Yamaha CP88 88-key Stage Piano Reviews

I am not a keyboard player, but two people who came to try it out are very impressed with this keyboard.

I recently replaced my stage piano with the Yamaha CP88. This sound quality is so obvious that my band is now asking to do more piano-oriented songs. We have a guitar-heavy catalog, so this is rather significant!

We upgraded our worship team setup with the CP88 purchased at Sweetwater. I've personally owned about a dozen Yamaha keyboards over the past 30 years but this one takes the prize. Most important is the sound. The pianos are pristeen and configurable to place them properly in the mix. The pads are equally great. The two things I like best are the action - it feels sublime - and the ease of configuration. I can change settings on the fly with just a couple clicks. This is Yamaha's best 88 stage piano yet. Highly recommended.

I love this keyboard. The touch and feel is incredible and it sounds so good, I play it for hours at a time

I've had my keyboard for almost exactly a year now, and some thanks are in order.

Thank you, Yamaha engineers and designers, for creating a sturdy, fun, easy-to-understand keyboard. As a hobbyist, I'm probably "supposed to" prefer a furniture style (as opposed to a stage) keyboard. But two things attracted me to stage pianos. First, since I'm sitting down most of the time at my day job, I wanted the option of standing while I play music. A stage keyboard allows me to do that more easily than a digital piano. Secondly (and more importantly), I appreciated the direct, one-to-one physical controls that certain stage keyboards offer. Even though at first glance the CP88 interface may look complicated, it's not. I think it's much easier to flick a switch, push a button, or turn a knob than than it is to try to find something hidden away in a nested menu. I realize that the CP88 isn't the first stage keyboard to ever offer an interface like this. But I do like what Yamaha has delivered. It's not too complex, and it's not too minimal.

Also, I love that Yamaha has been periodically adding additional sounds (via software updates) to the CP88. I imagine at some point the keyboard's memory will fill up. But so far, that hasn't been an issue. And every new sound adds many more possible sound combinations. Plus, the CP88 has a built-in audio interface (not to be confused with the USER interface I previously mentioned), which opens up some phone/tablet integration without the need for extra hardware. There is a lot of goodness going on with this machine!

Thank you, Sweetwater, for your support both online and in person. I want to give a shout out to my sales engineer, Riley Koenemann, who has always been there when I've needed him. And thank you, Cletus Goens ("I'm the only Clete you'll ever meet"), for helping me purchase the keyboard and speakers at the Sweetwater headquarters in Fort Wayne.

And thank you, Ben Allen, for your detailed YouTube reviews. Your high praise of the keybed in the CP88 is what helped me finally make up my mind after months of research. The keybed really does have a nice touch!

(NOTE: I tend to get self conscious when people listen to me play, so I tried testing the keyboard with the volume turned way down — or even off. That was a mistake. The keybed is important, but it can only be appreciated fully when combined with sounds. In retrospect, I should have brought along headphones for this purpose.)

The feel of the keys, the quality of the sounds, the sturdy build, and the intuitive user interface make the CP88 a pleasure to play.

The feel of the keys are fantastic. It's easy to use and versatile. The main sounds, like piano, e.pianos, clav and strings are great and they don't sound artificial. Organ is lacking.
The layering and splitting is very easy as well.
It's well built.

Have had this piano for a couple years and absolutely love it. Several firmware updates have greatly improved this piano with numerous added sounds and extra control of keybed settings . Be sure to checkout reviews from late 2021 and 2022 with 1.5 or later firmware. The early reviews were mostly positive but some had drawbacks. The updates have made this piano extremely competitive. This piano is slowly trending upwards as more users get to experience how beautiful this piano plays. It's not a Nord and can't match some of the wonderful warm Nord pianos. However, the CP88 does (in my opinion) have a better keybed then all the Nords. Several reviewers are beginning to share this opinion. The pianos on the CP88 are very realistic and can be dialed into a very pleasant sound if you take time to learn a few simple settings. Not as warm as the Nords but more realistic. I would bet this piano would meet or exceed the sound quality of a Nord in a live setting. Nord likely still wins by a small margin for recording. My daughter is recording with the CP88 in Logic Pro and it records beautifully.
It's hard to describe the feel of this piano but I would almost use the term 'bonding'. I have never felt so in tune with the feel of a piano before. My daughter feels the same and can play this piano for hours. The MP11se Kawai is likely a superior keybed for classically trained pianists. But if you ever plan on moving your piano around the CP88 is one of the best you can buy right now.
The organs are thin on this piano but much better than the reviews show. You have to tweak them. If you need organs, get the sister ship YC88. Or plug in a reface YC. The CP88 is very piano centric with some great electric pianos and enough sub sounds (pads & strings etc) for most performers. It's not a synth so don't expect 100s of sounds.. I have an Integra 7 and some Oberheim synths but rarely use them with the CP88 around. I just enjoy the feel of this piano.
The piano is divided into pianos, electric pianos and subs. These three can be layered very easily for some rich and complex sounds. Many reviewers don't realize that you can also mix any category together. You could mix 2 or three pianos, for example. Or Layer the same piano an octave apart. So you could put a piano sound in the electric piano or sub sections, for example. After about 10 hours of using this piano, you'll be flying around the intuitive one button per function controls.

Definitely don't over look this piano. The CP88 can give some double-the-price red pianos a run for their money - at any price. I'm a fan of all the major piano brands and routinely consider every one of them.

Absolutely love this keyboard.

Overall i should say it is far way better than Nord piano, price point , good quality build...sound is amazing! I would highly recommend this yamaha cp88!
Sweetwater team is awesome!

I was impressed with this keyboard before I bought it. I had played in store and done lots of research. Sweetwater made the purchase very simple and had it ready for pickup without issue. Since having the keyboard at home, I am more impressed than ever! The sounds are impressive, which I knew and expected from Yamaha, but the ease of use and manipulating the sounds to fit my needs is simply outstanding! Very simplistic,yet powerful! I normally do not do reviews, but this truly deserves one...five stars!

Firstly, I want to shout out Sweetwater's amazing customer service team who managed to ship this out promptly whilst scrambling to change their operations to keep everyone safe during the pandemic. They really went above and beyond, and now I have a wonderful instrument to keep me fulfilled whilst stuck at home!

The high end of the digital piano market seems to always inspire strong opinions. Things like keyboard action and piano sounds are ultimately very subjective. Some people like rich, warm, cosy sounds, whereas other prefer brighter sounds that will cut through a mix.

Personally, as a musician that has gigged a lot in different types of venues, I found the clear, bright default piano sounds on the CP88 practically perfect for the live musician. I imagine the default sound when you switch it on will work for almost everyone in a live environment without tweaking. When I played a Kawai, I would have to mess around with the EQ a lot - which was a pain. To my ears the CP88 also sounds great at home - one thing people rarely mention about the CP88 is the very simple to use EQ that allows you to bring out mids of different frequencies. In essence this does a lot to change make some of the piano samples much thicker/richer.

However, my sense is that yamaha have listened to the early reviews from players who want more options in piano sounds and have since updated the software to include two piano patches (the C7 and CF3) which are simply sublime! The C7 in particular has all of the woody warmth and rich studio sound that many people like. The rhodes and wurlizter sounds on the CP88 are also best in class. I even prefer them to Nord's samples.

As for action, I would say this is so subjective you should be careful putting too much stock in any online reviews. In my opinion having tried a lot of digital pianos, I would say the CP88 action is less realistic than Kawai's digital pianos, but better than Roland and Nord. Some people love Roland though, so it's really a subjective thing. I would say that the CP88 action is on the heavier side - and plays a little quicker/snappier than Kawai actions. So if you're someone who wants to play very delicately most of the time, this might not be the piano for you.

The build quality and user interface are also amazing. It's a joy to interact with.

p.s. this is a poor choice for organ enthusiasts in my view.

If you want a stage piano with some essential built in sounds (piano, E-piano, clav, pads, etc.) with the ability to seamlessly integrate the vast library of virtual instruments on your computer, the CP88 is great. The built-in USB audio interface is very handy.

The keybed is fantastic as well: weighted action, yet very fast. The built in sounds and effects are quite good and the interface is simple and easy to use.

What's not to like? A+

Special thanks for Anthony G. at Sweetwater for helping me put together the ideal bundle.

I just got my new piano from sweetwater, unboxed this sweet baby and WOW, everything I was expecting and more. I can't walk away from it. The action is fabulous the quality of the sound and controls are excellent. I recommend anyone looking for a pro audio top end stage piano to check this out, you won't be sorry. My sales engineer, TJ Jackson has be an outstanding asset throughout my extensive purchase's from Sweetwater. TJ, has got a very diverse background to support his customers, Always gets back to me super fast, Great guy!

For me, this is the keyboard that entices me to play longer and more often. I like the layout of the controls, the voices, and the tactile response.

So after much hand wringing and back and forth, I finally received delivery of a Yamaha CP 88 this past Thursday.

(For the record, my test were done thru a pair of QSC K 8.2s thru a Radial Key Largo. For headphone testing I used a pair of AKG K-712 cans.)


All I can say so far, is for APs, EPs and as a controller, there is NOTHING on the market that matches it.


That may seem like hyperbole, but I am prepared to back it up, especially since I have played or owned practically EVERY available (or discontinued) Stage Keyboard/Piano or Workstation.

First, a general assessment of the Yamaha"s fitness in the AP/EP/Controller category. As I stated above, there"s NOTHING which currently matches OR even comes close.

I say this because the combination of the the APs (namely CFX, Bosie and U1), EPs (Rhodes, Wurlis) and Clav and the Yamaha keybed is truly organic and absolutely flawless.

The action is THE MOST RESPONSIVE that I have played on an instrument of this class. (Stage Piano/Controller).
(I am eliminating the P515, CP1, V-Piano and Avant Grand as these instruments do not, imo, fall in the same class)

This action coupled with ANY AP/EP sounds available on the CP is so incredibly precise, that, thru my practice so far I have been shown flaws and holes in my playing that I haven't seen on ANY other keyboard in its class. So, I"ve got much more work ahead of me and I thank the designers of this great instrument for helping me find them!

There are many who don"t care for Yamaha"s pianos, but, hey, if it was Sviatoslav Richter"s instrument of choice in his later years, that"s good enough for me!

First of all build quality is top notch. Solid chassis, great switches and buttons, compact form factor for an 88 note stage piano, its only rival on that front being NP4. And it has pitch and mod controls that the NP4 lacks (Although the NP Transmits those messages!)

I"ll next assess the Yamaha in comparison with other instruments, I have owned or loaned in the past 18 months.

Korg Kronos- While the sounds on the Kronos may be initially more "appealing" and "colorful", perhaps almost cinematic in their scope, namely pianos and eps, if you strip away effects and eq-ing, the pianos and EPs don"t hold up to the Yamaha in their raw state. Plus, the Kronos RH3, while being the best of all Korg weighted actions, is still sorely lacking when sharp, rhythmic playing is needed. YES, IT IS SLUGGISH! I did side by side examples of shout choruses on both instruments and the CP ate the Kronos for breakfast.
Also, in regards to the RH3, please remember that, as with all actions, it"s not just the action mechanism itself, but also (just as crucially) what that action is housed or sits IN!

Nord Stage/NP4-Again, I"m speaking mainly of pianos and controller functions here. While not as blatant a difference as that between the Kronos and the Yamaha, it"s still miles apart. There"s something organic and satisfying about the way the Yamaha action and piano sounds work together that, in retrospect, was ALWAYS lacking on the Nords. Again, the Nord APs and EPs have lots of color, but there is a "hard stop" at the end, or closer to the end, of the samples on the NORD that always bothered me and I constantly made excuses for it, but I would always turn to my VV for most of my practicing when I owned Nords.

Roland RD 2000- Great action, ultimately uninspiring APs, great EPs, great controller, way too heavy and bulky to gig with.

Kurweil Forte 7- Great action, but I've never really connected with Kurz APs/EPs, no matter how hard I tried. Excellent controller.

Overall, I"ll say again that you don't need 10 or 15 different APs and EPs, just a couple and a good onboard EQ.

The APs and EPs have to start with something that has a good, strong fundamental, and THAT is where Yamaha is unbeatable and THAT is why I like them.

These days, I look at all Modern Stage Pianos as fake APs, Fake Rhodes, Fake Wurlies, Fake Clavs.

The question is: who gets closest to a satisfying, organic emulation of these timeless instruments?

They have really taken the best points of Nord in the design and made it their own.

For those of you bitching about the quality of the sub sounds, ITS A STAGE PIANO! NOT a stage KEYBOARD!

"Sub" means subservient!

But, perhaps Yamaha will update the "Sub" sounds in a further update!

Anyway, that"s it for now...gotta practice!

Awesome instrument! Very expressive and highly functional. I appreciate that the frequency of the mid range on the EQ is alterable. This is quite helpfull.

Drive effects on EP"s with immediate access is also a win.

Excellent help from the Sweetwater sales rep on this fully weighted keyboard.

Just got my Yamaha CP88 today. Blown away. Best stage piano I've ever played. Seriously, it's so intuitive. Everything is right in front of you. Very solid pianos, electric pianos, nice strings and pads, etc. But the interface is the best part- all the switches and knobs are very well laid out and easy to access. You're not in a menu much. Just grab and go. Love it!
I've owned and played em all. Bought a Rhodes 88 Suitcase in 1974, DX7 in 1983, Motifs, etc. Those keyboards stick out to me as game changers. But Yamaha nailed it on this one. They've got a hit on their hands! Also the action is quite nice- just the right weight and speed including the lightly textured black keys. I can feel it already breaking in nicely.
My background is performing, composing and recording. Been playing over 50 years doing pop, jazz, blues, film music, etc. Kudos to the Yamaha design staff! And thanks Sweetwater for consistently being a great company to work with.

Everything I want in a digital piano - great action, great sounds, tactile UI (less digging through menus) super quiet balanced outputs and it can be used as a 2 x 2 computer audio interface. The unbalanced outputs are a bit noisy and I had to buy the music stand separately, but I'm very satisfied with my purchase overall. An absolute pleasure to play!

Initially I was disappointed with the keyboard when I first played it. I felt that there weren't enough sounds and only some of the sounds were ones that I would use. However, I played with some of the settings and after dialing the tone in the piano sounds amazing. I post videos of myself playing and everyone always ask what piano or where the sounds are from.

Most importantly for me, this is by far the nicest electric piano I have ever played as far as how the keys feel and their response and the quality of the overall build. In my opinion, for the price it is a bargain. The keys are inviting and make you want to sit down and play. It feels like you're playing an expensive grand piano. Definitely worth trying out.

Very impressed with both the gadget and the presenter's presentation of it.

I'm not being a professional. I'm being a hobby composer all my life.
I would want a much larger adjustable display window.
I'll never need to lock panel.

I know little of linking electric pianos to separate amp and speakers. Who makes 'Piano Amps'?
All my electric keyboards have had speakers in/on them.

I'm wishing Yamaha would offer ADD ONS...like a physical module with both modulation wheel and pitch bend controls, that the user could stick there, on the end, Where It's Supposed To Be.
You could stick it on with hook and loop or that stronger stuff.

I'm looking for something to rival or surpass my beloved Yamaha P-250. She died MUCH too young!
Wake up, Yamaha!!
Thus far, it looks like I'm going to have to settle for less...and I don't want to do that!

Okay, granted it's expensive - but get a bundle, of course, and it's a better deal. Now, about the keyboard: I'm strong, but found moving it worked better when I strapped it into my gator case. It feels heavier than 41 pounds but might be me.

The preset sounds are great. I'll be swapping some of them around to make gigging easier.

I really like having the piano / electric piano / sub sections in their own unique spots. I've started creating my own presets, and am disappointed that I can't combine the separate pod sounds---for example, you can't join two of the sub sounds. Okay, fair enough.

The piano sounds are excellent, and the electric pianos are too. The weighted keys are perfect, and the feel of this entire keyboard will make you want to play constantly.

Some of the presets are brilliant. I especially like Lush Love (you'll find it).

The Sub sounds aren't that amazing, but I bought this keyboard primarily for the piano and EP sounds anyway. I'm have another board on the top tier, so I'll be able to bring in different sounds with that.

Sustain pedal works well with this keyboard.

For the price, you're going to get the sound you like. Expensive, but worth it.

I love the layout and sounds with the organ/leslie effect being the only exception (they're not good at all). The action is incredible, as good if not better than Nords that cost way more and since I'm a player that was the most important thing to me. While it doesn't have a lot of good sounds, it does have just few great sounds, namely the piano, electric pianos, and clav in that order. Configuring it is easy, though your onboard effect options are limited. The build quality is good and it's a great value for what's essentially a Nord piano clone.

There is mostly good news and a little bit of bad news with Yamaha's latest and greatest digital stage piano. The way the piano is designed, there are three "pods" with separate sounds and separate parameters. Pod 1 has acoustic pianos and an Electric Grand; Pod 2 has electric pianos and the clavichord sound; pod 3 has strings, choruses, organ sounds, bass patches, vibes and other mallets, synth sounds, and everything else.

Each set of pods has it's own set of paramaters. So, for example, the "phaser" parameter is available for the electric pianos (but not the acoustic pianos, where it's not needed); likewise the "Leslie" effect is available for the organ sounds but not in any of the other pods.

The knobs and switches give the piano and old-fashioned feel. (I'm a little worried about how sturdy they are and how likely they are to break off.) Unlike some other digital pianos, this one has fewer sounds (like trumpet or sax) that I'm never going to use. The concentration on real keyboard sounds and ones that one is likely to use in performance helps a lot.

This piano, unlike most high-end Yamaha digital pianos, also does not have a built-in speaker. That makes the piano lighter than it would be with a speaker, but obviously not suitable for situations where you just want to bring a piano and nothing else.

Pro's:
- Excellent electric piano sounds
- Very exacting control over parameters
- An actual Leslie effect (set the foot controller to 76 to make a pedal work).
- The ability to save "live" pages and change patches on the fly

Cons:
- Uneven patches (especially the bass patches)
- Slightly disappointing piano patches
- One cannot combine patches in the same pod (like vibes and bass, for example)

I'm a little surprised at the uneveness of the patches, especially the bass patches. (I've had other Yamaha pianos where the bass patches were great, so I know Yamaha can deliver in this area.) The organ patches, as with most Yamaha organ patches, are underwhelming. However, there is one patch (click organ) that combined with the Leslie effect is good enough to use in performance, so that one doesn't have to bring a separate dedicated B3 emulator.

My own experience with Yamaha has been that there equipment is very sturdy, lasts for a long time, and is generally free from any manufacturing defects. I won't be able to prove that with this keyboard for a while, but that's been my experience with every other Yamaha keyboard.

But for some of these limitations that I've described above, I would give this keyboard 5 stars. Still, a very good keyboard for live performance.

Jacob does a wonderful presentation. I look forward to trying this piano and the Roland RD 2000. I got incredible insight from a conversation with Sweetwaters Clete recently. There is one thing that was not addressed and happens to be EXTREMELY important in my decisions. Transpose was not mentioned/covered. Yeah,yeah,yeah-learn to play in all keys (I can) but can not solo as well in certain keys-particularly: c sharp/f sharp/a flat. So, I'm not afraid to admit to cheating. Furthermore-Keyboard players tend to like bells and whistles. I don't. I don't even want midi, patches,layers ,delays,reverb,samplers,quantizing, etc I want just great acoustic grands and uprights. I don't want, need or ever use: electric piano sounds. I have a dual manuel organ and leslie. If they absolutely HAVE to add anything to a great piano-just some great B3 sounds. No Farfisas, no pipe organs-just the sounds that most blues,boogie and rock keyboardists need. Can't some piano designer use all that memory and acreage on the display panel better? I want the old style (keep it simple stupid) transpose button. When I'm sitting in at any pro blues event-I'm sometimes thrown into unfamiliar songs and keys onstage which I can handle and comes with session playing. BUT, I have techno-fear and DO NOT want to waste time going into utility mode, finding transpose and then counting up or down a half or whole note and selecting it etc, etc. My focus and attention needs to be on the music and signals from the other musicians onstage-not trying to do a task on the piano. I want to push a dedicated transpose button then hit one a-flat note (for example) and wha-la……. hit c and I'm playing in a flat . My other most important factor in choosing a piano is more of wanting a FAST or short throw action not just a real piano feel. I find that I'm sometimes out playing the keyboards speed in upper register solos. Besides Jon Cleary, Chuck Leavell….Billy Powell is a piano hero of mine. In imitating his very fast solo on Call me the Breeze-I gotta have a very fast action..Faster than my older Kawaii EP3 or even their older stage piano apparently. (And I LOVE Kawaii) Any suggestions for pianos would be appreciated.

I owned the CP4 and it sounded better in many facets compared to the CP88. The ONLY thing { which is a huge improvement } is the User Interface. The piano sounds are good but use the same old looping technology. Very limited in sounds unlike the CP4 and the category for "Sub" i.e. other sounds are very weak. The organs are simply pathetic. I wanted to buy this and even ordered one but canceled it the minute I had a chance to sit down and play one. It is only a good stage piano if all you do on stage is play piano, some EP's and are not in the need of rich-sounding strings etc. FORGET ORGANS! After canceling my order {Thank God} I got the Korg GS and it blows this keyboard away in all aspects. Sorry friends.

Alright, first the good things. Build quality and keybed are nice. Piano sounds are solid. If that's all you need, you might be content.

The Sub engine (organs, tuned percussion, etc.) is very bad. Plan on never using that. I realize these sounds are just filler, but they feel very half-assed at that.

I bought this because I thought the EP engine sounded good in the demos. The sound I was most after was a Rhodes MK1 through a tube amp. Now, there are very few instruments, so I expected these to be high quality like the pianos (i.e., sampled from serviced/fully functional EPs). Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed after playing through the Rhodes sounds. There is an excessive amount of artifacts, and some of them are pretty off-putting. It's particularly noticeable because it is only certain keys. One or two sound like the hammer is missing its tip, others have shrill/dissonant tines, or are 30% quieter/muted. So, if you are soloing and happen to hit one of these random keys, it sounds bad and is distracting. If I had a real Rhodes and it had these issues, I would get it serviced! It's not charming and not subtle. The two 67Rd instruments are especially bad in this regard. Sounds like they sampled a busted old Rhodes someone found in a barn or something. Genuinely confused why these were included. In general, all but the 78Rd and 73Rd are excessively noisy throughout (hammer/release sounds are aggressive).

I'm surprised, as I have a CP Reface and think the Rhodes sounds on it are pretty solid. I actually prefer those to the ones on the 88! I compared them extensively and the Reface "artifacts" are more subtle, with no distracting "problem" keys. Pretty much on par with serviced MK1s I've played in this regard.

The 3 Wurli sounds are pretty good if you're playing clean. I wasn't impressed with the "Drive" effect in comparison to the amp sims on Korg SV2 and Nord Stage 3. But I think they have fewer issues than the Rhodes.

There's some EQ issues with the EPs too. You have onboard EQ and tone to fiddle with, but I had trouble getting most of them to sound natural. Surprised how bass-y some were, maybe I'm just used to hearing them through guitar amps. But it was pretty common to use a Fender Twin.

So, yeah. For $ I expected more from this. Definitely not a "Nord Killer". It sucks having to pay for return shipping on something like this, but I can get a comparable piano solution much cheaper (eyeing the Kawai ES920), and use the savings to buy a VST with better samples (PianoTeq, Keyscape).

My excitement to receive this unit was exceeded by my disappointment in the piano sounds. The piano sounds like a toy.
I ran an A/B next a Kawaii ES110 through JBL speakers and Yamaha board. The Kawaii was superior.
Sending it back post haste and will look at other options.