Yamaha CVP509 Clavinova Digital Piano Review

When sitting down to play the Yamaha CVP509certain note to another you can actually hear the
Clavinova Digital Piano you immediately know it isholes of the instrument closing as you would on
something special. Yamaha's top of the range CVPthe real instrument. This is seriously impressive
Clavinova (barring the CGP1000 and CVP409 GP)and makes for an exceptional playing experience.
the CVP509 offers the player everything theyIn my opinion this makes the CVP509 the perfect
could possibly ask for in terms of playability,balance between the Tyros and a pure piano
features and aesthetics.product taking features from both kinds of
Yamaha's reputation is rock solid but in recentinstrument and combining them.
years some people have felt that you occasionallyMegavoices are used on the piano to create
pay a little bit too much for the name. Over thestunningly realistic sounds. For me this is best
last year I feel Yamaha out an excellent rangeshown on the Clavinova's classical guitar sample.
together with perfect price points. For the moneyPlayers will hear open and mute string sounds,
(the Yamaha CVP509 Polished Ebony version sellsdead notes, hammering effects, slide effects,
online for around £5158.40) you get anharmonics and a wide range of strum and body
array of sounds, complex recording features andnoises. Put simply Megavoices actually mirror the
possibly the nicest piano sound and touch I haveinstruments behavior and react accordingly.
ever seen on a digital piano.The piano uses instruments active field control
The actual keyboard uses synthetic ivory(IAFC) which is sophisticated technology outputs
keytops and real wood white keys. The keysound picked up by built-in microphones together
surface is soft and slightly porous, giving the keyswith the Clavinova's internal sound through rear
added grip and a natural friction that lets you playspeakers, making automatic adjustments to
easily. This makes the piano experience verycreate a richer sound that best matches the
realistic and similar to playing an acoustic piano.acoustic characteristics of the room you're playing
When you play an expensive acoustic piano, youin. It also uses signal processing to reproduce an
can vary not only the volume of sound, but alsoauthentic damper effect. When the damper pedal
the expressiveness: lively, gentle, and so on.is pressed, it delivers discretely sampled
Thanks to AWM Dynamic Stereo Sampling, youovertones, harmonics and resonance to recreate
get the same response from the Yamahathe warm and spacious sound.
CVP509. This is achieved by sampling sounds atRecording your music is a breeze with USB Audio
more than 10 different levels of keystrokeinput and MP3 Playback. Simply plug in a mic and
strength. From these, three to five levels areenjoy recording your voice over the piano sound.
carefully selected, depending on the model chosen,All the usual elements of a Yamaha Clavinova are
to offer more detailed tonal variations. As youon the CVP509 including a LAN port for easy
play, the Clavinova reproduces subtle differencesaccess to the web where you will find a host of
in nuance according to your touch, ranging fromhelpful features, new sounds etc on the Yamaha
pianissimo to fortissimo. To create the pianosite. The piano comes with the matching Yamaha
sample Yamaha used their CFIIIS full concertstool, my only gripe here is that this stool is not
grand piano which was tuned to the highestadjustable, however this would probably add a lot
possible condition. They then used Yamaha'sof money to the cost which personally I would
unique Pure CF Sampling technique to sample all ofrather spend on the piano itself. The display uses
its sounds, in order to create the CVP509a nice big bright 7.5" screen which clearly shows
Clavinova Digital Piano sound. As a result, youscores, instrument choices and all the other
enjoy the same natural tonal response as afeatures. I found that even under bright lighting
top-quality piano.condition the screen did not glare which is always
This model uses Yamaha's super articulationa bonus.
technology. This is mainly used on the Clavinova'sTo sum up, the Yamaha CVP509 Clavinova Digital
woodwind sounds. Basically Super ArticulationPiano is an excellent choice and well worth the
allows the player to accurately play instrumentsobvious investment. I cannot really fault the
the way they would sound acoustically. Forproduct at all as it ticks all the boxes for me not
example when playing one of the piano'sonly in terms of it's piano sounds and playability
saxophone sounds you can bend or slide notes, tobut also the host of other options that are built in.
"join" different notes together, or to addSimple to use you can be making superb and
expressive nuances at the end of a note. Thisrealistic sounding pieces in no time at all.
technology means that if you were to go from a