Yamaha P50-m

I trained on Steinway 8 foot grands-but have only been able to use digitals at home and on gigs-and for many years-from the earliest digital pianos to 2023. recently I have been auditioning and comparing (online) almost every digital piano now being made, as well compared to my own workstations-and also virtual pianos such as pianoteq, soundfont pianos. I own an old Korg SP-500-RH II piano action, a Casio PX-560 and 2 88 key Alesis fusions also. also used the Coakley "Perfect Piano for several years. i play classical and jazz and my hearing is pretty good-just had a professional checkup-I've had to rely on "good ears" as a professional musican for a long time. Picked up this module recently out of curiosity-and trying to find the best digital piano, midied it to my fusion TP-40 Fatars and the Korg RH II piano action boards-maybe my hearing is off, but after playing some Chopin, some jazz standards, a little Bach and my own blues and barrel-house-I am baffled that this little module made so many years ago-is standing up very well compared to just about everything else I've listened to. Something must be wrong-but I've listened and played, listened and played-and honestly with my best headsets-i cannot hear much of a remarkable improvement from the latest Kurzweils, Korgs, Yamahas, Nords, Dexibells or anything else. I am stunned by this, my hearing must be betraying me, but every time I've gone to buy a much more expensive new digital piano, and listen carefully to these, I sit down and play this P50m again, and bang, I'm stuck. I can even hear "harmonic resonance" in this module-years before anybody else even mentioned this in their pianos. I must be wrong, I can't hear how this is possible. I even compared this to my 1GB multiple-layered Salamander grand soundfont piano, and the P50 still sounds fantastic. Only the Nord Grand sounds better at least IMO. Please someone tell me I'm wrong about this!

Unlike the one 1-star reviewer here, I've been gigging since 1969, I have owned more modules than I can remember, and I'm a Yamaha digital piano customer since 1986. Nonetheless I spent months researching piano modules back in the day and selected the P50m after having a great experience with the TX1-P. This was a remarkable module when it was introduced, far better than anything in its class on the market. it was not even close.

I have used the module live and on recordings and it is very well-behaved sonically and responds great to EQ. The only con to this product is the 32-note polyphony, which on some voices is further reduced to 16 because of the structure of the voice. Top compensate for this, Yamaha put in a feature to have the module respond to only even-numbered or odd-numbered MIDI notes; the idea is that you can then daisy-chain two of these via the THRU port and come close to doubling the polyphony. My guess is that the note limitation is caused by the amount of memory required to produce the complex sounds.

Some have said that the sound is not go great on this module. Then they say that it's their first module, and that they don't play piano. Well I will make the observation that if one is not a pianist and one tries to use this, one will not sound great, just as one would not sound great on a real piano. So don't expect it to go into autopilot and turn you into Chopin just because the mains switch was pressed. As a real pianist, I found this module to be so good that I have kept two of them until now, in 2020.

Small half-rack very small and portable, no utility pc when it was released, it is also not helpful.

Midi connectors (most important) and stereo audio.

With a transformer supplied.

A small scores pianos sounds, electric piano Cp 80, Rhodes, DX, Wurly and clavinets.

UTILIZATION

Very simple, simple you die ...

No need for manual, everything is visible on the front.

Easy Edition, 3-band graphic equalizer.

Just the reverb, some chorus sounds contain variations.

SOUNDS

Quality pianos, Yamaha manufacturing, the rhodes not bad, DX7 of course, acceptable Wurly, 2 clavinets (one with Wah-wah)

Excellent expression and velocity nothing to say wrong.

Personally I really do not find it bad sounds are only slightly dated, but the sounds of pianos was much more terrible a few years before 2000
and this one is dedicated to current pianos and keyboards,
pianos are very acceptable and most used.

I would say it is practical in a small rack, and very inexpensive if you find it.

For all types of rock, pop, variety music that contains piano,
I will use rather than for recording live today
or a lot of new material, especially dedicated software surpasses in quality, but it is great as a group.

OVERALL OPINION

I used ten years, very convenient for gigs and concerts because it almost puts it in the pocket (not the jacket) but in a small bag, it's really light,
This is an ideal complement with a master keyboard or computer pro without sound, or another soft synth keys.
It is a small handy and easy to use rack containing all pianos, I willingly repeat the occas, handy for the road.

This model is not rack mountable. This raises (small pads).
He has twenty-nine effects typed keyboard: piano, honky tonk, "roads" and "wurli" (registered trademarks at the time?) And eight types of "touch curve" (the French name escapes me-curve?) .
All hand-edit itself. The settings consist of tunes keys (master, pitch) and utility (touch and midi channel). There's also an equalizer with three sliders.
No extensions, minimum connections (in and out midday, two for stereo output jack if applicable).

UTILIZATION

There is very little to configure. So it's fingers in the nose.
The edition as well. No need of any manual (I did not, it's second hand)

SOUNDS

So that is where the bone: the expander is bad (personal, I have recovered from a former musician, I understand he did not have problems to part with it. The bastard kept its SM57, for cons). The sounds on offer, few are encumbered by first breath quite important to the craft. The sounds are then too shallow or acute trawler, even with the EQ. Personally, I have not seen any significant differences in for different velocities, or for curves. So not really realistic sounds, no that is not really correct.

OVERALL OPINION

Well, this product is clearly to be avoided. I have not researched it cost her two thousand bullets a decade ago, but it is an antique in terms of sound. I admit that this is my first sound module, normally, I work with the sounds of Reason, and I'm not a pro keyboard. So if in fact it is a good expander, its owners make me know. That said, I doubt it really. It apparently is not expensive to Argus, but I'm sure you will find better.