Product: Yamaha P250
Price Paid: 2050 (Euro)
Submitted
03/09/2003
at
11:12am
by
Andreas
Email: aneider<at>gmx dot de
Ease of Use
:
10
I just looked araound for a substitue for my beloved P80 stage-piano. First I looked to the S90, but piano voices were dull and muddy. Now I turned to the brand new P250, which is a great board.
It's very easy to use, the manual is very easy to understand and you get no problems in any kind of using the board.
Features
:
10
Polyphony is 128, so you can play a sequenzer through it with many XG-voices and even play to this performance with a normal voice.
The keyboards action is really superb, if you are a pianist. For Synth- or Organplayers it my be a little too tight.
Effects are great, everything you need from Tremolo, Phaser, to 5 different reverb types, 3 chorus types and much more.
You can control any midi-instrument, there is a pitch bend and a modulation wheel.
And you get a 16-track sequenzer onboard, which is very easy to use.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
10
All the 45 voices are superb, especialy Grandpiano1, mellow piano1, the Rhodes and wurlitzer and the strings and synth pads. Forget the organs. If you like organ sounds get a Roland VK! (I have got the VK-7 which is a great hammond-substitute.) But you have also the 480 XG voices and 12 Drum-Kits. So you can play all your midifiles or a Composersoftware like Band-in-a-box through the P250. Effects are working very well, I especialy like the Rhodes Phaser-piano. 2 oneway speakers are inbuilt, but I use it with 2 twoway monitor speakers.
Reliability
:
8
If you gig a lot the 32,5 Kg will be too heavy, I think. But I use it in my studio only and there it is great.
Customer Support
:
9
No problems.
Overall Rating
:
10
I think I won`t find a better stagepiano in the near future. I compared it to nearly every board, which is on the market now: Rolands RD700, Korgs SP500, Yamahas S90, my old P80, Clavinova CLP 150, PF500, but in the end the P250 was the best I could buy.
The variety of sounds is ideal, not too much, but enough to be creative with. Its worth every Euro!
Product: Yamaha P250
Price Paid: 3400 (SNG)
Submitted
01/05/2003
at
02:28am
by
Dean Forster
Email: dforster<at>singnet dot com dot sg
Ease of Use
:
No Opinion
Just saw this synth in the singapore music store. Brand new! Its not even on the web sites. Its an upgraded P200, maybe Yamaha finally decided to listen to us and put some usefull things the p-series. Each of use! Its aimed at a general all round stage-piano, but its huge. Plays very easy, lighter 88key weighted action then the S90 next to it!
Features
:
No Opinion
Not sure of polyphony. Its got two mode, one normal and one for performance. You can store mutliple performance patched with different layer or mixes! Even has a slider volume so change the mix live. Its got 100's of sounds. Has full GM capability, not sure what line this is from, but it sounds very good. Has some great drum backing and a decent sequences on it (finallY more than two tracks)!. Has a largish two line display with each keys to change the patch mix. Has pitch-bend and Mod and even a 'child-lock' on the keypad.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
No Opinion
Sounds great through keypads! The phaser-Clav is a must hear!
Reliability
:
No Opinion
Dont know, jsut tried it in the shop!
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
ditto
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
Hmm, I've been searching for a good gigging stage-piano/midi controller for a while! This looks like it has the good, but its a huge beast, bigger than the p200. Does any one have the inside on Yamaha to say if they are going to update the P80 with this keypad/features! It would be a dream come true! Otherwise its an RL150 or 700 for me!
