List Price: $2,199.00
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- 88-key GH(Graded Hammer) weighted action keyboard
- Dynamic Stereo Sampling AWM piano with 128-note polyphony
- 2-track, 3-song recorder
- USB TO DEVICE port
- LED Display
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A digital piano will not completely replace a real acoustic, but it comes closer and closer as years go by. I think enormous progress has been made and the YDP-181 demonstrates how much. It used to be that keyboards had springy keys and metallic sound.1) The box
The box is LARGE. If you buy it from a store, unless you have an SUV you will have to open it and put the parts in the trunk after folding the rear seats. It is HEAVY too. At 110 pounds, you need to help to move it around.
2) Assembly
I found assembly straightforward. If you have assembled IKEA furniture, it is not more difficult than that. Again, because of the weight, you will need someone to help you lift the action so that it rests on the sides. After that, you tighten the screws, connect the pedal cord, the power supply, and you are ready to go.
3) The build
The included bench feels a bit tinny. It is not that wide and large, but unless you weigh 300 pounds, I think it will do the job fine. I am not expecting you would use it to play duets with someone else, it is not wide enough.
The console itself feels reasonably solid. The pedals have an adjuster screw that rests on the floor so that you don't bend everything while pressing the pedals. The back board feels a bit flimsy. It is very thin, and I am not sure it has any structural reason being there.
Obviously, it's not the same sturdiness as an upright, nor is it as shiny, but it doesn't feel too cheap either. There is a sliding key cover to protect the keys from dust and other things.
Due to the light weight compared to an upright, you can move it around a room easily. On carpet you can move it one side at a time by yourself, but on hardwood, I would get help to avoid scratching the floor.
I found the pedals require a bit of force to operate. To avoid damage to the unit, you need to make sure the adjuster makes contact with the floor.
4) The action
I was surprised how close the action felt to my upright. Except for the "let-off" (right before the hammer takes off, you feel some resistance on the key) which you won't feel on a digital, the feel is really good. I would say it is lighter than an upright, but I am not sure it is lighter than a grand. So if you move from this digital to an upright, you will need more force, but if you move to a grand, it will likely be similar.
The keys are sensitive to velocity and again here, I am surprised how good it is. You can press very lightly and get a pp or press fast and you will get a ff. It feels easier to control the dynamics than on an acoustic (where it is probably not as linear, I guess), thus when moving to an acoustic, you will need some adjustment. Playing pianissimo on acoustics is one of the difficult things to do.
On an acoustic, you can miss a key by not hitting it fast enough. The hammer barely moves and doesn't strike the strings. On this model, you can miss a key as well, if you hit below a minimum velocity it will not produce any sound. As with a real piano too, the sound is only produced when you reach the bottom of the key.
There are 3 key sensitivity settings. I liked to set it to "hard" so it feels a bit like my upright and allows for more expressive control.
5) The sound
I really liked the sound of the "piano 1" voice. Of course, it is a digital piano, so you will not get the full richness and amplitude of a real piano, and on the upper registers, there is a bit of an "electronic" feel to the sound. Damper resonance also adds another bit of electronic feel to the upper notes, though with chords on the lower registers, it sounds pretty good. It actually sounds better than my upright (crisper sound, and always in tune) and I have seen a couple of uprights in my family that just sound horrible. The 2 speakers have a power of 40 W and they are loud enough so that you won't need to push the volume to the maximum.
Piano 2 sounds more "muffled" than Piano 1. You can adjust how bright you want the piano to be, between "mellow" and a few degrees up to "bright".
I found the soft pedal effect a bit light by default, but this can be changed in the settings to get a more pronounced effect. The middle pedal is "sostenuto" introduced by Steinway a while back, which I think is some gimmick since most repertoire comes from Europe.
The sustain pedal retains notes shorter than a typical upright (which would retain for something like 15-20 seconds). I measured 15 seconds on the leftmost note and 10 seconds for the middle C. This brings a clearer and less muddled sound, but on the other hand, you lose a bit of amplitude with that. I couldn't find an advanced setting. It would have been nice if Yamaha provided it, especially since the settings system based on sections and sub sections allows for adding settings without extra buttons on the unit.
6) The fun
It's always nice to have a few more voices, like organ and harpsichord. You can play Bach the way it sounded when he was alive, or imagine yourself in a church playing the organ. I care less about the "strings" voice, the "guitar" or the "choir" though.
One of the more interesting aspects of a digital piano is the ability to instantly record and play. The keyboard has memory for 3 user songs, and you can plug in a USB drive to store up to 100 songs on it. You can transfer songs back and forth between the user memory and the USB drive.
For practicing, you can record one hand, then listen to it and play the other hand. Or, you can record the "piano 1" part of a 2 piano piece, have the digital piano play it for you while you play the "piano 2" part along. During playback, you can adjust tempo so that you can practice slowly and increase the speed as you feel more comfortable. I find this increasingly useful for working on 2 piano pieces, piano duets, or working with one hand at a time.
I can imagine a whole lot of possibilities with educational software using MIDI. I am sure the software could record yourself, measure your accuracy, compare your playing against a reference, and ask you to practice various exercises.
Another bonus is the ability to play silently and use headphones. You need a 1/4" headphone jack. If your headphone has a 1/8' jack, you can buy a 1/8" to 1/4" converter.
The unit comes with 50 preloaded songs, as well as a sheet music book for these songs. They range from beginner (a few) to intermediate and advanced. Yamaha included many classics: Arabesque No 1 by Debussy, some Chopin Etudes, the Raindrop Prelude, the Moonlight Sonata. They will keep you busy for quite a while.
7) Playback and the pedal
The pedal gets recorded for each part independently (recorded songs can have "left" and "right" parts), and at playback it almost behaves like I have two pianos. I can play along with the pedal, and the pedal only applies to what I am playing, not to what the digital piano plays back. Damper resonance on the other hand applies to everything that is being played. I have yet to see how this behaves with piano software on the PC. I am guessing the pedal changes from the separate parts will get merged by the software. Or, I would have to use a MIDI editor to extract the left and right tracks, play them separately and then merge the resulting wave files so that it feels like there are 2 pianos playing.
8) Other considerations
Unlike an acoustic piano, where you can get a tuner to come by to your house, open the panels, and tune it, voice it, regulate it, etc. on site, for a digital piano, in case of problems, you would need to ship it to Yamaha. The manufacturer's warranty for this model is a 3 year limited parts and labor warranty, according to Yamaha's web site. Stores may offer an extended warranty which covers shipping. Considering the weight of the item and how much it might cost to ship, this might not be a bad idea.
Another consideration is reliability. Since this model just appeared on the market a year ago, I cannot have a record of how it will deal with use and abuse, repeated use of the pedal, hitting some chords hard, plugging/unplugging the headphone jack many times. I trust Japanese products and I am hoping the quality is there.
9) MIDI
There are 2 MIDI connectors, one for in, one for out. There are quite a few options available to configure MIDI, the channels, the control mode, and so forth.
You should use only the Yamaha UX-16 USB to MIDI interface. I tried the Roland UM-One and it skipped notes. The Yamaha USB to MIDI cable works flawlessly. It may be more expensive than other cables but at least you know that it will work because it is from the same brand. Of course, MIDI should be a standard, but I don't know whether the problem is with Roland or Yamaha not being totally compliant with the MIDI specification.
10) The verdict
I hope this review will be useful as I have been quite frustrated with the lack of real reviews on this product on this Internet. Most information I found is the same description, likely translated from Japanese, that says things like "for the beginner and the experienced player alike, this piano will provide playing pleasure, blah blah ...", pretty much copied/pasted everywhere. Obviously this is an expensive product sold in limited numbers, so that plays a factor in the lack of reviews.
Although I am giving it a very favorable review, in the end you should try it out for yourself in a real store before buying online. Feel the touch, listen if you like the sound, bring to the store a flash drive and record on it, then play the resulting MIDI file on a PC, etc.
The good
Crisp, clear sound, good volume
Strong bass
Two kinds of pianos, plus organ, harpsichord, and other goodies (choir, guitar, anyone?)
Action feels similar to real piano, not too springy
Good control over dynamics (key sensitivity)
Half pedal capability
Ability to use headphones for practicing at night
Ability to record and replay, on internal memory or using USB flash drive
Ability to transfer MIDI songs to PC and replay with high quality virtual piano software
50 songs to listen to, plus the sheet music for these
The bad
Bench is narrow
Music rest is a bit narrow too, makes it a bit clumsy to keep an "accordeon" style sheet music in place (I do that for pieces up to 6 pages)
Back panel is very thin
Wish there was a real screen like the more expensive Clavinovas
On the upper registers, the sound feels a bit "electronic", especially with damper resonance enabled
Wish there was a bit more volume on the upper registers
Pedals a bit tough to operate (but it's like a new car, you get used to it pretty quickly)
Might be expensive to repair with shipping
Buy Yamaha ARIUS YDP-181 Electronic Piano with Bench ,Rosewood Now
After comparing many Roland, Casio and Yamaha models, this is the one I settled on and couldn't be happier about it. I played the piano from about age 6 through high school and I wanted to get back into it.Of all the Roland/Casio/Yamaha models I tested in person, this Yamaha in particular had the best "feel" of a real piano. It lacks some of the electronic/midi compatibility of the Casio AP620, but in terms of the build quality and the feel of a real piano, the YDP-181 is the clear winner.
It is more sturdily built than both the 161 and the 141, and the key action of the 181 is also better than both the 161 and 141. I'd highly recommend spending the few hundred extra dollars if you can afford it.
Read Best Reviews of Yamaha ARIUS YDP-181 Electronic Piano with Bench ,Rosewood Here
In case anyone is interested in more information about the bench that is included... The piano and bench come together in one box, and the bench is Yamaha BC-100DR.Want Yamaha ARIUS YDP-181 Electronic Piano with Bench ,Rosewood Discount?
First off, you are paying for the cabinet here in the price. For what you get, it is arguably a good deal, but remember you can pick up a P-155 with identical key feel, GHE (Which is the same as GH per the Yamaha website), and AWM sound. It is less money, and portable.If you are looking for an authentic feel and sound you will not go wrong here, it is an amazing value if you need the cabinet with touch/sound, but check out the P-155 as well!
"I am a Piano Teacher and Performer Check me out on YouTube Jonathan Bobal"
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