Normally I gripe about being in Florida instead of New York, but not today. Piano Distributors, a company with stores across central Florida, has been demonstrating the CGP-1000, Yamaha’s soon-to-be-latest version of the Clavinova, and it’s a killer. I attended a concert/demonstration last night at the Orlando store.
The Clavinova is already an incredible instrument, blending piano, computer, emulator, karaoke machine and recorder in one device. The CGP-1000 goes considerably past what’s currently on the market.
First of all, it looks like an acoustic piano. It’s built in Yamaha’s standard 4’ 11” piano case, which they also use for acoustic pianos. It even has a soundboard. But then the wooden panel above the keys swings out of the way, revealing enough switches and knobs to control an airplane, with a large, bright, easily-read display to tell you what’s going on.
Of course, you can play it like a piano. It has several different grand piano sounds, plus uprights, spinets, organs, electric pianos, harpsichords, accordions, etc. It simulates every
western instrument you’re likely to want to hear, many in several flavors (classical guitar, electric guitar, twelve-string guitar, jazz guitar, distorted guitar, etc.) It has more drums sounds than you’ll ever need. You can split the keyboard – string bass in the left hand, trumpet in the right. It will generate very convincing accompaniment (bass, keyboard, percussion and stylistically appropriate harmonies) in dozens of styles, driven by what you play in the left hand. And of course it can record all this stuff so you can run it back and play over it with more voices.
The CGP-1000 adds some very interesting stuff. Smart Articulation adds “performance characteristics” to some of the voices. So, for example, the guitar voices have fret noise, and clearly indicate hammer-ons and pull-offs. You can also knock the body of the guitar. (Flamenco players do this a lot.) Electric guitar sounds will distort if you play the keys harder; acoustic guitars yield harmonics when you play hard. Brass instruments can have a fall-off at the end of a note, as well as whatever they call that effect when the note rises to a squeezed-off shriek at the end. You can insert an audible breath in a horn line using a pedal. And on and on.
The machine has a karaoke function (it is made in Japan, after all.) It can correct your pitch on the fly, harmonize using your own voice on the fly, and even make you sound like Barry White, or Popeye, or several other distinguished song stylists.
And you can record all this to a USB drive, move it to your computer, and burn your performance to disk.
The CGP-1000 I saw is apparently the only one made so far. After this tour it goes back to Japan. Production models are supposed to hit the stores in November. The first 25 are going to Piano Distributors, the sponsor of the demo I saw; they’ve already sold 12 of those 25. Price will probably be in the $34,000 range.
[TJH]
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