Yamaha Clavinova CSP-170B Review

My Review My Yamaha Clavinova CSP-170.

Piano & App Overview

The CSP Line of Clavinova Pianos, is very unique, in that you cannot separate the Smart Pianist App from the Piano, or you lose a lot of functionality. Basically, if Yamaha ever decides to stop supporting this app, the Piano pretty much becomes a 600 series Clavinova CLP. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that this review will not only be about the Piano Hardware.

Guide Lights

The top two tiers of the Clavinova line have guide lights built into the app and these will actually show you which notes to play and when to play them, by highlight using a series of lights, that are positioned directly above the keys

Guide Light Supported Apps

Synthesia
Flowkey
Smart Pianist

All Lessons in the App
50 Builtin Popular Songs
50 Builtin Classical Songs
User Songs Library
Music Library (Guide Function is Disabled in this section)

The Ultimate Teacher?

Is the Yamaha CSP line of Clavinova Pianos the ultimate Piano teacher? Well, it just might be!

The piano features a modest level of scoring for songs in your music library (although this is arguably the worst implementation of all the pianos features). There's also the ability to use the guide lights, to learn thousands of songs and take hundreds of builtin lessons.

All of these functions are provided by the Smart Pianist App (The CVP line have the App installed on their console, the CSP and CLP line will require an iPad, iPhone, or Android dvice to use it).

Smart Pianist Features & Menus

Lessons

Beyer
Burgmüller
Czerny 100
Czerny 30
Hanon

Utility (Piano Customizations)

Transpose

Keyboard\Style
Song

Tuning

Master Tune (Default is 440 Hz)
Type

Equal
Pure Major
Pure Minor
Pythagorean
Mean Tone
Werckmesiter
Kirnberger
Arabic1
Arabic2

Base Note (Default is C)

Keyboard Settings

Touch Curve (6 Levels)
Fixed (127 levels, requires Fixed Touch Curve)

Pedal Settings

Right Pedal
Center Pedal
Left Pedal
AUX Pedal
AUX Pedal Polarity

Mic Settings
Master EQ (5 Bands)

Frequency
Gain
Q

Sound Setting

Speaker
Binaural
IAC
IAC Depth
AUX IN Noise Gate

System (includes basic system information)

Voices (Over 700)

Split

Main

Piano
Organ
Guitar & Bass
Strings & Vocal
Brass & Woodwind
Perc & Drums
Synth

Left

Piano
Organ
Guitar & Bass
Strings & Vocal
Brass & Woodwind
Perc & Drums
Synth

Layer

Piano
Organ
Guitar & Bass
Strings & Vocal
Brass & Woodwind
Perc & Drums
Synth

Style (more than 450 Styles)

Song

50 Popular
50 Classics

Song to Score

Music Library (iTunes, Play Music)
User Songs (mid, wav, etc)

Song to Score works with the features listed above, but it does not support mp3 files. Also, the iTunes music I purchased is barely supported (maybe 5% of my music) and when it is supported, most of the time it is only chords being transcribed. Unfortunately, the guide option isn't supported with the Music Library either and that creates a major problem when the Guide Lights won't wait for you.

If you use the User Songs section, you can find various sources like musescore or synthesia to aquire midi files and these two sources work most of the time and they do support all of the pianos features, like the Guide option and the Guide lights.

Out of all the features in the Smart Pianist App, the Song to Score Music Library has been the most disappointing, but I am very happy with the User Songs transcription... I just don't think the user songs transcription is anything new, as other Piano makers have this functionality for Midi files as well. Basically, Yamaha isn't really giving you anything revolutionary with this feature.

Enough About That, What's It Like?

I really like it and I could really enjoy the machine for years to come. The Piano itself sounds fantastic and it checks a lot of boxes that make it an incredible tool for learning. On top of that, the keyboard action is great and for the most part it is everything I had hoped it would be. Of course my biggest problem with it is the fact that it has a poorly finished veneer has rough edges on the sides of the keyboard (it is hard to justify the $800 difference for the better finish, but it is hard not to justify it when feeling that finish). Also, I wish they offered the choice of a polished white finish like they do in their lower end CLP line, but there's not much I can do about that.

Anyway, below are the pros and cons from my perspective. I do have other thoughts regarding the apps and marketing, but the Piano is very good and those short comings aren't deal breakers. If you really want this and you're debating whether you should buy it or not, it is definitely a Piano I recommend highly.

Pros and Cons

Pros

256 Note Polyphony (not the best but more than enough)
Excellent Hall Simulations (Better than most, if not all competing models)
Guide Lights (definitely not a gimmick)
Incredible amount of exercises and lessons
Piano Samples are Excellent
Sound System is excellent
Partially Wooden Keys
Black Keys have a nice texture
Great App Integration
Lots of customization options for the foot pedals
iPad allows you to airplay the Smart Pianist to a larger screen

cons

Song to Score borders on false advertising
Build Quality isn't as good as others in class
Included Bench feels cheap and hard
Power On requires the push of a button and isn't instant like the competition
White keys are a bit slippery
Bluetooth Midi Requires an Adapter

Tips

Layer the Bösendorfer over the CFX Grand and you get a very realistic Accoustic Piano sound as you have dual frequencies in the samples.
Even though Simply Piano might be more popular, get Flowkey, this Piano feels like it was made for Flowkey.
Use the Hanon excercises to help develop the Muscle Memory you need to play faster.
Checkout the available songs at Synthesia there are about 150 midis you can buy that work with the CSP-150/170.
Musescore allows you to download as a midi and many of them work well with the Piano.

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