It's been several years since the last improvements were made to the CVP when Yamaha introduced the 100 Series models in the fall of 1999. Now, the 200 Series models are here. Let's take a look at what Yamaha's engineers have been up to.

Features at a Glance

The CVPUG-Meister's Overview

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CVP-200 series features at a glance...

The CVPUG-Meister's Overview

I wanted to get this information out as soon as I could, so forgive me if it isn't as complete as you would like. I've taken a close look at the new CVP-207/209 Owner's Manual and can give you some idea of the changes that have taken place in the newest models. I have not looked at the manuals for the CVP-201, CVP-203, or CVP-205, so I can't really comment on those models just yet.

GENERAL OVERVIEW

The first noticeable changes are in the control panel layout. If you're familiar with the heritage CVP-9x and CVP-10x models, you'll immediately notice that the user control panel on the 207/209 is completely different! The twin volume control slides have been replaced with a single large rotary dial. The ON/OFF power switch is now located directly above the volume control. The number of buttons on the panel are roughly the same, but the locations and layout are very different, and there are many new buttons we've never seen before--many surrounding the color LCD (CVP-207 and CVP-209).

There are two rows of eight buttons directly under the new LCD, which allows the display to give you many different controls that you can select and alter. For example, if you are playing a MIDI file that is composed of 16 separate tracks, you can mute individual tracks simply by pushing the button under the LCD that maps to the track you want to mute. This way you can mute as many tracks as you want by just pushing the corresponding buttons. There are many more things you can do with the buttons, too.

The look of the display is very different. Besides being larger (640 x 480 pixels) and more colorful, the graphics and user interface is dramatically upgraded. The new display is very readable, if a bit too busy. The Main display is loaded with information -- waaaaaay more information than you'll probably ever use, so it looks crowded.

The information, however, is mapped to associate itself with the layout of the panel controls. The upper right side of the display is for the voice information; the upper right side of the control panel is where you'll find all the voice controls. The upper left side of the display is for the song information; the upper left side of the control panel is where you'll find the song controls. And so it goes.

According to the manual, the icons and background graphics are user-definable, which means they can be changed--but not the content of the Main display. You can enter your name so that it comes up in the display when the CVP is turned on, and you can upload a photo of you and the kids to be used as a background in the display.

AHHHH, THE VOICE!!

This is really interesting!! One of the salespeople at a store I recently visited told me about the new piano samples for the new models from a chart he had. Here's some of the stuff he shared with me:

The CVP-203 uses a CLP-930 type piano sample with key off.
The CVP-205 uses a CLP-950 type piano sample with key off and soundboard reverb.
The CVP-207 and CVP-209 both use a CLP-970 type piano sample with key off, soundboard reverb, and string resonance.

He also said that the AWM (Advanced Wave Memory) on the previous models have been improved to AWMDSS (Advanced Wave Memory Digital Stereo Sampling) with something called dynamic sampling. I'm not clear on what this means exactly, except that the new models offer a new sample rather than using the same CVP-100 series samples.

This chart also showed how much internal memory these new models require for the piano sample. According to the chart, the CVP-103 and CVP-105 both used 8MB and the CVP-107 and CVP-109 both used 16MB. Here's what the new series showed for the piano sample:

CVP-201 8MB
CVP-203 32MB
CVP-205 48MB
CVP-207 80MB
CVP-209 112MB

We also discussed a new feature that Yamaha calls Auto Revoice. Apparently, when you play a General MIDI disk in the 100 series, it defaults to the basic XG sound set which is not the best piano voice. On the 200 series, if you select the Auto Revoice from the Mixer page, it automatically revoices the file to use the best voices on the CVP-200 including the best CVP Piano voice. This seems like a real killer feature!!! I can't wait to try it out!

Unfortunately, it appears that the Piano Roll display is gone from the new models. However, there is now a Score view, so you can have the CVP display the note data on the music staff, just like printed sheet music. There are zoom controls so you can make the score larger or smaller to suite your preference. With the CVP-207 and CVP-209, you get a pretty hefty 640 x 480 pixle display, so the score looks really neat! It's important to understand that the score MAY NOT resemble exactly a copy of the sheet music you might have for the song you're playing, because the Score display is only displaying the note data as it appears on the disk. Some MIDI files aren't created with as much attention to detail as you might expect, so note durations may appear to be different than what you'd expect. Also, very short notes, like grace notes, will not appear on the Score view. All that said, the score is pretty readable, and the CVP watches what you play and turns the pages for you!

For the beginner, the Score View can also show the note's name beside the note: "G" beside a G note, and so on.

The floppy disk drive has been moved to a location under the right side of the keyboard, similar to the location of the drive on the Yamaha Disklavier models. The lights over the keys have been re-arranged so that the lights over the black keys are slightly higher than the lights over the white keys--this is probably a good idea. All the lights over the keys are now red -- instead of red over the white keys and green over the black keys -- and this is probably a very bad idea.

The pedals are completely programmable now. Each of the three pedals AND the auxiliary pedal that can be plugged into the CVP can be programmed independently to perform whatever function you like.

Audio output to an external sound system, like a home stereo, has been made simpler by providing a Left and Right RCA jack, just like the jacks on your stereo receiver. Now you can use standard stereo patch cords to connect to a receiver or amplifier.

The Graded Hammer keyboard has been slightly improved in the new models. The new keyboard is the same as the one in the previous models, except that the balance point has been changed to make it feel even more like a Yamaha acoustic grand piano.

DATA STORAGE
There are now three memory types in the CVP, and each one is given its own tab in the display. The first tab is titled "PRESET" and contains all of the data that can not be changed in the CVP, such as voices, styles, effects, etc. The second tab is titled "USER" and is for the internal flash memory where you can store your own song files, styles that you've created or modified, voices you've created or modified, etc. There's approximately 3.3 MB of available flash memory set aside for this purpose, so you could probably store up to around 100 song files internally. The third tab is titled "FLOPPY DISK." When you select the FLOPPY DISK tab, you get to see everything saved on the floppy disk you currently have inserted in the drive.

Because you can now store so many songs in flash memory, the new CVP allows you to create folders to help you organize your files. You can set up as many folders as you like and name them whatever you like. The CVP also lets you copy and paste (to or from floppy disk, for example) whole folders of files with all their contents in a single operation.

There is a large internal database of music styles--over 200 on each of these new models. The new "Music Finder" is a feature that lets you search for a style by its association with a specific song title. For example, if you want to set up your CVP so you can play the theme from the movie Grease, you can search for that song title (and you'll find it!) and the CVP will set up all the appropriate settings for that song. When you select the song title, the CVP will automatically set up the proper style, beat, and tempo for that song.

The "USA Edition" contains additional Music Finder entries not contained in the European models. Furthermore, Yamaha USA has a unique agreement with Hal Leonard to include "keywords" in the "USA Edition" Music Finder that will allow customers to easily obtain actual sheet music for the Music Finder selections.

Yamaha recognized very quickly that without music, Music Finder is of limited use unless you're a professional musician that has memorized all the pieces in the Music Finder, or play by ear very well. For example, the number one selling Hal Leonard song book "Best Songs Ever" has songs that are all included in the Music Finder. To list the songs in the Music Finder, customers owning "USA Edition" instruments simply need to enter the keyword "BEST1" and the Clavinova will filter through the list of almost 2500 entries and list the songs from the "Best Songs Ever" book in alphabetical order, just like they are in the book's Table of Contents. Simply go down the list, in order, and play the songs as you page through the music in the book: the Clavinova will choose the right style, the right tempo, and set up the instrument for ALL the songs in the book. "USA Edition" customers will also have access to additional updates of the "USA Edition" Music Finder as they are made available, at no charge, through their local Clavinova dealer.

Here's an important piece of information to know: On the CVP-201, you can not modify the Music Finder database and save it to disk, which means you can't customize the list to make it more "user-friendly." You're pretty much stuck with the cryptic names of the styles. The CVP-203, 205, 207, and 209 all will allow you to modify and catagorize the Music Finder database and save it.

File names appear differently when a file is saved on the new CVP. The new file names appear as something like "abcde.s002.mid" where "abcde" is the song name, "s002" is an associated icon name, and "mid" is the standard MIDI file extension. The manual says that if the format of the file name gets changed, the CVP may not recognize the file, so we CVPUGers will have to be careful when we're swapping files with future owners of these new models that we don't accidentally change their file names. The icon name refers to graphic icons that can be used as lables for files, making it easier to quickly recognize the file you're looking for.

There are new help screens available on the new CVPs that work the same way as web pages. When you press the HELP button, you can scroll down a list of topics, select whatever you want information on, and the information given will be at a fairly basic level with embedded links to more detailed answers. Thus, you can drill down into deeper assistance if you need to.

There are now three types of Demos in the CVP. "Function Demos" will demonstrate to you various functions of the CVP. "Voice Demos" showcase the various voices of the CVP--each voice has its own unique demo. "Style Demos" introduce you to the rhythms and accompaniment styles in the CVP. Each demo, when played, is accompanied by a screen display that explains something about the demo.

VOICES

New voices are always welcome, and the new CVP has plenty of really neat stuff! The new "Natural!" voices are unique rich voices, mostly keyboard instrument sounds, that use a completely independent sound source so you can play full, sustained chords--even along with accompaniment styles--and not have to worry about running out of polyphony. There are 37 Natural! voices on the CVP-209 and 22 Natural! voices on the CVP-207 that include various piano, organ, percussion, bass, and choir voices.

"Live!" voices are new acoustic instrument sounds, sampled in stereo, that provide very full and very rich sounds. There are 17 Live! voices on each of the new flagship models that include piano, percussion, guitar, brass, and strings.

"Cool!" voices are new electronic instrument sounds that were sampled with large amounts of memory, so they capture dynamic textures and some "very sophisticated programming". There are 6 Cool! voices in the new models that include electric piano, organ, and guitar.

"Sweet!" voices, which we're familiar with from the CVP-10x series, are still there in the new models, too. There are 10 Sweet! voices in the new models that include various woodwind and brass instruments.

There are lots of authentic organ flutes that you can adjust and modify to create your own organ sounds.

There's a PIANO button on the control panel that automatically reconfigures the entire CVP for optimum piano performance, no matter what the panel has been set up for. Thus, you can call up the piano at the touch of a single button.

Additionally, there are 343 regular voices, 480 XG voices, and 26 drum kits, so you have an instrument with well over 800 total voices!

And to add to that, there is now a Sound Creator ("envelope generator" for you techie types) on board the CVP that lets you create and store your own voice creations! You can even create them, save them to disk, and share them with other CVP-207/209 owners. If Yamaha remains true to form, you should soon be able to download new voices to add to the ones inside your CVP-200.

STYLES

I haven't gotten through all the style information yet, but there is a built-in Style Creator. Also, there are three style types that I haven't seen before.

"Session! Styles" provide greater realism and authentic backing by mixing in original chord types and changes, as well as special rifts with chord changes.

"Piano Combo! Styles" feature a basic piano trio (piano, bass, and drums), augmented in some cases with other instruments.

"Pianist! Styles" provide piano-only accompaniment, effectively recreating the left-hand performance of an accomplished pianist. You just play the chords with your left hand and the CVP will turn the chords into complicated accompaniment.

There are some new chord fingerings that add to the ones in the heritage models. Called "Artificial Intelligence" or "AI", the AI FINGERED setting is basically the same as the standard FINGERED setting, but you can play less than three notes and the CVP will create the style playback. Also, AI FULL KEYBOARD is an advanced auto accompaniment that automatically creates appropriate accompaniment while you play just about anything, anywhere on the keyboard, using both hands.

A final word about styles: The CVP-201 will not allow you to modify and save the styles. You can on the CVP-203, 205, 207, and 209. As a work around on the 201, however, you can save your customized style settings to Registration Memory and use that to set up the instrument for a particular style. You'll have to remember the association between each style and your customized settings location in memory. That could be a pain.

KARAOKE

For you singers out there, who love to do karaoke, you'll just love this! "Karao-Key" is a new function that lets you control the song and accompaniment playback with just one finger on the keyboard. While you sing along, you play any key on the keyboard in time with the music and the accompaniment parts of the song follow your playing. This lets you control the timing and tempo of the song.

Also, "Vocal CueTIME" is similar to the "Follow-the-Lights" feature. You can see which notes to sing by watching the key guide lamps. The CVP follows your singing (into the microphone) and automatically adjusts the timing and tempo of the song to match your performance.

The new CVPs will also let you input and edit the lyrics for a song file right on the CVP!

There have been modifications to the Vocal Harmonizer, too. However, I've never used the one on the CVP-10x models, so I can't say too much about the differences. I see, however, that Yamaha has added a "Talk" button that lets you defeat the harmonizer for times when you want to talk into the microphone without having the harmonizer functioning.

RECORDING AND EDITING

There are some new enhancements to the record capability that makes the task easier for the novice. One feature that I really like, that I don't THINK exists on previous models, is the ability to select multiple tracks and record on them simultaneously using a different instrument for each one.

The new CVP makes it easy to change and save the set up for a song file. For example, you can easily modify the keyboard voice, score settings, Guide Control settings, etc. and save them so that they'll always come up the way you want when you select that song.

There is a new feature called "Revoicing" that lets you automatically replace XG voices in a song file with the special voices of the CVP, making it sound richer and fuller.

The built-in MIDI sequencer has been beefed up so that you have more punch-in and punch-out capabilities.

THINGS I DON'T SEE

The loss of the Piano Roll display is a bummer for me, personally. I've grown quite fond of using it. As a dyslexic, it's easer for me to read the piano roll than a musical score.

I don't know whether the track assignments can be modified "on the fly." This is something I've been asking for for several years.

I don't know if the display can be turned off altogether. Someone asked for that becasue it's too bright in a dark room.

I don't see any difference in the audio power between the CVP-207 and 209. They appear to have the same amplifiers and speakers. At merely 60 watts, it seems a bit thin compared to the Technics 120 watt system.

It's not clear whether you can use the Guide Control "Follow the Lights" function while in RECORD mode.

SUMMARY

I'm sure there's more, and I'll add it as soon as I discover it. It looks like Yamaha has raised the bar significantly for the competition.