Yamaha CP73 vs CP88

Electric piano is convenient for they are cheaper and capable of creating various sounds compared to our acoustic ones while also convenient especially for musicians who will be going from places to another to perform. If you will be playing for a wider audience, Yamaha CP73 Vs CP88 can be two of the most ideal options to consider. Both stage pianos sound great but also different and before deciding with one, let’s see which of them will be your best companion here.

In this article, we are going to give you information about:

• Which Piano to Purchase
• What are Yamaha CP 73 and CP88
• What Yamaha CP 73 and CP88 Look Like
• How are the Keys of Yamaha CP 73 and CP88
• How are the Sound of Yamaha CP 73 and CP88
• What is the Drawback of Yamaha CP 73 and CP88
• Yamaha CP 73 Vs CP88

Differences between Electric Pianos

Electric or digital instruments are widely used by both casual players and professional performers or composers because of their convenience and versatility. Digital keyboard or electric piano is one of the most common options we are going to use as one is learning how to play the instrument or need one to polish their skill or even composing their own music. Besides being cheaper, they will be useful in various applications as well as more powerful when it comes to versatility.

• Digital Piano

This is our favorite choice for students and casual players or anyone who wants to be able to play the instrument but don’t have the budget or enough room to put a whole acoustic instrument in their apartment. They are very compact and convenient to transport as well as come with lots of capabilities including speaker and various tones and digital interface to work with the computer. Keys and sound vary greatly among models depending on who the product is marketed for.

• Keyboards

Many of us call any digital or electric piano a keyboard as well while in fact these instruments are similar yet different. The major thing that separates these two is that your keyboard will have a wide range of sounds in comparison since even those in entry-level will be able to produce hundreds of sounds in all categories. In most cases they are not coming with weighted keys as opposed to digital piano since the keys are made to accommodate a wider range of sounds instead of just piano sound.

• Stage Piano

This is another type of digital instrument which is often mistaken as either digital piano or keyboard due to their lots of similarities. This instrument is closer to a digital piano and using one as stage piano shouldn’t matter as well. The difference is on the design as this one is geared more towards live application and they will have hammer keys. The prominent difference is you will not find a speaker in this type of piano for you will need to send the sound to an amplification system.

Another difference is as they are made with a wider range of high-quality sounds and effects thus, the player will be able to cover other sounds including vintage e-pianos, strings, and clavinet in good quality without requiring the real instrument to be present. In addition, many stage pianos are going to have a master keyboard function that will allow the player to control a larger setup with different MIDI instruments.

About Yamaha CP 73 and CP88

The best piano is the one that sits in our application the most and looking for one will definitely require some time as there are lots of other choices out there and sometimes it is not about model but also budget and how they will serve the function. For stage keyboards, it is safer to stick with popular names or models as long as they match your price range or look for well-known names since they will have a higher chance to fit or have the suitable model.

There are many different digital piano brands offering stage piano such as Korg Grandstage Vs Roland RD 2000 but Yamaha is also not going to stay still without offering their own new products while also upgrading the old favorite stage piano line. Similarly, these companies rather than following the success story of Nord, they are focusing more to polish what’s great about the piano and for many reasons those new models can be a great choice for your next live performance.

Recently in NAMM 2019 Yamaha introduced the new addition of CP line after a five long years of waiting. Now we have both Yamaha CP 73 and CP88 which are very similar or identical to each other. As the name suggests, we are sure most readers can already distinguish and guess what’s different about these new instruments and yes, they have a different amount of keys as 73 and 88 respectively. 73 keys itself is quite odd in the market as it sits in between the more common 61 and 88 keys.

However, as a stage piano, we also understand why Yamaha released two models of the same piano since players will consider getting something compact for their tour hence the 73 keys. Yamaha CP 73 and CP88 are similarly incorporating the company’s new technology and overall will have the same capabilities or features. What’s so attractive about these models are their layouts and keys, but for the sound, we are not very pleased as they are pure sampling, the thing that similar piano RD 2000 already go with hybrid approach.

Yamaha CP 73 and CP88 Design

As good as a stage piano can be, they need to be robust to sustain the application and in this side we are liking how Yamaha CP73 and CP88 are equally sporting the aluminum chassis so they are pretty lightweight but also durable. Side by side their dimensions will be the same for the height and depth but their length will be different as CP73 has 15 less keys to place and in comparison, it does seem more compact.

Their knobs and buttons are high quality and they feel great to operate based on their older CS80 synthesizers. What’s new from the external part alone is their layout because these pianos use Nord style with 3 sections dedicated to Piano, Electric Piano, and other instruments which is great as an alternative to the more traditional screen-focused layouts for it will be much easier to use during the application, on stage with less lighting and loud noises.

Yamaha CP 73 and CP88 Keys

The first thing we want to talk about Yamaha CP73 and CP88 is their keyboard because this is what sets them apart from each other the most. Starting with the expensive piano, this model comes with Yamaha Natural Wood Graded Hammer key action in which there is a partial wooden construction of the keys to make the heft and feel of the keypress mimic the actual acoustic piano due to the use of real wood below the plastic shell of each key. It also has graded hammer effects that stimulates differences in weight between lower and higher keys.

On the other hand, the CP73 only has Yamaha Balance Hammer Standard which is very similar in experience to the GHS on their lower model which makes it not very interesting to compare with the 88 keys version. It doesn’t feel bad at all but considering who this piano is made for, we did hope it would be closer to Clavinova. It is not graded and probably just slightly above GHS so the keys will have the same weight across the range.

Another important feature missing in CP73 is the pressure sensors beneath the keys that continuously track the force being applied by the player so it can add extra modulation while the key is depressed and this is probably due to how Yamaha wants this model to shine in its lightweight or compact side.

Yamaha CP 73 and CP88 Sound Quality

Moving to the sound quality side, we are sad that they have no modelling here but one thing about Yamaha sounds is that their sampling sounds great yet, you will not experience the same sonic variety as those in Clavinova or P-515. Both Yamaha CP73 and CP88 will have a library filled with 57 voices and this is too narrow compared to what similar models in the same price range have in competition. What may put your mind at ease is they do have expandable memory.

What we always love about Yamaha is they do have amazing sampling and quality wise, for example the default preset here is sampled from CFX concert grand which gives a balanced tone throughout the frequency spectrum and is useful in both classical and modern contexts. For the control and effects, there is a hand rotary selector to let you switch between the 4 categories of Grand, Upright, CP, and Layers.

Yamaha CP 73 and CP88 Drawback

While Yamaha CP 73 and CP88 are a good stage piano for the convenient and sound quality, they are not the best as well. For example, the Sub section covers the sounds that don’t fit into the Piano or E. Piano section including strings, synthesizers, pads, percussion, organs etc. Some of them sound fairly good and useful but there are some that are not going to please your ears or sounds tacked on especially the synth sounds as it is weak and not so useful.

Yamaha CP73 vs CP88

Both of these stage pianos are similar but also different to each other and beside the amount of keys, both of them are very much different on the keyboard technology itself as the CP88 will have a much more better keys and will give you a near to authentic experience of playing an acoustic piano thanks to the Natural Wood Hammer Standard and in addition, the keys in this model is also graded to give you those differences in weight between the lower and higher keys.

Conclusion

All in all you can always pick any model depending on which seems to sit better in your application but between the two, if you are not worried about the extra length and weight, we highly recommend Yamaha CP88 as it is a better version of CP73.