Piano Guidance
Piano Guidance
Photo: Myburgh Roux
Although the NWX key action is certainly not the heaviest key action in the Yamaha digital piano line-up, it is still rather heavy comparatively to many other competitive digital pianos in it's general price range and certainly much heavier than real acoustic grand pianos.
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Read More »OK, now on to the the acoustic piano sound "tonal dynamics" and expressiveness of sound along with the talking about the quality of the 256-note polyphony piano sound, the range of tonal dynamics, the organic nature of the piano sound with overtones, sympathetic vibrations, and even distribution of soft to loud without noticeable jumps in volume. The resonance and dynamic range of piano tone definitely surpasses anything Yamaha has had in the past and really gives the P-515 a personality of its own. One of the reasons for that is because Yamaha has added "sound resonance modeling technology" which fills in the "cracks" of sampling technology by adding some impressive organic quality acoustic piano tonal elements to the overall sound not found with purely Yamaha sampling technology, so this technology is a big upgrade to previous models and combines sampling and physical modeling in one piano.. The other acoustic piano sounds generally are a bit bright for me, but can be useful depending on the type of music your are playing and depending on what playing environment you're in, you may like them. But overall, I would be primarily using the Bosendorfer piano sound and CFX piano sample and then editing them to make my own variations which for me would then turn into additional piano sounds that I would also enjoy playing.The next Piano Room setting is called "Brightness" and this setting adjusts the over brightness or mellowness of the piano up or down from 0 - 10 so there is a wide range and it does have a noticeable impact on the overall piano sound as does the Lid Position. When you press the Piano Room button then in the LCD display screen you will see the first setting in the Piano Room is called "Lid Position," and you'll see a virtual piano picture with an adjustable lid position and you can set that lid with the navigation buttons on the control panel to "full, half, or closed" position and when you do that then the sound goes from fuller & brighter to mellower & muted. The next setting is called "Touch" and that function allows you to adjust the touch sensitive velocity "touch curve" with 5 different levels of key touch sensitivity from very light to very hard and that setting also has a big impact of the overall sound of the P515 and the quickness in which the piano sound comes in. However when you make an adjustment and change a level of touch, that also changes the brightness or mellowness level of the sound, but that's true on all digital pianos with this feature. The next setting is called "reverb depth" and this controls how big and long the reverb sound is going to be...how long the echo will last when you play a key when using the a piano sound. This setting is also useful and necessary to "dial in" the right amount of reverb effect for your music. Following the reverb function is "Tuning." Tuning is generally set to the normal setting A-440 and remains there and it is the default setting of the piano. However if you are playing along with another instrument that is slightly out of normal pitch or its with an instrument the plays normally in another key like a clarinet or saxophone, then the Tuning feature is useful. They include the "VRM" which is resonance modeling, "Damper Resonance" which effects the sound when using the sustain pedal, "String Resonance" which effects the sound of the virtual strings and the natural vibrations you would get from piano strings when playing, followed by "Aliquot Resonance," "Body Resonance," and "Key Off sample." Also in the Piano Room settings is "Half-pedal Point" which allows you to modify and control the way the sustained piano sound comes in when using the proper single pedal or adding the optional triple pedal unit to the P515. Otherwise it has no effect with the included piano pedal that comes with the P515. So when you need to make relatively quick changes to your piano sound the the "Piano Room" button is what you press to do that and then scroll down to the function you want to change/edit to customize your piano sound.Having a 1/2-damper sustain pedal is important if you want a more realistic piano playing experience like you would get on a real acoustic piano. You could purchase a separate single pedal by Yamaha that would trigger this important function but unfortunately Yamaha does not include that pedal with the P515 (a way to get you to spend more money). The triple pedal furniture style unit for the P515 is called the LP1 and it costs $75 to add to the P515. With regard to the single pedal that comes with the piano, although it's a good pedal, it does not trigger the "half-damper" pedal effect which allows for a variable amount of sustain when pressing the pedal down based on the position of the pedal. The furniture stand (L515) will cost you $130 but it will make the P515 look more like a piano as opposed to buying a metal x-stand or z-stand and it's actually fairly attractive and stable. If you simply want a single pedal and need the half-damper sustain ability which I recommend to everyone regardless of your playing skill level, then you can purchase the Yamaha FC3A sustain pedal for approx $42. The beauty of the piano sound is not only determined by the original piano sound sample but also by the ability of the piano sound to have a long and resonant sustain/decay time which means the piano sound (the notes you play) will sustain for a long period of time when holding down the pedal just as it would in a real acoustic piano. This has been a major issue in the past for Yamaha because most all of their digital pianos had very short, unrealistic sustain/decay times that made the piano playing sound somewhat choppy and artificial. The P-515 technology has taken care of these past issues and now the sustain time, sustain volume, and sustained tone are very impressive and very natural across the keyboard. Using the new piano sound chip with the 256-note polyphony power and better sound samples, the piano sound, particularly the Bosendorfer piano sound, is quite pleasing to the ear and the piano sound is much better than in the past, especially when using the sustain half-damper pedal with all those sustained piano sound nuances.The white keys are made of wood but the black keys are still all-plastic. The white keys have smooth-top synthetic ivory-feel surfaces on them to enhance the tactile feel of those keys and the black keys have a smooth-top matte black finish to them which is quite nice and feels good to the fingers. When it comes to having a great piano playing experience in this price range, it is the key action that can make or break a digital piano, and the P515 is no exception. Yamaha has replaced the previous plastic piano weighted key action (called GH) that was in the former P255 with a new wooden key action in the under-$2000-price-range called NWX. The key action is stable and quiet when the keys are moving and Yamaha has has a fairly good reputation out there for reliable key actions over the years. With this NWX key action in a portable digital piano under $2000 you would think that having all-wood white keys would be a very big thing, especially considering that no other portable digital piano under $2000 has this feature. There's also an "escapement feature" in the key action which tries to re-create the experience you might get on a grand piano when pressing the keys very lightly. You're supposed to feel a noticeable hesitation or "notch" in the movement of the key about 1/2 way to 3/4 way down in the key travel as you press the keys all the way down, but in the P-515 NWX action that "notched feeling" is fairly light so you don't notice it much, even when playing lightly/softly. When you play the keys with just slightly more force you then don't notice this escapement function at all. So as far as I am concerned this escapement feature has little impact one way or the other on your piano playing. The letter "X" in NWX stands for the "escapement" (aka: let-off) in the key action. But there is one major caveat to this key action (both black & white keys) and one that a person might not expect, and that is the keys are unusually heavy (firm) to press down with the fingers. In other words, when you are playing your music on the P515, the keys take a lot of extra effort (force) to press down, especially as compared to a good acoustic upright or grand piano or any of the other self-contained portable digital pianos out there including Roland, Korg, Casio, Kawai, and a few others. I am not saying that this NWX key action is unplayable because it is definitely playable for some people. But at least for me and many people I know who play well, I am definitely not a fan of the way the key action feels/moves in the P515.When I strike the key harder then I want a lot of quick movement (without being too quick) and for the key action to allow me to be expressive. To that end it is well known that the "weight" of the keys in going down and coming back up is referred to as "static and/or dynamic down-weight" and "up-weight" (resistance). When I play music on a piano I want to be able to express myself musically without an undue amount of effort. When I want to play a light, soft passage of music I want to be able to press the key easily without too much force and yet have it come back up quickly so I can play faster and more lightly. This force or weight is measurable and done in grams. In fact, qualified piano technicians are able to set up an acoustic grand or upright piano action to perform at proper standards by adjusting the key weight going down and coming back up. The keys themselves have no weight or resistance in them because they are (by themselves out of the piano) very light...they are just plastic and light wood material. It's the added weight inside the keys or attached to the key action that gives the keys their "weight" or firmness. But...generally speaking, the static down-weight of a key at middle C should be approx 50-60 grams (generally speaking) and the up-weight measurement when the key is coming back up should be about 25-35 grams (generally speaking) in a good acoustic piano. A top end acoustic grand piano, like a Yamaha grand, would be on the lower end of those gram measurementsFor digital pianos, since key actions are definitelyadjustable in terms of the physical weight or movement like they are in regular acoustic pianos, whatever key action movement you get in a digital piano cannot be physically altered...it is permanent. However, you can electronically adjust the "touch sensitivity curve" of the key action which makes the sound come in more or less quickly depending on how hard or fast you play the keys. Although the electronic adjustment does help a bit in adjusting key action sound response when pressing down the keys lightly, this does nothing to adjust the actual physical weight of the keys going down or coming up. When someone is looking for a digital piano and wants a good feeling, good moving key action, the keys should not be too heavy to push down nor they take long in coming back up but should not come back up with too much force. Since digital a piano key action's physical weight cannot be changed or adjusted at all, there is a bit more tolerance in the actual weight measurements for the digital piano keys as far as I am concerned. Instead of 50-55 grams (60 and over is generally considered a bit "heavier" in acoustic pianos) for down-weight measurement and 25-30 grams for up-weight force, I'm still OK with that down weight coming closer to under 75 grams for static key touch force going down and approx 40 to 45 grams going up...at least that's the maximum limit I would recommend where your hands and fingers don't start feeling fatigued and tired over a relatively short period of playing time. Playing the piano should be an enjoyable, comfortable experience and the key action is the main thing that will allow for you to have that experience...although piano tone and pedaling are also obviously important as well.Not only do many people get the "perception" that the keys in the P-515 are extra firm when pressing them down, but the measurable weight (based on my personal experience measuring it) is approxof static down-weight (aka: touch-weight) and approx 45 grams of up-weight when the measurement is taken on the white middle C key So where does the Yamaha NWX action weigh in when it comes to key movement and comfort along with expression? Although the NWX key action is certainly not the heaviest key action in the Yamaha digital piano line-up, it is still rather heavy comparatively to many other competitive digital pianos in it's general price range and certainly much heavier than real acoustic grand pianos. So why is this all so important? Well...it shows that the key action static down-weight (aka: touch-weight) in the NWX is about 25-30 grams heavier than the average acoustic grand piano key action and its still much heavier than the maximum digital piano key action measured at about 75 grams that I still feel comfortable with overall. the NWX key action in this particular model is noticeably heavy (especially when pressing down on the keys lightly), and for a lot of people it's going to be much too firm and possibly cause hand/muscle, finger fatigue over time...especially if your hands and/or fingers are a bit weaker. Now it is true that there are some people out there who prefer a heavier/firmer piano key action that requires a lot of finger force when the keys go down. However, that's not the way real acoustic piano key actions generally feel and the way those keys are normally weighted and balanced by a good piano technician. I frequently play real acoustic grand and upright pianos and when I go from those pianos to the NWX there is noticeable difference and my comfort level goes down when playing the P-515. When I play the Roland, Kawai, or Korg digital pianos in this price range between $1500 to $2000, those key actions are definitely lighter than Yamaha with Kawai being the lightest piano weighted action of all of them and closer to that of a real piano key action with regard to key weight in this price range. I have played hundreds of them so I know that by years of personal experience. Just because the NWX white keys (not black keys) are made of wood does not necessarily mean that the wood keys move and are weighted like real acoustic pianos, because they are not. Also the keys are not full length grand piano size keys but instead they have a key movement in terms of weight distribution from the front of each key to the back of each key more closely associated with upright pianos, which have completely different key balance than grand pianos. But the bottom line for the NWX key action is...the keys are noticeably firmer and there is nothing you can do to modify the physical weight of the keys. What you get is what you will have...permanently. Again, you may be one of those people who might prefer a firm key action like this one. But if you are like many other people, you may possibly not like it near as much because it can become fatiguing for your hands & fingers and less enjoyable to play over time...and it's not only because you may have weaker hands/fingers than others...it's also because good acoustic & digital pianos are not usually weighted that way because of the way piano playing technique should be applied to your music and expression. I do want to point out again that you can change the electronic key touch to "lighter of even heavier" and when you get the P515 it defaults to medium touch sensitivity. If you change it to light or lighter electronic touch then that can help the perception of the keys feeling lighter because the piano sound comes in more quickly. But that does not change the actual key weight and as I mentioned earlier it's much more noticeable when playing the keys lightly and softly. Also, when you change the touch sensitivity curve from medium to light or lighter this also slightly changes the tonal dynamics of the piano sound when playing softer because the piano sound automatically comes in initially somewhat brighter in tone...that's just the way it works. So when you change touch sensitivity curve it is also changing the piano tone as well and boosting brightness artificially along with the piano sound coming in more quickly than normal because the touch is set to "light" or even "lighter." When you experience this for yourself you will know better what I am talking about.The rest of them are noticeably brighter. There are 7 electric piano sounds including vintage tones from the Wurlitzer electric, Rhodes, and DX7 among others and they're all quite good and usable whether playing them individually or layered with other instrument sounds. There are 6 organ tones including pop, jazz, and pipe organs and all are very good along with a couple of very nice harpsichords, vibes, and clavichord. String and choir sounds are Let's move on to the other instrument sounds in the P-515. There are 10 acoustic piano sounds or variations of acoustic pianos including bright piano, studio piano, rock piano, honky-tonk, and others. Unless you are playing in a rock band or you love honky-tonk music and know how to play it, in my opinion (as I previously mentioned) the 3 main usable acoustic piano sounds include the CFX, Bosendorfer, and Ballad acoustic Those 2 guitar sound samples are really enjoyable to play (you can hear picking and organic string squeaks, etc) and there are lots of ways to edit them (along with the other sounds) so that you can add special effects, adjust relative volume when layering or splitting sounds, add or subtract brightness, reverb, and change octaves, among other things. So there are a total of 40 proprietary instrument sounds along with an additional 480 XG voices which is a large library of instrumental tones that covers all the bases including horns, woodwinds, percussion such as marimba, xylophone, etc, reeds, guitars, synths, special sound effects and other tones. However, this Yamaha XG sound library is something that Yamaha has had for many years in a number of their digital pianos and it's a mixed bag of sounds with some of them being quite good, others average, and still others are poor (fake) in terms of reproducing the actual instrument sound. It just depends on what sound you need and how you'll be using it. I am the kind of person who likes to experiment with mixing two instrument sounds together in a layer or even a split as well as combine tones in ways that make music more interesting. With all the XG instrument sounds and the 40 main sampled instrument tones, there are literally thousands of tonal combination possibilities. But for now you just need to know that the most important sounds in the P515 are the 40 instrument sounds I previously mentioned and the ability to quickly layer or split them depending on how you want to use those sounds..When playing any non-acoustic instrument sound on the P-515, whether it's guitars, strings, choirs, clarinets, electric pianos, synths, or whatever it may be, those actual instruments have light playing key actions and you don't have to play hard to get expression out of those instruments. In fact, I personally play and teach guitar & organ (along with piano) and I play those instruments very well. One of the most irritating things a guitar player can have happen on his guitar is a hard to play guitar action where it require pressing down the strings very hard on the fretboard to get the right notes and do it quickly and smoothly. A high (or hard) action on a guitar just gets in the way of guitar playing...at least it does for most guitar players. As far as the the instrument sounds go, you can layer/mix any two of them together for a more exciting playing enjoyment as well as electronically split the keyboard into two separate sound parts with being able to assign one sound to the left hand and a So when playing any of those sounds on the P-515 I found that it was not conducive to having an enjoyable playing experience and much more difficult to control light, quick touch. You can manage a bit better with the acoustic piano sounds because you may be able to adapt to the extra firm (hard) NWX key action for piano playing...but not so much when using the other instrument sounds...it just doesn't allow for a more delicate or subtle touch, especially when using most of those other instrument sounds...whether they are part of the 40 proprietary tones or they are part of the XG sound library. So what I am saying is... I wish Yamaha had designed the P-515 NWX key action in this model to be much lighter than it is so the playing experience, especially when using non-acoustic pianos sounds, would be more realistic and enjoyable to play since getting expression out of those instruments is otherwise a lot more difficult to do, particularly when playing the keys more softly and gently.When it comes to using the non-piano instrument sounds on digital pianos, it's very common to want to use those sounds either by themselves (like organ, synth, strings, pads, choirs, French horns, etc) as well as combine/layer any one of the instrument sounds with the acoustic piano sound such as Bosendorfer piano with strings, Yamaha CFX acoustic piano with choir, etc. I personally love many different styles and types of music including classical piano, orchestral, symphony, jazz, Latin, pop, rock, oldies, country, western, blues, Christian, world music, and so on, and like playing all these styles on the piano. I also play guitar & organ, as well as synth so I like some of those sounds as well. For more advanced players like myself who have had previous experience playing many digital pianos, I enjoy being able to layer/mix 2 different sounds together for an even more enjoyable musical experience. In other words, when you play a piano sound, that piano note(s) will fade out over a relatively short amount time when holding down any key or holding down the sustain pedal...that's normal. However, when layering/mixing any two sounds together such as the popular layer of piano + strings, electric piano + pad, organ + choir, the layered 2nd sound such as strings, organ, pads, choirs, etc should keep playing & sustaining (being heard) while the piano percussive sounds fades out when holding down a single sustain pedal. the synths and/or pads keep sustaining while the pedal is being held down, even though the piano sounds do decay and fade out when playing. If the piano sounds never decayed when holding the sustain pedal down and they stayed on all the time, the sound would be a big mess. So...with most digital piano brands, when holding down the sustain pedal and mixing 2 great sounds together like piano + strings, the pianos will fade out as normal but the strings will keep on being heard as long as you hold down your sustain pedal. This is commonly referred to as "Pedal Hold" in digital pianos. The piano sound (or other percussive sound) needs to work like a piano and the layered tones need to work like they would in real life where the strings do not decay, the choir does not decay (fade out), the organs keep sustaining, On the P-515 all sounds, regardless of what they are, play just like the piano sounds...they fade out pretty quickly with continuing to hold down the sustain pedal. For me this is disappointing because I like to play some of those other tones whether individually or mixed/layered. When I do this on the P515 the result is very unnatural and not all all like it would be when playing those instruments. However, if you hold down the keys with your fingers and don't use the pedal then the other instrument tones (strings, choirs, synths, organs) with sustain continuously as long as you continue holding down the keys/notes. But that is not a good solution because that is not how most people would be playing and it doesn't work very well. For many people who just mainly play piano and seldom use the other tones or seldom do any layering/mixing of sounds, then this limitation will likely not affect you or be an issue at all. But for people like me who do use a lot of the other tones and also do layering of 2 sounds together at the same time such as CFX grand piano and concert strings, then this type of thing may annoy you as it does me. I don't have this issue at all with the other major brands as I said...just Yamaha. It is interesting to note that although the acoustic piano sound technology is very good in the P-515 along with other percussive sounds such as harpsichords, vibes, guitars, etc, the technology for the sustaining legato instrument sounds such as organs, strings, choirs, pads, etc, is no impressive at all. I thought that these instrumental tones would be as lifelike as the pianos are with no sampled loops being heard. But unfortunately the sample loops of those other sounds are so short that you hear a very noticeable repeat loop about once every second or so when holding down a note as you are playing any of those sounds. In other words, when those sound samples are done on those sounds (strings, pads, organs, choirs, etc), that sound sample is not called a "sample" for nothing. It is indeed just a very small slice of the full original sound. In the case of the choir sound, as an example, what Yamaha does is give you approx a 1 second sound sample of choir and then they loop that 1 second sound in a continuous circle so that when you hold down a key and play that sound you will continually If Yamaha at least provided the option to have the sustain pedal trigger continuous sustain for the other sustaining type sounds, then that would fix the issue. Kawai provides that option so I know it can be done, but Yamaha does not. When I am spending $1500 on a digital piano I don't want these kinds of irritations and this certainly is one...at least it is for me. If the other brands can do it then certainly Yamaha could...but they have chosen not to and that's a bad decision as far as I am concerned.In other words, when those sound samples are done on those sounds (strings, pads, organs, choirs, etc), that sound sample is not called a "sample" for nothing. It is indeed just a very small slice of the full original sound. In the case of the choir sound, as an example, what Yamaha does is give you approx a 1 second sound sample of choir and then they loop that 1 second sound in a continuous circle so that when you hold down a key and play that sound you will continually hear it which is good, but unfortunately you also hear a repeating "beat" approx every 1 second with a start and end point, but continuous without stopping. When you sustain that tone for longer than 1 second while holding down the keys you definitely hear that artificial looped movement and unfortunately it sounds fake, especially the strings, choir, pads, etc. To me that is disappointing because the initial sound sample themselves of the organs, choirs, strings, pads, synths, and other continuous tones are impressive and sound real in terms of the instrument itself. But once you get that sustained fast loop going and hear it while playing a song and holding keys down for more than a second or two,, then it can be a big distraction and you almost don't want to use those sounds if they need to be sustained. Since Yamaha does not have continuous "pedal" sustain/hold for those sounds then that actually reduces the chance you'll hear those repetitious loops that occur in those sounds.
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Read More »Perhaps that's why Yamaha did it that way...so you don't as easily hear the extremely short loop points on those sustaining tones such as the choirs, strings, organs, pads, etc. It's too bad because as I mentioned, those instrument sounds are impressive but in reality are not very usable when sustaining them, which is what many people want to do with them. Once you start hearing those repetitious loops on those instruments then that's what you tend to focus on and it's a big distraction, at least it is for me. Sampled loops are normally found on most digital pianos but the ones on the P-515 are noticeable and annoying and for $1599 Yamaha should have done a lot better. There are a couple of other companies with sampling/physical modeling technology that don't have noticeable loops on their sounds but Yamaha is only using that technology on their piano sounds, but not the others it seems. I have a couple more concerns that I was surprised to find in this new model. Most portable digital pianos, especially in this price range, have the ability to add special effects to the instrument sound so it can be more realistic and organic and enable you to add things to the sound that can make your playing experience more enjoyable. To that end Yamaha has 3 very cool effects features called reverb (common in most digital pianos), Sound Boost (instant extra clarity and sharpness), and preset and programmable EQ (the ability to enhance the overall sound with boosting or reducing certain sound frequencies. All 3 of Once you start hearing those repetitious loops on those instruments then that's what you tend to focus on and it's a big distraction, at least it is for me. Sampled loops are normally found on most digital pianos but the ones on the P-515 are noticeable and annoying and for $1599 Yamaha should have done a lot better. There are a couple of other companies with sampling/physical modeling technology that don't have noticeable loops on their sounds but Yamaha is only using that technology on their piano sounds, but not the others it seems.To that end Yamaha has 3 very cool effects features called reverb (common in most digital pianos), Sound Boost (instant extra clarity and sharpness), and preset and programmable EQ (the ability to enhance the overall sound with boosting or reducing certain sound frequencies. All 3 of these features do a very good job of allowing you to "tweak" the overall sound coming through the speakers or through headphones and I enjoy applying those effects. There are a variety of different reverbs (echo), a variety of Sound Boost settings, and a variety of Reverb settings. But here's the weird part...there is no quick on or off button for any of these effects. There are 3 easy to see and easy to use panel buttons to access these 3 effects systems, but the buttons don't actually turn the effect on or off. Instead, when you There are 3 easy to see and easy to use panel buttons to access these 3 effects systems, but the buttons don't actually turn the effect on or off. Instead, when you press the reverb button then that button brings you to a reverb menu in the LCD user display screen. In this mode you can set what type of reverb setting you want or you can scroll to an "off" setting and turn off the reverb from there, but again, there is no instant on/off reverb button from the panel. You can also press the "Piano Room" button on the control panel and scroll down to the Reverb type and also reverb amount. You can select changes in those functions within the Piano Room such as the amount of reverb depth you will get for the particular reverb setting you previously selected (such as room, plate, concert, cathedral, etc), so that is a good thing. You can also turn the reverb off from the piano room in scrolling to the "off button " within the reverb settings there. However, as soon as you leave the Piano Room and go to another button/function, when you go back into the Piano Room to make another reverb adjustment or any other adjustment, the Piano Room functions start at the beginning again and you have to scroll back down to find reverb & reverb adjustments or other adjustments you want to do. That's definitely not an efficient or intuitive operating system but maybe Yamaha will come up with a fix for this in the future. The reverb tones themselves sound great...it's just accessing them quickly that is not great in the P515. The Sound Boost and EQ settings are great features to have on the P-515 and especially useful for pro players who like to "dial in" their sound. But unfortunately these to functions are also not especially "user friendly" in terms of controlling them and those functions are important to the overall sound. You can access both of those features from one panel button labeled "Sound Boost/EQ. means that neither function has its own button on/off button from the panel. When you press sound boost However, as soon as you leave the Piano Room and go to another button/function, when you go back into the Piano Room to make another reverb adjustment or any other adjustment, the Piano Room functions start at the beginning again and you have to scroll back down to find reverb & reverb adjustments or other adjustments you want to do. That's definitely not an efficient or intuitive operating system but maybe Yamaha will come up with a fix for this in the future. The reverb tones themselves sound great...it's just accessing them quickly that is not great in the P515.When you press sound boost button then it first takes you into the "Sound Boost" LCD menu and then you have to find the Sound Boost setting you most prefer, turn it on or off from there and then select the specific Sound Boost setting. With the EQ feature, EQ editing can be useful and definitely help with overall sound output quality and frequency range depending on your ears and what you like to hear. You can edit EQ in a number of ways including setting up your own custom EQ by changing the "user" 3 band EQ intensity which is accessed through the LCD display screen and changing the setting using the arrow navigation on the control panel to the right of the LCD screen. But again, the panel "Sound Boost/EQ" button does not turn those settings on or off and it is a separate feature from the Sound Boost function and yet they are on the same button with no main on/off button for each one. It is interesting to note that there is a button next to the Sound Boost/EQ button called "dual/split." That button is dedicated to activating and changing the instrument layer combinations along with activating and changing the split sound But again, the panel "Sound Boost/EQ" button does not turn those settings on or off and it is a separate feature from the Sound Boost function and yet they are on the same button with no main on/off button for each one. It is interesting to note that there is a button next to the Sound Boost/EQ button called "dual/split." That button is dedicated to activating and changing the instrument layer combinations along with activating and changing the split sound mode. When that dual/spit button is not lit up with a blue light then you have the single sound mode. When you press that button one time it lights up blue and you get the layer/dual sound mode with 2 instruments of your choice mixed together and you do that sound selecting from the LCD menu. When you press the button again you get the split mode where you can take any one sound for the left hand and any one instrument sound for the right hand and play When you press the button again you get the split mode where you can take any one sound for the left hand and any one instrument sound for the right hand and play them in the split mode. If you press that button again you get a 3rd mode called dual/split which gives you a layered sound for the right hand and one separate instrument sound for the left hand...so you also get 2 sounds for the right hand instead of just one.
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Read More »If you want to layer/mix another instrument sound with that one then you select a 2nd sound from the sound list and an instrument picture of that sound will appear on the main screen as sound #2. If you want a separate left-hand sound for a "split" sound function then you touch the "split title" on the main page and a picture of a bass sound sill appear and if you want to change that sound you just touch the picture and it will take you to all of the instrument sound categories where you can choose another sound by touching it and then that will be your split sound. Once you set up your sounds on the main page then you can turn them on or off whenever you want just by tapping the picture button and that sound will disappear and turn off. The way I am describing this system to you may or may not sound easy but in reality a 3 year old or 93 year old person can do this without prior experience after just a couple tries. The "Smart Pianist" also allows you to do things the piano itself cannot do such as save your favorite instrument sounds into a "Favorites" page so that when you want to use your favorite sounds individually, in a layer, or in a split, you don't have to search for the sound category and find the sound you want. You just go to your "Favorites" page and select the sound you want from the list of Favorites you have saved...it's that easy. You can also save full registration (setup memories) in a "Registration" page in the app which is very cool because the piano itself does not have this function. If you want a separate left-hand sound for a "split" sound function then you touch the "split title" on the main page and a picture of a bass sound sill appear and if you want to change that sound you just touch the picture and it will take you to all of the instrument sound categories where you can choose another sound by touching it and then that will be your split sound. Once you set up your sounds on the main page then you can turn them on or off whenever you want just by tapping the picture button and that sound will disappear and turn off. The way I am describing this system to you may or may not sound easy but in reality a 3 year old or 93 year old person can do this without prior experience after just a couple tries.You just go to your "Favorites" page and select the sound you want from the list of Favorites you have saved...it's that easy. You can also save full registration (setup memories) in a "Registration" page in the app which is very cool because the piano itself does not have this function. This allows you to save a "set-up" which includes all sounds, key change, reverb & EFX settings, and other functions so that you just go the the "Registration" page where you saved those setups and then you touch the one you want and it instantly activates that "registration memory" and you instantly have what you want without having to recreate it manually every-time you want it. Pretty much all the important functions that I previously mentioned which are in the P515 can be controlled from your iPad with the Smart Pianist app. This includes recording functions, metronome, drum rhythms & bass lines, touch curve, transpose, piano elements, etc. There are some things the app does not control but it does a very good job overall and as I just mentioned, it does things the piano itself does not do on its own including having a live 5-part digital volume (touch) mixer. When it comes to playing songs in the piano, you can do that by pressing the song button and all of the songs that reside in the piano song library can be accessed including all General MIDI song files on the USB flashdrive. In the Smart Pianist app you would go to the virtual "song button" in the feature portion of the app and when you touch that virtual button all of the internal songs come up that are available in the piano and you can access and play them more easily from the app. When you see the song book and song you want on the page, you just touch it and then that song is instantly accessed and will play in the piano. Pretty much all the important functions that I previously mentioned which are in the P515 can be controlled from your iPad with the Smart Pianist app. This includes recording functions, metronome, drum rhythms & bass lines, touch curve, transpose, piano elements, etc. There are some things the app does not control but it does a very good job overall and as I just mentioned, it does things the piano itself does not do on its own including having a live 5-part digital volume (touch) mixer.In the Smart Pianist app you would go to the virtual "song button" in the feature portion of the app and when you touch that virtual button all of the internal songs come up that are available in the piano and you can access and play them more easily from the app. When you see the song book and song you want on the page, you just touch it and then that song is instantly accessed and will play in the piano. If it's a regular MIDI song file from the classical music books in the piano then the sheet music will also be displayed in the app on your iPad so you can see the notes and play along as well as control tempo, key, volume and parts of the song that are playing back. You can isolate the left hand from the hand part which is very cool as well. The app also allows you to load songs from your iTune library so that you can listen and play along as well as even change the key or tempo to some degree and the songs from your MP3 files will also display accompaniment chords in a chord chart and the chords will be seen in a linear fashion as the song is playing so that you know what chords are in the song by instantly seeing them in the Smart Pianist chord chart. I have tries this many times and although it works well, it doesn't always work for all songs or does not display the chords and chord changes correctly depending on the song. But overall it's a great learning and fun music tool if you have iTunes.
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