The original TransAcoustic U1TA upright and GC1TA baby grand pianos were the first stringed acoustic pianos to have a volume control, thanks to specially designed, electro-acoustic transducers — a device that converts digital sound data into sound energy — located near each of the instrument’s two soundboard bridges. These transducers cause the soundboard to naturally vibrate in much the same way a speaker cone would and allow premium digital Voices, such as the nine-foot Yamaha CFX concert grand, to be played using the pianos’ own soundboards as a “speaker.”

Joining the CFX piano Voice in the TA2 is a new sample set of the mighty Bösendorfer Imperial, the Viennese concert grand famed for its deep bass and singing sustain. Upright, Pop Grand, and Ballad Grand Voices add character for rock and other modern musical styles. Supplementary Voices such as electric pianos, string sections, choirs, synth pads, organs, and harpsichord are not only useful on their own, but make for lush and beautiful layers with the acoustic piano.

Updated Silent Piano 2 technology lets players practice quietly using only the digital Voices, but with the full tactile feedback of the grand or upright piano action — which still moves fully except without the hammers striking the strings. Hammer sensors and non-contact optical key sensors interpret every nuance of the player’s touch from legato to staccato. Silent Piano 2 mode features an improved binaural CFX Voice, recorded using special microphones that “hear” like a person seated at the piano. The result is so immersive that players will forget they are wearing headphones at all. With Voices other than the CFX, a new Stereophonic Optimizer creates a sense of natural distance and acoustics through headphones.

Silent Piano 2 mode is further enhanced by Yamaha Virtual Resonance Modeling (VRM), which captures all of the complex interactions of the strings, damper pedal, soundboard, rim, and frame of an acoustic piano, accurately rendering the harmonics overtones that are an essential part of the acoustic piano experience.

Via Bluetooth, TA2 pianos can wirelessly stream audio through their soundboards, allowing easy play-along with music from smartphones or tablets. The TA2 system can also record performances as MIDI internally or as audio to an inserted USB memory stick. The Yamaha Smart Pianist app controls all functions of the piano from an iOS® or supported Android device. Smart Pianist can also create chord charts for songs in the device’s music library, letting musicians learn the songs they already own and love. The digital tone generator of the TA2 series will also play downloadable songs files from the vast Yamaha MusicSoft ecosystem, with Smart Pianist scrolling their full scores as the player follows along.

The TransAcoustic TA2 system is available in Yamaha U1, YUS1, YUS3, and YUS5 upright pianos and GC1, C1X, and C3X grand pianos. For any pianist, student, or family who has wondered whether to choose the natural sound and touch of an acoustic piano or the conveniences and flexibility of a digital one, the TransAcoustic TA2 series provides both in a single instrument — which no other piano does at any price.

The post Yamaha TransAcoustic TA2 Pianos Give Pianists the Best of Both Acoustic and Digital Worlds appeared first on the Naperville Music Informational Blog .

The P-121 is the first 73-key, weighted action digital piano from Yamaha, and carries on the tradition of the best-selling P-Series digital pianos, which boast dynamic, high-quality sound along with a premium built-in stereo speaker system. With less keys than most digital pianos, the P-121 never falls short in touch, tone and features. Industry-leading Graded Hammer Standard (GHS) keyboard action and the instrument’s matte black key tops allow beginning players to build the proper finger technique for performing on an acoustic piano. The P-121 also reproduces the magnificent sound of the Yamaha CFIIIS concert grand piano, giving inexperienced pianists the ability to make music with dynamics, expressiveness and power not typically possible with a digital piano of this size or price.

What’s more, weighing in at a mere 22 pounds, the P-121 is the lightest, most affordable weighted key digital piano on the market, and makes for the perfect musical companion to take along with you wherever you make music. Additionally, its compact size makes it the ideal option for music labs, where the space-saving afforded by the P-121 could mean more keyboards and more students in the classroom.

The P-121 is also compatible with the Smart Pianist app for iOS devices, which allows pianists to turn their smart device into an intuitive and rich graphic user interface, making selecting Voices and configuring settings even easier.

The Smart Pianist app also takes advantage of the instrument’s built-in USB audio and MIDI interface and on-board speaker system. This not only enables the user to play along with their favorite artists, but it also allows them to record audio and/or MIDI performances into a computer.

“We recognize that there are a lot of players who want a fully-weighted keyboard action but are concerned with the weight and size of traditional 88-note, portable digital pianos. The P-121 is designed for these musicians,” said Ben Harrison, marketing manager, Digital Pianos, Yamaha Corporation of America. “There is no sacrifice in sound quality or functionality. This is a compact design to provide players with an ultra-portable digital piano option for the home, or to play out.”

Pricing and Availability

The Yamaha P-121 digital piano comes in both black and spotlight white finishes and is currently shipping at $899.99 MSRP.

The post Yamaha Introduces the P-121, the Perfect Compact Digital Piano for Beginners and Gigging Musicians Alike appeared first on the Naperville Music Informational Blog .

Each of the original models—NU1, N1, N2 and the flagship N3—has stood at the pinnacle of combining a genuine grand or upright piano action with a stunningly realistic concert grand piano digital sound, drawing on over a century of Yamaha innovation in both acoustic and electronic instrument building. The newest model to join the lineup is AvantGrand N1X, a highly-affordable, second-generation instrument that, like its predecessor, N1, features a space-saving, vertical-style modern cabinet friendly to any physical environment.       

N1X boasts painstaking samples of two of the world’s finest concert grand pianos: the CFX, the crowning glory of Yamaha pianos, able to project over the sound of a symphony orchestra while still pristinely interpreting the subtlest nuances of performance; and the Bösendorfer Imperial, renowned for its deep bass, singing sonority, and seemingly endless sustain.

Whether playing or listening, the results are an immersive concert grand experience on every level imaginable, with all the expected digital conveniences such as tuning never being required.

The Yamaha CFX and Bösendorfer samples have been recorded at many velocity layers with seamless transitions, offering dynamic and harmonic range suitable across all genres of music.

A binaurally sampled version of the Yamaha CFX Piano is optimized for listening through headphones. Binaural sampling records via special microphones that duplicate the geometry and hearing conditions of the human head, resulting in a natural and immersive sound field that helps players who need to practice quietly forget they are wearing headphones at all.

The AvantGrand N1X also makes use of Yamaha Spatial Acoustic Sampling (SAS) and a four-channel speaker system. This sends subtly different frequency information to each channel’s speaker such that the sound “blooms” from the instrument in the same manner as from a concert grand piano. Furthermore, speaker placement is optimized such that notes and overtones blend in the air as they follow an immediate path to the player’s ears. In taking ownership of this “last mile” of the sound’s journey once it leaves the speakers, the AvantGrand N1X truly stands apart.

Virtual Resonance Modeling (VRM) captures every detail of how the internal components of an acoustic piano vibrate in response to struck notes. This includes sympathetic string resonance, damper pedal resonance, natural resonance of the soundboard, and more. All of these respond flawlessly to the player’s touch and dynamics, producing harmonic overtones exactly like that of the acoustic grand pianos that were sampled. Employing real wooden keys and hammers, the action of the AvantGrand N1X is not like a grand piano — it is that of a grand piano. The hammers strike the “strings” (sensors) from below, allowing for precise weighting and adjustments to the hammers and escapement note by note. This provides touch that will please even the most demanding pianists. Then, non-contact optical key sensors detect every nuance of the player’s timing, velocity, legato, and other musical techniques. The end result is a playing experience virtually indistinguishable from that of sitting at a top-notch concert grand. Listeners will barely need to close their eyes to be convinced they are listening to a Yamaha CFX or Bösendorfer Imperial while sitting in an acoustically ideal hall.

Via Bluetooth, songs from a computer or mobile device can be wirelessly streamed through the speaker system of the AvantGrand N1X. What’s more, the Yamaha Smart Pianist app allows Voice selection and complete control of the N1X using iOS® and select Android devices. This revolutionary app can also analyze the music library residing on the device and generate chord charts, helping players learn the songs they already own and love. The AvantGrand N1X also features onboard audio recording and can play back song files downloaded from the vast Yamaha MusicSoft ecosystem. For these, Smart Pianist supports full score display. All these features add up to a music teacher that can live on the AvantGrand’s music rack in the form of your tablet.

“Melding acoustic elements with digital technology, the AvantGrand N1X provides discerning pianists with everything they expect from an acoustic piano, as well as everything the need from a digital piano,” says Russ Hirota, Disklavier and AvantGrand product manager, Yamaha Corporation of America. “The combination of tradition and technology creates the ultimate grand piano experience in a modern, space-saving design and lets pianists enjoy their instrument whenever the moment calls.”

In his review of the original AvantGrand in Keyboard magazine, editor-in-chief Stephen Fortner called it “a virtual piano for people for whom nothing but a real piano will do.” With the AvantGrand N1X, that vision is realized more fully than ever, and the authenticity and musicality that can be achieved in a compact format rises to unprecedented new heights.

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Why Aren’t There More Than 88 Keys on a Piano?

By Yamaha   10-16-2017   

The answer may surprise you.

The post Why Aren’t There More Than 88 Keys on a Piano? appeared first on the Naperville Music Informational Blog .

The origins of the Piano

The Piano’s Ancestor was a Monochord Instrument

Instruments can be divided into three categories based on how they produce sounds. Those categories are string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The piano’s ancestry can be traced back through various instruments such as the clavichord, harpsichord, and dulcimer. But if it were traced back even further, one would find that the piano is a descendant of the monochord. In other words, based on its ancestry the piano can be classified as a string instrument.

Origins of the piano

The Piano Has the Same Mechanism as the Dulcimer

Although the piano can be classified as a string instrument due to the fact that the sounds come from the vibration of strings, it can also be classified as a percussion instrument because a hammer strikes those strings. In this way it is similar to a dulcimer.
The dulcimer is an instrument that originated in the Middle East and spread to Europe in the 11th century. It features a simple resonating box with strings stretched on top of it. Much like a piano, a small hammer is used to hit the strings, which is why the dulcimer is considered to be a direct ancestor of the piano.

The Clavichord, a Big Step Towards the Piano

The piano is also considered to be a part of the keyboard family. The history of instruments with keyboards dates far back and originates from the organ, which sends bursts of air through pipes to make sound. Craftsmen improved upon the organ to develop an instrument that was a step closer to the piano, the clavichord.
The clavichord first appeared in the 14th century and became popular during the Renaissance Era. Pressing a key would send a brass rod, called a tangent, to strike the string and cause vibrations that emit sound over a range of four to five octaves.

The Piano Looks Like a Harpsichord

Created in Italy in around 1500, the harpsichord later spread to France, Germany, Flanders, and Great Britain. When a key is pressed, a plectrum attached to a long strip of wood called a jack plucks the string to make music.
This system of strings and soundboard, and the overall structure of the instrument resemble those that can be found in a piano.

Cristofori, Creator of the First Piano

The piano was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731) of Italy.
Cristofori was unsatisfied by the lack of control that musicians had over the volume level of the harpsichord. He is credited for switching out the plucking mechanism with a hammer to create the modern piano in the year 1709.
The instrument was actually first named “clavicembalo col piano e forte” (literally, a harpsichord that can play soft and loud noises). This was shortened to the now common name, “piano.”

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Using a Clavinova to Record Your Performance and Print Your Score

By Craig Knudsen  01-19-2017   

How to create a musical score with a CVP Clavinova.

One of the most popular features of the CVP Clavinova is the ability to display a music score in the large LCD screen contained in the center of the CVP panel. Technically, what you see in the screen of the Clavinova is not “sheet music” – it is a momentary display of MIDI information in score notation format. So how do you capture and convert this information into a score of your composition? Learn the easy tips and techniques here.

Whenever I show this feature to Clavinova owners, they always ask two very pointed questions. The first is, “Will the Clavinova also display notes that I play on the piano keyboard?” (The answer is “Yes!”) They quickly follow with “Can you print that out?” (Which is also “Yes!”)

However, both affirmative responses need a little further explanation. Since MIDI is a recording not of audio, but instead of notes played in a certain order and with certain durations, it’s easy for a device to convert MIDI note data to a score. So, yes, the CVP will generate a score from the notes played on the keyboard when you’re recording that piece as a MIDI file. However, the timing will not make any sense unless you record that MIDI file using the Clavinova’s built-in metronome. If you don’t play in time with the metronome during recording, the Clavinova has no way to interpret the timing of the notes to match the bar lines of the music.

Also, be aware that after you record the MIDI piece with a metronome, all the notes will be crowded together on the top stave of the displayed score. This is because when you record a MIDI file in the Clavinova under default conditions, the Clavinova records all notes (both hands) to MIDI channel 1, which is normally assigned to the top stave and assumed to normally be just for the right hand. Since nothing was recorded to channel 2, there are no notes on the bottom stave, which is normally assumed to be the left hand:

To give the Clavinova “permission” to use the entire grand staff to display your performance (not just the top stave), select the “gear” in the bottom right of the score display, and change both right and left hands from AUTO to channel 1:

Immediately, the Clavinova will spread all the notes out using the entire grand staff for MIDI channel 1. It’s important to note that Middle “C” is the cutoff point between treble and bass clef, and therefore, between right and left hands:

Regarding printing the score, “Yes,” you can print the score if you save the MIDI file you recorded to a USB flash memory drive, and then open that MIDI file in any computer that has a music notation program installed. All music notation programs will open a MIDI file in the “FILE” area and display the notes as score notation, just like the Clavinova. Just be aware that the score might look different than what you see in the Clavinova screen because each music notation program interprets the timing of notes with different sensitivities. You can change the sensitivities of the display by changing what is referred to as quantization.

Quantization will correct the timing errors in your performance. For example, if you don’t play 8th notes evenly, you can quantize the piece for 8th notes, and those notes will appear as though you played them with perfect timing! Here’s an example with 16th notes non-quantized, and then the same file with 8th note quantizing:

 

Note that the Clavinova quantize feature does NOT change what you hear when playing back the file. In other words, the above example would sound the same either way. That’s because the Clavinova doesn’t actually move the notes in the MIDI file. It does, however, change the way your performance is displayed in the screen. You could argue that it is the best of both worlds: a quantized, clean display of notes, combined with non-quantized expression of playback for a natural sounding performance.

The score function in the Clavinova is a great way to have a “reminder score” if you want to perform without sheet music. When a score is displayed in the CVP, you can swipe your finger to the right or left to turn pages. As a bonus, rather than using your finger to turn pages, you can assign the CENTER pedal to advance pages, making page turns more seamless — like using a Bluetooth page-turning pedal:

It’s a lot of fun to make up a song and then see what the music looks like as a score. By using these two hints — recording to the Clavinova metronome, and then assigning right and left hands to channel 1 after recording — your score will look great in the CVP display.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Craig Knudsen has over 30 years experience in the high-tech music industry. He is a highly accomplished keyboardist and musical arranger who has been featured at Carnegie Hall. Known as the creator of “Follow Lights” and “Kooky Karaoke” Clavinovas, as well as SmartKEY on the Disklavier, Craig has designed shows for the Disneyland Tomorrowland’s Home of the Future and has worked with arranger Phillip Keveren to develop the CueTIME Series, where the background arrangements follow as you play at different tempos. Most recently, Craig has worked with ThePianoGuys, helping them create videos featured on YouTube.

The post Using a Clavinova to Record Your Performance and Print Your Score appeared first on the Naperville Music Informational Blog .

Using the Clavinova Piano Room and Session Mode

By Craig Knudsen  01-17-2017   

Choose your venue, choose your piano, then put together a virtual backup band.

All CVP-700 series Clavinova models have features called Piano Room and Session Mode that allow you to do just that! They enable you to enter a virtual piano “selection room” to choose a favorite piano from several options and then see where your creativity can take you.

After you select your piano in the Piano Room, you can raise or lower its lid to change the brightness of the instrument (if it’s a grand), change the venue or location where the piano is playing to alter the reverb and ambiance, and even adjust the tuning and touch responsiveness.  When you leave the Piano Room, all settings are automatically saved for the next time you return.

Session Mode allows virtual musicians to be brought into the Piano Room to accompany you as you play the piano. The name is derived from a musical term that refers to having a jam “session” with a band, where a group of musicians get together and play as they call out chords or follow chords listed in a “fake book.” A “fake book” is called this because the musicians simply “fake the left hand” as they read chords that suggest harmonies for all of them to follow, so they sound good playing together.

To access Session Mode, press the icon in the top right hand corner of the Piano Room – the one that looks like an instrument and a drum.  When you press this button, the piano you selected literally moves over in the screen to make room for the three new members of the band – a guitar player, a percussionist (or drummer), and a bass player.

When you press what looks like a very large Play button to the right of the band area, you will hear a drummer start to give you a beat. Then, if you play your entire piece on the piano keyboard, you will hear the rest of the band join in – as the virtual band members figure out what harmonies you are playing using the Style section tone generator.

The default for chord detection mode is Full Keyboard AI, which means you can play anywhere on the piano keyboard. (For more information on “Full Keyboard” mode, see the blog post entitled “Controlling Styles with Both Hands – Using Full Keyboard Mode”.)  For those who prefer an actual split in the keyboard, where you play chords in the left hand and melody in the right, you can also select “Fingered AI”, which, when selected, lights a single LED near the center of the keyboard that indicates the “Split Point,” above which you should use your right hand to play the melody, and below which you should use your left hand to play chords.

As you play your song, the backing musicians will follow the harmonies you are playing on the piano and accompany you in the style of music that you selected. On the touch screen, press the band area to select different bands. Note that when you change Styles in the screen, the musicians’ instruments change in the band area.

For more variations, turn on “Section Control” to get four variations of the style you’ve already selected, which vary in complexity from A to D.

A unique feature called Dynamic Control instructs the backing band to increase or decrease their volume depending upon how loudly or softly you are playing your selected piano. This really adds to the illusion that the band is in the same room with you as you play your piano. It is really quite uncanny when you abruptly start to play softly, and then hear the band suddenly cut their volume as if they are truly listening to your performance!

When the band has had enough practice and you feel it’s time to “lay down some tracks,” simply press the large red dot in the bottom left of the screen to activate “microphone free” recording. You can even choose between MIDI and AUDIO recording, depending on which format you want to share your music in.

Session Mode is really perfect for someone who plays “traditional piano” and wants to feel what it’s like to play with a real band.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Email Us

Craig Knudsen has over 30 years experience in the high-tech music industry. He is a highly accomplished keyboardist and musical arranger who has been featured at Carnegie Hall. Known as the creator of “Follow Lights” and “Kooky Karaoke” Clavinovas, as well as SmartKEY on the Disklavier, Craig has designed shows for the Disneyland Tomorrowland’s Home of the Future and has worked with arranger Phillip Keveren to develop the CueTIME Series, where the background arrangements follow as you play at different tempos. Most recently, Craig has worked with ThePianoGuys, helping them create videos featured on YouTube.

The post Using the Clavinova Piano Room and Session Mode appeared first on the Naperville Music Informational Blog .

This is the first time we held an event like this at our store and it was a huge success! The response was so great that we had to add 3 additional showings to show off this amazing product and all it can do.

Let’s take a moment and imagine you are sitting front row to one of your favorite artist’s, in this instance Elton John. You might think to yourself, “I could never be that close”, well the Disklavier gives you this opportunity, and the best part is it’s all from the comfort of your own home.

While these artists perform at different venues around the world, the Disklavier transmits all their actual key strokes and pedal movements from that performance to the piano in your home, it is as if they are playing the piano right in front of you.

See them perform on your tv…………WATCH NOW!

Watch your piano come to life and play exactly what the artist is playing at the time of their performance,  right there in your home………………

The speakers under the piano produce the vocals and other instrumentation while your piano actually plays so you get that full LIVE performance feel…………

This piano offers more than just the Disklavier TV which is what gives you those great live performances. There is also Music Soft which is very similar to iTunes which allows you to wirelessly download music from a library of over 4000 songs directly to your piano for easy use. And last but not least like satellite radio, this piano offers Disklavier Radio which allows you access to over 32 radio stations so you can have endless hours of music playing the piano for your enjoyment. And did I mention the piano already comes loaded with 500 songs and is all controlled by your iPhone or iPad! Take a look……….

Thanks for taking the time to learn a little bit about this unbelievable piano. Check out our website at NapervilleMusic.com for our full line of Yamaha pianos and follow us on social media to see whats happening here at the store.

Thanks for watching.

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