Yamaha P45 vs P115

As one of the most popular instrument, piano attract so many new players each day and to help these beginner, companies are offering the most suitable items to accompany their musical journey. Among those many out there, two popular electric pianos available for these players are Yamaha P45 vs P115 which has similar capabilities since being available in the same product line. If you are confused about which to choose and want to know how they are set apart from each other, go check our article below.

In this article, we are going to give you information about:
– What are Yamaha P45 and P115
– What Yamaha P45 and P115 Look Like
– What Yamaha P45 and P115 can offer to you
– Yamaha P45 vs P115

About Yamaha P45
Yamaha has been known to always offer great products for their users and with the long history in the music instruments making, they continuously offer new products to answer the demand of quality yet affordable digital pianos and for the beginner market itself, P45 piano is a good option for new players who want to learn the way into piano without having to spend so much on the acoustic ones. For starters, this unit already comes with useful features to help either those with less or more experience.

Yamaha P45 Design
Looking at Yamaha P45 from the outside we are sure you can already see that this one is coming in a full 88-key, so it is should be enough to develop your skill into the real unit after you get the basic here. It has a compact size just like the predecessor of P35 piano with identical overall design. In term of portability, this piano will fit into your smaller place when not in use measuring only at 52.2 inches wide, 11.6 inches deep, and 6 inches high. Read also: Alesis Recital vs Yamaha P45 here.

Yamaha P45 Features
Just like many other pianos from the company, Yamaha P45 is also featured with their Graded Hammer Standard which is falling into the most affordable hammer action and you can find them in almost all of Yamaha’s entry-level digital pianos. This hammer action is useful to let your hand get used to the feeling of playing a real piano because of the weight thanks to the little hammers inside the keyboard instead of just springs like in semi weighted action keyboards. Overall, it has heavier touch in the low and lighter in the high end.

Yamaha P45 is even touch sensitive meaning that it will produce different volume/timbre following how hard or soft you play the keys mimicking the rich dynamic range of grand piano. There are 4 level of sensitivity you can pick; fixed, soft, medium, and hard. As for the sound, the piano accurately captured the sound of acoustic instrument and to offer you this, the company is using their well-know AMW dynamic sampling technology with true stereo sound recorded from the full concert grand piano.

You can have 10 instrument sounds here covering 2 grand pianos, 2 electric pianos, 2 pipe organs, 2 harpsichords, strings, and vibraphone. The tone is also improved from P35 because instead of coming with 32 notes, now P45 has 64 notes polyphony. The piano is able to perform both dual mode and duo mode. Dual mode is for layering sound while duo mode will split keyboard into 2 equal sections which is often used by teacher to teach and play at the same time with students.

About Yamaha P115
Since the former piano is mainly marketed for beginners, you probably find some lacking parts here and there especially if you are not beginner anymore and want to find the right piano for your developed skills, if so then you will need to check P45 higher end version, the Yamaha P115. This unit is released not long time ago to replace its predecessor the P105, so if you already familiar with the original model, you can already see what you will get here but with some improvements.

Yamaha P115 Design
Coming in the “P” line, this piano is still built with compact body and talking about size, it is also very similar to the younger brother P-45 but it has more width while the length is still the same because the two are sporting 88 keys. In look, this piano has more matte finish for the black key tops compare to the other one. It is lightweight and we are sure you can carry it alone without needing another hand. On the control panel, there are 14 dedicated buttons for recording or playback function, etc.

Yamaha P115 Features
Even though, Yamaha P115 is marketed towards more experienced players, it is weird why the company still use the same technology like those in their more affordable unit because this one is apparently still using the Graded Hammer Standard which cover almost all of their digital piano cost under $1000 and yes, the cost is seem to be the main reason. This weighted system will make the keys has the similar feeling like an acoustic piano where low end have heavier touch and higher keys has lighter touch.

The piano has 4 preset settings to adjust its sensitivity from the highest Hard, Medium or default setting, soft, and fixed. Among all of them, the Hard setting provide the widest dynamic range from the softest pianissimo to the thunderous fortissimo. In the sound side, Yamaha P115 is coming with the company’s Pure CF sound engine just like flagship of P line the P225 electric piano. Since the engine sound is resourcing on the marvelous CFIIIS 9 Concert Grand, the quality is also very convincing.

There are total 14 sound in this piano covering 3 grand pianos, 3 electric pianos, 3 organs, vibraphone, strings, harpsichord, and wood bass. As an upgraded model of P105, the polyphony is increased from 64 notes to now 192 notes. In the capabilities, Yamaha P115 is able to do split mode, duo mode, and dual mode.

Comparison
Now, let’s compare Yamaha P45 with P115. As you may already know, what separate these pianos to each other is mainly the polyphony count since P45 only has 64 notes while the other boasting its 194 notes. Another difference is on the sound because P45 only contain 10 sounds but P115 has 14 sounds. P115 also able to do split mode as an addition to duo and duet mode.

Yamaha P45 vs P115

- GHS weighted action is heavier in the low end and lighter in the high end, just like an acoustic piano
- Advanced Wave Memory Stereo Sampling recreates natural instrument sound in stereo
- 64-note polyphony allows the player to perform moderately dense piano passages, even using heavy sustain pedal, with few or no dropped notes being cut off
- Dual Mode lets you combine two Voices together, like piano and strings, for an inspiring new playing experience
- GHS weighted 88-key action is heavier in the low end and lighter in the high end, just like an acoustic piano
- Amplifiers 7 W x 2.The Pure CF Sound Engine faithfully reproduces the tone of a meticulously sampled Yamaha's acclaimed 9' CFIIIS concert grand piano
- Pianist Styles turn your simple chords into exciting accompaniment. Play a chord and the Pianist Style gives you a full piano accompaniment
- The Controller App for iOS devices adds a rich, graphic user interface allowing for quick and easy navigation and configuration

Conclusion
All in all, the decision is all yours to make. In our opinion, both of them are good option depend on the level of your skill. If you are beginner, you probably want to spend less, so P45 is more appealing but if you already have some skills or just don’t want to upgrade your piano when you are already have enough experience, we will highly recommend you Yamaha P115.