hello, ujiie here. i have a cp4 stage here for you today. as far as yamaha electric pianos go, this is the newest model. and already i'm head over heels for this thing! a few times already, i've used this on stage, in gigs, etc. i've tested it out in the real world. it's great! could you tell from me playing just then, what can i say, the keys are so good, it's like
an extension of your fingers! the level of expression you can put into your playing, like with this piano sound... ...such silky smooth dynamics. it really feels so good! i think you get what i'm trying to say here. very nice! ok, so the uh, cp4 stage, the sound i'm playing now is called cfx grand,
the cfx being yamaha's top of the line grand piano, a concert grand piano. and it's no exaggeration to say that they've perfectly nailed that sound right here. it's fantastic! and what's more, i uh, ok the panel here, you've got various controls, over here, the voice category buttons.
acoustic piano 1. cfx. by the way... the cfx piano sound, using the "stereo" version now. lots of variations though. monaural version, etc. a kinda dark one there. a compressed one.
a flat-tuning one. you've got stretch-tuning, flat-tuning... lots of variations. 15 in all. so it's on acoustic piano, group one now. cfx, right? let's try group two. ok. uh, acoustic piano 2. and doing so, we get cf. the cf too,
another of yamaha's grand pianos. it's got a different character. right? let's go back to cfx. do you hear the difference? it's like, can pianos really be this different? yeah. i really, really like these sounds! cfx and cf. and, there's one more acoustic piano. the s6, which is a smaller grand piano.
the s6. this one sounds more, what, woody? this one's really nice too! uh, as i said before, each of these, cfx, cf, s6 has 15 variations ready for you to use. you've got three grand pianos here, inside this thing! if you had to put a price on it,
i don't even want to think about it, honestly! astronomical. and on we go, electric pianos next. first up, a 1971 rhodes. this! now that's what i'm talking about! like an extension of your fingers. oh by the way the cp4 stage has wooden keys. see? keys made of wood.
could you see? now, the 1971 rhodes, that one still had the fender logo on it. pure vintage, from that era. if we look at the variations, next is a '73 rhodes. you hear the difference, right? ah this, this right here!! that metal feeling, the way the hammer strikes, it's different. '75.
oohh this is nice too. the '75 rhodes is one that i actually owned. that brings back memories. same sound!!! spot on! now, another thing, there are no steps here, uh, samples... uh like velocity-switched samples, not even an issue! each and every of the 127 midi velocities seamlessly and smoothly flow right into each other. that's why the dynamics are so darn good.
next, a '78 rhodes. ah, here, you hear it? hear the difference? the top register, especially. this are here is totally different. as you go higher, the dynamics come out differently, a characteristic of the rhodes pianos. and we also have the 'dyno-my' rhodes, customized/modified rhodes pianos, the final version of the rhodes electric piano. yeah, here!
completely different. great, isn't it? super! you've also got ones with tremolo. stereo tremolo. fantastic. great variations! in the electric piano 2 group: wurlitzer. rhodes pianos use tone bars, but wurlitzers
use these uh tone things, reeds! struck steel reeds. the decay is really short, and at the top... the 'attacky' sound is very characteristic. oh, this is a 1969 wurlitzer, by the way. next, a '77 wurlitzer. the sound has more bounce to it. lots of variations on the wurlitzer sound. like this one, which has a bit of distortion.
some of the sounds have effects on them. useful for making your own sounds. this thing has a super effects processor in it! they call it the vcm effect, which perfectly captures the vintage effects units. i'll talk more about that later. next, electric piano 3. this group... ...yamaha cp and such. the cp series being representative of electric grand pianos.
very good. ok, so electric piano group 3 starts off with the cp of course, and it has variations of teh cp sound, and of course, when mentioning electric pianos, can't leave out dx! too beautiful! lots of variations.
any electric piano sound you could make on a dx7, they've got them all in here! so you've got acoustic and electric piano groups. you've got clavinets too. the clavinet sounds are really good! clavinet sounds like this, with wow-wow on them, are not the easiest to program! that's a great effect right there. the effect is touch-wow.
there are organ sounds too. the rotary effect is very well done here! very nice. on to the bottom row. synth sounds, strings and what not. choir sounds. pads. brass. guitar.
lots of different sounds. you can put those together with piano sounds. if you press two buttons at the same time, say, acoustic piano and pads. you've got instant layered sounds. very nice. and, for putting sounds together like that, there's a performance mode. so, let's check out performance sounds. the cfx grand sound, which i played at the beginning.
number 2 is '75 rhodes mw' mw meaning modulation wheel. move the mod wheel... yes! that adds delay. this is it. this!!! the next one, cf and acoustic bass. this is great! did you know i was using a secret technique just then? ok so with performance mode, you can do a few neat things.
here, the higher range is piano, step on the pedal and... you get sustain. right? but with the lower range, the bass sound, even if you step on the pedal, thre's no sustain added to it. that's a big point right there. nice little tricks like that. s6 and a pad. the s6 piano and a synth pad. ok, so let me talk about the effects processor.
can you zoom in on this here for me? for system effects, we've got reverb and chorus. those are the main ones. and, we've got part effects a and b, which work like insert effects, so for each sound, you've got two effects that you can use freely. this is really good. take this rhodes sound, uh, dyno-my. that's got some nice chorus on it, right?
what's going on here, as far as effects are concerned? ok, we've got d chorus. that's one. so let's change that, uhhh, to a phaser? here we go. ok here are the phaser effects. this one is 'small phaser.' this is really nice!
'max 90' now. max90 being an mxr 90. so with performance, you can customize the effects, and use various sneaky techniques, and put a variety of sounds together. but the acoustic piano and pad combinations, especially, are really quite exquisite. the breadth and spaciousness of this sound... so nice! another one, s6 and synth pad.
you can control the balance when you layer sounds via these sliders. you can set it how you like. you can control it live if you want. next, a combination of cfx and rhodes. a golden combination if ever there was one. beautiful! nice, isn't it? uh, a rhodes and a pad. next, s6 grand piano meets dx.
that's nice, isn't it? awesome! next, cp and dx. that's good too. i think this next feature is fantastic. take this piano. a very well-balanced cfx grand, a very nice piano. now, if we look over here on the right side, lo and behold,
something i get a lot of mileage out of: the master eq. right here. this is really powerful! low. low mid. mid. high mid. high. 5 bands in all. the low really packs a punch. i've gone to an extreme here...
the faders click in the center, which is a good general setting point. say you want to stand out a little bit more during a piano solo. no problem. you can raise the mids and highs a bit. and once your solo is done, put them back to the middle. you can do that. it doesn't change the overall volume, but it can make the sound stand out. another secret technique. don't raise it too much though, you'll hurt your ears. just use it sparingly. a little tip for you there. but it's great to have eq!
well, that's about it. the yamaha cp4 stage. i think it's really, really good! you know, as a stage piano, for acoustic and electric pianos, really there is no other choice! such attention to basic details. really, this thing is just captivating. simply amazing! and there is one more point i'd like to talk about. it's very compact even though it has 88 keys.
and even though it's such high-quality, it's really light! this is a really big point. and if you look at the rear panel, you find it has a usb port here, and xlr outputs as well. all bases covered. they did their homework. and you can record and playback audio via the player here. so, having said all that, you really need to try out a cp4 stage yourselves. check it out!
the yamaha cp4 stage! translation & captions by: swcreativejapan.
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