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DP�s that have stood the test of time


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Can I fudge a bit? The Yamaha CP33 debuted in 2006, so it's in it's 15th year.

 

That was my go to for several years, and never had an issue. I loved its big brother, the CP300, but that was too heavy for me to haul around all the time to gigs.

David

Gig Rig:Casio Privia PX-5S | Yamaha MODX+ 6 | MacBook Pro 14" M1| Mainstage

 

 

 

 

 

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I"ll accept 2006! I dragged my old P200 up to a cottage where I am currently self isolating. At first I was like 'is this really all I will have to play for the foreseeable future?' Now, two weeks in, I don"t even think about it anymore. The thing about the cp33 that bugged me was the same thing that bugged me about the P90...amazing instruments but I was always wary of those power supplies...either you could lose them, or damage them.

 

The two 30W speakers in the P150/200/CP300 make the shlep worthwhile, if you"re in a situation like I am now. i.e. no acoustic.

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Add me to the Yamaha fan club. Those P90s were *everywhere* and were a known quantity â I know how they sound, I know how they play, I knew what settings I needed to change/fix, I knew I could throw it down a flight of stairs and it would be okay. I never owned an S90 but I was looking at it for a long time as a replacement for my well-loved QS8.

 

Does the QS8 count as a stage piano? Because mine still works â it's on long-term loan to a producer/friend â the user grand piano still sounds good in that 90s sort of way, and I always loved that action.

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........amazing instruments but I was always wary of those power supplies...either you could lose them, or damage them.

 

I have stockpiled many pa-150 and pa-130 power supplies over the years.

 

However in all my gigging years, I"ve never had a wall wart break.

David

Gig Rig:Casio Privia PX-5S | Yamaha MODX+ 6 | MacBook Pro 14" M1| Mainstage

 

 

 

 

 

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I would love to have another P200, were it not for the defective keys that were continually breaking. The piano 1 worked so well for live, also really liked the darker Piano 2 even though it thinned out in the highest keys. Now I have a CP300 that I can't bring myself to get rid of, because of the speakers and the flat space on top. Also for the MIDI on/off button and the 1/4" line ins. The somewhat heavy action does a good job of keeping my finger strength up, while not being as challenging as that of the P200/120.

 

Edited, also thought of the Kawai ES4 I used to own. Nice speakers, with line ins, good build quality. I wish my ES110 had incorporated all of that although I know it would have added considerably to the cost.

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I really liked the Roland RD-700SX from 2005 and with some of the SRX cards it was a really nice and enjoyable live board. Built like a tank, great action and it sounded good.

 

I would certainly use one today in a home studio for sure if I still owned it. It was a little heavy to gig with and I stopped carrying 88 key sizes out, but it's a great instrument from that era.

Yamaha U1 Upright, Roland Fantom 8, Nord Stage 4 HA73, Nord Wave 2, Korg Nautilus 73, Viscount Legend Live, Lots of Mainstage/VST Libraries

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Truth be told, I still use my CP300 as my main DP for my touring gig. For local, I was too cheap to buy a second CP300 so I paid a couple hundred and had yamaha replace the entire keybed on my P200 (there was a known defect in the keyboard...for a while they would replace it for free...) It is a super dated sound now, but not so much that it is unplayable. It is still great for live IMO...no matter who is mixing FOH, or though any amp, it seems to have a certain' je ne sais quois' that I don"t understand, but appreciate.
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I still have the Roland FP-5 from my high school years. Even has the Roland organ sim (which hasn't improved much since then). I used to listen to how the same note sounds a little different each time and thought "how do they do that?"

Life is subtractive.
Genres: Jazz, funk, pop, Christian worship, BebHop
Wishlist: 80s-ish (synth)pop, symph pop, prog rock, fusion, musical theatre
Gear: NS2 + JUNO-G. KingKORG. SP6 at church.

 

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I still sometimes gig with my Casio PX-500L, which I believe was from 2003. Sound may not be state of the art, but for rock/pop gigs it's perfectly usable and actually pretty nice sounding if not the most authentic. In feel, it's still one of my favorite hammer action boards, especially if you don't want to lug a lot of weight around (it's about 28 lbs). As a bonus, the keys light up when you play them, which is actually a kinda neat stage effect!

 

Downside is that it doesn't have a standard line out, so you have to use the 1/8" headphone jack. I use a 90 degree plug for that, because reliability would take a hit otherwise. I wish you could keep the speakers on when plugging something into the headphone jack, but c'est la vie. I've also used it as a MIDI controller, with an Anatek box to expand the velocity curve, since it has a DX7-like inability to hit the high velocities as a controller.

 

It also happens to have a particularly nice honky tonk piano sound (which seems to have been achieved with detuned samples as opposed to the DSP chorus approach used by most basic DPs) and a nice dark Rhodes sound. No Wurli, though.

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It seems like the Montage line killed the S90 line which is too bad because I remember at the time people talked about an S90 XF model.

"Danny, ci manchi a tutti. La E-Street Band non e' la stessa senza di te. Riposa in pace, fratello"

 

 

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I have two S90ES's so yes one of those. One needs some work- was on the road for 10 years. The other was the spare and has had work done and is in better condition. I bought the spare after the 2011 plane crash at the Reno Air Races- it was a present for surviving that. - The airplane went right over us and easily could have taken out me and my friends.
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Roland RD-250s ...........great solid gigging S/A piano for many years

 

Yamaha S-80..................like others have said, this board was a wonderful 'sonic surprise' from Yamaha, & feature-wise definitely a favorite for me at the time

 

Yamaha CP-33............ i still keep one as a semi-permanent gigging back-up to this day

----------------------------------------------------------

 

Gig: Yamaha MODX7, NumaX 73 Piano  Studio: Kawai ES-920; Hammond SK Pro 73; Yamaha Motif ES7 w/DX,VL,VH; Yamaha YC 73; Kawai MP-6; Numa Compact 2x

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None of them. They didn't even pass the test first time around.

 

Same here, but I"ve always been in the habit of selling my boards at the tail end of the cycle anyway so I"m not sure what I"d keep if there were no choice. Probably the longest I"ve kept any digital instrument was a NS2/73 but that"s not the point of this thread.

____________________________________
Rod

Here for the gear.

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My Generalmusic Equinox w/the Pro kit. TP20 weighted action keybed with the REALPIANO installed. Still have it and I'd still use it for gigs except that it is a beast at 72 pounds. Still use it in my studio. Great piano tone and the keyboard is a great controller is its own right. Other than changing the internal battery, I've never had one issue with the keyboard in 20 years.

 

https://equipboard.com/items/generalmusic-equinox-pro-88

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Delaware Dave

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15 years ago, I was a Yamaha S80 guy too. Bought the S80 brand new at the tail end of 1999 to replace a Kurzweil K2500XS.

 

I played that S80 for about 8 years before I sold it and bought a Motif ES8.:cool:

PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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I'd choose a Yamaha S90 ES in a heartbeat; had one from 2006-12, and regret selling it. I did have an S90 XS from 2011-16; bought it for the expanded synth engine, and did find some S700 re-creations that were eerily close. Throughout the 1990's I gigged with Yamaha piano modules (TX-1P and P50m; still have the TX-1P), and used Studiologic and Roland 88-key controllers with those.

'Someday, we'll look back on these days and laugh; likely a maniacal laugh from our padded cells, but a laugh nonetheless' - Mr. Boffo.

 

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If modules count, 15 years ago I was using a GEM (Generalmusic) RP-X. I probably wouldn't experience too much heartburn if I had to use it today.

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

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