Nylon Guitar sound issue on CVP-203/205

[zeeshan]

I bought my CVP-203 from a local yamaha dealer about 3 months ago. I just noticed a big issue with one of the guitar sounds of the Clavinova. There are about four notes on the Nylon guitar sounds for which the sound(texture) is significantly different(bad) then the rest of the keys. If you select the nylon guitar sound and play the following 4 notes right above the middle C, you will notice that the sound is somewhat dull/muted.

D#, E, F, F#

At first I thought it was my clavinova that had this problem, but then I went to 2 local dealers and tried their cvp-203 and they both had the same problem. After discussing it with the salesmen, it was determined that this is how the sound is sampled. To me they are just bad samples and I can't beleive that Yamaha would do something like that.

Did anyone else here notice the same issue? It is possible that only a certain number of Clavinova has the issue. But I would appreciate that if members here can verify that.

btw, I also tried the new CVP-208 and the nylon guitar sounds is just fine. Its seems that Yamaha knew of this issue and have now fixed it in their newer even number clavinovas.

THanks
Zeeshan

[Ian J. Evans]

I don't consider myself very knowledgeable when it comes to guitars, but your post had me curious. I have had my CVP 209 for just over two months now and had never tried all the guitar sounds.

However, I have tried them all now and in the middle C area of the keyboard all notes seem evenly sounding played chromatically. I did not go more than an octave and a half in my trials.

Ian

[via55]

You right! I never noticed it before but those 4 notes are very muddy sounding on my 203. Sounds like the attack is different. On other notes there is a slight click (pick hitting the string??)preceeding the tone that is absent on these 4.

I too am surprised that Yamaha would let this get by. I wonder if there is some form of update available for the samples?

Don

[wally]

I would suggest that you relate your problem to Yamaha's Customer Support. That's the only avenue you have to make them aware of something that needs fixin. If enough fuss is made, I believe they'll have to fix it and send out new ROMs.

Wally

[danielsanderson]

Has Yamaha ever sent out ROM/software updates for Clavinovas? Ever? Have they ever issued ROM updates for samples? Since there are already newer models, I'm not expecting to see updates for the odd-numbered 20x line unless a more serious problem is found.

[jjm542]

I don't know about ROM updates, but they did update (replace) the main circuit board in my CVP900 due to a problem with the guide lights. I suspect this was actually a firmware (ROM) problem, but they elected to replace the entire board. I didn't see either board, but it may be that the ROMs are soldered onto the board, in which case replacing them would be impossible. That would "raise the bar" on fixing bad samples. Flash memory would solve this problem, but it's more expensive and may not have the same capacity. Perhaps the next generations will have disk-based samples, in which case updates would be much easier.

[tomtomsf]

On the PSR2000/2100 and Tyros, the guitar samples are multi-part. So how they sound (the pick click, etc) can depend on how hard you strike the keys. Do you know if the 203/205 has this feature as well? If so, maybe you didn't strike each key in the same manner, and thus got the odd sound. Just guessing about this...

:)

Tom G.

[zeeshan]

No matter how hard or soft you hit the keys, sound is still dull/muddy in these 4 keys. The rest of the samples are just fine.

I spoke with the local dealer where I bought it from. The manager, after doing some checking around told me the following.

Either I can upgrade to a CVP-204 for $1000 more, which I did not accept. The other option is that I contact the Yamaha service department and take it up with them.

Normally if there was something wrong with the piano, the dealer would send in the technician to fix it. But in this case there is nothing wrong with the unit(in his opinion), it is just sampled that way.

So now I am told to take this issue up with the Yamaha service department. In my opinion this is ridiculous. What is the point of buying it from the local dealer if we have to deal with these issues ourselves.

[tomtomsf]

Originally posted by zeeshan
No matter how hard or soft you hit the keys, sound is still dull/muddy in these 4 keys. The rest of the samples are just fine.

I spoke with the local dealer where I bought it from. The manager, after doing some checking around told me the following.

Either I can upgrade to a CVP-204 for $1000 more, which I did not accept. The other option is that I contact the Yamaha service department and take it up with them.

Normally if there was something wrong with the piano, the dealer would send in the technician to fix it. But in this case there is nothing wrong with the unit(in his opinion), it is just sampled that way.

So now I am told to take this issue up with the Yamaha service department. In my opinion this is ridiculous. What is the point of buying it from the local dealer if we have to deal with these issues ourselves.

Geez, that's real helpful of the dealer! And they wonder why people shop around on the internet. I live near San Francisco, too. I'd hate to buy from that dealer!

Tom G.