stage reverberation
as well as Chorus, Tremelo, and Symphonic (sort of a wider chorus effect).

It has a large pitch wheel and modulation wheel. These come in handy and
you can get deeper into the thing to adjust the ranges of pitch and modulation
if you want. You can also "transpose" the tuning from 440.0 to something
else. I haven't done it yet but it looks like you can transpose over
a fairly wide range. For example, if your buddies wanted to rock out
in E and you wanted to play all the flat keys in E flat you could tune
it oup one step.

Midi in/out/thru is included and the manual goes into what sorts of
things you can do. I probably won't mess with this feature much, but
it could be used as a controller.

The sensitivity of the keys can be adjusted if need be but I will most
likely leave it alone as 90% of my usage will be the grand pianos.

I'm only giving it a 9 because it's so damn bulky and I didn't need the
onboard speakers, which only add to the cost and the weight. However, the
sounds and action are a 10. Perhaps the speakers would come in handy
in recording this thing. Record out via the outputs on the back and
set up a microphone somewhere in the room to get a room sound from the
speakers. It would probably only add to the authenticity of this thing
on a recording.

The pianos are the reason I bought this unit. I tried it out vs. some
Korg stuff, Roland (RD-600, RD-100) and I really couldn't find anything
as authentic as far as pianos. I had high hopes for the Yamaha P-80
because it is lightweight and has the exact same keyboard. But the tone
generator inside the P-80 is the AWM-2 while the one inside the P-200
is the AWM. I don't know exactly what the difference is, but you can
trust me that the AWM-2 doesn't cut it. Beleive me, I wanted the P-80
to work for me and didn't want to have to lug around the P-200, but it
simply sounds much better than the P-80.

Like I said, I bought it for piano sounds and the feel of a real piano.
This is the best digital
piano I have ever played. Other than that, the Rhodes sounds are good
once you get the modulation, F/X and e.q. the way you want them.

The organs may be great, I don't know. They require some extra tweaking.
I've only had this thing about a week and haven't messed with the organs too much.
The presets appear to be sort of a church organ and a B3 type organ. In
fact, the manual says that the organ offers the most as far as editable
parameters.

The vibes are super. The stand-up bass is also good. I don't like the
strings or the electric bass too much. The strings are more of a synth-
type sound, but they can sound good combined with something else. It's
just that with the electric bass and the strings, you don't hear any of
the attack that comes from picks or bows scraping on strings.

To sum it up. Play the piano, if you like it, it's the reason to buy this
thing. The Rhodes, etc are just some added stuff, some great, others
o.k. I'm giving it a 10 based on the piano sounds alone.

This thing is tough. I think it weighs between 60 and 70 pounds. I got
mine used and got a road case and stand for free. I'm glad I have the
case now. If you don't plan on gigging with it, you probably don't need
it, but if you do it's almost crucial to have one.

It's basically a 2 man job to move it, although 1 person could do it if
need be. I don't know what could possibly go wrong with it. It's constructed
very well and I don't forsee having any problems.

I've never dealt with them.

If it were stolen I would buy another one. Until someone comes out with
a lighter weight digital piano that sounds as authentic as this; this is
it, bar none.

I've been playing piano 20+ years. This is my only current keyboard.

This is, hands-down, the best digital piano I have ever come across. I've had it since December 1999 and I love it. All I wanted was a killer piano sound/action, and I certainly got it. I have never opened the manual.

The keyboard action is amazing. Like someone else wrote, once you play the P-200 you'll find yourself viewing other actions as "cheap." I have a Korg Trinity V3 and a Korg Triton and I feel that way about those synths, but it's not a fair comparison because those keys aren't weighted.

The EQ sliders are very convenient to use, and the reverb button comes in handy as well.

I bought the P-200 for one reason and one reason only... the PIANO. Anyone who has gripes about the other sounds should have bought something else. Don't kid yourself... if you want more than just a great piano, look at something else. But if you want a great piano sound, check out the P-200. I tried out a few different units and found myself constantly returning to the P-200 (I personally couldn't stand any of the Roland RD- pianos).

If you must try the other sounds... the vibes are decent and the strings are ok. I don't really care for the EP's and I hate the organ sounds, but that's just me.

I do have, however, a major gripe about the P-200. I have contacted Yamaha and they confirmed this "glitch." If you press a key and sustain it using the pedal, then gently push the key down again, it sometimes cuts the note off. Now, I assume that this has something to do with the graded-hammer action (maybe the hammer needs to "bounce" off something). This can get real annoying if you're trying to play something really loud and suddenly going to pianissimo. But oh well... it's a sacrifice that I am willing to make because nothing else compares to the P-200.

This area gets an "8" because someone should've known better. Otherwise I would've given it a "10."

The particle board doesn't look like it can take a great beating, but all in all I think that it's pretty solid. I wouldn't gig with it though... at 66lbs my back couldn't handle it. The P-200 stays at home so I don't anticipate any problems with it.

It took Yamaha Support 2 weeks to call me back to tell me what I already knew (i.e. "it happens on all the units"). My inquiry was regarding whether or not there is some sort of update for it. There is none =(. Oh well.

Otherwise, I am actually a bit shocked that someone did call me back. I can't imagine someone from Korg doing the same thing. Thankfully I've never had to call them.

If something happens to it, I'll still get another one, even with that glitch (that is, if nothing else comes out that's better... nothing has so far). My only desire is that it could be lighter, but hey, it's still the best digital piano on the market, even in 2001.

Peace.

Very easy to use, only read the manual to find out how to turn down the strings when using a piano/strings combination.
Switch on, and off you go!. It is quite heavy, and you could have a struggle getting it in the boot of your car - if it will fit in your car. I've found that with the rear seats down, the P200 JUST fits in a Golf GTi, but it wouldn't if my legs were a little longer. Why not put the Bender and pitch wheels on the top? - I don't know. It has a bit of an 'Ensoniq' feel to it in this way.

I think it is either 64 or 32 note polyphonics depending on the config. Haven't noticed note stealing on any piano sounds, and piano/strings combinations wouldn't demand large polyphony anyway - well, not to me. The effects are nice for rehearsal purposes - ie in a dry bedroom etc. I thought that the onboard speakers were quite loud - until I got to a gig and tried to use them as monitors when it became clear that they weren't loud enough at all. They probably do match or even overmatch a real piano however.

I've not had the call to use anything other than pianos at the moment. The strings sounds very slightly out of tune in the lower registers. The unit itself is also quite bass heavy when put through a PA, and needs some EQing at the desk end. The onboard speakers sound superb however, and the built in 3 band EQ though apparently basic is extremely usefull when you need to quickly set up. NOt used the other sounds as said, but overall they sound extremely realistic.

It's built like an armoured tank. I had a scare with it recently when the onboard speakers wouldn't work at all when I arrived at a venue, but I'd knocked the tiny on/off switch on the back of the cabinet geting it out of the car. Didn't know it was there - should have read the manual!.

It's quite simply the best digital piano I've played, if not the best piano. I've been playing for 29 years. I've owned numerous keyboards over the years, including a Roland EP7E and an Ensoniq TS-12, both of which try to be Pianos. The only other kit I have now is a Yamaha O1V digital desk and NEXO PS8 pa system - this you MUST hear if you haven't before. Love the 'Piano2' sound. Great for Rachmaninov, the weight is a little bit of a hindrence. Tried a Clavinova - pappy, and a Roland stange piano - Sounded impressive and was more practical but tired of playing it after about 2 hours, and hated it after a couple of days. Wish it had a simple sequencer like the Roland EP9E, just to listen back to rehearsal pieces.

Extremely easy to use, I did go throught the manual a bit
just to figure out sensitivity settings and it was very simple.
The presets are very good but you may wish to make a few adjustments
which should be no problem.

64 note polyphony. Keyboard action is very realistic. The on-board
effects are fine, although this unit is primarily and almost exclusively
concerned with providing a great grand piano action and sound. Midi in,
out and through. It is on the heavy side, (I think it's around 90 lbs.)
But that didn't hinder my decision.

The grand piano is the best I've heard and felt on any digital I've
played or heard of. I have played for 5 years now, mostly on studio
accoustics (baldwin, steinway) and after trying out over 15 different
models, this one was the most convincing of all. The action is very
realistic. The other pianos are also very good, however I am not as
demanding with regard to organ/bass and other voices. The P200 seems
to respond similarly (velocity/sensitivity) to the accoustic grands
I've played. (I've played many)

I feel the quality and reliability of the P200
more than makes up for the fact that it's a bit
on the heavy side. The question I'd have is NOT
could you gig with it? But could you gig WITHOUT it?
I couldn't.

Never had to call Yamaha. Feel confident I'd have
no problem getting service if needed.

This is simply the best digital piano I could find for under $3000.
Better than most uprights all in all (portability). My playing has
improved dramatically do to it's versatility. Play with a set of high
quality open-air headphones and you will love what you hear. If it
were lost or stolen, I'd track it down. I would fall into depression if
I didn't replace it soon.

I bought it second hand, 1 year old, including a flight case without (!) wheels. the previous owner got rid of it because of its weight and bought a s30. strange. the left on-board speaker doesn't work, but i was not to use them at all. anyway, the P200 is a very easy to use piano (once you get it on a stand). the sounds are a OK, though not very good. editing is basic and simple. the weight indeed is a bit of pain, but perfectly easy to be carried by two people.

the action is heaven. simple as that. and the sounds are OK. i tried Kawai's MP9000 (nice keys, not so nice sounds, and the body feels like it could break quite easily when used on the road), Roland RD600 (don't like its sound and too fake heavy keys) and Kurzweil PC2X (where have the old kurzweil days gone ? it sounds bad, very 'overdone' and the action feels cheap, not to mention the design). i only haven't come to check Korg SGPROX, but i know i don't like korg's piano (though i am a big good-old wavestation fan).
the efx are basic but usable. no expansion or sequencer, but i don't need them. i use it for live in a pop/rock band. the midi port will have to talk to a sampler for the rest of his life. but as far as i'm concerned i believe that it is capable for that use. (sorry for my bad english)

pianos and ep's are pretty good. i use it for pop/rock and therefore the sounds will do. i am used to the real piano so i know that the electric thing is still not even close. but for on stage it is perfect. the organ editing is nice, but for not like a XB1. the strings are ugly (luckily i own a korg wavestation). the rhodes/wurli sounds are OK, but not at all the real thing.
but that's OK. i mean, the keyboard action is so good !!!! i'm gonna buy me a sampler with a big internal HD and totally freak out !!

it feels VERY reliable. and HEAVY. on stage it carries another good-old synth on top (the roland d-70), and it feels like i can sit on it and jump and it won't break. though i won't try. i could fall and break my fingers...
but: in the netherlands (europe) the powercord is 'built-in'. i hate it and i am sure it is gonna break some day. my roland d-70 had it too and i brought it back to get it fixed with an unpluggable euro-plug so the cable is not in the flight case, and easy to be replaced when it breaks.

-never came to use it-

i needed perfect heavy keys for on stage. just that. and that's what i found in the P200. as i wrote above, the sounds will soon come out of a sampler with REAL good piano sounds. the device is big enough to put another synth on top. and a couple of beers ...

Aside from the otherwise glowing comments from almost everybody, I found a glitch which to me was so unweildy I eventually returned the instrument and took a P-80 home instead.

In split mode, the second voice (in my case, left hand bass) is not affected by the sustain pedal! And working with the Yamaha people, there was absolutely no way this could be modified. It's even in the manual, as a sidebar in 6pt type, as if an afterthought.

I think this is ridiculous. Obviously an oversight. At the very least, you should be able to turn this function on, or off.

The engineers at Yamaha thought so too no doubt, because after the P-200 was released (1998), they came out with the P-80 (1999) and later versions of the Clavinova. Even these lesser priced keyboards have sustain on both sides of a split.

In every other category, the P-200 is as good as they say. But if it's critical to your style, and it should be if you use your left hand at all, you'd be better off with a P-80 and a couple of flat response powered monitors. I bought Yamaha MSP5's. The keybed's identical, has a way better Grand Piano and the outboard speakers are better-sounding. You'll walk away with a few hundred bucks difference too.

I dealt with Yamaha support people. They thought this was a MIDI glitch and got me to try a few things. I still believe it's in the assignment of memory to the split mode.

It's my hunch that the P-200 was already well into production before somebody realized this was going to be a problem. Then they sidebarred it in the manual. Then they fixed it too late.

just got it today - d/k version of software. As someone raised on baby grands this thing is just phenomenal! and it seems very intuitive to use as well

Can this thing record me playing and the play back??? IT HAS TO! I'M GOING NUTS TRYING TO LOOPS and Pieces of music into memory so I can play 4-hand piano pieces. Anyone with THOROUGH advice I plead with you. again - the response and sound is surreal

very! great for the french piano composers if you lift the 'verb a bit high. high end is immaculately realistic

only hasd it one day.
definitely plan on making it the center of my instrumental life

have not called yet

I'd be heartbroken if it was broken or stolen.
Playing pro for about 12 years
it's better than the roland for the money - yes