P-125 vs. P-125A

[PianoTone]

Hey all - just wanted to give a heads up that Yamaha is discontinuing the P-125 in favor of the P-125A. These 2 pianos are EXACTLY the same EXCEPT Yamaha has removed the built in audio interface from the P-125A, so that is a MASSIVE downgrade.

This means with the P-125A you can no longer:
- send direct audio to a device (DAW on an iPad or pc, or a phone to record a video) with just a USB cable
- stream audio FROM a device into the piano to play along with (YouTube, music, backing tracks, online piano lessons etc) - Yamaha should have at least added an aux in port to keep this functionality

I am hoping this means a P-135 is on the way soon that WILL have an audio interface built in. I did a YouTube post on this if you want to check it out:

 

[happyrat1]

Big corporations like Yamaha and Korg and Casio are in business to cut costs and make money. They think nothing of leaving out features that their algorithms tell them can be omitted by focus groups picked randomly on the street.

Some of the smaller, less diversified, manufacturers actually pay attention to their customers when they hit a snag.

Like kurzweil shares user emails with engineering people and Roland may be slow but they get the job done within a month.

I've owned dozens of boards and gear this century and I can say Kurzweil and Roland are the only ones still support their own legacy products.

As for your audio interface? You can thank the marketing department that controls the engineering department and gives the marching orders for how to save $0.25 per unit on NEXT year's model.

LOL

Gary

 

[Biggles]

That severely limits the keyboard for beginners.

Apps like Playground Sessions and especially Flowkey which has been available for a free three months with a new Yammy DP are effectively less attractive.

These Apps function by sensing the note played by using the inbuilt audio over USB or by sensing the note played via the inbuilt speaker system.

If Yamaha are hell bent on reducing costs then removing the amp and speakers would surely be a better option as per Korg’s D1.

 

[anotherscott]

At least, so far, the P-121 is still available, so you can still get the model with the USB audio interface if you can deal with 73 keys instead of 88.

Like kurzweil shares user emails with engineering people and Roland may be slow but they get the job done within a month.

I've owned dozens of boards and gear this century and I can say Kurzweil and Roland are the only ones still support their own legacy products.

Yamaha actually provides good support for current and previous products at yamahasynth.com (though unfortunately that doesn't cover their arrangers division). They also have a channel by which you can submit suggestions, yamahasynth.ideascale.com

I'm not aware of a channel to submit suggestions or report issues to Roland, what do you use?

 

[happyrat1]

There's the Roland Clan Forums, as well as the Axial website.as well as the Roland Canada Tribes.

 

[happyrat1]

And I've found, overall, that Roland seems to be more innovative and creative and user friendly with their gear than the rest of the musical behemoths.

 

[anotherscott]

There's the Roland Clan Forums, as well as the Axial website.as well as the Roland Canada Tribes.

I was referring specifically to your line, "kurzweil shares user emails with engineering people and Roland may be slow but they get the job done within a month." With Kurzweil, yes, support may pass along customer contacts to other departments, they have had representatives on forums, anyone can request beta access where they can report bugs and make suggestions. So there is actually some way for someone to reach someone who may have some input into the design/engineering side of things as you say. But I haven't seen anything like any of that with Roland, at least in the U.S, which is why I asked, "I'm not aware of a channel to submit suggestions or report issues to Roland, what do you use?"

So to your answer here, there is no way to reach anyone from Roland at Roland Clan unless the inquiry is about Roland Cloud, where they do have a rep that participates. I don't believe there is any way to reach them through axial either. Roland support answers emails about operational questions, but that's all they do, AFAIK they don't take or pass along any other info, from what I've seen. Maybe I misunderstood your point. Can you give an example of what you meant by "Roland may be slow but they get the job done within a month"? If you just meant that they answer tech support inquiries, I think most companies do that at least passably.

 

[happyrat1]

I've had good experiences with Roland tech support and absolutely horrible support with Yamaha gear where I was simply told my OS was not supported and they left it at that. No offers to help find a workaround. This was 2 decades ago and I've never bought anything Yamaha since.