Yamaha CLP-765GP, CLP-745, CLP-735 | REVIEW | Are They Improved?

YAMAHA KEY ACTION

In digital pianos the key action and the the way it moves and responds to finger touch is considered to be the most important part of any digital piano and when you get into these prices ranges then it is even more important. In the previous CLP-600 models, the key actions were good and for most people enjoyable to play, but there were still a few drawbacks to them. When your fingers played towards the backs of the keys as opposed to playing more towards the fronts of the keys with your fingers on a digital piano, it typically takes more finger force to press down the keys. On a regular acoustic upright piano it is very similar and also takes more finger force to press down the keys towards the back of them (especially when playing flats & sharps) as compared with moving the fingers towards the tips of the keys. That's one of the reasons why you'll rarely see an advanced or accomplished piano player wanting to play on an acoustic upright piano as compared to a grand piano...because upright key actions can throw off your playing technique a bit because those keys are more somewhat unbalanced as compared to a grand piano with much longer keys. On acoustic grand pianos the keys are not only much longer but they move differently than on an acoustic upright piano so the goal of any good piano player and aspiring pianist is to eventually play their music on a grand piano because it can make a big difference in the outcome of their music.

The key action movement has been redesigned on the CLP-735, CLP-745, and CLP-765GP so that the keys will be more balanced and move more smoothly and quickly with less difference in front to back of key balance than on prior models from the CLP-600 series. This key action change (called the Grand Touch-S (with escapement) helps beginner through advanced piano players be able to play their music more evenly and naturally with a better musical outcome...and that is a very good thing. Yamaha describes this change as "pivot points" or "balance pin" changes so that the player will get a more even distribution of key movement and sound expression to more accurately reproduce a real piano playing experience. As with all brands, Yamaha uses some "marketing" terminology in trying to promote these new pianos as the "perfect" digital pianos...and although they are not perfect....the upgrades to the key action are very noticeable when it comes to replicating the playing experience of a real acoustic piano. This is the first time in many, many years that Yamaha has made any significant changes at all in the key action so this is definitely a big step for them. On the CLP-745, the key action with the white wood keys is much lighter and easier to play than on the previous CLP-645 model with the static down-weight and up-weight being noticeably reduced to improve playability and faster key movement. I really enjoyed playing this model and the key movement felt very natural to me and much more so than I have ever felt on any previous Yamaha Clavinova model. The CLP-735 and CLP-765GP mini grand have the same key actions as each other and they are made of plastic like many other brands in this price range...and that's fine as long as those graded and piano weighted plastic key actions respond well...and in this case I was very pleased with this key action. It was also noticeably lighter and quicker than what they had in the previous 600 series and I was especially glad to see this. I had been saying for many years that I was not a big fan of the "35" series way back when Yamaha had the old CLP-535/565GP and even before that because those key actions were heavy and not that enjoyable to play as far as I was concerned. Apparently Yamaha "finally got the message" and listened to me because in this new series they redesigned these key actions in significant positive ways and now I can fully recommend them and I don't do that easily. Yamaha (nor anyone else) pays me for these reviews nor do I have to be "nice" to them just because they are big piano manufacturers. Yamaha really did make these big changes and in a very positive way so it is nice to know they are still listening and responding to "constructive criticism." 

The key top material being used in the new models is the newer synthetic ivory and synthetic ebony to give the keys a more "tactile feeling" when playing them and a classier look as well. They feel great and also help absorb sweat from the fingers. Escapement is a term used to signify the noticeable hesitation or physical "bump" or notch that is felt when you press down the key lightly on a grand piano right before the keys hits bottom. This "escapement" (aka: letoff) feeling allows the player to feel where they are in the key travel as you
press down the key towards the bottom and this function/feature is normally only felt on a grand piano as opposed to an upright piano. Yamaha has had this feature before on their previous models but in reality it was a poor representation of the real thing and I did not like it and said so in my reviews of those models. However on these new models the escapement notch feature has definitely been improved so you can actually feel it now when pressing down the keys about half-way down or so. I noticed this improvement right away. Again, Yamaha listened to me (haha) and fixed the issue on these new models and now all is good. That's what happens when you wait long enough for improvements...eventually they do get fixed and improved, but sometimes it takes years as it did with this key action that finally resolves a number of things that needed improvement. Quieter key movement, better escapement feature, more evenly balanced keys with quicker down-weight and up-weight from front to back and side to side, and just a better overall design. Nice job, Yamaha...it's about time. Take a look below at the CLP-745 key action as it is moving from within the piano. This is a video view from behind the white keys. You can hear some key movement noise when the keys are going up and down in this video but this noise is not heard at all when the piano is closed up and the keys are being played in a normal way.

PIANO SOUND SAMPLES

The piano sounds consist of 2 separate piano reproductions just like on the previous models which includes a Yamaha concert grand piano from Japan called the CFX and a European Bosendorfer Grand piano from Vienna, Austria. These 2 piano sound reproductions are done with a combination of Sampling and Physical Modeling technology to create a better and more natural piano sound with more nuanced expression. These 2 world famous grand piano sounds were in the previous models but have been improved even further to sound noticeably more natural and organic than in the previous models. Yamaha did not change their overall approach to the piano sounds they have chosen in these models but they did use newer and better technology to capture those piano sounds in a more organic way. The polyphony ability of the pianos is the same as before at 256-note maximum polyphony power which is more than enough for most musical applications and playing styles.

When it comes to piano piano sound itself, the Japanese Yamaha grand piano tone is great for all types of music but especially for pop, jazz, Latin, country, and even classical. It is more metallic and a bolder sound The European Bosendorfer grand piano sound is lighter and more mellow with that "classical" tone that many people love and generally is better for classical music, ballads, romantic songs, and music that you want to be a bit more mellow but yet full of bass and well rounded in tone. Let's face it...technology changes and improves over a few years of time so you can bet that the Yamaha piano sound will be improved in newer models and that is the case here...it just sounds more real, better articulation, more resonate, more organic elements are heard and you can definitely tell the difference from previous models, especially if you are a more advanced player. Yamaha also added 2 completely new acoustic pianos to the sound library which includes what are known as "historical" acoustic pianos which would have been the actual pianos that Beethoven Mozart, and others would have played while they were alive centuries ago. Those pianos were not constructed in a way pianos are today and therefore had a distinctly different sound, moire percussive, brighter, and even a big twangy. The 2 historical pianos that Yamaha actually sampled/recorded and put into the new 700 series pianos include the Mozart grand piano and the Chopin grand piano. The difference between the 2 of them is that the Mozart piano sound is deeper and even sounds a bit like a harpsichord with some twangy-metallic tone to it whereas the Chopin piano sound is lighter, and more delicate. So when you hear a Mozart piece of music played on a current model acoustic grand piano today, it is not what Mozart would have experienced in his day and the same is true for Chopin, the famous composer-pianist. So Yamaha added 2 of these "period" pianos to give the you the feeling of what a piano was like to hear in those days. Key action was also different on those historical pianos but in digital pianos that feeling cannot be reproduced because of the proprietary mechanics in the key actions of those old pianos. Nevertheless, it's great for those piano players interested in recreating a historical sound environment when playing that type of music.

BINAURAL HEADPHONE EXPERIENCE

When listening to these pianos through stereo headphones it's certainly good to get the best stereo sound reproduction you can get in your ears so that it will sound like a full grand piano in your head! Yamaha has a special "circuit" or technology that is called Binaural Sampling and this technology is a separate feature which give both acoustic pianos sounds (Yamaha & Bosendorfer) extra added realism when listening through a good pair of stereo headphones. In the previous models this technology was only available for the Yamaha grand piano sound. But in the new 700 series it also applies to the Bosendorfer grand piano sound. In fact, I was very disappointed that this technology was not available in the previous models for the Bosendorfer piano sound and I mentioned it in my previous review of those models. But I am happy to say that Yamaha "listened to me" and included to Binaural sampling technology in these new pianos so that the headphone listening experience has been greatly improved when using the European grand piano sound. This does not change how that sound is head through the internal speakers...only through stereo headphones. It's just a fuller, richer, and more vibrant sound and for people who want to use headphones for private practice, you will appreciate this upgrade very much.

INTERNAL SPEAKER SYSTEM

On the previous CLP-600 series models the internal speaker systems were good, but they were still a bit weak, especially the CLP-635 at just 60 watts of total power going through 2 amplifiers and 2 speakers. On the 3 new 700 series models the internal speaker power has been improved except for the CLP-735 which remains the same as in the previous CLP-635. Even though you can get the CLP-735 to be loud enough, it just does not sound as rich and bassy as I would have liked to see. For $2699 I think they could have done better, but it is still good...just not where it should be in my opinion. However on the new CLP-745 Yamaha did upgrade that internal speaker system in a big way going from 100 watts of total power to 200 watts of total power with 4 amplifiers and 4 speakers. The CLP-745 now has the kind of sound and headroom it should have in this price range. With the new power rating, this model can carry its weight and price tag in a much more competitive way. Plus, the speakers inside the piano have been greatly improved along with the positioning of the speakers to give the sound a better frequency response and sound dispersion coming out at the player instead of away from the player. One of the reasons for that is because on the CLP-745 the 2 additional powerful speakers are mounted just underneath the lid of the piano on either side and pointing directly towards the player and that sound comes through the cabinet. The CLP-735 does not have these 2 additional speakers and so the CLP-745 sounds much better and is more realistic than the CLP-735. So Yamaha has really done a very good job here in improving the quality and fullness of sound you get out of these new instruments, with the exception of the CLP-735 which remains the same as before in the previous CLP-635. CLP-745 upper speakers (there are 2 of them) are also each mounted separately inside enclosed speaker boxes which gives provides those extra speakers more bass response and more "punch" and it really helps that big sound come out in a very noticeable way, just like on a real acoustic pianos. With Yamaha's experience building home and prop audio products it makes sense that they would utilize these ingenious designs to further enhance the piano playing experience. So given you have a new, more balanced key action with wooden white keys and a heftier speaker system, in my opinion this model is definitely worth the difference in price over the CLP-735, plus...it has a few other feature upgrades over the CLP-735 that I will mention later. The CLP-765GP mini grand piano speaker system has also been upgraded over the previous model and has gone from just 70 watts of total power in the CLP-665GP to  a huge 184 watts of total power going into 4 amplifiers and 4 speakers. This is a big upgrade and really gives this digital "grand piano" the kind of volume, power, and tone it needs to feel like it is really putting out sound worthy of this type of instrument. The speakers and their positioning inside the piano have also been improved and upgraded. With this new CLP-765GP mini grand model being in the same price as the previous CLP-665GP, it's a no-brainer when it come to buying it...and this time it's definitely worth it and you won't be disappointed in this price range.

PEDALS

Pedaling can be an overlooked aspect of any piano but yet it is extremely important to get a realistic pedal function experience when playing any type of music especially if you know how to play piano. There are 3 pedals on most every acoustic piano out there and most digital pianos also have 3 pedals which includes the sustain/damper pedal, the sostenuto pedal, and finally the soft pedal. On a real grand piano the soft pedal is also called by a more classical name which is "una-corda" pedal. Of the 3 pedals the sustain (damper) pedal is most important because it holds out the piano sound and sustains it over a period of time when playing a note and holding down the right (sustain) pedal. Without good sustain quality the music can sound choppy, uneven, and uninteresting. To play the sustain pedal correctly takes time and practice but once you have learned out to do it properly you cannot live without it when it comes to playing beautiful music. To get a quality sustained piano tone, not only do you need to have the right pedaling technique, but the instrument needs to have a large piano tonal range with natural string vibrations, resonances, and overtones that can be easily heard as the piano sound is being sustained over time. That piano tone can either sound simple and plain or it can sound colorful and complex because of all the natural organic elements being heard while that piano sound is being sustained over time and decaying naturally as that sound fades out.

REAL GRAND EXPRESSION

With this being said, Yamaha uses a newer technology (physical modeling) which Yamaha called "Grand Expression" and it helps to reproduce those complex natural organic piano tones that are normally reserved for real acoustic grand pianos. It's all that natural detail of harmonics and resonances which occur in "real-time" on a real piano that Yamaha has reproduced in a convincing way on its new CLP-735, CLP-745, and CLP-765GP. In other words this new resonating technology is in all 3 of these new models whether you are hearing the piano through its internal speakers or listening through headphones. It's very impressive and makes the piano sound more realistic than ever before. Is it exactly the same as a real grand piano...no, but it comes close. It will fool most people, especially those who do not have lots of playing experience on real high quality grand pianos...and that's most people. This Grand Expression technology is effective whether you are playing fast, slow, hard, soft, using sustain pedal, or playing more staccato. But the beautiful resonate tone is especially noticeable when sustaining multiple notes at the same time. The other 2 pedals, soft and sostentuto, work well and do a good job for people who will be using those functions. If you are a beginner or even intermediate player you may never or seldom use either of those other 2 pedals. But for some people they will use one or both of them so they do function well for those purposes.

RHYTHM & TIMING FUNCTIONS

So, what else makes these new digital pianos worth considering and are there any more new upgrades and features these models have that the previous models did not have? All 3 models had 20 fun and entertaining drum rhythm patterns in their previous models including jazz, swing, rock, Latin, waltz, country, etc and those drum patterns could be played at any tempo and you could play along with them to give yourself the feeling that you were playing with a live drummer. In the new models Yamaha still has this cool feature but now they have added a bass player to the "band" so that if you play a chord on the left hand, the piano will figure out the chord your are playing and put an appropriate bass line in that chord. So now you can get a drummer, bass player, and you can fill in the live piano parts as you would normally do for both left and right hand. This bass-man feature just makes playing music more fun and livens it up a bit. I like doing that because I play all kinds of music but perhaps you only want to concentrate on playing more serious classical music and if so you may not use this "live band" feature, and that's OK...but for other people it's a feature that many other digital pianos in this price range do not have and I personally like it. Of course the CLP-700's have a built-in adjustable digital metronome so that you can better learn to "count" and stay on track when learning rhythm and timing. Almost all piano teachers who I know (and I know a lot of them all over the country and the world) like to use a metronome whether it is a physical one or a digital one. You can even get some good ones from apps on an iPad, which I personally use in my teaching studio. However, these new Yamaha models have a very capable digital metronome built in that is useful and can be adjusted for various tempos, time signatures, and sounds to further enhance the piano learning experience.

BLUETOOTH

The CLP-745 and CLP765GP have Bluetooth audio wireless connectivity like they did on the previous models. However, they now include Bluetooth wireless "MIDI" connectivity which allows you to connect a computer or tablet (iPad) or other external device without the need of a USB/MIDI cable so that you can use computer music software or apps and not have to worry about connecting cables anymore which makes for a "cleaner look" on the piano too. Unfortunately the CLP-&35 does not have any Bluetooth technology so that's another advantage of the CLP-745 along with the CLP-765GP mini grand. These are definitely features worth having because you can also wirelessley stream live recorded music through the piano speakers systems and play along live with that music. It makes for a lot of fun and allows to to interact with your favorite songs and you can even do that using headphones while practicing in privacy.

USER INTERFACE & EXTRA FEATURES

There are many features which these new pianos have which were also in the previous models because they are "standard" Yamaha features which really round out these models. These functions and features are accessed by Yamaha's user interface with buttons that are fairly easy to use although they definitely take a bit of time to get used to them and learn the navigation of those functions. These extra built-in features include special effects (reverb, chorus, etc), wav file audio recording with USB flash drive slot for playing and saving your recorded music and giving it the "live recorded sound that you would hear if playing a CD recording, a 16-track MIDI recorder so that you can compose and arrange music using up to 16 separate instrument sounds played and recorded one at a time and then played back simultaneously (fun!), over 300 built-in song library you can play, listen to, and play along with, splitting any 2 sounds at the same time with 1 on the left hand and the other sound on the right hand, layer 2 sounds simultaneously like piano & strings or organ and harpsichord so that you can hear them both and even adjust relative volume of each one, digitally transpose to any key, digital adjustable metronome for any time signature and tempo, and "Piano Room" which allow you to adjust and edit the piano sound to customize it to your taste with just the right amount of ambient tones such as reverb, brilliance, etc. You can also adjust the musical key you play in which is called "transpose." When you transpose you can quickly go up and down by 1/2 steps to any key you want without changing finger or hand positions. This feature allows the player to play the music as it is written but to also allow the song to be played in a different key so that any vocalist can sing along in a comfortable key for their voice. It also enables you to modulate the song and play it over again in a higher (or lower) key to give the piece of music more "drama" and excitement. There are many great features like this in the new CLP-700 series digital pianos.

YAMAHA SMART PIANIST APP

Yamaha also has a proprietary app for iPad called "Smart Pianist" which allows you to control the various function of the piano directly from the color touch screen of your iPad. It's easy, intuitive, and fun to use and the app looks great and is engaging especially when it comes to using features on the piano that you otherwise may not have used as much without this app. I have personally used and worked with the Smart Pianist app many times and it is amazing as far as what it can do and it also does things tat are extra features that are not already on the piano itself. "Smart Pianist" displays actual sheet music to the built-in piano songs so that you can read the music and play along with the pre-recorded song all at the same time. You can change tempo of the music, change key, add orchestration, and really become musically more involved and learn things about music you may not have known before. Another very cool thing this app does is that you can "import" your own iTunes into the app and play along with them and the app can instantly convert that song to a progressive chord chart so that you can see the actual accompaniment chords to the songs you are playing from your iTunes play list...it's pretty amazing and it works. These are just a few of the things this impressive Yamaha app does but there are even more cool features within the app that are useful as well. Selecting the piano sound you want, the instrument sound you want, setting up a sound layer or sound split, using the recording function, changing the editing features, whatever it is you can do it easily and quickly with this Smart Pianist app and I cannot overstate how much fun it is to use...and all you need is an iPad which many people have these days.

EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL CONNECTIVITY

As far as "connectivity" goes, Yamaha has all the connections you will need including audio outputs, audio input, USB to host, USB flash drive input, regular MIDI ports, and dual stereo headphone jacks, and this is on all 3 models...and as I mentioned before, Bluetooth audio and MIDI wireless on the CLP-745 and CLP-765GP are also included, but not on the CLP-735. In addition to the connectivity in these pianos, the LCD user interface is also impressive and laid out intuitively overall. The interface is not a touch screen and instead uses buttons that are well designed and work good in navigating where you want to go when comes to
accessing various functions and features. It's the same interface Yamaha had on its previous 600 series models so that's a good thing and it's been a dependable interface system. Also on the previous models, when you powered up the pianos there was a red LED dot on the left front of the piano when the power was on. This small red dot was pretty bright and when it was off it was fine except for the fact that it was a noticeable plastic raised dot on the front of the piano just below the keys on the left side and real pianos don't, of course, have electric power. So to further give this cabinet a more natural design, Yamaha took off the indicator red power dot from the front of the piano and resigned the actual power button so that the light indicator was coming directly from the power button itself which is recessed in the top right side of the piano just above the master volume control slider. It's a small thing to do but it does add to the organic nature of the cabinet so that the front panel under the keyboard is clean and smooth with no noticeable digital elements such as little power light in it. Even in this way the piano has been further made to look like a piano.

CABINET DESIGN & COLORS

The piano cabinets on all 3 models are very attractive, and for the 2 upright models CLP-735 and CLP-745 they are available in matte black, matte rosewood, matte white, matte dark walnut, and for more money the polished ebony finish is also available in the CLP-735 and 745. The CLP-765GP mini grand piano is available by default in polished polyester finishes although the polished white finish in the CLP-765GP is considerably more money than the polished ebony finish. The cabinets are well built, have a sliding key cover, nicely positioned music rack with built-in music clips to hold the music, and a matching bench comes with each model. The matte white cabinet color in the CLP-735 and CLP-745 is a brand new cabinet color for Yamaha this year. The matte white color has not been available in past models but because of a trend lately for lighter colors including white, Yamaha decided to include it in this new series here is the US. As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, Yamaha also has the new "Ash" cabinet color but it is not available in the US and will likely not be brought in since demand overall is smaller for this color in the US. What is interesting is that the Korg music products company from Japan has a new home digital piano model in the matte ash color and it's called a G1 Air which sells for only $1799. It's an impressive digital piano with Steinway Bosendorfer, and Yamaha stereo digital piano samples in it along with Bluetooth audio streaming and an 80 watt, 4 speaker, 4 amplifier sound system inside that makes it sound like a smaller baby grand piano. It's an impressive model with some good, usable features but it definitely does not rival the Yamaha Clavinovas for piano touch, piano sound, and pedaling.  

FACTORY WARRANTY

The Yamaha factory warranty is 5 years parts & labor against any factory defects with in-home service. Yamaha products over the years have been very reliable and I have personally owned many Yamaha music products including acoustic and digital pianos, keyboards, guitars, band instruments, recording gear and lots of other Yamaha stuff. I just happen to like their products and they have been reliable for me for many years. I do like other brands and models of digital pianos including Kawai, Casio, Korg, and a few others but when it comes to cutting edge technology and a great piano playing experienced all contained in an attractive cabinet, it's really difficult to beat Yamaha for what they are offering now in these new models.

THE BOTTOM LINE AND AVAILABILITY

The bottom line is...these new models are definitely improved in a few important ways as I have already pointed out and they did not go up in price from the previous models. I don't expect to see this new CLP-700 series including the CLP-735, CLP-745, and CLP-765GP available in the US in any large quantity yet because they are just arriving and already sold out everywhere. There may be a few Yamaha on-line piano dealers who get a very small quantity of them but it's still going to be awhile for other dealers to get any of them and there will likely be a long wait for people wanting to purchase any of these new models, especially the CLP-745 and CLP-765GP mini grand version. In the meantime I have heard that Yamaha is pretty much out of their previous CLP-600 series here in the US unless some of the older models are still available in small quantities at random US Yamaha dealers and then likely would be sold for slightly less money than normal. But the new CLP-700 series are definitely superior instruments that will last for many, many years. It seems that more and more people are wanting to get a quality digital piano for their homes lately (I think we all know what those reasons are) so they and/or their kids can be involved in music with learning to play piano or just having a great outlet to relax and escape with being able to play piano on a great instrument. Before you buy any brand and model of digital piano from anyone anywhere,  please contact me first because I can share some vital info with you on how to buy for even less money for brand new digital pianos including free shipping, no tax, factory warranty, and more!