REVIEW - Yamaha CSP150 vs CSP170 Digital Piano with Smart Pianist

REVIEW COMPARISON - Yamaha CSP150 vs CSP170 Digital Piano with Smart Pianist technology - Recommended - It was just a matter of time until someone out there (a piano company) thought "outside the box" and came up with a new digital piano that breaks all the boundaries of conventional thinking and creates a new digital piano category that is the first of its kind from a major manufacturer that I know of. The Yamaha piano company has just introduced two new 2018 digital pianos called the CSP150 ($3499US internet selling price in satin black, $3999 in polished ebony) and the CSP170 ($4699US internet selling price in satin black, $5299US in polished ebony). From the outside these two models look like they do nothing but play piano. In other words these pianos only have a power button and volume control on the right side of the keyboard, and a function button on the left side of the keyboard, but nothing else beyond that. they look as minimalistic in cabinet design and function as a digital piano could possibly be and still be digital. But you cannot judge a book by its cover and in the advanced tech world we are all living in, looks can be deceiving. Sometimes a complex looking electronic device can look like it does a lot. but it may not. On the other hand something simplistic may look like it's very limited in what in can do but when you actually use it then you know it goes way beyond what you ever thought it could do for you. Such is the case with these new pianos

Over the years I have had a number of digital piano shoppers tell me that they wished there was a really good digital piano out there that did not cost "an arm and a leg" (somewhere under $5000) and yet had the ability to replicate a real piano as closely as possible so that it would look good, play good, sound good, and have a variety of interactive fun and educational features for people of all ages & playing skill levels along with allowing more advanced musicians access to professional interactive music features that would stimulate their creativity...but still look as piano-like as possible. The problem with getting all of these very cool, very high quality interactive digital features that many digital piano shoppers would love to have is that until now all those features needed to be built into the piano itself with lots of physical buttons, big color touch screens built-in, and an array of controls and sliders to navigate all the functions. Some pianos have added built-in color touch screens now but even that technology is not necessarily practical for a lot of users because the operating system for the touch screen is proprietary for that brand and is not what people are used to using on their regular tech devices like iPhones, iPads, Android devices, etc. When all of the technology is built directly into the digital piano, especially in a higher price range, then these things tend make a piano look like a cockpit of an airplane with unfamiliar controls and that is not what most piano shoppers want on their pianos anymore, at least that's what I am seeing out there. People general like and want new interactive technology in their devices, but they want the technology to be intuitive, easy to navigate, and familiar to operate.

So here's a big question: what if you could do away with all the buttons, wheels, sliders, large built in display screen, and most other hardware on those expensive interactive, technologically advanced expensive digital pianos and take all of those features that are in those pianos and stuff it into (as an example) an iPad and operate every function and feature of your  piano (thousands of cool features) from your iPad alone using the familiar software controls of your iPad iOS device to operate your piano? Then you would have your iPad color touch screen with all the familiar controls that you are used to having (for those that have an iPad) and be able to have total control and nearly unlimited amount of digital piano features for your piano that up until now have only been available on the more expensive digital pianos with all the hardware buttons and sliders. Wouldn't that kind of thing be awesome?:)...I think so:).

This is precisely what the new Yamaha CSP150 & CSP170 digital pianos are giving people; a way to have a more understated but attractive digital piano in their home or venue that looks like a piano instead of an electronic device but actually outperforms and is easier to use (in a number of ways) than the more expensive top digital technology pianos like the Yamaha Clavinova CVP pianos. Using an iPad and proprietary Yamaha software that operates in an iOS app in cooperation with Apple company, these two new digital pianos are the kind of instruments in my opinion that the industry has needed as an alternative to the more "ornate and over produced" digital pianos of the past and even some current models. These hardware saturated digital pianos rely on tons of buttons, sliders, and screens packaged and built into a cabinet that can easily become outdated quickly because technology keeps changing. Having it all built into the piano cabinet can sometimes make it more challenging and more difficult to keep up with and retain resale value as opposed to offering a good, solid piano which uses external digital technology to control the piano that can easily be tweaked, changed, and updated without affecting the piano itself, the resale value, or the need to buy a new piano to get new technology. What an interesting concept now brought to life:).

But as far as these actual pianos go, when you power up either the Yamaha CSP150 or CSP170, you get Yamaha's best grand piano sound taken directly from its 9' CFX concert grand which has a maximum 256-note polyphony along with natural organic resonances and tonal vibrations. The dynamic tonal range is smooth and very wide and there is a lot of music expression you can get out of these pianos.  So you just start playing piano and enjoying yourself. From that point you can go a couple different ways. Yamaha has provided many internal features on the piano that can be simply accessed by holding down the function button on the left side of the keyboard and then simultaneously touching a specific key (from a chart in the owners manual) on the keyboard that triggers a preset function or feature. In this way you can have a variety of instrument sounds, rhythms, styles, metronome, and other features at your fingertips (literally) without needing to connect to any external device. There 10 instrument sounds including the Yamaha and Bosendorfer grand piano tones, 10 orchestrated playalong songs including "my heart will go on" from the Titanic movie, 10 drum rhythm patterns & 10 style accompaniments including rock, jazz, Latin, etc, tempo speed adjustment for metronome and rhythms, 6 levels of reverb effects, 6 levels of key touch curve sensitivity, and a few other features. So just playing the piano allows you quick access to some other cool features that many digital pianos in this price range do not have.

But what really makes these pianos incredibly amazing (in my opinion) is their proprietary Yamaha iPad/iOS app called Smart Pianist. This is where all the real excitement and power resides and how these relatively 'simple" pianos become monsters:). But before I talk about this very powerful Yamaha app, it is important to know that the CSP150 piano is really a Yamaha Clavinova CLP635 piano in terms of its GH3X plastic key action and internal 60 watt sound system being the same along with its cabinet design. The CSP170 is essentially a Yamaha CLP645 in terms of its upgraded NWX wood key action and cabinet design but with increased internal audio on the CSP170 power offering 180 watts of power going into 4 speakers with the main speakers housed in their own acoustic chamber speaker box mounted just underneath the piano which produces a fuller, more resonate sound with improved bass reproduction. Although the CLP645 speaker system is quite good offering 100 watts of power going into 4 speakers with no speaker box, the CSP170 noticeably upgraded. I personally like the wood key action of the CSP170 much better than the firmer plastic key action of the CSP150 and I notice a big difference in the natural key movement of the CSP170 over the CSP150 with the action being somewhat lighter, smoother, and an action that does not work against you but works with you. The pedaling on both models works quite adequately and each pedal does what it is supposed to do in allowing damper sustain with long decay time for all notes with the right pedal, sostenuto sustain for selected notes with the middle pedal, and soft pedal control with the left pedal.

The Yamaha iOS Smart Pianist app applies to both CSP models in exactly the same way with the same features. So the choice for shoppers is...what can you afford to pay (your budget) and which key action and internal sound system of these two pianos will most appeal to you? In my opinion there is only one choice assuming you can spring for the extra money, and that choice is...the CSP170. This is because of its noticeably superior key action and its beefier internal sound system that really brings out the tone of the piano sound along with the incredible musical features of the Smart Pianist app.

Now lets talk about this Yamaha Smart Pianist app and some of the impressive musical things it allows you to do whether you are a beginner, a serious piano student, a recreational player, or an advanced pianist who wants to add even more enjoyment to their music. First it is important to know that when connecting an iPad to the piano for a MIDI connection so that your piano can "talk to" the iPad and the app, you can plug in a simple USB cable from the iPad lightning connector going to the piano USB connector located on the right side of the music rack. So connection is quick, simple, and secure. The audio portion of the iPad (sounds, rhythms, iTunes, music, etc) can be heard through the piano speaker system by connection of a special core audio cable (included) from the iPad to the piano with the input connector on the piano located on the left side of the music rack. When you do these two things you control all the features and sounds of the Yamaha Smart Pianist app from your piano so when playing keys on the piano you activate all the sounds and playalong functions and those features are then heard through the piano speaker system or through stereo headphones when plugged into the piano.

So what interactive musical things does this proprietary Yamaha/iOS app give you so that you will have more than just a digital piano and a few extra features? In other words...what makes the CSP150 & CSP170 so cool? The first thing most people want to with their new digital piano is to...you guessed it...play piano! But with the Yamaha Smart Pianist, you can change many things on the  acoustic piano sounds in these pianos beyond what they do and sound like from the Yamaha factory . Yamaha has a feature called the "Piano Room" and in this virtual Piano Room you can make changes to the piano sounds to personalize them in a way that could be even more pleasing to your ears and fingers. You do this all with an intuitive, easy to understand list of piano sound changes on the app along with large icons/pictures of the pianos so you can see what is happening in real time. You can change up to 10 Piano Room functions in hundreds of ways by just using your finger on the iPad touch screen that makes it fun so that the end result will be potentially hundreds of new custom piano tones which you can create. You can change the grand piano lid position, brightness of the sound, touch curve of the key touch, the room or venue the piano is playing in (Recital Hall, Concert Hall, Cathedral, etc)...along with the control of that room and its depth of natural reverb and acoustic properties, you can change the master tuning of the piano, the depth of the damper resonance, depth of string resonance, and even be able to tune and control volume for each individual note as opposed to all the notes at one time. Therefore if you feel one note is a bit "out of tune" for your ear or the volume is not quite right as compared to other notes, you can individually adjust each note to your own personal tastes. If you mess up during these individual settings and restore the piano sound back to what it was, then that is easy to do by a reset function in the Piano Room. So hopefully you get the idea and understand that the very nice Yamaha acoustic piano sounds that come built in to these 2 models can be taken much further through instant access and control of the unique Piano Room in the Smart Pianist app.

I've only just begun talking about this new Smart Pianist app so here's a big list of features that are part of this very extensive feature laden Yamaha app: You get access to a library of over 700 very high quality (HD) instrument sounds from additional acoustic pianos, electric pianos brass, woodwinds, guitars of every type, stringed instruments including the most realistic guitars,  banjos, violins, harps saxophones, clarinets, trumpets, world instruments, and just about any other instrument you can think of. The authenticity and tonal reproduction of these instrument sounds are so good along with their detailed nuances that it's easy to think that you are hearing them "live." These are not "toy" instrument sounds but they are sophisticated recreations of the real thing and like nothing you have ever heard before on a consumer home digital piano. You can also use those instruments in song recordings, live play, accompaniment style play, layered, split, or just about any way you want to. Yes, I know that many people just want a digital piano to mainly play piano...but music is so much more than that and as a long time piano, guitar, keyboard, and organ teacher I can tell you first hand that the more exposure you and/or your children have to music technology, the better musician you and/or they can become. Playing piano is a worthy endeavor but if you can have built in features on these pianos that adds to your musical enjoyment and satisfaction, then I say...why not:).

The Smart Pianist app also has "Music Styles" so that you can have an interactive playing experience with a backup orchestra or band on your piano while playing your piano music. Just about any type of music styles you can think of is in the app including Jazz, Latin, Big Band, Swing, Hard rack, Classic Rock, Light Rock, Waltz, Blues, Country, Western, New Age, Alternative, Broadway, Disney, Motown, and everything in-between. When you select a Music Style from the Style library, whatever song you feel like playing on the piano keyboard, those piano notes will have a professional back up band or orchestra playing along with you at any tempo you choose. You can even access and control special interactive introductions and endings to your song so they start out and end just as a band or orchestra would do it. The styles themselves fill in the background and you play piano or any other instrument from the instrument sound library and then you are the leader of your own personal band or orchestra and music results are absolutely outstanding. As a piano teacher for many years I know there are people who play piano and students taking lessons who may not care for (or have not had the opportunity to know) these added musical features that interact with your playing. But the fact is that you can control those features to enhance your playing enjoyment in ways not possible in the past on conventional pianos, and all of it done from your iPad in real time. When you hear these Yamaha Smart Pianist interactive styles for yourself I think you might agree that it's all about playing music that makes you "feel good" and if this feature does that for you then that is what is truly important. At the end of the day music is all about feelings and personal expression and if you can gain more happiness from what these new pianos can do for you and/or your family, then that is what should really count.

One thing that I find that helps expand a person's musical ability and musical understanding is to be able to record themselves while they play along with being able to create more complex and engaging music. The Yamaha CSP150 & CSP170 Smart Pianist app offers these things with its ability to record your every note on one or both hands and then play them back in real time allowing you to slow the song down or even mute out left or right hand so you can analyse your piano practice and playing to get a better idea of what you really sound like. You control all aspects of your recording and playback from the intuitive recording/playback section of the app. You can also playalong with any recorded part live in real time like you would be playing along with your piano teacher of someone else. You can record your song either as a MIDI song file or an audio wav file CD quality and save it on a USB flash drive or playback from the flash drive. To make things even more interesting you can learn to create full song arrangements with up to 16 different instruments from the Smart Pianist instrument library played and recorded one at a time and then played back simultaneously as one complete song arrangement just like you would hear from a band, orchestra, or other musicians playing together. You can control every instrument with regard to type, individual relative volumes, tempo, octaves, effects, and being able to mute any or all instruments during playback. I have done this type of song creation and recording many times and I can tell you that a person, regardless of piano playing skill level, can get a real sense of musical accomplishment when you create an entire score of music on your own and then hear it played back all at one time. You can editing your recordings, save them to digital memory, and also see the music on your iPad. Recording and playing back music is a very cool thing to do and it can either be very simple with a 1-track piano recording all the way up to a full 16 instrument, 16-track musical arrangement of any song you like including your own music. You just may wind up with the next famous studio recorded song all done on your Smart Pianist app from playing one of these new CSP pianos:)

OK, so what else can this Smart Pianist app do? Well one of the most interesting things it does is something that just about everyone I know would like to have and no other piano offers this feature. You can take just about any iTune song (MP3 audio song file) from your iOS iTune library and play it through the piano. That's cool but not super impressive. What is impressive is that the Smart Pianist app converts the audio playback of the song to actual sheet music notation on the iPad so that you can following along with the song and actually play it from sheet music while even controlling the tempo and the key! Imagine having sheet music displaying the notation to an iTune song and being able to play the piano along with the song. Not only that but you can mute out different parts of the song so that you can play the piano while controlling the accompaniment in different ways. If you do not read music then you can instead have the app translate the iTune song to a "chord chart" so that you can play along using chords that are shown in the correct order as the song is played. This is great if you play by ear, don't read music as I mentioned, or play guitar along with the song because guitar players use chords. Given this new technology, not every (MP3) iTune song our there will be decoded properly into notation by the Yamaha Smart Pianist app. The app may be "smart," but it still has a lot to learn:). Also there are over 400 built in songs in the Smart Pianist "song library" with a huge musical variety that will give you access to instant song learning and playback that are very enable for any age and playing skill level and work well for the piano. The amount of songs the Smart Pianist app does translate correctly into sheet music is pretty big and will impress you and give you a musical tools that can be used in many ways for more immediate musical enjoyment.

But none of this would truly be complete without being able to sing along with your favorite song...right? Well...not only does the CSP150 and CSP175 allow you to plug in a microphone to the piano to sing through it while accessing special vocal reverb effects to give you pro performance quality, but the Smart Pianist app displays the words (lyrics) to the audio iTunes songs so that that you can read the words and sing them while the song is playing, kind of like karaoke. That's pretty cool and if the song is not in your singing range (too low or too high) then you can transpose the song into a different key to sing along in a vocal range that better suits your voice. A lot of people enjoy singing along with their favorite song and now all this can be done on your iPad in an easy to see, easy to read format that also allows you to control the volume of your voice so it mixes well with your playing. There are hundreds of songs that you can get with lyrics and it's great fun regardless of your age, musical ability, or singing ability.

In addition to the lyrics feature and vocal mic connection to the piano and being able to control it, I know a lot of people who have always dreamed of singing with their favorite song but thought their voice was not good enough to do it, especially in "public." The Smart Pianist app also lets you hear the vocal tracks to the songs you choose so you can sing along to it and still hear the original voice on the song. However, when you think you are good enough to sing on your own without the original voice on your favorite iTune song, then the Smart Pianist app will allow you to cancel out or "mute" that voice track so that you become the exclusive singer of the song. Yamaha calls this feature a "Melody Suppressor" because it suppresses the melody or sing line. So as you become more confident about your voice and vocal abilities you will want to use this feature so that you can be the only voice on the song and sound like a pro:).

Ok so all that is very cool but there is still one more very impressive thing the vocal feature will do for you. If you are a singer in a band or orchestra and want other voices to harmonize with you then that harmonizing can really sound great and add to your singing and playing enjoyment in a big way. Since you are just one person singing through the mic to get harmony you would need other people to sing live with you, know the song, and be able to perfectly harmonize with your voice. Since this situation is not likely to happen then if you want to take your singing dream even further, the Smart Pianist app provides an interactive vocal harmony feature when you sing. In other words, you can switch on the vocal harmony control and when you are singing the Yamaha harmony feature on the iPad app will automatically and perfectly add harmony notes using your voice for those notes. So basically you will hear other people singing with you in a variety of harmonies that you can select from and those harmonies are you! There are not 1, not 2, not 3, but 44 different harmonies you can choose from with the vocal harmonizer including duet, trio, open and close harmonies, 4 part, 5 part, jazz, and so many more. This takes singing to a whole new level so if you love to singing or have other people in your family (or friends) who do, or if your like to entertain, then this CSP150 & CSP170 vocal feature will give you even more musical enjoyment than you thought possible.

The Yamaha CSP150 and CSP170 both have a feature built into the piano themselves called follow along streaming lights. Streaming lights is a new and very impressive feature that will identify the black & white keys in a visual way that you are supposed to play while playing along with built in songs in the Smart Pianist app. Yamaha currently has a variation of streaming lights built into other models they have and that function is called "lesson guide" using guide lamps just above the keys to indicate the keys to press down at the appropriate time while a song is playing back in that piano. Guide lamps are basically little lighted dots, one above each key and those dots light up. The Yamaha CVP series of Clavinova pianos has these more traditional light-up dots but those pianos are generally a lot more money than the CSP pianos and the light guide system is not near as cool. Also, the streaming light function in the CSP pianos "stream" down above each key in a 4-step process so you know when that key (or keys) needs to be played. The new streaming lights are much easier to follow and give you that 4-step "countdown" during the light-stream so it is easier to play the correct key at the right time than with the convention light guide on the other models.

So...if you do not play piano at all or you just want to learn a song more quickly, the new CSP streaming lights can and will help you do that and you can even slow down the song to any tempo to learn the notes without the song jumping out ahead of you. Streaming light feature also has other things it can do and all of its features are controlled by the Yamaha Smart Pianist app on your iPad. You can take your favorite song in iTunes, see the notation, learn the chords, see the notes, follow the light streams (at different tempos) on the piano and even sing the lyrics and do this altogether while being able control how you use this system right from the app in a very intuitive way using familiar iPad/iPhone controls. Music should be enjoyed by your family and friends in whatever way gets them involved, and based on my personal time playing and working with these new pianos and the Smart Pianist app, there's no way that you can't find something to really like them. Music, whether listening to or playing it, should generate an emotional feeling in you so you can express yourself and the CSP models do that like no other digital pianos can do in my opinion. There are a videos of the streaming lights in action that you can seeing by going the the following links:

It would be easy for me to continue talking about this Smart Pianist app as the list of things it can do goes on and on almost without end. But I believe the main functions and features that I have described so far should give you a clear idea of the musical potential of both the CSP150 and CSP170 so that you can enjoy playing music in almost any way that you chose to do. The piano does have the standard digital features that most all of the other digital pianos out there have including duet play, splitting the keyboard into 2 sounds, layering 2 any sounds together and being able to just play the instrument as a piano. The CSP pianos also have all the connectivity that a person would need includingthe mic/line input as I mentioned before, dual stereo headphone inputs, auxiliary line input jack, audio output to connect to external speaker system if necessary (for church, school, outdoor event, etc), USB to device to connect external device to the piano (iPad, computer, etc), and standard MIDI connectors for MIDI in, out, and through to be used with older MIDI devices (keyboards, modules, etc). One more connection device that can work with these pianos is the optional wireless connector that Yamaha makes called the UDWL01. This wifi system allows a MIDI connection from the piano to a wireless router so that you can connect your CSP piano in that way using the wireless adapter rather than a cable. I personally like a cable because that connection tends to be more immediate and secure. But for those people who want less cables plugged into their digital piano and device, then this would be the way to do that. This proprietary Yamaha WiFi adapter is the only one that will work for the piano and it will cost you on average about $90US. So it's not cheap and you have to rely on a good router and placement so that it will work well.

In the final analysis, the new Yamaha CSP150 and CSP170 digital pianos have what a lot of people have been looking for in their price range: impressive and clean looking piano cabinets in nice finishes with very few buttons/sliders, no built-in user display screen to stare down at or worry about, and a very satisfying piano sound, key action, and pedaling response. Then you take those basic piano fundamentals and combine it with cutting edge music technology with literally thousands of digital musical options as I previously described, all controlled by a single Yamaha proprietary Smart Pianist app designed in conjunction with the Apple company for its famous iPad. Then you have all the interactive music features you could ever want residing in an external device instead of on and/or inside the piano. The digital piano has finally entered the age of personal interaction with a "monster" app on large color touch screen that can be updated with new features in the future or even be able to have potential "bugs" fixed like other apps do. Instead of relying solely on the piano itself you can now add just about whatever you want to your piano playing and musical enjoyment experience and you pay for it just one time...when you buy the piano. I suppose one could look at this and say that a person buying a CSP150 would be paying about $1000 more than a Clavinova CLP635 for the privilege and benefit of having the Yamaha Smart Pianist app than if he/she just bought the CLP635 instead of the CSP150 since the CLP635 is basically like the CSP150 but without the app. Therde are a few other differences in those models but the app makes the biggest difference by far. Same thing comparing the CSP170 to the Clavinova CLP645 although the internal speaker system in the CSP170 is nearly double the audio speaker power of the CLP645.

If you have multiple people in your family or where this piano may be going, then everyone can find their "musical joy" because there are so many features that provides so many ways of achieving your musical desires and needs. If you play piano and just want it for that purpose then these pianos will make that happen for you. If you want to be entertained with songs and accompaniments then the Smart Pianist app does a tremendous job of that. If you want to write music, perform music, sing music, record music and create music, then all of that is available for these models. The app is free when you buy either a CSP150 or CSP170 but we all know nothing is "free." But with the high quality music and operational technology that Yamaha, in conjunction with Apple, is providing through its Smart Pianist app, you otherwise would have had to spend way more money in a self-contained hardware driven digital piano than you would be in these new CSP pianos. So the question is...are the these new pianos worth the price of admission...the answer is yes. Are they the best digital pianos in terms of just playing piano in their price range?...maybe they are and maybe they aren't. There are other great brands out there including Roland, Casio, and Kawai to name a few. But do those brands of anything like what the CSP's are offering in terms of connecting with an iPad music app with almost unlimited possibilities, especially in their price range?...the answer is no. If you like what you see and hear when it comes to the new CSP pianos by Yamaha then I recommend you buy one and for my money I would spend the extra money (if you have it) and go for the CSP170. Just be warned that when you get one of these pianos in your home and start playing on it, you may not get anything else done for a long time:).

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.