Yamaha P90

A majority of the functions are easily accessible. Each patch has it's own button so it doesn't get easier than that. Effects, reverb, & sensitivity also have their own buttons. I don't use the recording functions much (use a computer) but laying down an idea is as simple as hitting record. I'd be perfect except getting to any other function w/o a button is cryptic at best. I've already read how people felt roland keyboards were difficult. I personally never understood that as I think their interfaces are quite clear. However, doing something as standard as turning the local messages off forces you to jump through functions and sub functions while trying to read a 3 digit display. What's worse is it won't save those settings after turning it off. I always have to bust out the manual to do this so most of the time I just unplug the midi-in when sequencing lol. Overall, it's extremely easy, especially if you're using it as a standalone unit. Almost a ten!

64 note polyphony, 88 fully weighted (graded action), basic stage piano patches, effects, 2 track recording, metronome,

special features:
direct serial connection to computer, dual headphone out, brilliance slider, rca outs

I chose this keyboard for two major reasons. The piano sound and the keyboard action. I give it a 10 on this alone because it is the best I've heard and felt. This what a majority of people would use this type of keyboard for and I don't think anything comes close. It feels a bit heavier (the action) than other stage pianos but I prefer that. The graded action is nice but subtle and no show stopper. The patches are standard (pianos, organs, strings, bass - no synths, brass, drums, etc) as are the effects but this is typical for these types of keyboards. The elec. pianos and organs are very good and expressive, but since there are only 4 of each it can be limiting. For some reason the upright bass patch is killer as well. Too bad I never need it.

I had it for 3 years w/o a problem. It is a mostly metal chassis and pretty heavy. Haven't had a problem bringing it back and forth to practice and no backup for a gig.

Haven't had a need for support in the 3 years I've had it

I would definitely buy it again if it disappeared on me. I learned on synth action and never had a piano. Any chance I get, I've always hopped on a real piano (friends house, hotel, store...) for as long as possible. I never knew a keyboard could even come this close until I played it. The piano sounds are better than patches w/ enormous samples (like those +500meg sampled ones). The dynamics feel so good, if you put on headphones and close your eyes you're in heaven. While it does other things, this is it's main purpose and if all it had were piano, elec. piano, organ sounds, & midi I'd still buy it.

Very ease. Plug & Play. Stereo outputs

If you need tech specs, go to yamahasynth.com. There are no upgrades, what you see is what you get. No aftertouch, but pianos don't have any. This is a pure instrument that does a few things very well. Grand Piano, electric piano, and a little jazz organ. Very subtle effects, 1 split if you want to add some bass. It's the action that is the best feature. It is a hard grand piano action that can be set to 3 responsiveness curves - light, medium, and hard. Since it is triple sampled, how you set your responsiveness makes a big difference in how the Rhodes sound(for instance) will be, smooth and round, or hard and "tiney".

It has two tracks for recording. I'm using it to record new songs to bring to practice. It's easy, and it sure beats writing it out.

I love the grand piano. The ambient harmonics that were sampled makes an unbelievable difference if you're playing solo. There is a great wurlitzer ep, Rhodes ep, and a bright upright which I put a chorus effect on, and it sounds like a honky tonk piano. Organs are fair. Basses are excellent, strings are fair, harpischord is fine

It weighs only 37 pounds which is great for a "real" action piano. I'm not carrying a backup anymore. I'm not worrying

I hope to never have to talk to them.

I would buy it again. It's the perfect instrument for me. I'm playing mostly jazz and blues these days and have found that I'm most confortable as a piano player, so I don't need all the other stuff some keyboard players need. The triple strike sampling gives me enough color variations for the style that I play

I'm not a gearhead. I'm a piano player. It's really nice that you can just get down to business with the most important things. In my opinion, these are transpose, a simple recording tool ("sequencer"), and metronome. All are quite simple. Now that I've had the P 90 for a while, some of the more advanced features (let's tune the piano in a non-even tempering just for the hell of it!) are hard to figure out, but so what - the user's manual more or less explains it, and they are less important features anyway.
I shopped around a lot, and it was nice that the piano that I ended up buying had one of the easier user interfaces that I saw.

Again, I'm not a gearhead so I can't be like, "A prime failing is the onboard midi compression module, which is not compatible with the BIOS-RAM firewire port effects motherboard."
I CAN talk about effects: I don't really use them. You can fool around with reverb and stuff but I don't really. I just leave it on Hall 1 and don't mess with the silly phaser and tremolo effects.
One thing a little enigmatic is the "touch" feature. First of all, it doesn't change the weight of the keys, for the record. It seems to make them more responsive - "soft" makes it easier to produce a sound, whereas "hard" meens that you have to play harder to produce a similar volume sound. But on a touch sensitive keyboard, I never really figured out how this is so different from just playing with the master volume.

THIS is where the piano really excels. I love Grand Piano 1 (without pressing the Variation button). I listen to through AKG K240S (studio) headphones ($100), the kind that go over the ear, and it sounds beautiful through them. I played a whole bunch of other pianos - Rolands (RD 700 line and especially FP-5), Casios (the privia line, inferior but a good value), Kawai (MP5 I think?), and Korg (ugh). Was unable to decide sound-wise between Roland FP5 and Yamaha P90 until I listened with headphones, when it became clear to me that Yamaha was a notch above. Never got to play a Kurzweil - I hear those are really good - but their distribution must be run by an idiot because I called EVERY SINGLE DEALER that they list for NYC and not a single one had a display PC1X or SP88 that I could try out, and the biggest stores (Guitar Center, Sam Ash, Manny's Music) no longer carry Kurzweil keyboards.
So I went for the best sound. I practice exclusively with the headphones and don't have a speaker. As for non-piano sounds, like jazz organ, electric piano... I like to play around with them sometimes so it's fun that they have them. An added bonus I guess.

I don't move it often becuase I don't gig. However, I have been playing on this thing pretty hard for 1-2 hours a day for about 5 months now and nary a problem.

Haven't dealt with customer support. (I haven't needed to - I guess that speaks well of the product).

Because I spent about 2 months shopping around for this thing, I'm sure it's the best for me. If it were stolen I would buy the same model without hesitation. (well, at least as soon as I felt like spending the money for it).
The ONE issue I had was the action - I'm used to a lighter action, and I was afraid that I would have this nighmarish heavy piano that would tire me out and be hard to play. But my piano at home is lighter than average, I think. Prior to buying the P90, I went to a couple piano stores in midtown and banged around for a while and realized that some grand pianos really do have a heavy action, so that made me more comfortable with my eventual purchase. Now, after playing the P 90 for months, I don't even think about the action. I've adapted.
A word about price - I was able to get a good deal at Guitar Center - they matched an internet offer I showed them, and because the interenet offer (950) included shipping and no sales tax, GC actually went BELOW the internet price so that when NY sales tax was added in, it came out to 950 total. I was happy with that.

this keyboard is SO easy to use, just turn it on and play. The only thing is that you have to memorize all the function numbers for a live situation since it has a small screen made just for numbers, but there are only 12 functions, so it's not a real problem. But if you're lazy about learning,that may be a problem. The manual is a yamaha , you know what I mean, it's not the best, not the worst, a little bit redundant but OK,and honestly you don't really need it , the keyboard it's very intuitive.

This is a "replacement" for a piano (you know what I mean , no keyboard could actually replace a piano but if you're playing in diferent places it's like a piano "to go") so it's features are not the target in this unit, just have the basic sounds for a live job like ac.piano,elc.pianos,vibes,organ,strings; etc.
The keyboard action is really good almost like a real piano "ALMOST" don't get very exited about it, but still is one of the better action in the market for a digital piano.
It has three levels of velocity: soft, medium and hard for diferent levels of intensity in your playing, I recomend you use it in hard all the time if you play acoustic piano or if you are begining with weighted action and wanna make any progress in your playing.
It's very strong, but if you're used to play in the real stuff and your hands are strong enogh to play in a real acoustic piano a jazz or latin jazz (michel camilo like) jam session with a band in a live situation I think you may broke a key. (I say it because i broke one!!! but it's worth the the repair because it sounds great) Any way if you play pop, even jazz or classical it's SO good. just measure the strenght you play with
The effects are OK just the basics but very decent, good revervs, chorus don't expect the best but it's better in this area that some competitors in it's category.

Very realistic acoustic piano, it's what it's made for,the grand piano 1 and it's variation is the best; very, very expresive and well sampled in stereo, the acoustic piano 2 is a mono sample and it sounds good too but it's more usable in rock and pop or mixing it with the other sounds.
The rest are just extras but some of them really good others not so good and others very bad, but as I said this is not the target of the keyboard they're just extras.
The Fm piano will cover almost all the ballad styles, you can still darken or brighten it with the brillance fader or mix it with acoustic pianos, strings or the fender rhodes sound. The fender rhodes it's ok, nothing impresive but not "cheap" as well, really playable and expresive.The organ it's nothing extraordinary and the jazz organ is good for soloing but not good for comping, it kind of lacks the bottom end punch to play in a duo situation just with a drummer(experience , again)

As I said, I've broken a key, that's the only problem I had with this unit, and the worst is that i've broken it in a gig in the middle of a tune. I know that every keyboard or instrument has a risk to get broken, but as I siad if you "knock" it hard in a real acoustic piano be careful, after all it's not wood and metal as in a real one, it's just plastic and yes metal but a milder one, any way it's worth it although it hurts your pocket.

HAHAHAHA that's a joke here in Mexico you're on your own that's the reason why if you wanna know which keyboard is more durable you have to ask to a mexican musician. The Yamaha company is the only one having distribution of parts for repairing instruments but they're not very kind. If you call them, they make you first e-mail them to say to you after a month that there is an authorized center in your city and in this authorized centers not always are willing to repair your unit in a short time, they say to you that they have too much job and your unit will be ready in a month and half, and it doesn't matter if it's a small or large problem.

It's worth it i'd boght it again at least yamaha launches a better unit than this.
It really helps you to make music is very expresive and is perfect for studying if you don't have the money and space for a grand piano.
I recomend it widelly it has a good balance in it's features that not much products have(I don't work for yamaha, allright?)

es lo mas facil del mundo,y editarlo es mas facil todavia,comparandolo con otros pianos digitales de su mismo precio,el manual es muy extenso no se porque,ya que editarlo es muy facil,y un pianista no debe ser tan bruto

la polifonia es la esperada en estos tiempos,los effectos internos no son la gran cosa,no se puede expandir,y del midi no puedo opinar ya que depende del uso que se le quiera dar,y el sequencer, brega muy bien,ya que es un piano para practicar y no para programar musica

los sonidos del piano 1 son los mas exelentes que he escuchado,y cuando digo esto,lo digo porque llevo casi 30 a?os tocando y he tenido desde un fender rhodes un RMI,hasta un Roland xp80,50,10 y RD30sx ,THECHNICS SX-P50 Y EN VERDAD LA tiran bien duro,em cambio el dx7 se queda corto de sustain,el rhodes suena muy bien y los organos tambien le doy un 9 por el detalle del Dx7 o (piano e 1)

Creo que si ya que siempre destornillo los pianos y teclados para pegarles adentro del board un sello con mi nombre y informacion (esto por si me lo roban) y la construccion que vi en las teclas y el main board me dice que pueden pasar facil de 10 a15 a?os si que esto te de problemas,Roland ,Kurzweil y ensoniq son muy pesimos en cuanto al teclado y la costruccion,aunque sus sonidos sean exelentes.

Jamas he tenido problemas con niguna de stas compa?ias exepto con la technics,y creo que por eso ya estan bien abajo,ah y kurweil tambien da trabajo bregar con ellos

es lo mejor en su price range,aunque probe el kawai es4 y esta brutal en su sonido pero es mas caro (1.600)si me lo robaran perseguiria a los tipos y cuando vean mi nombre adentro del piano se van directo a la chirola,lo compare con el Roland Rd300sx y con el korg sp200,en verdad los pianos acusticos de estos otros hacen el trabajo pero no suenan tan real como un piano de verdad(con los audifonos)y la costruccion de la tecla del yamaha es fuerte y lo unico malo es el cable de conectar la unidad y el sonido del dx7

plug in and play

grand piano 1 and 1 (variation) are simply outstanding

grand piano 2 just stereo, not so good but still ok

fm elec piano rich and nice

rhodes, not bad, needs the tremolo though

the rest of the sounds ok but for me not what it was brought for .

all about keyboard action for me, and its great, I play heavy so enjoy the heavy action.

As said above the pianos are outstanding, dynamic sampling is great.

i guess its dependable, not been gigged yet, but will be soon so heres hoping it is dependable its certainly well built and feels very sturdy, feels more sturdy than the p120.

too early to tell

if stolen, I'd totally buy this again, before i brought this i did a lot of research on this and other sites and this has proved every bit the stage piano i wanted.

well done yamaha !!!

Very easy to figure out and use. You're playing it instantly. I love the acoustic bass with EP or acoustic piano split. I figured it out without a manual. Well, except for the transpose issue below.

To layer, press two patch buttons at once. To split, press the SPlit button. As someone else said, though, you have to learn the logic of the thing to know whether a layered sound will be in 'variation' mode or not.

action is a little heavy and slow for me. I used to have a Sequential T8. What a keyboard, even had polyphonic aftertouch. That had full-lenth piano keys in it, with whippens. Felt amazing. But the P90 is ok. I used to be a piano technician, very picky.

Transpose is not output, as far as I can tell. This is a big issue for me. I use a Hammond B4 softsynth, and if I use the transpose function on the P90, the B4 stays put, while the P90 transposes. Not cool. Still working on how to do that. Hopefully some setting in the P90.

Hammond problem #2: Pressing "Variation" while on the (there is only one decent Hammond sound, unlike the P250 which has a few) tonewheel organ toggles the Leslie on and off. (well, fast/slow) IMHO, fast is too fast, although the sound is not cheesy tremelo or vibrato effect that the M-Audio 88-key stage piano has. This one is really good. The bigger problem is that turning off/on the Leslie requires pressing the 'variation' button which is above your RIGHT hand. How do you hold a chord, and press the button? You have to reach over with your left hand and press it. THe rotor spins down or up (a little too quickly in my opinion but not instantly which is good), and then you can use your left hand again. There should be a pedal for this, Yamaha! Or like on the P250 (a great board, fab sounds but heavier) throw the mod wheel with a flick, and the leslie spins up or down quite beautifully. If you don't want to use a softsynth like B4 and you're loyal to Yamaha, go for the 250, or 90ES or Motif ES. Nice organs in those, as well as weighted action, triple-layered pianos, and scads more (including weight - the Motif ES8 is 63lbs vs the P90 at 37). The P250 has a 5-band EQ as well, very useful on the fly. (Keyboard mag did a great review of that board, BTW.)

It's all in this thread, so I won't repeat much. I agree with most everyone here. I love the EP cheesy "variation" layered with voices, though some people hate it. Very fun. THe pipe organs really rock me, and the harpsichord is amazing in that you can hear the plectra come back up over the strings when you release the key. The acoustic grand #1 is great. I agree that #2 is probably a Steinway. Darker.

seems solid. Always turns on, fast. Dopey external brick and dinky cord. I worry about the power supply, and would buy an extra if gigging a lot. Careful not to tweak the jack it plugs into! That's the part of laptops that breaks the most, and I expect the same of a keyboard.

don't know

Since I just bought it, I have options. I'm thinking of trading it in for a motif ES 8, but dan't decide. Two different animals. I love the P90 for weight. I want more built-in organ sounds (for church, R&B), and all the fun "groove" stuff in the Motif for 16-track composing, etc. Noodling around aimlessly, mostly. For real work, and if all you need is a GREAT piano, bass, and some EP, this is the one, hands down.

I agree with the other reviewers who say this is the best portable electric piano. I tried everything and this was the best choice pound-for-pound and inch-for-inch.

Ease of use -- heck yeah, its easy. Mostly because there's not much you can do with it other than playing. What few options there are, you can change around by pressing a few buttons. After learning the system, it quickly becomes second nature. There is no system for saving mutliple setups, however. The keyboard will remember a few basic things between the time you turn it off and turn it on again, but that's of limited help if you need to use alot of different setups. You'll have to work it on the fly. Again, its not difficult to do so.

The keybaord action is on the heavy side, which is exactly what I want because I'm playing piano patches 95% of the time. That Yamaha packed such a good piano-like action in such a light keyboard is the primary virtue of this thing. Or maybe the piano sound itself is the primary virtue. Its one of those two. Anyway, the action is extremely playable and my piano technique translates very well to it. The keys bottom out fairly hard, that would be my top criticism. I also own a Kawai MP-9500, which is the gold standard as far as I'm concerned, it has nicer action than my Petrof acoustic. So I'm spoiled by that. But I'm not going to carry the Kawai around. I would rather play the P-90 than alot of far more expensive and heavier digital piano.

I used to own the P-80, but I thought it had a problematic action. There was a slight disconnect between the keys and the sounds. I really thought that was a design flaw and though I figured I would get used to it and adjust, I never did. No such problem with the P-90 however.

So yeah, weight is important. Though I need weighted action and won't compromise on that, I am also not into carrying around a 50 lb keyboard to rehearsals, or even gigs for that matter. Not only is the P-90 a slim 37 lbs, but the Yamaha gig bag is also very sleek and lightweight and very functional. I toss that thing around and I don't worry much about hurting the board. With a heavier keyboard, you tend to also have a heavier case, which just compounds the problems. OK, so I'm obsessed with weight. So sue me. I'm lazy and I have back problems. This is my cross to bear, but I don't want to also be bearing a ton of equipment along with it. My Hammond XK-3 weighs quite a bit more than the P-90, which is both ironic and painful, but when you're in love with a keyboard, you'll do crazy things.

I think the piano sounds are excellent, and there's a pretty good range amongst the 4. Other reviewers found reasons to nitpick. I could do that too if I were so inclined, but I figure most people are not listening that closely anyway. I'm usually playing with bands in clubs and in that context, people want to hear something that sounds like a piano, they're not going to pick up on itsy bitsy subtleties and to be honest neither am I.

The rhodes sound is usable, though not in a league with the Nord Electro. The wurli is too brittle, but I'd use it in a pinch. Clav is decent. I don't use the other sounds professionally though at home I'll mess around with the bass sounds because they're fun. Effects are not impressive, but also not necessary for piano. If you're using non-acoustic piano sounds alot, this may not be the keyboard for you.

It feels very solid. Built like a tank, though not recommended for that purpose. My backup if my rig fails me is my comedy routine. Fortunately for my audiences, I've never had to resort to that.

I've never lost a keyboard but I had one stolen once. At first I was very angry, but then I thought what the heck, if someone is playing the thing and it enhances their life somehow, maybe its all for the best. If I had to replace the P-90 I would of course see what's out there in terms of lightweight with good piano action and sounds. The Nord Stage is out now and though I haven't played it yet, its also very lightweight with good piano and weighted keys. But of course its a much more extensive and expensive package. What I would love to see made is something like the P-90 in a 76-key version, thus cutting down even further the weight and size by eliminating keys I never use anyway. That would be an ideal keyboard for me, but I'm not holding my breath.

the best portable piano substitute i have found in its price range. straight forward, nothing to it. light weight, compact. there are four different piano sounds, the first of the four is perfect, the other three are less than perfect, and i don't use them, except when i don't realize it, and sit there messing with my amp to correct the hollow sound. manual is very short and easy to use (50 pages), because the unit is designed to be very simple and straight forward.

polyphony is great, you'll never run out of notes. keyboard action is as realistic as it comes. excellent velocity curve for realistic piano expressiveness. (graded hammer action: ie lower notes are heavier toward bottom just like a real piano.) effects are of minimal use or effectiveness. they just allow you to fine tune the sound to your own liking. it has two track sequencer, which does not transfer data over midi. is of very limited use, save recording your own practicing. i think it would have been a nice feature to just be able to send that data out via midi. why not? not a midi controller by any means. no pitch wheels or fancy stuff like that.

excellent: piano, rhodes, wurli, vibes, harpsichord, bass. I have mainly used piano, rhodes, wurli, and vibes for gigs, harpsichord occasionally for plays.
poor: guitar, jazz organ, electric piano sounds are cheezy. If you are looking for a good organ sound, you need a unit devoted to just that.
clavichord is a bit hollow sounding, not too funky. i have used it with a wah pedal and got some soul out of it though.
the rest of the sounds are just there. this unit is primarily designed to be a portable imitation of a piano, and it does this as well as i could imagine it being done for the price and portability. everything else is a bonus.

very dependable, i have owned it for less than a year and have used it on many gigs. it has paid for itself many times over by now. no backup needed. one glitch that i have discovered though - just started happening once in a while - it will change patches during a performance for no particular reason. that's no good. here i am jamming out with my jazz piano trio and suddenly find myself playing bass or harpsichord! jeez! i get by with it though. it is easy enough to switch back without too much hassle or anyone noticing.

haven't dealt with them yet.

it is worth the price. i have no regrets. i believe that yamaha makes the best portable digital pianos available. i compared it with rolands, and whatever else sam ash and guitar center had in their show rooms in early 2005. the P series was it. i chose the P90 over the P60, because it is definitely a better quality instrument, and liked it better than the P120 because it didn't have those useless bulky speakers attached to it. (again, i use it primarily for gigging - jazz trio in restaurants and an occasional cheesy musical.) i have to admit that the sound quality of the P90 sounded better to me than on the P120. that doesn't make any sense, but i wasn't about to spring the extra money for the P120. i have been playing piano all my life. the P90 is NOT a piano, but will serve as a worthy substitute when there is none.

First off, I LOVE this board. Real easy to use, just turn on, select patch & play. The function setting can be a bit convultued, but can quickly be checked witht the good manual. No patch editoing, really, but I haven't felt need to.

64 polyphony, not bad. Layering is said to be able to eat your polyphony, but I haven't run in to any problems so far. Keys are really good, graded hammer, pretty realistic if you ask me. Effects are quite good in quality, but I can't really see them being used much besides the rhodes & clavs. Built-in reeverb, which is nice, but I usually keep the reverb down. Onboard 2-track sequencer, but as you can't get these off the board its a bit useless save for practicing. MIDI in/out, with aftertouch transmitted on MIDI out. Decent for what it is.

Awesome piano sounds - great stereo sampled grand. The Rhodes in particular are really outstanding - enough velocity for a nice bark, but nothing overkill, and with the brilliance turned down you get this mellowness - sweet love. Anyways, the clav is great as well, as is the wurli. Church organs sound good, but I haven't heard many others to comapre with, so.... Jazz organs pretty good. ONly thing - organs I don't really think are suitable for rock - not enough grittyness, if you know what I mean. The strings are fine, with the variation producing a good slow rise in the string section. As far as choir & baasses, i say WHY?? They sound alright, but why would you by a keyboard for the bass or choir patches?

Very reliable. I've got some exteriors marks on mine from hitting doorways, etc. but nothing out of the ordinary, and certainly nothing to affect sound. I use it as my main board, along with a Roland AX-7 for live stuff.

N/A

Overall, a great board. After playing on it for about 1.5 years, I can say that it still feels awesome to play on.