A Brief Overview of the Features on the Clavinova Series

Innovation for effortless performance

Clavinova is an innovative lineup of digital pianos that have continued to evolve while seeking to provide the touch and tone of a concert grand piano—the ultimate symbol of piano excellence. This authentic grand piano experience is the product of the knowledge and expertise that Yamaha has accumulated over more than 100 years of crafting acoustic pianos. Utilizing state-of-the-art technology to achieve grand piano quality, Clavinova digital pianos offer an inviting playing experience that is perfect for players of all levels. They emulate the touch and tone of a grand piano to make the transition from digital to acoustic piano a seamless and enjoyable one.

With two world-renowned concert grand pianos available at the touch of a button, the CSP Series lets you choose the perfect piano tone for the music you want to play. Offering far more than just sampled sounds, the CSP Series reproduces the Yamaha CFX concert grand and the legendary Bӧsendorfer Imperial in meticulous detail.

Yamaha’s advanced binaural sampling technology is now available on the Clavinova. The technology uses samples from the CFX, Yamaha’s acclaimed concert grand piano, recorded with specialized microphones that capture locational information and other nuances discerned by the human ear. The resulting sound is so natural, so enveloping, that you’ll soon forget you’re even wearing headphones at all.

The CSP-170 features hundreds of high-quality instrument Voices including “Natural!”, “Sweet!” and “Cool!” Voices sampled specially to compliment the instrument types. Yamaha’s Super Articulation Voices (SA) add genuine performance attributes of the real musical instruments as though they were being naturally performed by a virtuoso of that instrument instead of from the keys of a piano keyboard. Examples include “fret noise” or “body knocks” from a guitar or the “inhales”, “exhales” and glissandos from wind instruments. By simply varying your touch and playing techniques or using the pedals, SA voices will add significant authenticity to your sound.

When you want to play more than just piano

One of the defining features of a CSP Clavinova is the multitude of different Styles that can be controlled in real-time by playing chords on the keyboard. Accompaniment Styles introduce ensembles of virtual musicians to your performances in a variety of musical genres. From small jazz ensembles to full orchestras, you control what chords or harmony they play by what you play, plus you control the dynamic of the ensemble. Developed by professional session musicians from around the world, Styles add authentic, studio-quality backing players to your performances – even when you play by yourself.

Natural Wood X (NWX) keyboards are created using unrivaled expertise that Yamaha has acquired through more than a century of crafting fine pianos.

Just as with grand pianos, the material used for Natural Wood X keyboards is cut from wood that has been carefully dried specifically for use in making musical instruments. Only the best wood from the finest part of each tree is selected, resulting in a keyboard that is more resistant to buckling and warping than common laminated wood keyboards.

The Yamaha Natural Wood X keyboard features the same action and three-sensor configuration as Graded Hammer 3X keyboards, which accurately senses and interprets the behavior of the keyboard for a response that feels very similar to that of a grand piano. This allows you to vividly perform smooth, flowing passages or light trills, techniques used in many pieces such as Für Elise.

Escapement mechanism of Clavinova Keyboards

The escapement mechanism in a grand piano moves the hammers away from the strings quickly after they strike them, in order to prevent any interference with string vibration. This mechanism produces a slight clicking sensation when the keys are pressed gently. Since Real Grand Expression offers players superb sound, touch and pedaling, we decided to create an escapement that delivers outstanding playability, repetition, and response without impeding performance. The Clavinova keyboards feature an escapement mechanism that reproduces this sensation near the bottom of the key dip. They have been designed in such a way that the click is discernible only on the lightest keystrokes, similar to the keyboard of a grand piano. These keyboards have been adjusted to provide additional friction that balances key repetition and response without impeding performance.

Our fingers are more sensitive than we think, and for pianists, the texture of the piano keys is extremely important. The NWX keyboard features white keys made from the highest quality synthetic ivory, developed independently by Yamaha. The black keys are finished in synthetic ebony. Synthetic ivory keytops reproduce the tactile surface of the real ivory keyboards once used in older acoustic pianos. It features highly absorbent material that prevents fingers from slipping even after hours of practice, while retaining the ideal texture and feel. Resulting from well over a century of experience in making acoustic pianos, this exclusive Yamaha technology achieves a finish that feels natural and comfortable. In addition to the feel, the appearance and fine texture of these keys is unmatched by any other digital piano, and is sure to inspire pianists from the moment they experience it.

Keyboards fulfill the vital role of transforming emotion from your fingertips into sound and therefore, must be smooth to play in order to maintain superb touch for prolonged performances. That is why Yamaha has fitted Keyboard Stabilizers to all 88 keys, offering players a natural touch and improving the stability and durability of the keyboard.

In a grand piano, strings and sounds resonate throughout the entire body of the instrument producing a rich reverberation that envelops the listener in sound. Not only are the strings you are playing vibrating, but other strings ring as a reaction to ones you play. This is one reason the piano’s sound is so complex and rich.

This phenomenon is reproduced perfectly in the Clavinova through Virtual Resonance Modeling (VRM) which calculates the various states of the strings for each of the 88 notes on the keyboard from one instant to the next. As a result, the Clavinova reflects the limitless number of factors inherent in playing an acoustic piano such as which keys are pressed, the strength with which the keys are played and pedal timing.

Acoustic Optimizer

The speakers attached to the body exhibit a phenomenon in which, if nothing is done, the volume of the sound will increase due to the resonant frequency of the body. Conversely, installing pipes with the same resonant frequency within the body suppresses this resonance. Acoustic optimizers utilize this phenomenon.

This improvement of the sound is something that has only been possible thanks to Yamaha‘s thorough knowledge of the internal acoustic characteristics of musical instruments.

You can enjoy karaoke backing with songs stored in your Clavinova or downloaded from YamahaMusicsoft.com. The lyrics are shown on the Smart Pianist app and the words change color as the song advances, so you know exactly when to come in.

Plug in a microphone, and you can sing along with your playing. The Vocal Harmony engine creates advanced sounding harmonies, enriching your voice and is even capable of correcting your pitch!

Multi-track Song Recorder

The recording function featured in Clavinova digital pianos allows you to record your performances* with a single touch, which is useful when you want to review your playing objectively. Additionally, you can record up to 16 tracks for simultaneous playback, so different hands can be recorded separately or overdub parts with different Voices.

*Recordings are made in MIDI format, and can also be recorded to Smart Pianist App

Audio Recorder

Record performances to Smart Pianist App and create audio files* you can save and play back on a Smart device.

Connect wirelessly for Smart Pianist

Smart Pianist App supports not only wired connection but also wireless connection via UD-WL01, Wi-Fi USB wireless LAN adaptor.

The Listing of Clavinova Products