Alrighty.., here are my initial thoughts on the Yamaha NP-30. I've been bangin on it for the last hour. First let me address an issue with MusiciansFriend. Them not telling my wife they're delaying the shipping was bad enough. Well it arrives today via UPS "luckily in one piece!" The box (which is odd) had no damage at all.

Well I'm all excited seeing the box isn't damaged, and can't wait to rip it open. So I open the box and do the usual.. **keyboard in good shape not broken missing keys or buttons ect..CHECK, manual and music rest in box.. CHECK, (all is looking good so far), next.., adapter--WTF! They forgot to ship the adapter So now I find myself ripping batteries out of remotes, and my daughters toys just to test the thing and make sure it works

I called MusiciansFriend (dreaded the call.., as they are a pain in the ass to deal with). The adapter is supposed to be included. This however varies by where you live as well. Here in the USA the adapters are supposed to be included with the unit. Well MusiciansFriend somehow ordered a good number of them (that DO NOT include the adapter in the box). The guy blamed it on Yamaha, and I said no, it's MusiciansFriend's fault for ordering the wrong bloody units, and clearly they ordered the wrong damn units as the box it ships in even says "adapter not included"--they of course have to honor their advertising of "included adapter" It's posted on their website, in the catalog, and sales reps say it's included. If it wasn't included it would be listed under optional accessories--which they do not have it listed. Long story short, now I gotta wait till next week to get it--that's IF they don't delay the shipping of this small and minute item due to their wharehouse moving. Anywho, I got batteries in the thing so here are my thoughts.

Key Action: I'm going to start with the key action as this is a BIG advertised feature of the NP-30. I LOVE THE ACTION!!! For me that action is PERFECT. It's got a semi-weighted feel, and YES those keys ARE graded! You can feel the difference. THESE KEYS ARE NOT THE SAME KEYBED ON THE DGX AND YPG MODELS. There is clearly more resistance on the lower register and it gets lighter as you go up the keys. It's not a typical weighted action either. However, it responds well to playing. I was testing it with fast runs of some classical songs, and boy did it feel nice. So in a nutshell.., I LOVE THE ACTION. It works for me.., but doesn't mean it will work for everyone else.

COSMETICS: A very beautiful and sleek digital piano. It's not little either. This puppy is 49 inches long! BUT and a big BUT.., this freakin thing is LIGHT! The weight of the keyboard and box together for shipping was 21 pounds. Geez that's light for a digital (with speakers) and 76 graded keys! The piano weighs in at a very easy to carry 12 pounds. Yamaha even put a nice burgundy (not sure I spelled that right) strip of felt at the back of the keys that give it more of a piano look. Overall it's a very attractive looking digital.

SPEAKERS: These speakers ARE NOT quiet. I turned the volume up a good ways (mind you I'm using batteries too.., so the output will be less), and that NP-30 belted out some serious sound that I didn't expect. My daughter didn't waste anytime saying "Daddy turn it down". The guy who reviewed this model for MusiciansFriend was right. DO NOT STAND overtop of this digital to play it. The speakers on this are designed so that the "sweet spot" is directed at the player "while seated". I noticed a difference between the sound when standing and sitting.

SOUNDS: Well there's just a few sounds on the unit--10 I think. The first sound "Grand Piano 1" is freakin beautiful. That piano IMO does sound like the piano on the Yamah P series of digital pianos. It has a very nice warm sound when played softly and pops with brightness when you play with more passion. The second piano is also nice. It's a little brighter.

The EP's (2) of them.. They're typical Yamaha EP's They sound very good too. The first one sounds like the Yamaha Galaxy EP, and the second favors a rhodes. Both also respond to velocity switching

Organs..., I ain't gonna use em PERIOD. Don't rely on this unit for organ sounds. There's two of them, one sounds like a reed organ, and the other is your classic pipe or church organ.

Harpsichords.., they sound very nice. Again there's two of them. Both have a good sound, and the second one is correct in that there is no "velocity sens." to it--likes it's supposed to be

Strings.., well there's one string voice. This is NOT a solo voice by any means. The string voice on this units sole purpose IMO would be for dual voice piano/strings

Vibes., ahhh they're nice, but nothing to really get your drawers in a bunch over. Sound like typical Yammie vibes, and would favor well with some jazzy tunes.

There are some other good feature about this model that you DO NOT really see from looking at it. There are many functions done through holding a button, and pressing a key on the keybed. Way more functions than I expected it to have too. There are several reverb types with adjustable reverb depth. When using dual, you can set the octave and balance of each voice. There are several touch response settings. The metronome has multiple time sigs and you can adjust the volume blah blah blah, even goes into some good midi settings.

Overall this is one hell of a nice digital for less than $300. I'm shocked Yammie put a price tag of less than $300 on this thing. Judging by the sounds, and available options on this model (especially when you taking into consideration the entirely new keybed design) I would have expected Yamaha to put a tag on this puppy of at least $499

In conclusion WELL WORTH EVERY PENNY SPENT! When that freakin adapter gets here I'll be midi'd up and ready to go. **dumbasses**

Oh almost forgot.. I now have to buy a new sustain pedal. I have an older Yamaha (cheapo) sustain pedal that shipped in the survival pack of my old PSR-550. This pedal doesn't seem to do a polarity reverse. The NP-30 will allow you to reverse a pedals polarity--if the pedal has the capability.

If you can..., check one of these babies out. For those of you looking for a good set of keys to add to an existing keyboard. I think you'd like this model... It makes the keys on Yammies typical PSR models look..., well I won't go into that to avoid any hurt feelings

Squeak


[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 08-09-2007).]

Hi! Thank you very much for the review. Could you please record a demo of all the sounds?

Thanks.

I'm gonna try and get some demos down this weekend. I've got a busy few days ahead with the resturaunt. We've got a whole new accounting system that all of us managers are learning, plus we've got some equipment issues we're dealing with. So I hope to have some up by Sunday (my day off)

What sucks is I'm running the damn thing on batteries because they forgot to ship the adapter, and the freakin things just died GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Squeak, many thanks for getting that review out so quickly. No doubt you'll be commenting for some time to come- if only on the Carrier -LOL!
For me this board is one option to increase the no. of notes on my Ty2 for piano playing, so I'm not particularly fussed about the voices- mainly the key feel, general build & cosmetic quality, utility etc. Mind you if say the piano voice is impressive that could be a bonus!

John

Thank you SO MUCH for the review, I've been waiting for this.


I hope that you get that adapter soon so you can tell us more about this unit.


Yeah, I'm kinda worried about that, but this won't stop me from giving this unit a try.


sweet spot..


Can't wait to hear a sound demo


Which pedal are you gonna use then? o.O

Thanks again for the review, I think I'm gonna buy this unit once I hear the sound demo and, well, once I find it on ebay.

Thanks for the review, Squeak. Enjoy your newest toy to the fullest (like you don't).

What's going to be your next acquisition?

Taike

Squeak,
Yamaha has a bad habit of hiding the power adapter in the shipping materials. Be sure you turn over every piece of styrofoam and look behind them. Turn the box and packing materials inside out. There have been several times I was certain the adapter wasn't there, and then I found it. Just a thought.
DonM

I checked man... It's not there! With the box that was shipped to me the power adapter was "not" supposed to be in it. MusiciansFriend is about to get some calls from other buyes. They got a shipment of NP-30's that say power adapter not included "on the box". The NP-30's in the USA are supposed to have the power adapter included.

I told a rep yesterday it would be in the best interest to check that entire shipment otherwise they're going to get a lot of phone calls on each one sold.

Now I'm having problems getting the keyboard to reverse the polarity on a Yamaha sustain pedal. Got it working "once" yesterday, and now it won't do it. It took 50 tries to get it to work yesterday too.

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 08-10-2007).]

Also the really odd thing is that I'm using a YAMAHA sustain pedal. This is the sustain pedal that shipped with my PSR-550. Never had to do a polarity reverse with it. I currently used the pedal with my Roland RS-70, and it reverses the polarity with no problem. Worked once on the NP, and now it won't. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I'll be calling Yamaha in an hour or so.

when I received my shipment of NP-30's there was an additional brown box with 12 PA-5 power adapters. These are the "included" adapters. The keyboard does not come with an adapter but the US distributor decided to include one at the same $299 MAP price. The PA-5 is the more powerful adapter. Yamaha also makes a PA-3 which will work but can cause "brown outs" (distortion) is you use it. You don't need to tear the box apart, you will never find it there! (should have bought it from my store.....you would have received an adapter!)


------------------
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

Goerge, I mean no disrespect, but I'm not the one who ordered the unit. It was a gift from my wife. Also, I know you have great service, that's never been in question, but please understand my reasons for not ordering from you.

You are on the west Coast in Cali. I live on the east coast. I "do not" buy items such as keyboards and have them shipped from coast to coast. It's just way too risky given the "package damage" reputation all the companies out there have (FedEx included). There are many more hands and fork-lifts that package will go through during the delivery.

I normally order from Zzounds.com They have always been very good to me, and resolve customer issues with no problems. MusiciansFriend is just shitty period. I've always thought they were. I don't fault my wife for buying from them either. It was a gift to me, plus she got it 12 months no interest.

I AM PSYCHED. There I am in McCook, Nebraska, driving through this afternoon, and I see Hershberger Music Co. I figure why not go in, and THERE IT IS. The axe I've been waiting for. The Yamaha NP-30. I played it was blown away immediately. Great sounds, LIGHT AS CAN BE and classy looking. And at 330 or so bucks an amazing bargain. Not to mention a rare fit for a Honda with no fold-down backseat. Upon a brief playing period I was wowed by the sounds. The above review is accurate in the relative value of the sounds, I think, as well as the impressive features for such an inexpensive thing. I'm thinking WHY HAVEN'T I SEEN THIS BEFORE? IN LA? NYC? BOSTON? It seems it's a new model, and I've no doubt it's gonna sell big. The perfect instrument to keep in your room at all times. Haven't plugged it into a sound system so I can't speak for that (but I have a gig in Denver this Saturday so we'll find out.) Thanks, Yamaha!

I've been following this thread with interest, the Yamaha NP-30 has some very useful assests, ultra light, portable, convincing piano tone. I'd really like to hear some follow up comments from you guys who've been play testing this model. Squeak_D on another thread you mention a design flaw with this model? Hissing on some of the higher keys? Any one else noticed this? Is this maybe with battery useage, my personal interest is using the NP-30 in a Big Band set up where portability and storage can be a big issue. Feedback much appreciated.

I've sold more than 30 of these and although Squeak and I went over the slight high pitch squeal that both his and my demo unit both produced, I found this noise to be so faint that I had to put my ears right at the speaker to notice it at all. I've not had one single customer notice this and all are thrilled with the NP-30. It's possible that Yamaha has corrected this but I can't know for sure without opening up new inventory and I'm selling so many right now for XMAS that I can't change out my demo for a new one until after the holidays.

------------------
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

I had an NP30 on my sample account when Squeak e-mailed me about the noise he heard in his piano.

Try as I might, I could hear no noise whatsoever in the unit I had, and my hearing is very good.

Ian

So this sounds like an issue that is'nt affecting all of the NP-30's or possibly Yamaha have corrected this issue. If the issue is just with the internal speakers i don't see this as a biggy as we'd be using it through a PA.

Some units are more affected than others. If there wasn't a problem then Yamaha Japan wouldn't have shipped parts to the USA to repair my NP-30 and others who have reported the same problem. My unit will be shipped shortly for a warranty repair.

Squeak

Whats do you expect for a entry level low priced unit! These boards cost Yammy about 50 bucks to make if that.....cant expect the world....but if you can make music with it & it makes you happy ...so be it.

There are so many other decent choices for a few bucks more.

There's always the Casio PX-200...88 keys, 128 note polyphony...MIDI in/out.

Casio weighs 12 kg...or 26.4 lbs, still pretty lightweight for 88 notes.

It also has Line out R L/Mono standard jacks.

Great deal...cool piano.

Ian

And the PX200 has USB and SD card slot for song playback of 16 track standard midi files. It can also use 3 pedals if you wish and it has 20 auto accomp. styles to play as an arranger keyboard.

------------------
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

Is it possible to split the keyboard? and have two different sounds playing on the lower and upper part? Like on some of the P series pianos?

Doc-Z

Yes, Doc...you can split the PX-200's keyboard and have a sound on each side.

Ian

You can also specify the split point.

Hello all,

I found your board while researching for a keyboard purchase. Though I teach music/performing arts in the elementary school, I am not a musician. Please check out my public speaking website if you wish.

I am also researching EDUCATIONAL material for teaching keyboards. We just received a KEYBOARD CLASSROOM of Yamaha keyboards, (haven't opened the boxes yet, so don't even know what I will have available) I do play piano well enough to be able to teach the beginner material, but I am totally ignorant of the great things that should be available on the internet for teaching AND learning how to play the keyboard. My last piano lessons were in 1966, so there weren't many MIDI connections around.

The person who wrote the review of the lightweight yamaha keyboard gave such good information, i was hoping someone could inform me of what was out there in the software world for composing and playing onkeyboards.

Specific questions...is there composing software that is good...any programs that play chords to accompany a melody? or show up music on a monitor? any recommendations? I have sony audio forge software, and some other things i have never used. Any recommendations for getting "sheet music" for a monitor at affordable prices?

I will be happy to give back any information I learn when I have a chance to work with the Music in Education software....and sorry for the thread hi-jack.

I have used Band In A Box for many years and suggest you take a look at www.pgmusic.com
There are Video Tutorials to give you an idea if the program is what you are looking for.
BIAB can create a complete song with chords & melody within 10 seconds, you can input your own chords also. It has a good improvisation feature that will solo around a given melody.

thanks, I have looked at it and will check it out more as i learn more.
.