Discover the Yamaha CLP-800 Series: A Comprehensive Overview

Introduction

The Clavinova CLP Series by Yamaha combines 120 years of piano-making knowledge with advanced digital tech to recreate the grand piano feel. Despite lacking strings and hammers, these digital pianos offer precise expression and versatility like a grand piano. Each new model gets closer to the real thing. Practicing on a Clavinova CLP Series piano is like a grand piano, helping players improve their skills and express themselves musically. Features like headphone use, easy recording, and historical voices make practice enjoyable for all musicians.

Sound in the Yamaha CLP-800 Serie

The CLP-800 Series pianos offer richer, more natural resonance thanks to a new tone generator chip and Virtual Resonance Modeling (VRM). VRM simulates the complex sounds created when the strings' vibrations spread to the soundboard and other strings, reflecting how keys and pedals are used.

Grand Expression Modeling is another innovative feature that provides more varied and textured musical expressions than traditional digital pianos, which often produce flat sounds. This technology replicates the interaction of hammers, dampers, and strings in a grand piano, responding to the pianist's touch with a limitless range of tones. It captures subtle nuances, such as the intensity, speed, and depth of each key press, and how these factors affect the overall sound.

Conventional digital pianos lack this level of detail, but the CLP-800 Series uses Grand Expression Modeling to sense every aspect of the player's touch. This allows for a more expressive and dynamic musical performance, like playing a grand piano.

Speakers in the Yamaha CLP-800 Serie

Grand pianos amplify sound through their large soundboard and case, making the sound resonate throughout the room. Digital pianos, however, produce sound only through speakers, leading to different listening experiences based on the listener's position.

To address this, Yamaha applied its 120 years of acoustic piano expertise and advanced acoustic design technology from concert halls and theaters to the CLP-800 Series. Yamaha optimized the placement, orientation, and volume balance of the speakers for low, mid, and high frequencies, based on how sounds radiate from a grand piano. Additionally, they used diffusers, waveguides, and Bidirectional Horns to reflect sound off walls, enhancing reverberation.

These features help the CLP-800 Series recreate the depth and resonance of a grand piano, providing a more natural and immersive sound experience.

Pedals in the Yamaha CLP-800 serie

Pianists use pedals to add expression to their music, finely adjusting to achieve the desired sound. On a grand piano, pressing the pedals requires more initial force and feels lighter when released due to the weight of the damper.

Grandtouch Pedals

GrandTouch pedals in the CLP Series replicate this experience, mimicking the changing resistance of grand piano pedals. They make pedaling more precise, allowing for subtler tonal changes. This design helps pianists maintain control over the pedals at mid-stroke and during release.

Higher-end models also feature a GP Response Damper, which starts light and becomes heavier with pressure, mimicking the feel of a grand piano pedal. This feature aids in mastering half-pedaling techniques.

Optional Three-Pedal Unit (FC35)

The CLP-800 Series is compatible with the FC35 optional three-pedal unit, ideal for young children learning to pedal. Simply place the FC35 on a suitable stand or adjust it to the appropriate height. Ensure the stand is large, flat, and stable to prevent pedal wobbling or falling.

GrandTouch/GrandTouch-S Keyboard

The GrandTouch and GrandTouch-S keyboards are designed to feel like playing a grand piano. They allow pianists to sense the keys with their fingertips, just like on a grand piano, making it easier to create the desired sound. These keyboards respond well to touch, producing a wide range of tones from soft to powerful. They mimic the feel of grand piano hammers striking strings and remain stable even when pressed firmly. The keys are made of materials that prevent slipping and closely resemble those of a grand piano.

The GrandTouch keyboards in top CLP Series models have longer keys for easier playing. Yamaha's 88-key Linear Graded Hammers technology ensures each key feels like a grand piano key.

In the CLP-800 Series, the GrandTouch-S keyboards are even more responsive due to adjustments in hammer weights.

Design of the Yamaha CLP-800 Series

The CLP-800 Series pianos have gentle curves that give them a warm, open feel. For example, sitting between the curved side arms of the CLP-875 makes it feel like playing a grand piano. The wide music stand is functional and can hold several sheets of music without being distracted.

In higher-end models, the LED display on the control panel turns off when not in use, blending into the piano's design. This removes distractions, helping players focus on their playing.

Speakers of the Yamaha CLP-800 Series

The CLP-800 Series pianos are designed to spread sound widely, like a grand piano. Models like the CLP-865GP, 845, 835, and 825 use special sound diffusers. The higher-end models (CLP-895GP, 885, 875) also use waveguides, bidirectional horns, and strategically placed speakers to create a rich, full sound. These features make players feel the sound filling the room, the hammers hitting the strings in front of them, and the sound fading away naturally (Grand Acoustic Imaging).

Headphones of the Yamaha CLP-800 serie

One benefit of digital pianos is that you can play with headphones to keep things quiet. However, wearing headphones for too long can make your ears tired because the sound feels unnatural.

Binaural sampling helps fix this. This method uses special microphones placed where the pianist's ears would be to capture piano sounds naturally. This creates a realistic piano sound in Clavinova pianos, making players feel like they're at a grand piano, even with headphones on. The sound is so pleasant that you forget you're wearing headphones, no matter how long you play. The CLP-800 Series uses binaural sampling for the Bösendorfer Imperial and Yamaha CFX pianos.

Additionally, the Stereophonic Optimizer function creates a similar natural sound effect for other piano voices, making headphone use comfortable for extended periods.

Expand Your Options

CLP Series pianos offer a wide range of musical options:

Classical Pieces: Enjoy playing 50 famous classical pieces and practicing with 303 exercises by renowned composers like Hanon, Beyer, Czerny, and Burgmüller. Sheet music is also downloadable and viewable on the Smart Pianist app. Practice one hand at a time or simply listen and enjoy.

The Smart Pianist App 

The Smart Pianist app is a free tool for Yamaha digital and hybrid pianos. It can create song data from PDF scores, play it back, and analyze songs on your device to display chord progressions or piano accompaniment scores. The CLP-800 Series has a Bluetooth® MIDI function*, allowing wireless connection to the app.

Using Smart Pianist with a CLP-800 Series makes it easier to play your favorite songs and expand your repertoire.

Use Bluetooth® to Listen to Music on CLP Series Pianos

With the CLP-800 Series, you can stream music from a Bluetooth-enabled smart device through the piano's high-quality speakers. Play audio files like mp3s and enjoy playing along with your favorite songs from your device.

Rhythm Patterns

The CLP-800 Series includes 20 different rhythm patterns with drum and bass accompaniment. These patterns are great for various music styles, adding backing musicians to your performance, making practice more fun, and sparking creative ideas.

High-Quality Recordings of Your Playing Made Easy

The CLP-800 Series offers several recording options:

Multi-track MIDI Song Recorder: Record your performances with a single touch. You can record up to 16 tracks simultaneously, allowing separate recording of different hands or overdubbing with different voices. Recordings are made in MIDI format and can be saved on a USB flash drive.

Recording to the Smart Pianist App: Record your performance in Audio or MIDI format directly to your smart device. When connected to Smart Pianist via Bluetooth MIDI, only MIDI recording is possible.

USB Audio Recorder: Insert a USB flash drive into the designated port to record performances. You can create audio files to save and play back on a computer or share with friends.

Customize Your Maximum Volume Setting

The CLP-800 Series introduces a Volume Limiter function, allowing you to set a maximum volume level to protect your hearing from loud sounds through speakers or headphones. This feature is particularly useful for safeguarding against accidental volume increases, ensuring the safety of small children's hearing.

Conclusion

The Yamaha Clavinova CLP-800 Series advances digital piano technology, offering authentic grand piano sound and feel with innovative features like VRM and Grand Expression Modeling. It replaces the CLP-700 Series, enhancing practice and performance for all pianists. 

We also invite you to visit our Showrooms in Aarhus, Copenhagen, Helsinki or Stockholm so you can play any of our piano models and choose the one that fits your needs the most.

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