#yamaha p-515

[ezmusicbox]

Yamaha P515 Review - Amazing and Portable

Hello everybody! Welcome to another digital piano review here at EzMusicBox.com. In this article, we’re going to take a look at the Yamaha P515, the flagship of the P series. The P-515 really hit the market with a very big splash five years ago when it was released. It has gained a lot of attention and interest. Therefore, we’re excited to do a review on it. Yamaha P515 Specifications P-515…

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Roland FP-90X FAQ | Get To Know The Roland FP-90X | Digital Piano FAQ

The FP-90X is the follow-up to the Roland FP90 and the flagship portable piano of Roland’s beloved FPX series and is without question one of the most powerful and capable all-in-one portable digital pianos currently on the market.

Continuing our series on the top FAQ for popular pianos, we ran the Google analytics to find out the top 10 Roland FP-90X FAQ

Whether you’re new to exploring the FP-90X or deciding whether or not to pull the trigger, our hope is that having these questions answered all in one place will be helpful. Check out our full digital piano review of the FP-90X for a more in-depth look at the overall performance of the FP-90X.

Let’s get started!

Top 10 Roland FP-90X FAQ FAQ #1: How Much Does the FP-90X Cost?

Up first in our Roland FP-90X FAQ - the price.

In Canada, The FP-90X currently runs for $3,499.99 for the slab on its own (includes DP-10 damper pedal), and up to just under $4,200 if adding the KSC-90 wooden designer keyboard stand and KPD-90 3-pedal board. The floating 3-pedal unit RPU-3 is an option as well, as is the more portable KS-20X stand. In the United States, you can currently find the FP-90X for around $2,500 for the slab, or around $3,200 for the entire bundle.

This does make the FP-90X more expensive than its main competitors, namely the Kawai ES-920 and Yamaha P-515, but the FP-90X justifies its heftier price tag with its more advanced key action, piano sound engine and speaker system (more on this under question 2).

FAQ #2: Is the FP-90X Worth the Money?

This is a great question because there are a number of very capable slab digital pianos that cost a lot less than the FP-90X, such as the Kawai ES-920 and Yamaha P-515 mentioned above, as well as Roland’s own FP-60X is quite a bit less. Here’s exactly why for some people, the FP-90X is absolutely worth the extra money.

First of all, Roland’s PHA50 action has a longer pivot length than the actions in the instruments mentioned above meaning it offers a deeper sense of control, plus it also offers a wood/plastic hybrid key construction for durability, a triple sensor, escapement and nicely textured keytops. Even if you’re a classical pianist, you’ll feel at home with this action.

The second reason is the PureAcoustic Piano Modeling sound engine, which is currently Roland’s most advanced sound engine and the same one they use in their top-of-the-line LX series home digital upright pianos. The FP-90X is the only portable Roland digital piano to feature this remarkable sound engine, which also happens to deliver limitless polyphony on acoustic piano tones and offers extensive editing capabilities like damper resonance, string resonance, and soundboard type.

Finally, there’s the speaker system. The FP-90X is equipped with a 4-speaker system with two mains and two tweeters for clarity, boasting a robust 60 watts of power that easily outguns its competitors. For gigs, you can actually fill a medium-sized with the FP-90X without the need for an external amp.

We should also mention the mic input, as well as the tactile equalizer with sliders as additional great value adds.

FAQ #3: When Were the FP-90 and FP-90X Released?

The original FP-90 came out in the fall/winter of 2016, and the newly updated FP-90X first hit North American store shelves during the winter of 2021.

Roland tends to average 4-year product cycles with their models, whereas some are updated faster, and in the case of the FP-90X, there was closer to a 5-year FP-90 run before its release.

FAQ #4: What are the Weight/Dimensions of the Roland FP-90X?

This is actually a really important question, especially if you’re thinking about the FP-90X has a portable, gigging stage piano. The overall unboxed dimensions of the FP-90X are a width of 5.2”, depth of 15.3” and height of 5.4”.

FAQ #5: What are the Differences Between the FP-90 and FP-90X?

This is a pretty important question for folks who might already have an FP90 and are wondering if the FP90X is worth the upgrade, or for people who might still have an opportunity on an FP90 so they have to choose between the two.

The first upgrade is a major speaker enhancement, with the FP-90X receiving a redesigned, upgraded speaker system. Secondly, the FP-90X also receives the new BMC sound chip, which delivers far more complexity to the PureAcoustic Ambience modeling engine and the SuperNATURAL engine.

Both pianos use the PHA-50 keys, so this stays the same, but the 90X includes the new My Stage feature, which offers a whole bunch of very nice Piano Designer presets.

Lastly, Roland has included a built-in USB audio interface, and this will come in very handy for those who need a fine instrument for some studio or production work.

The well-liked LCD screen, music rest and dual headphone jacks return from the FP-90.

FAQ #6: PHA-50 - Which Portable Models Have It?

The PHA50 was until recently Roland’s most advanced action (since usurped by the Hybrid Grand action) and is only found in a couple of models that could be considered portable.

The FP-90X is the only FPX series piano to feature the PHA-50, with the Roland FP-30X and FP-60X featuring the PHA-4.

The RD-2000 and FANTOM-08 are the only other portable options that feature the PHA-50, however, calling the workstation FANTOM-08 portable is using the term ‘portable’ loosely. All three of these pianos are quite heavy, and that’s a result of the wooden componentry in the PHA-50 - there’s really no way to keep the weight down with a wooden action.

FAQ #7: How do you Take Apart the Roland FP-90X?

*Disclaimer: Don’t do this! That’s the official answer because if you do take apart your FP-90X, your warranty will be voided should you ever have a warranty claim, and this is clearly articulated in the owner’s manual.

If you’re willing to take the risk, the innards of pretty much every Roland product are very well organized, so if you do open it up by removing the screws on the side, you’ll find that everything is well laid out and easy to service.

FAQ #8: How do you Connect the FP-90X to Bluetooth MIDI?

The first step to getting Bluetooth MIDI going on the FP-90X is to make sure Bluetooth is turned on. To do this, press the function button, and Bluetooth is the first option that pops up so toggle that to make sure it’s on.

From there, start the pairing process, and you can do so by holding the Function key, and then you can pull up the Bluetooth menu from your smart device and select the FP-90X.

The Piano Every Day app has recently been replaced by the new simply titled Roland Piano App, which is simply great as it allows you to navigate all the sounds of the instrument like grand piano tones, synths, e pianos etc. as well as control features like the metronome, touch sensitivity and playback while also expanding the specs of the piano to include rhythms and educational features.

FAQ #9: How Do You Connect the FP-90X to a Computer?

To connect your FP-90X to a computer, simply plug one end of a USB cable into the FP-90’s USB connector and the other end into your computer. This gives you both a MIDI and Audio connection

FAQ #10: What Digital Pianos Compare Well to the FP-90X?

It’s good to have an idea as to some of the other options you’ll be running into when deciding on an instrument. Surprisingly, there aren’t too many legitimate comparable options to the FP-90X. This is due to the fact that there aren’t too many instances where musicians find themselves in situations where a high-end acoustic grand-focused keyboard with speakers and a premium action are needed.

As a result, the FP-90X falls into a niche category as a portable keyboard capable of a high-end acoustic and electric piano experience, without the full array of synthesizer-like features one would get with a traditional stage piano.

That said, this category is growing, and as we mentioned earlier in this article, the main competitors to the FP-90X are the Yamaha P-515 and Kawai ES-920.

Casio enters this conversation now as well with the recently released PX-S6000 and PX-S7000.

Closing Thoughts

Thanks for reading and/or watching! We hope that this top 10 Roland FP-90X FAQ will serve as a helpful reference for you on your piano shopping journey.

The post Roland FP-90X FAQ | Get To Know The Roland FP-90X | Digital Piano FAQ first appeared on Merriam Pianos

2359 Bristol Cir #200, Oakville, ON L6H 6P8

merriammusic.com

(905) 829–2020

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Casio PX-S7000 | Digital Piano Review | Casio Privia PX-S7000

By this point in time, odds are you’ve heard about Casio’s huge expansion of their beloved Privia PX series with the new PX-S5000, PX-S6000 and PX-S7000. These three new models get Casio products in parts of the market they haven’t occupied lately, or even in the case of the S6000 and S7000.

In this article and companion video, we’ll be taking a long look at the new Casio PX-S7000, which not only offers a great tone engine and action but also happens to ship with one of the nicest wooden stands we’ve seen, while also being available in the optional Harmonious Mustard finish - easily one of the most striking finish options we’ve seen on a digital piano.

The PX-S7000 is offered at a price point that implies it will be pitted directly against the Roland FP-90X, as well as the Kawai ES-920 and Yamaha P-515. Needless to say, the PX-S7000 has some very stiff competition and will really need to deliver on the hype if it’s going to be a successful product for Casio. Let’s get started.

Casio PX-S7000 Background

Our expectations for this instrument were very high when we first heard about it, and those expectations were largely formed by the price point, which comes in at $3,300 CAD and $2,500 USD. This price point makes the PX-S5000 the most expensive portable Privia digital piano Casio has ever brought to market and sends a very clear warning shot across the bow to Roland's FP-90X.

Our overall impressions are that although the approach to the user interface, stand and finish (in the case of the Harmonious Mustard option) are quite different than anything else out there, musically, the PX-S7000 is going to provide consumers with a true 4th option in a category dominated by the FP-90X, Yamaha P-515 and Kawai ES-920.

With that important bit of context out of the way, let’s explore everything related to sound.

Digital Piano Sound

Multi-Dimensional Morphing AiR Sound Source

The first important thing to know is that while the PX-S7000 is using Casio’s Multi-Dimensional Morphing AiR sound engine, this version of the engine draws on many of the same samples and much of the same technology that is loaded into the GP-310 and GP-510 hybrid pianos from Casio.

Anyone familiar with those instruments will know that they’re outfitted with killer samples of Hamburg Steinway, New York Steinway, and a C. Bechstein D282 concert grand pianos, referred to by Casio as the Hamburg Grand, New York Grand and Berlin Grand respectively.

These legendary grand pianos have been meticulously captured via multi-channel sampling, and the result is some of the best samples available in a digital piano.

Acoustic Simulator

Even though all three of these core grand piano sounds are great out of the box, the Acoustic Simulator feature allows you to edit a large number of sound-related parameters to further refine the samples to your liking.

You’re given control of things like string resonance, damper resonance, open string resonance, aliquot resonance, damper noise and more. Once you’ve found combinations you like, you can then save these as presets for quick call-up later.

Reverbs & Other Effects

The Acoustic Simulator dovetails with a number of Reverb Hall Simulators and DSP effects for non-acoustic piano tones like synthesizers for another layer of control.

There’s also a cool surround effect as well.

Polyphony

The S7000 is equipped with 256-note polyphony across all tones on the instrument, meaning it’s doubtful that you’ll find yourself in a situation where you run out of polyphony.

Other Sounds

There are 400 sounds in total here, and with very consistent quality across the board, this means you’ve got a very large stable of useable sounds at your disposal.

There are a ton of great and classic electric piano tones, organs, strings, synths and just about everything else you can think of.

Navigating the large collection of sounds is actually very straightforward too.

4-Speaker Spatial Sound System

The new Casio PX-S7000 is equipped with a 4-speaker system, and it’s unique in that all 4 speakers are equal range, 8-watt speakers. Typically with digital pianos when you see a 4 speaker system it will consist of two mains and two tweeters, so it’s interesting that Casio went with a different approach here.

The two outward-facing speakers have been equipped with side-enhancing diffusers which work to produce a wider tone better for filling a room. They’ve also added a Piano Position feature which automatically EQ’s the sound depending on what type of surface you happen to be playing your S7000 on.

While these speakers can’t come close to matching the sheer power of the FP-90X’s 60 watts of power since we’re working with 32 watts here, the quality of the speaker design is very high, and the power output is in line with what the P-515 and ES-920 have to offer as well.

Casio also needed to keep the speaker size within reason since the PX-S7000 is extremely portable when not affixed to the stand and even gives you the option of running it on battery power.

Digital Piano Action

Smart Hybrid Hammer Action Keyboard

We should mention right away that we’ve done a pretty extensive comparison between this new action and the Smart Scaled action found in the PX-S1100 and S3100 in some other videos and articles, so definitely check those reviews out if you’d like to learn more about that comparison.

That said, like the Smart Scaled action, these new Smart Hybrid Hammer Action keys also use a shorter pivot length to accommodate the slim cabinet we’ve got here.

That being said, it’s a much quieter action due to improved key cushioning, and the weighting is also more consistent between the white and black keys.

Wood Side Panels

Another upgrade featured in this action is the presence of wood siding. Wood also helps quiet down the key, makes the weighting feel more like a real acoustic piano, and will also help with long-term durability.

Roland has taken this same approach with their much beloved PHA-50 action.

So, there are some differences. Not to mention that it's a completely new surface.

The key tops on the white and the black keys feel a lot more realistic and a lot closer to an acoustic and less exaggerated than what you find on the 1100 and 3100. So, it's at a premium price point for this category of instrument. It feels like a premium key top, which is really nice.

Now, there are two features that are typically discussed on actions that Casio doesn't mention, escapement and whether it's a double or a triple sensor.

It definitely does not have any escapement. You can feel that. And it doesn't mention whether it has a triple sensor.

Since Casio in the past has mentioned when there is a triple sensor included, my guess is that they probably have not, and this may still be a double sensor.

Given the short pivot length on the key, perhaps the thought was that a triple sensor wasn't that meaningful because you're unlikely to get this instrument being used in studio settings to input really accurate MIDI information into piano tracking or things like that. And they're probably right.

So, inconclusive whether it's a double or triple, but the absence of the fact that they've said it probably means that we are looking at a double sensor. But my overall impressions of the action are positive.

Whereas on the 1100, it always felt like you were sort of having to just defend the fact that it was passable, that it was okay, it wasn't gonna hold anybody back. I actually like playing this action. It isn't just okay, it feels really good.

This is an action that I would gig on for two, or three hours and be really quite happy with.

In fact, I have every intention in the world within the next couple of weeks to actually take this guy out and see how it feels and stands up over the course of a pretty rigorous two or three-hour gig.

Features/Connectivity

LCD User Interface

The new menu system and the accompanying user interface on the PX-S7000 is generally speaking a super intuitive system to use. The function button gets you into the menu and it's well-marked and easy to get around.

You can also assign various things to the function buttons and save them as registrations, such as microphone effects, for quick recall.

The S7000 also has some nice real-time controls with a pitch bend wheel and modulation control.

Connectivity

The PX-S7000 checks the main boxes in terms of its onboard connectivity. The ever-important 1/4” L/MONO, R discreet line outputs are present so no need to fiddle with adapters when you need more juice, and quite notable, also present is a mic in with a mic volume knob.

There’s also USB Type A and B, an extra pedal input for an expression pedal in addition to the included 3-pedal unit, and dual headphone outputs.

The PX-S7000 is also enabled with Bluetooth Audio and Bluetooth Wireless MIDI - simply plug in the complimentary WU-BT10 adaptor to activate the Bluetooth functionality.

The new Casio Music Space App for iOS and Android is very much worth checking as it happens to be one of the best remote control apps available, allowing you to easily control features like the metronome, audio recording and more from your Smart Device.

Wooden Stand

As we mentioned earlier, the PX-S7000 with a super aesthetically striking wooden stand. Not only is it striking, but it also happens to be the most rugged and solidly built stand to go along with a portable digital piano that we’ve ever seen.

It’s an absolute tank that doesn’t budge even when you’re really digging in with your playing, and would probably cost around $500 on its own if it wasn’t included with the PX-S7000 for free. The piano can screw into the stand, or simply slot in place if you want to quickly be able to grab it and go.

Finish Options

The PX-S7000 comes standard in a Black or White finish, and as we mentioned above, it’s also available in a stunning Harmonious Mustard yellow finish that has to be one of the most unique-looking digital piano finishes we have seen.

Closing Thoughts

Thanks for joining us for our first look at the Casio PX-S7000. When you take in everything it has to offer, for its three great grand piano samples, innovative speaker system, solid action, unique but easy-to-use user interface and excellent stand, we think the S7000 is poised to win over some hearts.

If you’re looking for a high-end, portable all-in-one digital piano and assumed you only had three legitimate options, not so fast; the PX-S7000 makes it four.

The post Casio PX-S7000 | Digital Piano Review | Casio Privia PX-S7000 first appeared on Merriam Pianos

2359 Bristol Cir #200, Oakville, ON L6H 6P8

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[cherrybazpitch]

Yamaha P-515 Digital Piano

Astonishingly, however this is the third Yamaha choice on the rundown, they all offer something very extraordinary. The P-515 is a piece of the P arrangement, and many would state the top of the line advanced piano right now of Yamaha models.

This can be utilized as a phase piano or it can sit on a stand and be utilized inside the home. It is truly up to you. Its highlights are similarly capable for both live playing with a band and for rehearsing old style piano in your own receiving area!

Yamaha P-515 Digital Piano

The piano itself is a genuine achievement in not simply displaying probably the best show pianos on the planet, yet additionally having some power over precisely how they sound.

What we mean by that will be this has tests of both the Yamaha CFX and the Bösendorfer Imperial, two of the absolute best pianos out there.

Not exclusively would you be able to call upon these examples, you can utilize the 'VRM' highlight which represents virtual reverberation demonstrating. This is intended to make a reasonable sentiment of the digital grand piano being in a space and reverberating simply like an acoustic piano.

It likewise has a capacity called the Piano Room which lets you make a 'situation' which means you can pick a great deal of the acoustic properties of the sound.

The entirety of this makes for extraordinary articulation, however there is additionally an extremely stunning and practical feel from the top notch, hand chosen wooden keys and the sledge activity with "Key-off" examples which carefully make the sound of a string being hit like an acoustic piano.

The P-515 despite everything has cutting edge highlights, for example, iOS and application similarity and the capacity to part, layer and record your sounds and associate with a PC.

The P-515 is a serious one of a kind piano, however for the individuals who need to utilize the cutting edge highlights to get a sound which is as close as conceivable to a show piano, and afterward to modify this sound and change it to precisely what they need, this could be an incredible decision.

[yamahamusicians]

Yamaha Take Acoustic Piano Realism To A Higher Level With Their New P-515

Yamaha Take Acoustic Piano Realism To A Higher Level With Their New P-515

Yamaha have just introduced another addition to their popular P Series compact digital pianos in the form of the P-515.

I am a big fan of any attempt to provide a more natural feeling set of keys on modern keyboards and Yamaha have not disappointed with the P-515. They have used what they call a NWX keyboard which features white keys made from the best quality wood which is then topped with a…

[gfmiranday]

Dos personas heridas tras protagonizar un accidente vial. Siendo las 06:22 horas se produce una colisión en rotonda de avenidas Rivadavia y Facundo Quiroga (casco céntrico). Ovejero Federico Matías, 25 años, que lo hacía al mando de una motocicleta Corven Triax 200cc, negra con vivos rojos, sin dominio, y por motivos que se desconocen, colisiona con otra motocicleta Yamaha YBR 250cc, roja, dominio 515-KNG, conducida por Castro José, 58 años. Se desconocen los sentidos de circulación de ambos rodados involucrados. Castro sufrió herida expuesta en miembro inferior izquierdo y Ovejero sufrió fracturas en miembro superior derecho y traumatismo de tórax. Fueron trasladados al hospital Vera Barros. Trabajó Bomberos Voluntarios Ciudad de La Rioja, SEM 107 y personal policial. https://www.instagram.com/p/B5XqWkgnXVX/?igshid=1i1xtd69i01um

[diamanteunickforex]

Leilão de carro do Santander tem Jaguar por R$ 77 mil

Serão leiloados até o próximo sábado, 23, às 10h, veículos recuperados de financiamento do banco Santander. São aproximadamente 100 lotes em bom estado de conservação e com possibilidade de documentação.

Entre os automóveis, está um Jaguar XF V8 P Luxury 2010, que tem lance inicial de R$ 77.406, enquanto seu valor na tabela Fipe é de R$ 124.773. Outra opção de carro luxuoso é a BMW X1 SDRIVE 1.8 2011, que de R$ 53.653 tem lance inicial de R$ 21.400.

Veja também

Seu DinheiroBancos leiloam 515 imóveis com até 70% de desconto13 maio 2020 – 18h05

Também há diversas opções de populares com valores cerca de 60% abaixo da avaliação de mercado, como o Gol TL MCV 2016, e o HB20 1.0 CONFORT 2014, com lances iniciais de R$ 14.400 e R$ 13.800, respectivamente.

Há oportunidades a partir de R$3.400, como é o caso de uma Honda CB 300R 2013, em que seu valor de tabela Fipe é R$ 8.400; outra opção é a Honda CG 160 Fan ESDI 2017, que de R$ 9.200, tem lance inicial de R$ 3.700.

Já para quem quer apostar em um modelo com um pouco mais de potência, a Yamaha MT 03 2017 tem lance inicial de R$ 7.100, 41% abaixo da avaliação de mercado.

Desta vez, em decorrência da pandemia, o leilão presencial, que costuma ocorrer no último dia, será substituído por uma transmissão ao vivo pelo Youtube e o site da leiloeira, a Sato Leilões.

Cuidados

Quem ficou interessado pelos leilões preciso estar atento a alguns cuidados antes de arrematar o item desejado, que vão além do preço baixo:

Pesquisar informações

Antes de fazer qualquer compra você deve pesquisar informações sobre o produto, no mercado de leilão isso não é diferente. Antes de arrematar faça uma busca sobre débitos e condições do item.

Modos de pagamento

Antes de oferecer seu lance, atente-se aos métodos de pagamento. Uma vez arrematado, não é possível desistir da compra. Certifique-se também que a conta de pagamento esteja em nome do leiloeiro oficial.

– Visite

Alguns leilões possuem a possibilidade de fazer a visitação, que nada mais é do que você conferir de perto o item que deseja comprar. A visita facilita sua percepção sobre o que realmente espera do produto. Excepcionalmente em decorrência da Covid-19, o leilão não poderá receber visitações, mas, para contornar essa questão, a leiloeira disponibilizou vídeos de inspeção dos lotes, além das fotos, para facilitar a visualização dos itens.

Leia o edital

No documento estão todas as informações, modo de pagamento, lance inicial, data, hora, local (caso seja presencial), data de encerramento do leilão, se o imóvel está ou não ocupado, se o veículo é sucata, novo, seminovo, se há pendências de pagamento, entre todas as outras informações necessárias que o cliente deve saber sobre o item, antes de comprá-lo.

No site da empresa leiloeira é possível verificar a lista completa dos itens, assim como os valores para arremate dos bens. No edital também é possível ver fotos dos itens e lance inicial. Para os interessados na compra, que devem ser maiores de idade, é necessário se cadastrar no site do leiloeiro e realizar o lance pelo link.

Este artigo foi publicado primeiro no site https://https://exame.abril.com.br/

[topicprinter]

I just spent about three weeks bootstrapping a new SaaS as a solo founder. For context, you can read my description of it here, and I’ve talked about the inspiration behind it and motivations here and here.The basic concept was solid: provide an insanely simple way for business intelligence consultants to manage project data.Spoiler alert: it failed miserably, despite the fact that I did a lot of things right:I came up with an idea as a hypothetical solution to a problem, instead of the other way around (you can read my post on coming up with SaaS ideas to understand why this is important)I built this solution with a specific end user in mind, a la Paul Graham’s legendary essay Do Things That Don’t Scale. Specifically, I built it for my dad, who is himself a BI consultant on the UX side of things and actually helped me design and develop the toolI built a quick and lean prototype (front end only) in just seven days, thereby giving myself emotional space to analyze the idea objectively without getting too attached to it. This was a TON of work, by the way — it was a 90 hour week, and the resulting software was around 3,000 lines of code (you can play with it here).After building the POC, I approached people in my target market about it by messaging around thirty BI engineers and consultants on LinkedIn. I was able to have a number of conversations about it to clarify my messaging and understand the market’s need better.I even came up with a sick-awesome name and domain: Bicycle (B I for Business Intelligence, and “bicycle” referencing Steve Jobs’ quote that a computer should be a bicycle for the mind).I was so excited at the start of this project, and I really had a GREAT time building it out and fantasizing about how it would change my life.But I got one thing wrong, and it doomed my project from the very beginning, despite those auspicious yet humble beginnings:I failed to validate my pricing model before I began.The exact moment I realized this was while I watched Jason Cohen’s talk on the formula for bootstrapping a successful SaaS. Jason’s a funny guy and he has a great speaking voice, but neither of those things prevented the point he made in that talk from making me realize I had to ditch my SaaS.So, let’s dive in. I really hope this experience and post will prevent you from making the same mistake that I did. Killing a project is not fun.What was so horribly wrong with my pricing?Given that I had just put a bunch of time and effort into building some totally awesome software, why did I decide to quit working on it, cold turkey?It all came down to some pesky numbers.My initial plan was to charge around $20/mo per customer, where my ideal customer is anybody involved in a BI project (well, it was a little more sophisticated than that, but you can check out my description of Bicycle to learn more). In my ideal world, they’d whip out their wallet and fork over the cash on the spot. Then they’d expense the monthly bill to their company and presto — paying client!This seemed fine for me and was “good enough” in my mind to justify spending the time and effort that I did without digging in further.But then Jason’s video rocked my world: he said you needed to be charging at least $50, closer to $100, per month, per user, in order to make it as a bootstrapped solo SaaS founder.I mean, if you charge less you might be able to hobble along, drowning in support requests and working 90 hrs/wk, but you’ll never really hit escape velocity, and that’s not really what I’m after. I’m after freedom, not just a different and more demanding boss.I won’t go into all the math here, as he’s done that brilliantly already in his talk, but needless to say, I was convinced.Problem is, you won’t find many BI developers who are keen on trying to expense a monthly $75 bill. Most employees don’t have the kind of expense bandwidth to do something like that.Well, I did try to pivot… key word: tryI realized this pretty quickly, and decided to try a pivot: maybe I could sell the software directly to businesses who do BI consulting, and let them provide it for their employees?But after a bit more digging, it became apparent that this really looks a lot like enterprise sales (because it, uh, IS enterprise sales), which is a no-no for first-time or self-funded solo entrepreneurs. Takes way too long to close a sale — enterprise sales cycles often run twelve to eighteen months.If I went that route, there’s virtually no way I’d be able to iterate quickly enough on my product with a feedback loop that long and no runway. I’d have to wait at least a year before my first sale, minimum — and that’s assuming I got everything right the first time around. And given my background in enterprise sales (or more specifically, my lack thereof), the odds of that happening are roughly equivalent to a monkey sitting down at a typewriter and bashing out Shakespeare’s Hamlet in one go.Also, it turns out that the other tools in my market charge absurdly low amounts of money, anywhere from $3/user/mo to $10/user/mo, and those other tools are often addons to existing enterprise software which goes for a lot more.Economies of scale are much friendlier with those larger companies, because they can afford to spend a lot on marketing and even take a loss on the product if it increases their main offering’s value-add.There was no way I could compete with that.Plus, my goal is to hit $2k MRR in the next two months, so if I persisted in the enterprise sales route, I’d have to totally throw that goal out.So, after having eliminated BI firm employees, and the BI firms themselves, the only remaining target market was independent business intelligence consultants, who are both rare and also don’t have a need for this tool (much of this is confirmed by my market research).Given all of that, I decided to pull the plug on Bicycle.I just wish I had known these numbers before I built the darn thing.How can you avoid making the same mistake?I didn’t think through my pricing model thoroughly before beginning, nor did I know what my target numbers should be. My pricing model was as follows: find “a bunch” of users for $10 or $20/mo. Ish. And hope it just worked out.At that rate, I’d need to get between 500 and 1,000 users in order to reach an MRR that would let me go full-time. With that many users, as a solo bootstrapper, I’d be spending all of my time on support, instead of marketing, product development, and learning to play Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier on the Yamaha P-515 I just ordered.I know now that I probably need around 150 users paying an average of $70/mo to land ~$10k/mo in revenue, without drowning in support requests.I just didn’t do the math before I started writing code.And it cost me!So, while you’re vetting your next startup idea, include pricing as a critical success metric from the very beginning. You can have a great idea, even a valid problem and solution, but if the pricing doesn’t work, it’s worthless.Hope this helps!By the way, if this was interesting or valuable to you, you can follow my journey on Twitter. My goal is to hit $2k MRR in the next two months, before my first child is born in July.

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Yamaha P515 Digital Piano Review & Demo

Introduction

In this article, we're going to be taking a look at Yamaha's P515, the flagship of Yamaha's P series. We'll be looking at the action, the sound engine and obviously talking about the rest of its features and what other instruments you could be looking at in parallel to the Yamaha if you are on a search for a portable instrument in that $1,500 to $2,000 price range.

Yamaha P515 Digital Piano Review Video Transcription

Sound Engine:

We'll start by discussing the sound. The P515 happens to be equipped with a pretty advanced tone engine, with 256 maximum note polyphony. For people out there who aren't too sure what polyphony is or why it's potentially important, a given digital piano's polyphony count represents the maximum number of individual tones that this can sort of simultaneously play at one time. We have detailed video on our YouTube channel explaining polyphony in more depth if you're interested. 256 note polyphony means you could technically hold the damper pedal down, sweep all the way up and down the piano voices three times before the processor starts dropping notes. Under any normal playing circumstance, 256 notes polyphony is plenty and has become the standard for higher quality instruments, starting around the $2,000 price point and going and up from there.

In terms of the sound engine itself, the main acoustic piano samples Yamaha has used here is their Yamaha CFX concert grand piano as well as the Bosendorfer Imperial concert, both 9 ft concert grands. Yamaha refers to their sampling process as Binaural Sampling, which is then enhanced by Stereophonic Optimizer technology for headphone use. These samples sound quite distinct from one another with the CFX sample bring quite colorful, bright and very dynamic, whereas the Bosendorfer Imperial piano sample is a darker natural sound with a more compressed dynamic experience. There's of course some other acoustic piano samples as well making up a pretty good variety of tones to choose from.  Overall, the acoustic piano sample here offers an all around authentic piano playing experience, especially with the CFX and Bosendorfer Imperial piano samples.

There's this function called Piano Room, which operates very similar to what like the Roland's Piano Designer, Kawai's Virtual Technician apps. The piano room app allows for intelligent acoustic control of some of the finer nuances of piano tone. For example, some of the parameters you can edit are lid position height, the brightness of the hammer, touch response curve, reverb depth, metronome, master tuning, damper resonance, string resonance, virtual resonance modeling(VRM), and aliquot resonance. As you can guess, that allows the user a lot of control to customize the piano tone, which is something that's essentially becoming a standard feature on most digial pianos at this price point. It's nice to see that Yamaha is also doing a really nice job with this here. I enjoy the graphic nature of the user interface here, as some instruments leave it up to shortcut command and you can't really visualize what's happening, so having the display makes the whole process more intuitive.

The onboard speakers are rated at 40 watts in total. There's 15 watts per side for the main and then it also lists two 5-watt tweeters. The main speaker is basically a two-way speaker system with a main speaker inside the cone. Embedded on top is an additional tweeter and they rate those separately. 40 watts is enough to fill a small room, and certainly enough that you don't need an amplifier to enjoy private playing. It's probably not enough to gig with, but likely fine for lighter rehearsals.

Other sound categories here include the standard E piano stuff, including a nice Phaser EP. There's also a patch that sounds like a Wurlitzer, as well as a "Disney" patch, labeled DX. Once you get into the clav, the vibes and the strings patches there's a little bit of hit and miss in how well these sound come across, but the acoustic piano and E. piano tones are definitely very well executed. The Yamaha tone is quite specific - a totally different experience than playing, for example, a Kawai which tends to be a little thicker in terms of the tone and maybe a little warmer. Roland's generally have wide selection of sounds and once you get to the FP-90, there's sound modeling which is a totally different experience. Some people really like that, and others don't. For people who are a fan of the Yamaha style of tone, I think they've done a really great job and the piano should work in a variety musical genres.

That's basically a wrap up of the discussion of the tone engine, and a quick review of the types of sounds that are included on-board, and a few other thoughts as well.

Piano Action:

Let's talk about the action on this P515. There are things about the action that I like, and then there are things about the action that I would say is important that you be aware of it. I'm not going to necessarily categorize these aspects as positive or negative, but rather a buyer beware. We'll go through these observations one by one.

The action Yamaha has put into the P515 is what they call the NWX(Natural Wood X) action. This action is a wooden key/plastic key hybrid and both visually as well as in a tactile sense gives you a smooth release and greater feel of an acoustic grand piano. Many digital pianos in this price range offer a featured referred to as escapement or let-off. Escapement is the sensation on a key that is caused by the jack slipping off the knuckle on a grand piano. Basically, you've set the hammer in motion, it swings up, hits the string, without being physically connected to anything so it can bounce back freely, and reset the action. On a real piano this sensation is readily apparent, and within the last 5 to 10 years, digital piano manufacturers have started including that sensation in the portable design of their keyboards to make it feel a little bit more like an acoustic grand piano. I was always puzzled by this because I always thought that this sensation was an unintended sensation on an acoustic piano, to begin with. In any case, it does make you feel more familiar when you're in front of digital technology if you've got some experience playing an acoustic piano.

While Yamaha advertises that the P515 has escapement, I actually double-check that with the specs because after I first played one, I didn't really feel the escapement sensation at all. For people who are looking for a keyboard where that escapement is a little more prominent in terms of the sensation it gives you, this action may fall short of the mark. For people who don't like the feel anyway, just ignore the specs and carry on.

The key surface on the white keys is basically a polished white plastic. This is a very different approach than what most high-end digital pianos have taken within the last few years, which is to go with with a pretty porous white surface to give a greater sense of texture. In the case of Roland or Casio, they've actually gone with a full ivory keytops texture, so Yamaha's choice here is a little bit unusual. The drawback with a polished key surface is that they tend to be quite grippy anytime you're in a more humid environment which can make it a bit more difficult to play intricate music that requires precision of finger position. Otherwise, it's just a personal choice that's neither good nor bad,  just something to be aware of.

The black keys on the other hand have a very grooved, deep texture. The feeling is similar to that of a new Mason & Hamlin acoustic piano from the last 10 years or so, for anyone whose had a chance to play one. It sort of feels like an unfinished ebony wood type of texture. Again, this quite a bit different than what you get on most digital pianos, and it's something that some folks will love, and others will not. The NWX uses a triple sensor which means you're going to have very accurate MIDI output, which is great.

Coming to the last subject and probably the one that needs to be addressed most directly is the weight of the keys. Before I'd played the P515, I'd been on a number of forums to read about other people's impressions, and the weight of the keys is a topic of discussion quite often, as several people had made the comment that the keys were heavy. I come from an acoustic piano world originally, and an acoustic piano should have a key weight (meaning the amount of weight that it takes to put the key in motion) anywhere from about mid-40s at the very lowest up to about 60 grams at the very heaviest. Most concert technicians usually try and weigh the key depending on whether it's at the bottom of the piano or the top of the piano, anywhere from the low to high 50 grams. These keys on the P515 are considerably heavier than that. In that respect, it's consistent with some of the larger Yamaha stage pianos of the past like the CP300. I played one of those for years in a pit band and it had really heavy keys as well. This is something that Yamaha's user community may be used to and appreciate, but for somebody who's not used to it, playing on this instrument for an extended period of time is somewhat fatiguing. I'm someone who's used to playing multiple gigs per week and having those gigs be three to four hours long, so  my playing muscles are well conditioned and I find this action tiring.

I hope this isn't coming across as necessarily a negative, as some may love it and It may be exactly what you're looking for. For people who are looking for a strong sense sense of depth to the key, perhaps this action exactly what you're looking for. But it's something to be aware of that the keys are in the 70-gram range, heavier than a grand piano action.

Features/Accessories/Connectivity:

The Yamaha P515 is comes standard with a few extra accessories, and offers some optional add-on's as well. With wooden accents and polished details, the P-515 looks as good as it sounds. This is consistent with what you generally find in the market from your major manufacturers. Good comparisons to the P515 would be the Roland FP-60 or FP-90, as well the Kawai ES8. The first thing that's included with the P515 is a very solid sustain pedal unit (FC4A). I really like the inclusion of a robust sustain pedal, and it's really frusterating when digital pianos come with those little plastic square pedals that just skid all over the place. This pedal is much more stable and it offers the ability to perform half-pedaling.

The P515 also comes with an integrated music rest, as well as a standard PA-300C power supply. In terms of optional add-on's, you've got available a matching keyboard stand for the keyboard itself, which compliments the furniture and makes the instrument look a little bit more like a stationary piano. There's a triple pedal system that you can be added on as well, and the inclusion of both the stand and triple pedal essentially turns the P515 into a home digital piano.

In terms of connectivity on the back of the instrument, the P515 features an independent 1/4-inch aux outs and aux in, a mini-jack audio input and a Bluetooth radio for quick connection to an iPad or other device. I have to give kudos to Yamaha in terms of how easy it is to turn on and off the Bluetooth audio function. On many digital pianos this feature can be somewhat hidden and require a look at the manual to switch on, so the ease of use of the feature here is most welcome.

Last but not least, there's USB connection that heads out to the computer that also acts as a USB audio connector. This mean the Yamaha P515 is going to work really well if you've got some external software instruments that you're using, such as Ableton, with the P515 functioning as a MIDI controller. There's no need for any of this external mixing as it all goes in and out through the USB connector, so this is super handy. On the front of the P515, we've got a USB device port. This is for things like audio recording, so you can plug that in and you can record WAV straight to here - another super useful feature.

When it comes to features, the P515 has all the standard kinds of digital piano features that you would expect. There's transpose, split, dual mode, sound boost, and EQ. Navigating all of the features is very easy via the user interface. One last function I'm going to highlight here is the rhythm function with onboard accompaniment. There's a lot of control here, and this function would work great for fun at home or light professional applications.

Yamaha has also made available the Smart Pianist app for iOS, which creates a remote control touch screen interface, super cool. The Smart Pianist app also has the ability to access the songs in your iOS device's music library and create chord charts to make for easy play along with your favorite songs.

Conclusions:

This pretty much wraps up our review of the Yamaha 515 - an instrument that is definitely focused on delivering a high quality, authentic piano experience. I'm very impressed with the acoustic piano sounds, the E piano sounds and how easy it is to use the piano editing module. Be aware that this is a heavier action featured here, and somebody who isn't accustomed to that or isn't expecting that this might feel a bit of buyer's remorse if they purchase the instrument before trying it. Otherwise, this is a capable instrument and certainly anyone who is in the market for a high-end all-in-one portable digital piano, should have this instrument on your wish list to check out, along with the Roland FP60, FP90 and Kawai ES8. Thanks for reading!

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Yamaha Release The New P-515 Digital Piano at Summer NAMM 2018 Yamaha today introduced the P-515, the new flagship of its hugely successful P-Series portable digital pianos, at the 2018 Summer NAMM Show in Nashville.