Yamaha P90

I purchased this on 10/21/93 and it had not been released that long before. The only thing simpler to play is a tuning fork. Most users will never need to look at the manual, however if required, the manual is lucid, well-organized and easy to use. I had it unpacked, hooked up and playing within 15 minutes.

I only had to refer to the manual in order to set alternate temperaments -- easy to accomplish with manual at hand.

This is a very good basic digital stage piano so it is feature-light by design. It could serve as a general purpose MIDI controller but would be less optimal than using a Yamaha P-250 or Kurzweill 2600 due to its dearth of control surfaces and I/O.

I assume that the inability to simultaeously use split and dual modes is a marketing decsion to prevent cannibaliztion of P-250 sales.

The basic effects are extremely easy to use and certainly adequate to their purpose. THey also cover the range that will be desired by most keyboard players (i.e. not distortion but chorus, etc) The on-board sequencer will be useful mainly for students as a practice tool; it is too limited for most professional use.

A surprising limit is that only one pedal is supported instead of the three standard on acoustic grands. This is silly since the cost to add ports and programming to support these is trivial and Yamaha would incresae revenue since it is probable many musicians would happily purchase the addtional two pedals.

Action is very good, although it won't fool anyone who plays on a acoustic grand. <WARNING> Concert-pianist friends at conservatory have developed tendonitis by practicing on digital keyboards with piano-like action the same way they would on an acoustic grand. If you are a concert pianist you should only be using these to supplement your principal practice on a Steinway. This does not affect me since I primarily play guitar and use the piano for theory and composition, nor would it be a problem for anyone who primarily plays pop music or electronic keyboards. Having said that, the action is less good than other Yamaha lines (Clavinova, etc), and while I understand the requirement for market segmentation I believe that musicians who need stage pianos are already differentiated and that Yamaha sales of more expensive and bulkier units will not be cannibalized by offering the same better action on stage pianos. Cost is a possible concern but I suspect that standardizing action across Yamaha digital piano lines would off-set any increase in materials cost via quantity raw materials purchase, and SKU process and inventory reduction.

A no-cost feature that should have been included but wasn't is a stretch-tuning option. Another no-cost improvement would be to offer more temperament choices. While 7 are included it would have been nice to have alternate Werkmeister and Kirnberger in addition to (I presume) the "I" version of each included, as well as both of the Young tunings and Tartini-Valotte. User-defined temperaments are not suitable for this class of instrument since more controls and memory are required but they should be part of the P-250.

Piano: The acoustic grands sound very good -- strangely like a Yamaha grand ;-) This is really good for pop as they can cut through a mix. On the other hand - for classical music there's a reason that most artists use Steinway (and a few other, mainly German, makes), and it would be nice to have this type of piano sound as a choice. The pre-set choice, Grand Piano 1 (with variation) is good but not good enough. While some would argue that Yamaha would lose face by sampling a Steinway (or equivalent) I would argue that Yamaha already owns the much larger and more lucrative Pop/Jazz piano market, and further, that to serve one's customers well increases prestige. Many, perhaps most, will find this sound acceptable; I can only speak for myself. The second grand though is excellent for Pop/Jazz. if Nicky Hopkins were still alive he could just "get to it" as opposed to spending a lot of time on EQ and microphone adjustments. A glaring omission is a not-included slightly detuned, upright honky-tonk piano --likely to be of real use to any pro or semi-pro players. As this is no-cost to add hopefully it will apppear on the P-95!

Electric pianos, etc: well the classic DX-7 sound is perfectly emulated and the alternate e-piano sounds very, very good, not as an emulation but as an instance. The E-clavichord is good but just doesn't quite ring true -- fine for a many situations but doesn't quite get Stevie playing Superstition, but at most gigs no one will notice. The harpsichord is not bad and perfect for rock (think Strawbs or Edgar Winter). For classical try a Roland Digital Harpsichord instead (or a real harpsichord ;-).

Organ: I guess by the choice of sounds that the P-90 is being positioned as a general purpose, jack-of-all-trades, pro/semi-pro keyboard, and in this it suceeds very well. However organ requires a very different - waterfall keyboard, different physically and in action. The sounds are not bad but are obviously digital and not convincing -- go to church and hear pipes, or better (often more fun anyway) go to a jazz/blues club and listen to a real Hammond/Leslie. This isn't it. I guess market research says - include these sounds -- but I'd rather use the memory and pre-sets for something else.

The guitar is interesting but, hmm, wouldn't it have made m

Don't know, it's only been 5 weeks *but* Yamaha is the only manufacturer of musical instruments (a very broad line), who is also natively an electronics manufacturer -- particularly an IC/chip manufacturer/designer. This provides Yamaha with a major competitive advantage which should sustain them through the 21st century.

On the subject of back-ups -- well Arthur Rubenstein, Jozef Zawinul, Jan Hammer, Herbie Hancock, Yes, the Stones, Miles Davis, JJ Johnson, Steve Swallow, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Ali Abkar Khan, Jim Hall, Andre Segovia -- the list is endless -- never required backup instruments. Imagine the look on Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Ry Cooder, Wendy Carlos or Prof Longhair's face if you asked them about back up instruments ;-) What would JS Bach have retorted?

Yes, buy well and don't think about it...I'll give this a 9 based on who Yamaha is and their experience with acoustic instruments, electronics, and manufacturing in general.

Haven't and don't expect to need it *but* as above -- Yamaha has a 100+ year history of good service; also the website was very useful (downloads, etc) in providing data helpful in making a choice. Lastly the quality of the manual and the packaging speak volumes about Yamha's intentions.

If this had stretch tuning and two more piano sounds (see above)I would raise it to a 9. It is an excellent value, I'm very happy with my purchase and would definitely buy another if lost or stolen.

A final aside - I bought this at ZZounds.com where unlike Musicians Friend .com I've always received good service.

I realized that a keyboard instrument with piano action would make my studies and experiments easier (I'm a guitarist) and spent a good deal of time researching / demoing prior to purchase. In this regard the reviews here at harmony-central were very, very helpful (if not for specific models then for overall company histories).

The contenders were:
* Korg - eliminated immediately since no one had anything good to say about their E-pianos (as opposed to their synths)
* Kurzweill - elimiated due to Fatar keyboard
* GEM - eliminated due to Fatar keboard
* Roland - seemingly a hotbed of featues, but support less than explemary, sound quality variable, action not as good as Kawai nor Yamaha
* Kawai - M9500 would have won but a few inches too long ;-( DAMM!
* Yamaha P250 was runner -up but also slightly too long

My criteria were;
* size -- I live in NYC -- this is serious
* action_-- must be good enough not to f*ck me up on a an acoustic grand
* features -- in my case this really meant temperaments since this is an area of vibrant interest for me
* sound -- al least the piano sounds had to be very good
* flexibility / expandability -- I would have preferred the MIDI control/interface capabilities of a Kurzweill 2600, but for my immediate needs I'm very happy with the Yamaha P-90
* size / portability - outstanding
* value - oustanding
* price - I would happily have spent up to 3x as much but size was a more important factor

If you are a student or enthusiastic amateur *or* if you are a pro with limited equipment budget (dollars, size, weight) who primarily does live gigs then the P-90 is an outstanding choice.

I truly hope this review will be as helpful to some as the many H-C reviews I perused were to me.

Just plug in the power, plug in the necessary cabling to your PA, stereo system, recorder, or whatever; turn on, adjust the volume to your liking and you're all set.
As far as it sounds, the piano presets sound great (after all, this is a digital piano!!). The other presets are there to entertain I guess :-). I do like the 2nd electric piano with the variation. It reminds me somewhat of the E-piano in the Queen song "You're my best friend" and the E-piano sound on Supertramp's albums.
The organ presets: either you love 'em or hate 'em. Jazz organ sounds somewhat like a Hammond B3. It's variation changes the rotor / horn speed to fast (note to Yamaha: slow rotary speaker speed is too fast and fast isn't fast enough and the horn spins up quicker than the bottom rotor). Unfortunately, you can't edit the organ's sound, ie: no drawbars, etc. Like I said, it's there to entertain. That's how I look at it. Choir preset: a bit cheesy, reminds me somewhat of a Yamaha DX7 sound. Pipe organ is also only of 2 variations. The 2nd variation is like a loud pipe organ (think Bach's fugue in D minor).
As other's have said, the editing is limited. If you want to edit to your heart's content, get a synth workstation. If you want a great sounding "grand piano" tone, get the P90.
So why did I buy this instrument? For the piano sound, plain and simple.
The manual is easy to read, and quite fun to see the occasional typo too :-). This is my first digi-piano purchase (and probably sounds like it too, lol) and I had this up and running in no time.

It comes with a sustain pedal. So don't let the sales clerk try to tell you otherwise. The pedal is quite heavy and it has a good feel to it.
64 note polyphony. That's good for me, an amateur :-). The keyboard feels wonderful. It plays...like a piano. No spongey feeling keys. Also like a piano, the lower keys are more "stiff" while the upper keys not so stiff. For practicing, this instrument excels. You have 2 headphone outputs so you won't bother family members, pets (lol), or neighbours. This keyboard doesn't have built-in speakers. You need to either patch it into your stereo system, or buy you some monitors, or just use headphones, or patch into a PA system.
AFAIK, this unit hasn't any expansion capabilites but it does have MIDI in / out so you can use some external devices if you wish.
It has a 2 track recorder which is rather limited and I'll probably use that to play back my practice

The 9 is given to the combination of piano sounds offered on the P90.
Sound ratings: GrandPiano 1 v1: 10 v2: 9
GrandPiano 2 v1: 9 v2: 8
Electric Piano 1: v1 and 2: 6
Electric Piano 2: v1:7 v2: 9
Jazz organ: v1: 6 v2: 6 (rotor speed is wrong in both instances and you can't adjust the timbre, but the speed up / slowdown is kinda cool). Organ isn't velocity sensitive. A hardcore B3 player wouldn't like the choices offered here (then again, it's a digi-piano!)
Pipe organ v1 and v2: 7
Sustain pedal also works with organ presets too, lol.
remaining presets: varies but mostly middle range. Choir sounds get a 3 :P
Wood bass sounds okay; its variation adds a ride cymbal noise, so you can write your own jazz number ;-). Electric bass could be better. It sounds a bit flat to me. Perhaps Yamaha should've sampled a Fender P-bass running through a cranked Hiwatt :D
Aside from all the tones, you also can choose 4 different types of reverb, and other effects such as chorus (sounds good with E-piano2 w/ variation), phaser (use with clavi), tremelo (rate can't be edited!), and delay (which to me, doesn't sound like it does much of anything). Both the reverb & effects can be edited to some extent.
The keys react well and give you good feedback.
This keyboard would suit anyone wanting a good piano sound without having to deal with normal piano maintenance. Ideal for any music genere that features a piano.

Reliablility? I hope it's reliable! I won't be gigging with this keyboard anytime soon and it's very unlikely for it to be treated rough. I just have to remember to unplug the power in case a storm rolls in.

Never dealt with Yamaha yet. Hopefully I won't have to.

If it were lost / stolen, I would be very upset, to say the least. I chose this keyboard for its "feel" and its piano sound. I compared this to the other digi-pianos and I believe this offers the most bang for the buck, as far as I'm concerned.

Dead simple: plug in the power cord, switch it on - and off you go. Sounds are easily accessed in 2 rows of 12 preset buttons. Editing patches other than adding on-board effects (4 + 4) is not possible. What a VERY GREAT shame in this day & age!! Manual is very straight-forward. I mean, what' difficult about pressing buttons!

I played some two-handed chromatic scales with full sustain pedal on the "Grand Piano 1" preset all the way up, and the notes didn't cut out other than fading away naturally - very impressive even with 64 voices polyphony. Effecs are very easy to access by the press of a button. The 2-track sequencer is what it is.....as far as I'm concerned, useless! MIDI in/out is there so it fits into your overall rig, as is "to host" with a switch for PC and / or Mac (not for me - I'm a musician, not a programmer!). L/R out, sustain (only one jack, unfortunately), the norm I guess.

There are two sounds that make the P90 worth every single penny spent: the "Grand Piano 1" and the "Electric Piano 2" (classic Fender Rhodes). Everything else is a nuisance - I mean, yes, the upright bass sounds reasonable but who would play "bass" off such a keyboard anyway (not to mention the lack of mod & pitch bend wheels)? Organs are flat & factory-sounding (remember - no editing possible), strings boring, the clavichord "fun" at best, and the guitar........it's an electric PIANO for cryin' out loud!

This being said - with long years of experience in both classical and jazz piano, I have to say the Grand Piano sound is REALLY outstanding. Very playable & full of detail / nuance, excellent resonance and good velocity on the keys. The keyboard is Yamaha's "graded hammer " and feels very comfortable and solid indeed - very, very nice indeed! The Rhodes decays a bit too quickly for my taste but with the "chorus" effect it seems to work quite nicely. And the sound of it is fantastic! Grand Piano 2 is a more "metallic" version of GP 1 with a sharp touch, and the Electric Piano's (some DX-7-type; a Wurlie with vibrato (ok, playable) and some ballad-type of synthetic junk!) are not really worth it. There's even a choir who is so badly done you can clearly hear the sample loop.....

Every sound can be adjusted in "brilliance" which is rather useless because it's simply a "low-high" equalizer slider - rubbish!

Did I miss anything? Oh, yes, Jazz Organ does not react to key velocity.....how stupid is that!?!

GP 1 and EP 2: a 10+++
The rest: 2 - 3, and I'm generous!

Solid built, easy to carry (what's that flimsy plastic partition-holder doing?) and compact.

Not necessary - yet?

I was looking for a sample- generated grand piano sound that is as good as it can get on its own or in a mix (live- or studio) without having to buy a trailer & a piano tuner everytime I move around. I've tried whatever I could put my hands on: Korg, Roland, Kawai, Kurzweil, Solton, Ketron - and of course Yamaha. For my taste the P90 comes out on top. You get a truly outstanding grand piano-sound with an excellent keyboard action at a very good price. Hook it up to your rig and it's very difficult to tell you're not playing off "the real thing". The rest of this board is useless with the exception of the Rhodes electric piano that is fantastic (if a Clare Fischer-type of Rhodes sound is your thing).....

this piano is really easy to use - in spite of the edit mode, for which you need the manual, which is quite useful and easy to read.

Polyphony (64) is enough, the keyboard action is real great for this price. No other stage-piano at this level is like this - i tried especially roland rd170, which i found horrible! Midi an sequencing is ok.

The grand piano is very very realistic an sounds simply great on stage as well as at home. the fender-rhodes sound is very nice, especially if you add the phaser-effect - like the rhodes-sound on the central-park-concert of simon and garfunkel... i've forgotten the name of the keyboarder...

For Piano and Rhodes an perhaps string-pad i don't need another keyboard on stage.

i would certainly buy it again if it were stolen. it's a great keyboard graded hammer-action and it weighs almost nothing! my back is happy...

As most of the people say here - the instrument is easy to use for its basic features, if you want to just turn it on and play, change instruments and effects. Only the advanced features - temperaments, tuning, MIDI capabilities, etc. are accessed through some nasty menus, however the manual solves this problem and is very useful at all.

The polyphony on this instrument is 64 notes and one may think that this is enough or not, however I would like to explain how subjective is a single number when we talk about polyphony. First, this number shows how many mono-samples can be reproduced by the instrument at a time. So, this means that the real polyphony for stereo sound (the main piano sound, for example) should be 32. But the most important thing about the polyphony is that the algorithm used for note stealing is much more crucial for the final perception than anything other. That's just what Yamaha has done perfectly. I tried all my best to make the instrument drop out notes (playing long and complex arpegios with sustain pedal) but only if you play chromatic lines from bottom to the top, you may notice some drop outs and they are still very subtle, so it is not obviuos. In all other cases the polyphony is enough. There is re-pedalling feature, i.e. if you play some chord, release it, but immediately after that press the sustain pedal, then the sound is catched and chord is sustained - this is standard feature and most of the digital pianos have it (excluding the software piano Steinberg The Grand VST). There is also a feature that I haven't noticed on other digital pianos. If you play a loud chord, press the sustain pedal, then - while the pedal is still pressed - play the same chord very silently or even without sound, hold the chord and then release the sustain pedal, on most pianos this will produce the loud chord to disappear (in contrast to a real piano), that's not the case with the P90.

About the keyboard action - it's again very subjective point, since the final perception of it depends on the key/sound connection. Although it's supposed to be the same Gradded Hammer action used in most Yamaha digital pianos, I found it the best key/sound connection among the digital pianos I have tried up to now (Roland, Kurzweil, Korg, Alesis, Technics, Kawai). Maybe only the Yamaha CLP-170 had better keys, but they were only sightly better. I exclude here hybrid pianos with real keys, since they are not in the category of pure digital pianos, according to me. Some people find the action heavy, but I think these are people that doesn't have real piano training. I have played acoustics almost all my life and I think the action of the good uprights and grands is the same as in the P90.

The built in effects are good and they don't sound artificial. When I play through monitor speakers, I don't use the reverb, because I want to allow the real reverberation of the room. When I play with headphones, I use the standard hall 1 reverb of the piano and it is good enough for this.

The MIDI capabilities are not huge, however I bought the piano just for the reason that it sends an even stream of note velocities from 1-127. I am using Steinberg The Grand and the control is ultimate, it reacts perfectly to the dynamics, from ppp to fff.

I haven't used the onboard sequencer, since I have a PC :)

Here is where this instrument shines. My little history here. I bought Korg SP-200 digital piano year ago. Even from the begining I was not satisfied with the sound of it, although it has good samples, but unfortunately there were no multiple samples per key. The sound of the piano was also a little bit brighter. I decided to use software piano - Steinberg The Grand, but then the second surprise was that SP-200 sent some compressed region of note velocities (say 20-100) and another values were extremely hard to be produced. I have made some corrections of this problem with the sequencer, rescaling the note velocities, but it was again very unrealistic, although I have tried all the possible solutions and velocity curves of The Grand. Besides that the SP-200 keys are slightly lighter than real piano and they strike some hard surface at their bottom position which makes them even more unrealistic. Finally, I decided to buy Yamaha P90 and to use it as a MIDI controller for The Grand. And it really works for that perfectly. But my surprise was that although The Grand is one of the best sampled pianos, the P90 itself is more playable. It's main piano sound is excellent. I still use The Grand when I am recording because of the seamless audio mixdown export, but when I am practicing or playing to myself I use the P90's sound (With the last update The Grand has fixed some of its major bugs, but the re-pedalling feature is still not present and it is the big disappointment that makes me not prefering it). Piano 1 is my favorite preset and I use it 98% of the time. I play jazz mainly and also some classics - Bach, Chopin, Debussy. It works well for all these styles of music. It's variation is darker and I don't like it. The harpsichord preset is my next favorite, it is the best harpsichord I've heard in a digital instrument and it's a big pleasure to play The Well-Tempered Clavier, Goldberg Variations and other Bach pieces with it. Piano 2 is artificial and is probably suited for pop music. E.Piano 1 is also playable for some easy listening tunes and pop, as well as its variation. E.Piano2 is supposed to be Rhodes but I don't like it - too sharp and bell like sound. For that reason I use software e.pianos - Lounge Lizard and EVP. E.Piano2 variation is Wurlitzer, but I don't like this particular sound at all, even on the real Wurlitzer (the same for the Clavinet, that's why I will not comment it). The Vibraphone is very good, especially splitted up with wood bass in the left hand. The church organs 1 is excellent, but it's variation is a little bit artificial. The jazz organ is not of my interest, getting in mind that it's stupid to control it with weighted keys. The strings and choirs are cheesy and I don't use them.

Although some instruments are not very realistic, I will give here 10 because of the excellent piano sound, which is the main sound most people would buy a digital piano for.

Seems well made. I have it for a month only.

Here in Bulgaria the customer support is bad...

It's definitely the best digital piano you can buy for the price. If it were stolen, I would buy it again.

So I now own a P90 and a P120 and I have been comparing playing the "Grand Piano 1" of each back and forth. The P90 is easier to play. The key to note connection is somehow easier to trigger and I don't know exactly why that is. The P120 keybed feels harder when the keys bottom out, the P90 feels a little bit more cushioned, the hump they make when the key hits the bottom is different.

The P90 notes sound rounder and don't have such an exagerated atttack portion of the sound as the P120. Therefore, on the P90 it's easier to execute fast runs that sound smoother and more connected. The sound of the P120 GP1 is more open, less round, more percussive,, more spacious; single notes sound bigger on the P120. The P90 GP1 tone is smaller, rounder, more muffled which is partly why it's easier to connect and blend the notes. The middle range of the P90 keyboard is softer and blends chords more together than the ouder more percussive mid range on the P120. The P90 sounds boxier in its mid range, sort of compressed like Kurzweil.

The P90 GP1 reminds me more of how the notes blend so well together on the P250, they integrate together well, connect more smoothly on fast runs, and have a "roundness" and a less steap decay curve. The P120 GP1 notes seem starker and more individual, they don't seem to blend together as well and it takes more effort to play the P120. The P120 GP1 pkays more like a "rock piano" or "fusion piano" and the P90 GP1 blends more like a "classical piano" or "jazz piano"

Yes, the sounds are different. The second post on this thread describes some differences between the Grand Piano 1 on each model.

More than half the sounds on the P90 are in mono, and I prefer them. The only thing I miss on the P90 is the P120's EP2. The mono EP2 on the P90 is good for chording, but not nearly as good for single note solos as EP2 on the P120.

I have been playing the P90 for the last couple of days without problem. I played scales on the P120 for an hour today and now my wrist hurts. It takes more percussive effort to play the P120.

Yamahas are well built and very reliable.

Very easy to use out of the box - but hard to make edits unless
you use the manual due to the simple LED numerical display. In
my case - playing jazz piano - this is not a problem at all.

Keyboard action is very nice IMO (my other keyboard is a Steinway
grand). It might be a bit heavy - but I acclimated in about 2 weeks.
Now I love it.

String resonance and reverb are very pleasing sounding. Haven't
used MIDI out or the simple two track on board sequencer.

I do miss some of the other sounds that my Roland RD-600 had
(more organs, more electric pianos etc.) For that I would
have had to get a P250 and that board is so big I couldn't
imagine moving is by myself.

IMO - a great piano sound especially with headphones. The triple
strike samples really are great - allows me to alway feel that I
can build intensity in solos. Sustain is very effective for
ballads. I don't get fatigued playing this keyboard like I have
with my previous digital pianos (Kurzweill PC-88 and Roland RD-600)

String resonance and half pedaling are great - the people I gig
with have remarked how nice this sounds. Very expressive

I am not afraid to book solo jazz piano jobs anymore. (I primarily
do jazz piano trios or small ensembles)

(Rhodes sound is ok - harpsichord really is nice for my
Bach practicing - pipe organs are fun as well.)

Don't know yet - this is my first piece of Yamaha gear - seems
to be ok.

Don't know yet - this is my first piece of Yamaha gear - I haven't
called the factory yet.

If it were stolen I would defintely replace it with a P90. I think
it's worth what I paid. I've been playing for years doing jazz gigs
for the last 8 years or so - I use a Roland KC-500 though the stereo
sound of this keyboard is making me think about getting two JBL EONs.

I love the sound. I wish it had a more slip resistant bottom so that
it wouldn't slide off my Hines stand when people are tapping their
feet or drummers are vibrating risers (this has happened and I
bungy corded my P90 to the stand at the first break). Wish it
had drawbar organ sounds as well.

I replaced a RD-600 and compared it to the RD-700 and also a P80
and P250. The P90 is a real improvement over the P80.

Like I said before, its very expressive, I practice in the morning
with headphones and really enjoy it. Much better for solo jazz
piano gigs - I don't worry so much anymore.

Very easy to use.

The action is great but Yamaha should weight it slightly lighter, like the Balanced Action on the S90 and Motif 88. Playing fast runs is hard work on the Graded Actions, is heavier than most real grands, and can wear your hands out.

I carefully compared the P120 and the P90 today.
I positioned the P90 directly between two ear level Yamaha powered studio monitors. I set the P120 to the side and used the P90 as a MIDI controller to play the P120 so I could keep my ears the exact same distance from the speakers at all times. I used the same mixer with identical Pan and flat EQ settings.

The first thing I noticed was that the output of the P120 is about twice as loud as the P90. The only two sounds I was interested in comparing were the "EP2 Rhodes" and "Grand Piano 1."

Fisrt I compared the "Rhodes'" between the P120 and the P90.
The P120 has a more vintage or authentic sounding Rhodes, IMO. The P90- has and exaggerated "Dyno" bell tone type Rhodes. I preferred the P120 Rhodes for it's darker vintage sound, it was no contest in my mind. The P90s "Rhodes" produces more tine bell sound in the soft strike layer and much less when you play the hard strike layer.

The "Grand Piano 1" was much harder to judge between the two. I spent a long time playing the same parts back and forth between the P90 and the P120 trying to find something that would clarify the subtle difference I was hearing. I will say the P120 has a more aggressive, perhaps harder sound. The P90 had a rounder almost smaller tone perhaps a slight bit warmer and cleaner, it seemed to make a little more sense. You would only notice this difference when playing solo piano through good stereo monitors, you would never notice it in a band live nor probably in a recording mix with percussion.

I have had 6 Yamaha P series digital pianos and they all were without problem.

The "Grand Piano 1" on both the P120 and the P90 use the same triple strike layer samples. But they sound slightly different.
It's hard to put into words, but the P90 GP1 sounded a little bit smoother, balanced and rounder. The P120 sounds slighty harsher.

The "Rhodes" on the P90 and P250 are different. The P90 Rhodes has more Dyno bell tine sound. I preffered the P250 Rhodes over the P90 Rhodes. I prefer the P120 Rhodes above all.

The YAMAHA P-90's manual is quite easy to read: everything is carefully explained and illustrated. The instrument has the same functions as its predecessor the P-80 except for the key-off sampling function and a different grand piano soundboard function.
The onboard 2-track sequencer works fine and also the preset songs are enjoyable to listen to.

The P-90 has 64-voice polyphony, so that's OK. The keyboard action is superb; its weighted feeling equals the touch of a concert grand! Heavy touch in the bass area, lighter in the treble area.The effects sound good: chorus, phaser (nice on the Rhodes), tremolo and delay can be easily applied to each of the P-90's voices. There's, however, no expansion capability (cards, memory), and also the MIDI-features are very limited: do not expect it to be the ultimate master keyboard (no external split or layer possibilities). The 2-track sequencer can be used to record your ideas quickly: also the sounds/effects can be changed after recording, so that's cool, I guess.

Preset Grandpiano1 sounds stunningly realistic: it consists of a 3-layer sample taken from a YAMAHA CF III-S concert grand, plus sustain pedal resonance and key-off samples! Grandpiano2 is a superfluous preset: in my opinion, it doesn't sound up-to-date; it reminds me of the sound of the P-100 ten years ago; maybe nice for dance/techno music. The Rhodes is very well sampled (nice bell tone and sustain; a bit Bob James-like sound). Wurlitzer is a bit thin, but usable. The clavinet rocks !!! Harpsichord sounds quite realistic. Strings are poor (compared to my S-90). Both wood and electric basses are warm, and very effective for splits.

YAMAHA never let me down!

As a YAMAHA endorser, customer support is always to the point!

Very much piano for its price. I don't want any other stage piano.

As easy as can be in terms of playing it - press the button for the sound you want to play. Getting into Midi settings etc. is a bit more involved, as the P90 only has a 3 digit display, all the Functions are represented by some sort of nummerical code, that has nothing to do with the funtion it represents - so the manual is needed for this.
Personally I made a small list, put it on a little magnetic piece, that attaches to the P90's metal casing.

64 note polyphony, seems to be the min. for piano playing, but I haven't noticed any voicestealing, but I never used it in dual mode, which probably halves the amount of voices.
Efx are decent for praticing purposes, and I guess OK for smaller clubgigs - I wouldn't use them for recording, but the implementation of the efx. again is very simple to use.
One of the P90's main attractions is it's weighted keys. I personally think they are the best in the industry. Amazing that Yamaha can put such a great feeling keyboard in such a small, lightweigt package.
I did use the predessor the P80 before I got this, and I have to say, there is a small difference in feel between the two - the P90 is a little lighter feeling than the P80. Of the two I prefer the weight of the keys on the P80.
Midi is nothing to write home about on this board. It sends and receives note on/off. There is program changes associated with each voice button, but it's not laid out in any logical order, so that you might easily use the P90 to call up programs on external equipment.
Don't plan on using it as a master controller without the aid of some other controller box. It's really a shame, since the P90 comes in such a lightweight portable package.
It's built in 2-track sequencer is mainly usufull for students, who would want to record one hand at a time etc.
Despite it's shortcomings I would rate it a 9 - it is afterall a digital piano, not a motherkeyboard.

The main attraction is the Grand Piano 1 - and it's gorgeuos. Close your eyes, and you could easily forget, you're not sitting at a real concert piano. The sample does have a couple of noticeable loop points, but it is very palyable. The main thing is, it responds like an instrument, despite minor imperfections. This sample is definately an improvement over the P80. In fact it's the best Piano sample I have heard in any digital board, and to top it, I think you would have to go the GigaSampler way. I find this sound usufull for any style, that I would use a real piano for. It's soundboard and key-off simulation adds to the overall 'realness' of the sound. It responds very well to outboard processing like EQ and compression as well, making it nice to use in a recording environment. I wouldn't hesitate using it for any kind of recording seesion. However the Grand Piano 2 voice is to my ears useless - I think it's the sample originally introduced in the P100 stage piano years ago - and it really shows it's age - sounds a bit like the old M1 piano . I can't personally think of any situation where I would use this sound. The P80 had 4 different piano voices, that were all useable, so this choice by Yamaha seems like an odd one.
As for the rest of the voice set, it's an improvement over the P80 - especially the Rhodes sound is way better - doesn't suffer from the very obvious velocity switching problem, that made that sound unplayable int the P80. I like the Vibe sound a lot too.

Well - the unit I received brand new in a unopened box, had a problem with one of the keys, so I have to return it. Hope it's not a sign, that the keybed design is flawed.
I did experince on the P80, that over time it would develop problems with some of the keys sticking.
Other than that, I would say it's built as tough as it could be, all metal casing, no knobs sticking out. There isn't that much that can really break on this one ( other than the keys ).
I have very good experiences with other Yamaha gear for being very well designed hardware, so I would definately take this to a gig, and not worry about it. Only thing is the design choice, to have an external powersupply. Those are always flimsy, and generally a pain in the b....I guess this is one compromise you have to make, to get this much piano in such a compact format. I would like a powersupply with a stronger cord, more secure connector, and preferably, one that's 'in-the-middle-of-the-wire'. These clunky things always take up too much space at the power-outlet.
If it wasn't for this - and the problem with the key - it would be a perfect 10.

I have dealt with Yamaha several times in the past, and always found them to be extremely helpfull - they even fixed my EX5 for me for free, when some idiot sound guy dropped a lighttower on it.
Getting email/phone responses from them has alway been fast, helpful in locating usermanuals etc.
I own a Motif 8, and the support in form of Motifater.com is un-paralled, so that's a two thumbs up

It's definately worth the price - actually seems like a small miracle to me, that you can get this much instrument for such a small amount.
If it was lost, I don't know if I would get again, or go back to the P80 - I did like the keys better on that one, but I would definately get one of them.
I did compare it to Roland's similarly priced piano, before buying, like the sound and feel of the P90 better.
I do wish it had a powersupply that seemed more solid and reliable ( not that I have ever had a problem with it - but I did get a spare, just in case ), and the Midi options for controlling ext. equipment was up to just the basic-basic.
I have been playing proffessionally for the past , let me see, og gosh, 27 years, and currently use besides the P90: Motif 8, Triton, Kurzweil K-2500XS, Ex5, XV 5080, JV 1080, JV-1010, MS-2000, MKS-80, MiniMoog, FS1R, SG-Rack, S-6000