Yamaha is a brand that knows how to keep adding great units to the world of digital Pianos and their P115 is an example of this. Although this digital piano has now been discontinued, many piano lovers surely have their eyes on this middle ground musical instrument because of a number of reasons.
This piano is sturdy, has a compact design and can give you great feels of acoustic piano sounds at an affordable price. But if you are still having doubts then this review will help you have a clear picture of what the P115 can offer to your home and whether you should buy it or go for other digital pianos.
Let’s find out more about this piano in this Yamaha P115 Review in detail below:
About The Yamaha P115 Digital Piano
The Yamaha P115 is a digital piano that has the ability to provide sounds of grand pianos along with electric piano and harpsichord. You can even mix it up to get unique sounds, which is great because not many instruments offer this feature.
The P115 comes with 88 keys that are fully weighted, giving you the feel of sitting in front of a real piano or some grand piano.
The Yamaha P115 has 128-note polyphony which is good enough for most players. The digital keyboard also comes with a built-in 5 watt speaker, which gives you the ability of playing piano on your own and even without headphones. This instrument does not come with pedals like the P155, but still the build is very strong.
Specs
- 88 Full Size Keys
- Touch Sensitive Keys
- 88 Note Polyphony
- Balanced Weighted Action With Graded Hammer Standard Keys
- 16 Note
- Headphones Jack For Private Practice
- 2 Headphone Connections
- Mixer Function Acting as Sound Boost feature
- 2-track MIDI recorder
- Metronome (14 rhythms), Transpose, Fine-tuning
- Sound Boost, Intelligent Acoustic Control
Notable Features
Now, let’s discuss the most notable features of the Yamaha P115 in details in this review in a bit more technical way:
Keyboard/Touch Response
The keyboard has 88 keys with an Ivory feel surface. This texture feels great when you play because it does not become slippery even when your hands sweat during the long hours of playing. In fact, this is also one reason why many teachers prefer this one for piano lessons.
The keys are fully weighted and graded hammers give you that full size piano experience when you play on the Yamaha P115.
The touch is soft but not too deep, so it’s ideal for different playing techniques such as scaling, chording and soloing. The keyboard can be set to 3 sensitivity levels depending upon your skills and comfort level.
Sound Quality And Effects
Although the speaker in this portable digital piano is not very strong, it gives a well-balanced piano sound which sounds good even at high volumes. However, there have been complaints about the bass sounds being weak with no sound in between notes which offers a flat kind of effect.
There are some settings to add depth to how this instrument sounds, but only a few people have managed to get them right. The built-in effects are pretty great which you can use for adjusting sounds as per the situation. There’s a reverb button, echo button and many others.
You can also control these parameters via the page buttons on the control panel or by using the console located at the top of the piano near the music stand. The Mixer setting lets you adjust volume, pan, attack time and sustain level for each sound played through this piano’s speakers/headphones.
Connectivity
The piano has a USB-to-Host port that allows you to connect the piano to a computer. This feature is ideal for players who want their keyboard to behave as a MIDI controller and can be used with music production software such as Cakewalk, Cubase and GarageBand.
The other thing this keyboard offers which is not usually seen in most digital pianos is its ability for two people to play at once without disturbing each other’s sound settings or volume levels.
You can also plug your guitar into the Auxiliary input jack and use it as an electric piano by adjusting various effects like distortion and chorus directly from the control panel of the instrument itself. So you only need to plug in and start playing without opening any other music production software or connecting the device to the computer.
Weight And Portability
You might feel that 88-keys plus a built in speaker would make this nearly impossible for anyone to move. Well, let me tell you that because of its weight and dimensions it’s quite easy to transport the P115 from one place to another even if it weighs more than any similar keyboard available today.
Weighing at 50 pounds itself, the piano comes with 5 caster wheels which help in minimizing effort required while moving about.
You can easily grab this piano by its sturdy handle and carry it anywhere you want just like a regular piece of luggage! So it’s really up to you whether you want to leave this instrument at your home studio or take it to your student’s house so they can practice their lessons away from home.
88 Keys With Graded Hammer Effectivity (GHE)
The GHE feature of this instrument is not just for show. It really is one of the most practical piano touch mechanisms that makes playing on this instrument feel smooth and great. If you are used to smaller keyboard keys, then using the P115 will take some time getting used to its weighted action which will give you the same feeling as the real keyboards once you get familiar with it.
This unique technology allows keys to vary in weight depending on how hard or fast they are played by providing more resistance on higher notes than on lower ones. It also lets you control the overall volume of sound by changing touch sensitivity.
The P115 comes with a surprisingly good set of 88 full size and weighted piano keys which offer great key action and will definitely last for a long time to come. The only complaint I have about this keyboard is that it doesn’t come with real strings inside its cabinet but has plastic versions instead which are not as durable as actual strings would be.
Design
This is a great looking digital piano with a handsome exterior and professional all-black color look. The speakers are located right above the control panel on the top of the keyboard while there’s also a nice sturdy handle for easy transportation.
On the front of this instrument, you will find a music stand which can be adjusted to different angles in case you want to show it off in a live performance or just use it as storage space when not in use.
The design of this piano is almost perfect except for its bulky cabinet at the back which makes moving about difficult since this isn’t an upright model but is rather quite large in size even when compared to other 88 key keyboards!
Pros
- Well-crafted physical body
- 88 full size weighted keys
- Professionally designed control panel with LCD screen and backlight feature
- Built-in USB MIDI interface along with Auxiliary input jack
- 14 Instrumental sounds available in total
Cons
- Doesn’t have real strings inside it’s built-in speakers, just plastic ones!
Conclusion
This is the perfect instrument for any musician who wants to make good use of 88 full size weighted keys in a portable keyboard. The sound quality this digital piano features is superb even when using its internal speakers which are loud enough for regular home usage without requiring extra amplification equipment.
This makes it ideal for various students as well as professional music masters looking for an excellent digital piano to improve their music skills and teach them to others.