Impossibile caricare il contenuto multimediale.
Motivation: My background is electric guitarist who dabbles on the electric bass. I decided that I want to be a skilled piano/keyboard-ist going forward. I am also a programmer who wanted an instrument that I could integrate/utilize with my DAW and maybe write music programs. I am currently a keyboard novice with some knowledge of scales and chords, but no 'piano-dexterity.' This is viewed as a long-term investment.
So, I purchased the whole 'outfit': Yamaha p-515 keyboard, stand, 3 pedals, and a separate artificial leather stool. I just wanted a keyboard that had a high-quality wood keyboard, a piano-quality 'feel' and genuine sounding piano sound. After reading about several keyboards offered by Amazon, I thought this would be the best for that. My expectations were overmatched by the 515!
I didn't check much into the features until after I placed the order with Amazon. Only then did I read up on all the voices and drum-kits it has. There are 40 voices directly accessible using the 6 categorical selector keys, but the big surprise was that this has hundreds of 'XG' voices as well of all the major categories of instrument types, including about 40 or so percussion sounds.
When I got the keyboard, I didn't read the instructions closely, so it took some days before I found the XG voices--hence the spoiler alert above. I suggest downloading the user manual (Amazon has the link on the product's page) as well as all 'data sheets' etc. that Yamaha lists for the P-515.
Voice quality: The attached video does not do the voices justice. You will have to hear it for yourself. The piano voices are (near) perfect. The voices selectable from the other buttons are not as impressive--until you dress them up! In particular, there is a duo mode that has 3 different modes: (1) Blend 2 different voices, (2) Split the two voices for the left and right sides of the keyboard, and (3) Blend 2 voices on the right and have a single voice on the left. Blending voices really sounds impressive. The voices under 'Strings' are great for blending with others. I especially like the 'Dark Pad', 'Lite Pad', and 'Bell Pad'. Choose one of them to blend with others such as the 'E.Piano' voices to really get a great sound.
Another way to greatly enhance the voices is using the 'Voice' and 'Voice Edit' menus under the 'Function' key. You can choose a type of Reverb (6 types), a type of Chorus (3 types), and a type of Effect (12 types). Selecting any or all of these will not affect the voice until you also set the Reverb-depth, the Chorus depth, and Effect-depth. The maximum setting for each of these is 127 (not '10'). There is also a 'Harmonic content' and a 'Brightness' control (range +/- 63). Using these you can greatly enhance any of the sounds you choose. Even the 'so-so' E.Piano voices come to life once you add Reverb and/or Chorus and maybe a distortion effect. Use the Harmonic content to get more growl or overtones. For reed instruments it makes them sound more like the actual instrument. If you are blending two voices in Duo mode you can select each voice and edit it independently. You can get some really fat sound! The distortion effect is fairly tame, and probably does not affect all voices. It seems that it may work together with the Harmonic content setting.
The XG voices mentioned earlier are Yamaha's own. They seem to be of higher quality. You can utilize them any way that you can do with the ones under the category buttons. For the video I used a SYNTH PAD->PolySynthPad with the addition of chorus, reverb, distortion, harmonic content (at 15) and brightness (at 15). It really sounds tremendous in person.
Overall the menus are fairly easy to manage once you've been over them a few times. The manual also covers them well. There are a few quirks. For instance you should be able to edit the 'depth' of the Voice->reverb item within the reverb selection itself, but instead you have to detour into the Voice->voice-edit->reverb-depth to do this. Likewise for setting up the depth of chorus, effects, vibe-rotor etc. It can also be tricky to get out of the Song menu that you get into from the 'Play' or 'Record' buttons. Pressing a voice-category button gets you out of 'Song'.
The other features: Metronome, beat machine, Bluetooth, USB, MIDI, of the p-515 seem to be maximally functional. It appears that anything you'd normally want to do with these is doable including reading/writing from/to USB as well as interacting with computer digital audio workstation (DAW) software. Importantly, the P-515 allows you to play and record up to 16 MIDI tracks in your own songs. It can save up to 250 songs, with a maximum of 80 minutes each (can ALL 250 songs be that long? I haven't had time to check!). There are many more features. Too many to list. The beat machine can play a bass note along with you and it changes the note is plays to match with your song.
The one feature I would like to see, but probably does not exist on any keyboard, is the ability to save the settings for the voices you create. As it is, each time the power is cycled, you will have to re-enter your 'recipe' to recreate it. I just write down the combination of settings I used when I dial-in a favorite sound. Maybe saving to usb would allow a MIDI file reader or DAW to read-out these for future reference. I have not tried it. I guess I need to learn how to use my DAW software.
Price point: I read about quite a few other keyboards, both from Yamaha and others and decided that just the realistic piano sound and keyboard feel were worth the money I spent. However, there are other price points to consider. If you search Amazon for the 'Yamaha DGX670B' you can find a section on its page with a comparison between it and the P-515 (and others). The DGX670B seems to be a 'heavy hitter'. It has a more voices, but lacks the P-515's wooden keys and has a pair of 6watt speakers rather that the 515s dual 15watt speakers and 5watt tweeters. It also has an accompanyment mode with 263 styles and comes in at much smaller price. On the 'third hand', if you like Yamaha's 'Bösendorfer Imperial' piano, only the P-515 has it. Anyway, I was not phased by other choices. This keyboard is the one for me. I believe it is the one instrument I will enjoy playing and hearing every day as my new addiction leads me to become an accomplished keyboardist!
Finally, I have really enjoyed playing this as a piano as well as 'other instruments'. I have spent hours each day practicing and experimenting with its sounds. Its an addiction that I expect will last for years. Now its YOUR turn.
