Help me decide between yamaha p-95 and p-115

[philippe boissard]

i recently started playing piano, and i want to buy a decent instrument since i mainly play the violin (Have been doing so for years) and the first piano i bought dident meet my liking in "realness" and sound.

So now i have decided to either buy the 115 or the 95, but i cant seem to figure out which one would be superior concerning realistic feel and sound.
I dont care for extra features a lot, the feel and sound are just what matters most to me.
So i thought some of you who might have heard and played both could give me your opinion ?

Thanks

BTW: i can get each for the same price

 

[happyrat1]

I'd say neither. Check out a Casio PX-360 or PX-560 instead

Gary

 

[happyrat1]

Or for that matter check out a Roland Juno DS88 as well.

Gary

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Of the two models that you listed, the P-115 would be the better choice. It's a newer model than the P-95 (which is discontinued); it has 3 times the polyphony; it has a better sound engine; and it has more voices (although neither model has very many voices).

By the way, the P-45 and P-71 are newer models than the P-95, but have the same polyphony, sound engine, and number of voices. And according to Yamaha, the P-71 is identical to the P-45, except that the P-71 is apparently made exclusively for Amazon and costs slightly less than the P-45. So if you're thinking of going with the P-95, you might want to check out the P-71 instead.

The Casio and Roland models Gary mentioned have a lot more voices or tones than the Yamaha P series.

 

[philippe boissard]

Thanks.
But i was yold that the p115 has a realistic feel.
When you say tones, do you means tones as in different types of piano it can sound like ? Or tones as in frequencies it can hit.

Because i dont care for many different piano variations. I rather out my money on 1 tyoe of piano sound and good quality feel.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

"Tones" is what Casio calls the different timbres or types of sound that the keyboard can make. Yamaha calls them "voices." Other manufacturers may call them other names. The correct musical term is "timbres," but in MIDI they're often called "programs," and on synthesizers they're often called "patches."

 

[happyrat1]

Rather than going by what you've been "told" is good feel, perhaps you should visit a few Keyboard Shops and test out the feel on the units mentioned yourself.

All the keyboards mentioned in this thread have weighted hammer action keyboards, some with triple strike action and some with "ivory touch" surfaces, but the only way you're going to be able to objectively judge the models available out there is to go out and try them with your own fingers.

Personally I can think of many reasons why Yamaha generally produces inferior keyboards for the money but I'll leave that sort of investigation to you for whenever you feel like doing your homework.

Gary

 

[philippe boissard]

hmm..
I checked out the Casio.
couldent find any of the models you name used, i found the cdp 120 though, but i can get a new 130 for the same price at 25% discount.

But i am still leaning throwards the 115 and the 95, mostly due to the reputation i read.

But i have a major concern regarding the pholyphony on the casio models.
I mean, if you hold down the sustain pedal and play something fast you could hit the 48 limit polyphony the casio 130 has right ?

Btw: im going to the music store sunday to either buy one there or go with the 95 at least
Im just collecting knowledge before i go and test them out myself.
Thanks

 

[SeaGtGruff]

On most keyboards, polyphony is important for being able to play auto accompaniments, so if you don't play with auto accompaniments then you can probably make do just fine with a lower polyphony.

But you're correct that on pianos, polyphony is important for being able to sustain more notes at the same time.

As far as how much polyphony is enough, that's hard to say. A piano keyboard has 88 keys, so in theory the most notes you can play at once using sustain is 88, hence a polyphony greater than 88 is overkill. But in practice that isn't true, because a keyboard's voice might be made up of 2 or more elements, and each element requires a tone generator; plus, you might want to layer voices together. So polyphony doesn't necessarily indicate how many notes you can play at the same time, which is why it's always spoken of in terms of a maximum number of notes-- i.e., in situations where each note being played requires 1 and only 1 tone generator.

Is a polyphony of 48 good enough? For a piano, it might be plenty good enough as long as you don't need to sustain a lot of notes at the same time-- and assuming you'll need to be able to play 10 more notes (1 per finger) in addition to however many notes you're sustaining, just how often would you truly need to sustain 38 notes while still being able to play 10 more? This also assumes you don't need to layer voices together or play along to an auto accompaniment.

But yes, a polyphony greater than 48 would be preferred-- ideally, at least 96; or better yet, 128 or 192 or 256, although then you really are getting into overkill.

The P-95, P-45, and P-71 all have a polyphony of 64, whereas the P-115 has a polyphony of 192. That might be far more than you really need-- but if, as you said, you can get a P-115 for the same price as a P-95, wouldn't you want to go with the one that has more for the money?