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The "Yamaha NP-32 Piaggero" is a piano-style keyboard.
What's so great about it? Once I had an acoustic piano. I could just sit down on my piano-chair and start playing immediately, as it worked all mechanically. Then I had to use a midi-controller and a PC for playing. Then I had to do a lot of things, before I could start playing. I had to:
When finally I was ready, I hardly felt like playing any more.
The NP-32 is rather different: You can just switch it on and start playing after about just a second. The default-settings are quite good, and the sound will be heard immediately through the internal speakers. You can just sit down and play, pretty much like you'd do on an acoustic piano. That's what I wanted.
Although an acoustic piano will always be the "real deal", such a keyboard has advantages of its own too:
The black edition of the NP-32 has only a few buttons, the classical black and white piano-style keys and an ornamental red line, made of velvet, I believe. It looks quite nice.
The NP-32 can produce a maximum of 64 voices of polyphony. Although today many keyboards offer even 128 voices, in most cases, the 64 voices are sufficient, even when layering two sounds.
The NP-32 has 76 full-size keys in piano-style shape, made of plastic, socalled "Graded Soft Touch Non-Weighted Action Keys" (I will explain that later).
The size of these keys are approximately (measured by me):
The keys range from E0 to G6. This is rather odd, because as a result, the middle-C is not in the middle of the keyboard. So if you want to sit in front of the middle-C (like my piano-teacher told me to do ages ago), you don't sit in front of the middle of the keyboard, but either left or right of it (depending on how you shifted the octaves, using the octave-shift-function). This is one of the very few points, I have to critisize about the NP-32.
Actually, on the bottom-side of the NP-32 there's a kind of rubber-knob below the key of F3, to indicate the middle of the keyboard.
In my opinion they should have "moved" the key-range to the right, so that the middle of the keyboard would have been at C3. But there you have it: F3 instead. Maybe the problem was, the lowest key would have been the B below C0 then. But if that had been the problem, I wouldn't have minded, if they had left the lowest key without sound (or something) and started with the sound at C0 then. I don't know. I just would have wanted C3 in the middle, not F3.
The NP-32 has two built-in speakers of 6 Watt each, which are located left and right of the piano-keys and point upwards. If you come from an acoustic piano, you are used to the sound coming from right in front of you. At first the location of the speakers and the direction of the sound of the NP-32 feels unfamiliar, but you get used to that quickly.
It is said, that these speakers can get rather loud (as most other models just have speakers of 2 x 2.5W), but I can't really confirm that. Even if you turn the volume up, to my ears the NP-32 still isn't nearly as loud as for example my hi-fi system (used to be) or even my external audio-speakers for the PC. Probably because the speakers in the NP-32 don't have that much room to resonate. But the volume-level is sufficient, not really a complaint there.
Of course you get higher volume and richer sound by using headphones or by plugging the NP-32 into an external amplifier using the headphone-output (which is the only audio-output on the NP-32; 1/4 inches in size, so it's not one of these small outputs, which get loose contacts after a while)).
You can connect the NP-32 to a computer by USB and use it as a Midi-keyboard. It doesn't send audio across USB though.
It's also possible to connect it to an iPad, but I haven't tested that.
The physical dimensions are:
The price of the NP-32 is 259,- EUR at the moment. It should come with a power adapter (model PA-150, worth 39,- EUR) and a nice music rest. It can also be powered by batteries.
I highly recommend, that you also get the following three accessories:
If you want a keyboard stand, I highly recommend buying Yamaha's own L-2C.
It lifts the NP-32 to a reasonable height (70 cm above ground).
Unlike other keyboard stands, it is made for the NP-32 (and some other Yamaha-keyboards). On the bottom-side of the NP-32 three screw holes can be found, which are especially designed for the screws of the L-2C. So you don't just put the NP-32 on top of the L-2C unsteadily. Instead, these two units can be bolted together firmly. You don't even need to use a screw-driver to do that. That's pretty cool and definitely the way to go.
The L-2C may be a bit expensive, but I think it's worth it.
A dust cover is absolutely necessary with the NP-32. Otherwise, after a while dust gets deep down into the space between the piano-keys, where it can't be wiped away.
There are several offers for dust covers, but I recommend the DC-210, because it fits the size of the NP-32 perfectly. The material is of good quality and it has two good-looking Yamaha-logos on it.
Again, it's a bit expensive, but I think it's worth it.
Playing the piano hardly makes any sense without the expression of a sustain pedal. Of course, the NP-32 has a port for such a device. I don't recommend a certain model, there are several suitable ones available (although not every pedal may work). They aren't very expensive either.
Compatible would be for example the "Lead Foot LFD-2" (19,90 EUR).
The suitable models of Yamaha are called "FC 3A" (69,- EUR) and "FC 4A" (59,- EUR).
Both, digital piano and piano-style keyboard recreate the sound of a piano in a digital way. They also have black and white keys, like a piano has.
The difference is, a digital piano also tries to emulate the feel of the keys of an acoustic piano, while the keys of a piano-style keyboard are lighter, like those of other keyboards.
On a wooden, acoustic piano, the keys are connected to mechanical hammers, that hit strings inside the piano to create the sound. So the keys of a real piano naturally put up a certain resistance, that you can feel, when you play the piano. Also, its lower keys offer more resistance than its higher keys, because the strings for the lower keys are thicker than the ones for the higher keys.
Digital pianos try to emulate the feel and the dynamics of an acoustic piano. Therefore there are also hammers below their keys to offer that special resistance. Such keys are called "weighted keys". There aren't any strings though, as the sound is created digitally.
The NP-32 on the other hand is a piano-style keyboard. It doesn't have these kind of hammer-mechanics. It sounds like a piano, but the keys don't have that certain weight to it and don't offer as much resistance as those of a piano. They're not weighted. They're pressed down much easier.
Instead of some kind of hammer-mechanics, below the keys of the NP-32 are just rubber-pads, that push the keys back up after they've been pressed.
However, the rubber-pads below the lower keys of the NP-32 are thicker than those below the higher keys. So, to a certain extent you get the feeling like on a real piano, that the lower keys put up more resistance than the higher keys. Keys with this feature are called "graded keys".
Yamaha calls the type of keys used in the NP-32 "Graded Soft Touch Non-Weighted Action Keys".
Of course, the keys of the NP-32 are velocity-sensitive, so like on a real piano, if you press a key harder, the sound becomes louder (and even changes its character).
The technical challenge for keyboards and digital pianos is to match the key-dynamics of a real piano exactly, but I think, even with the default-settings for the velocity-sensitivity, they did quite a good job on the NP-32 on this.
It should also be mentioned, that the keys of many keyboards and synthesizers are flat and leave some gap underneath them, while piano-keys are solid and therefore vertically closed at the front. In this regard, the keys of the NP-32 have piano-style shape.
So, yes, if you once accept that the keys of the NP-32 are not weighted, you can play them similar to those on a real piano, just lighter.
The lack of these hammer-mechanics also has some advantages:
If you want a digital piano with hammer-mechanics instead of the NP-32, Yamaha offers the models P-45 (398,- EUR) or P-115 (649,- EUR) for example, or even the digital pianos of the more expensive Clavinova-range, up to the almost monstrous CVP-709GP (11.599,- EUR).
Very interesting is also the newer Yamaha P-121 (599,- EUR): It's a compact digital piano with 73 weighted keys and very good sound. 2x7W speakers. If it had been available earlier, I might have bought it (if the keys were alright for me).
The Roland RD-64 (weighted keys, rather compact, no internal speakers) or the Roland FP-30 may also be interesting.
Roland's equivalent to Yamaha's NP-32 would be the "Roland Go Piano".
The NP-32 offers ten sounds:
When there are two of a kind, the second sound is in most cases softer, more mellow. Often, I prefer the first one over the second.
The main-sound of the NP-32 sure is the first grand piano, "Piano1". I like it, it's actually a very usable piano-sound, sampled in stereo from a Yamaha grand piano.
The first e-piano sounds like the famous one from the DX7, so it's an FM-e-piano-sound, not a Fender Rhodes one.
When you layer the e-piano-sound together with the acoustic piano sound and set the volume balance right, you may even get the socalled "L.A.-piano", used a lot in the 1980s.
According to the manual, the second e-piano sound is supposed to be some kind of Rhodes sound, but don't expect too much here.
The church organs (two different sounds) are pretty good. It seems, the NP-32 is also aimed at church musicians, who can't or don't want to use a real church organ at the specific occasion.
The strings sound a bit scratchy and silky, but still quite lush and a bit "dramatic", at least when listening through headphones. The strings remind of ensemble sounds from Yamaha's Motif series of keyboards. They are probably meant to be layered with the piano sound.
The vibes are fun.
The harpsichords are also a nice change. Play a harpsichord instead of a piano for a while.
Overall the selection of sounds is quite useful, especially the main piano-sound. The sound-quality is good, the dynamics too. All of this is actually pretty good.
On the NP-32, you can layer two sounds, especially piano and strings, which always sound good together.
To do that, select the piano sound first, pressing the key for "piano", until the light for the correct sound is lit. Then press "piano" again and keep it pressed. Then press the key for "strings" additionally once.
After that, stop holding down the "piano"-key.
Now you should hear piano and strings together.
Probably you want to adjust the settings for the octave and the volume balance of the two sounds. How this is done, is explained below, in the chapter "Useful Key-Combinations".
On the NP-32, you can set some options with certain key-combinations (as also described in the manual).
To set an option, you press the "Metronome"-key, keep it pressed and then additionally press a certain button (mentioned below) on the piano-keyboard. To me, these are the most useful key-combinations:
The changes to these options are reset, when the NP-32 is turned off.
The NP-32 has a metronome-function. Just press the according button.
You can use the "Metronome"-key plus the keys "Tempo" and "Beat" to set, well, the tempo and the beat of the metronome.
You can also record, what you play, as data and make the NP-32 replay the recording later. Unfortunately the recorded data can not be sent to a computer via USB. So this is just an internal recorder for quick sketches. Nevertheless it is quite useful. If you want to elaborate an idea, you probably have to play your music again anyway, when you rework it on a computer.
The internal recorder is especially useful, if you want to record directly played music to an external recorder or a computer. Usually, you have to play several or even many takes until everything sounds fine.
To discard a take and record a new one is very simple with the internal recorder. So you can record your music into that, and if your take finally sounds good, you can replay it from the internal recorder to an external one.
The internal recorder is also useful, if you want to use the metronome while recording. The sound of the metronome is sent to the headphone-output (so it would also be recorded by an external recorder), but it is not recorded into the internal recorder. So you can record your music hearing the metronome to the internal recorder, and afterwards play back the result to record it without metronome to an external recorder.
The Yamaha NP-12 is similar to the NP-32. The NP-12 is slightly cheaper and has:
I would prefer the NP-32, if possible.