Yamaha P80

The manual is almost unneeded. I wanted to answer the question of the review submitter before me. I also thought the piano sounded very different through the headphones as opposed through a keyboard amp. I ended up putting it directly into my sound system at home through the cd input of the receiver. It works great and sounds just like it does through the headphones. I do have 12" speakers in the stereo.

All been said before. I love mine. I am currently playing Fionna Apple's "Never is a Promise". I put the baseline on the strings setting and play the song itself in the grand piano settin. Sound stinking G!!!R!!!E!!!!A!!!T!!!

I love it. I tried all and just fell for this unit.

I bought this through www.music123.com as a "factory refurbished unit" with all warranty and manuals original box ect. Saved $150 and have had for 6 months with no problem.

Never needed them, which speaks volumes in my opinion.

I really wanted the Korg SP500, but the more I researched and tested pianos, the more the p80 kept going to the top of the list. I tried the Kerzweil, yamaha, korg, ect....ect...ect..... I just could not get away from this piano. I really didn't like the looks of it, I wanted more features, And I wanted a BIG window for ettings. But evey time for the money this piano kept coming up. I read all the reviews and didn't fing many unhappy owners. I bought it and I have never been sorry.

The menus for Midi channel and other settings are pretty odd - but no real trouble and hardly ever touched after initial set-up.

Why does the unit respond so strangely to Midi programme change commands, and why does it play so strangely over MIDI?? I tried it with a PF80 piano and couldn't get it to work well at all. The velocity response was really odd. I know it isn't a PF80 problem as I've used it with many Midi sound sources over the years.....

Hate the external PSU - it wouldn't have added much at all to the weight to fit the unit with an IEC socket and a voltage sensing PSU.

Would have preferred more focus on just the Grand piano sound. I don't know how much memory was used, but knowing Yamaha, probably only a few kilobytes (!!) and so the other sounds are a waste of space and memory. But if they'd added a CP70B setting I'd have forgiven them anything.....so I suppose I contradict myself!

But I can't complain really - the keyboard is fantastic, the unit is as light as a feather and if someone could tell me why it sounds lovely through the headphones but terrible through external monitors (good ones!!) then I would be happy as hell.

The Grand Piano (which is the only sound I bought this unit for) is fantastically playable through the headphones. However, I just CANNOT get a decent sound through external monitors - it sounds so thin and weedy that I thought there was a fault. I just don't understand it.......help!!!
So I only ever play through 'phones. Any explanation anyone??

No issues.

No Issues - never needed so I guess 10

The P-80 is very easy to use - it's simple but functional. All connections are placed on the left side - much more practical and faster to access than on the rear. There are two headphone outs plus a separate chinch line out - well thought - I appreciate this!

I had never troubles with polyphony - 64 voices are enough even for full scale arpeggios. The only sound I use is the piano - the rest is useless. But the real point is the keyboard action: most actions have an unnaturally high upweight when hold down - you can't play piano parts (try this with chopin prelude nr.4 in e-minor - left hand!) - not yamaha: it works! They have done a great job - it's the only company that really knows how a real piano action feels because they build very good real grand pianos. Compared to a steinway the action is too heavy, but the weight curve of the key's way down is very close to the real grand action. I've tried all devices available from roland to technics (exept kawai) - but nothing compared to yamaha. It allows you to play classical stuff without feeling that there's something not right under your fingers. This is rare.

For a digital piano the sound is very good and well tempered - nothing gets you on the nerves (most other digi pianos have some notes you can't hear any more after some days). The only shortcut compared to a streaming giga piano sample is the less natural release phase and the too short high notes. But combined with a good room reverb this gets in the background. I did some classical recordings and refined them with a convolving reverb - nobody thought there was no real piano (even long time pianists!). what I like especially is the dynamic range of the sample: piano is soft, warm and sweet, and on the fff side, you can really beat the keys like a fool (what I like with single notes!) and you still get more brillance and power! Most samples, even the very good (giga based) ones, are limited on the top side - you can't get more - what I hate. A real piano always gives you back what you put in! The Yamaha engineers seem to be pianists again. But the most important point is: the sound engine of the P80 is very well linked to the action - the two parts are absolutely perfectly aligned to each other.
This mostly is the biggest problem when playing a sample with a master keyboard - the two sides do not match and you don't get perfect control - even if the sample is perfect. You have to program velocity curve mappings for hours 'till it feels "right". Yamaha has done the job for you - it's perfect from the first note on. But be aware: this perfect conrol you will only have over the internal sound. I tried to use the P80 as masterkeyboard for the giga Steinway B - but I was not happy - it didn't feel right.

Yamaha is a very professional company - so are their products. They are all very reliable. I had never any problems with the P80.

never used it

If u wanna get a digital substitute for a real piano and nothing more, I stronly recommend you to get the P80 - there's no alternative. It does the job. It's very transportable (you can take it under your arm!) and there's nothing you don't need. And it has closest action to the real piano available. The P80 is an instrument obviously made by pianists and not by technicians. I only can congratulate Yamaha for this excellent product.

I have no problems using the P80 for what I bought it for - as an alternative to a physical piano (since my room is not large enough to hold one!). I switch it on, adjust the keypress setting and play. I've read through the manual to see if I was missing anything important but until I want to start making sequences or recording my work, I don't find it necessary to refer to it.

The presets sound very good, though again because of why I bought it, I mostly stick to the regular piano sounds (classic & grand).

The features are exactly what I wanted in a digital piano - good piano sound, properly weighted keys and a full-length keyboard. The keys are a little heavy (compared with several real pianos I've played on) but when taking piano lessons, the pianos supplied for use also had heavy keys so this wasn't an issue.

I have to say I don't really notice any difference between the hard/normal/soft touch options. One thing which annoys me is that if I play notes too lightly on the grand/classic piano settings, no sound is produced but if I play the same way on the electric piano setting, a faint sound is still produced, as I would have expected. For pieces with a lot of pianissimo, this is very annoying. Maybe this does reflect the actual response of a heavy-key action piano - I've only used light-touch pianos apart from my P80 over the last two years. Perhaps someone could enlighten me?

Apart from the above niggles, I am happy with how the P80 sounds - with headphones on, I could be playing an actual piano! The keys react exactly as I would expect from an actual piano. I rate this section a '6' as the key response does bother me.

I've had it under a year so far but have not had any problems with it to date!

I haven't had to deal with support and if the reliability is what I've heard about it so far, I shouldn't have to either :-)

My overall rating:
- if stolen, I'd look around first before getting a P80 again, mostly because of the piano not sounding with moderately light key presses. There should be a wider range of touch sensitivity settings.
- the feel of the keys is great and the action of the keys is brilliant
- the piano sounds are also excellent
- compared with the pricing of other similarly feature-rich electric pianos, the P80 is priced extremely competitively.

Mostly very easy to use. Some of the stuff that I don't look at often needs a quick flick through the manual but that's rare. For playing, recording, listening to preset songs and fiddling with effects it's all self-explanatory. I believe if you hook it up to a computer you can do all sorts of stuff to the patches but I haven't tried yet.

64 note polyphony I believe. It has the best action of all the keyboards I tried, mainly due to it being quite a bit heavier than the others. The action is also progresively weighted, so the lower keys are heavier. I believe there are 8 different wieghted sections across the 88 keys. The Kawai MP9000 has wooden keys and springs up a bit better, but that was much more expensive (and much bigger).

It has a couple of inbuilt effects (4) and 4 different types of reverb, which is plenty for me. Also has a brilliance slider which makes quite a big difference to the sound. Simplicity itself to use. Comes with a simple 2 track recorder which is nice, and a metronome.

I haven't messed around with the midi features but it is lacking pitch and modulation wheels and doesn't have a midi through port, so maybe you should look elsewhere if you want to use this as a controller.

Grand piano sounds brilliant. I can pick up a bit of noise when I press the keys, but that could just be my headphones. I'd also prefer if the pedal was gradual rather than being on/off, but appart from those two issues no complaints regarding the grand piano sound. The others are definitely usable and sound great to me, but you probably wouldn't want to perform with them.

This section is why I wrote this. When I first got it I set it up on a dodgy AUS$50 stand - big mistake! Stood there for about 5 seconds before collapsing, sending my precious $2000 instrument 70cms towards the floor. After a bit of hammering away at the stand I set it up again and tried it out - no problems whatsoever. It's collected some paint where it hit the wall on the way down, and the plasic bit at the end of the keyboard's shifted a little, but these are only minor cosmetic problems. Very impressive.

Never dealt with Yamaha.

Certainly worth the money. I bought it from an internet site based in Belgium (I live in Australia) and saved $900 on the RRP. I don't think I could've got it for any less than $2500 in Australia.

THe P80 was the best choice for my uses and still is. Assuming I had the money I'd definitely buy another one if this one was stolen (don't think I could lose it though).

I compared this to the P200, FP90, MP9000 and various Clavinovas. This had the best action and sounds, and it weights only 16kg. The only minus points for me really are the on/off pedal and that slight noise I hear when I play. I can only hear it if I concerntrate mind you, and it'd probably dissapear if I was playing through some good quality monitors.

intuitive controls with the exception of the function menu which you'll probably need a reference card for. As a pianist there isn't anything in the menu that i need to access regularly anyway.

no onboard expansion capabilities, you can of course add external midi units. I havn't dont this so I dont know how easy it is to do. 64note polyphony.

The keyboard action is superb. I simply couldn't put up with the other keyboard actions I tried, most are too light, stop too short, or a weighted uniformally across the keyboard.

Excellent size and weight, very portable, doesnt take up more space than a full sized keyboard needs.

Brilliance slider can be useful varying slightly from the centre position to fine tune the sound but tends to sound silly at either extreme (for what I play anyway)

2 track sequencer is handy for overlaying parts of a composition to see how well they work with each other, or as a quick 'notepad' of musical ideas. obvious enough to use, cant remember the number of notes it holds but it's more than i've ever needed it to :)

great piano sounds, benifits a lot from some simple EQing to reduce parts of the mid range. For music where you play a lot of notes at once it can sound a little muddy without the eq adjustment, but for most stuff it's great as it is.

I cant hear the point where the piano sounds start to loop. Other sounds are ok, most loop a lot more obviously if you're listening out for it. I personally wouldnt use any non-piano sound in a performance or recording, but they're worth checking out, they might lend themselves more to your music.

very well built, nothing that i'm worried about breaking, the keyboard has been about a bit n copes great. I am nice to it tho and there havnt been any incidents where

never needed them

Just an addition to my previous review of this product: I have just returned from a live TV gig, where I played four songs using only this piano. My friends said that the P80 sounded tremendous on TV, just like a real grand sounds. Indeed. This is the best instrument I have ever had during my career.

Easy. No problem firing this unit up and making music. Nice selection (however redundant) of outs: L/R RCA ; L/R 1/4" ; 2 headphone outs, midi in and out, serial or PS/2 out.

The piano is delicious. I don't understand why people want their pianos so bright. Maybe as kids, their mallets were all dried out. Wah. I think this is a fine piano sound, EXCEPT FROM C4 to C5.

Here, the looping begins SOOOO soon at a low playing volume, there's no piano-ness, almost a beeping mixed with a thunk. (I excel at description, no?)

This is an area of the keyboard that sounds better when played louder. I dunno.

The manual is nearly apologetic. It should be easy to change performance parameters. Why should I need a manual? a laminated card? a freaking secret code? Aside from adding a little reverb or changing a sound or exploring a variation, you're going to really need the manual. Thankfully, it's well written.

ACTION!

Yes, this has the finest keyboard action. Kurzweil's "weighted" sp-88 felt insubstantial and marshmallowey, and that was the contender. The Studiologic SL-880 was nice, but had a shallower action, no sounds.
Nothing else compared. Yamaha's "S" units were silly. Poor action, NOWHERE NEAR THIS CLASS. Sounds were too bright, synthy. Plus, what are all those other sounds doing there? Yes, the "S" keyboards have great sounds. They are not pianos. This is more like a piano.

This action is starchy. If you appreciate the piano, and have played it at all seriously, you'll likely enjoy this. There is a sure landing for the fingers, a sure grip, a substantiality to the keypress.

Effects? Sure, room, hall, stage. That's fine, but I'm happiest hearing the uneffected out. Very clean.

Sequencer is simple and useful. Consider that this board is happiest in a serious music school, a church (no back-panel wiring), or as a dedicated piano thing.

If you want a midi controller (in addition to a cool piano) you'll have the barest bones. No pitch or mod wheel, no midi THRU. Sad, sad. But this isn't for that.

The piano is good. It becomes nearly transparent. It's me and the music coming out of my head and hands. That's great. Expressiveness and dynamic range are inspiring.

If you think some sounds are bad, try the variation. There's a good piano there.

So far so good (1 week). If I were playing just piano, I would use it without any reservation. If, however, I added a tone module and hoped to switch between the onboard sounds and the outboard gear, I think I would leave the show halfway through. This is not very good as a controller. It's great as a standalone piano.

This is the best piano, new, for the price.

I dislike that I can't make it more versatile, but have accepted this when faced with some of the other digital pianos for sale out there. The P80 is it. I'm not returning it for a more flexible keyboard; I'm eventually augmenting my setup with a flexible synth/controller. This machine does one thing very well. It offers you endless hours to find out where your muse can take you. Remember doing that at a PIANO? Sure, I'd buy it again.

Internal piano sounds are great for the money. Easy to operate, just plug in and away you go.

64 polyphony really hits the mark for those long drawn out chord rolls! The manual has a great feel, just like a real piano. My main board is my p150 that I have had for several years, but it is so darn heavy to haul around! I still love it as one of the best pianos ever built by Yamaha. The biggest thing that sold me on the P80 was the weight and size, as well as the price. All patches are easy to access, though I didn't much like the slider transposer. I prefer the "hold down transpose while pressing the desired key on the console".

The sounds of the pianos are more than adequate for gigs with the band on weekends. I play rock, blues & country mostly, and the piano suited each of these catagories perfectly. I'll admit the sounds of my p150 are superior, but keep in mind I paid almost DOUBLE for that sucker.

I started out playing Korgs about 20 years ago. I had problems galore! After buying my first Yamaha (an old Clavinova) I have bought nothing else but Yamaha pianos. Although, I prefer Roland amplifiers to run any keyboard through, but that's a different story for another day! Yamaha keyboards remain the most durable boards on the market. I have spilled countless beers and mixed drinks in my P150 and it continues to deliver. I plan to be more careful with the 80 though...

I do my own repairs on all my keyboards, and this is one more reason I understand just how well built Yamaha boards are. I have friends who play Rolands, and they break down occasionally. My p150 has NEVER broke down before. I do take it apart and clean it once a year, nontheless. They simply can't be beat. I'm sure my P80 will give me years of uninterupted service.

I have ordered spare parts from Yamaha only once, but the receptionist was extremely courteous and helpful.

I recorded a CD at a friend's house and he had bought a P80. So, I just used it for the recording instead of lugging my monster P150 with me every time. That's how I came to appreciate the P80. It sounded great on all the tracks and I love the sequencer. I've been playing every weekend at local clubs in the Atlanta GA area for about 20 years, and until now, it was all but impossible to find a keyboard small and light enough to make moving equipment a simple task. The P80 changes all of that. In short, it is a God send!

I think this is a good concept but you need some ergonomic improvements. Position the signal and power connections on the back of the keyboard facing the audience like other keyboards. It accomplishes two things:

1. It makes the P-80 shorter (shorter is always better), easier to move and manuever, and will fit into smaller cases.

2. Makes P-80 faster and easier to set up/tear down on pro gigs because it puts all your cable connections for multiple keyboard setups on one plane (back of the keyboards) for live gigs.

I love the keyboard action. I still think Yamaha's weighted action is the best in the business.

I love the 37 pound weight. I wish it could keep that action and be even lighter.....Well you can't have everything.

Make that power transformer cable thicker.

The acoustic piano sound could definitely be improved. It sounds too thin. I wish some kind of chip or card was available to upgrade the sounds.