Electro 6D 73 versus Yamaha CP73

[tobruk]

Looking at the specs, another Nord advantage appears to be the flexibility of the effects routings. On the Yamaha CP73/88, the Wah and Ring Modulator are restricted to E. Piano, Rotary is restricted to Sub, etc.

[Rusty Mike]

The Electro 6HP is also lighter by a few pounds/kg. While it's not ideal to play organ on the HP action, you could MIDI to an external controller. And the organs are miles ahead of Yamaha's.

The Yamaha is interesting due to the dedicated effects for each section, and they sound good. A little less fussy than the Electro in that regard. I understand your point about less flexibility to assign effects to sections. Talking selfishly, I don't use ring mod or was, and only rotary on the B3. For what it's worth, their rotary does not sound good.

I don't know if the new CP can do assignable outs, so you could route the Sub to one output and the pianos to another. The Electro gives you that flexibility.

Lower price as well, but I think the heavy rolling case offsets any weight advantage.

One more thing. I think I read somewhere that the CP73 action is the same as on the P125/P121. If so, I wasn't impressed with that action. I know I'm not the norm, but I prefer the Nord HP action over Yamaha's Balanced Weighted action.

[anotherscott]

Looking at the specs, another Nord advantage appears to be the flexibility of the effects routings. On the Yamaha CP73/88, the Wah and Ring Modulator are restricted to E. Piano, Rotary is restricted to Sub, etc.

No, there is an Advanced Mode which lets you route any sound to any section, that allows you to put any effect on any sound. It also gives you more flexible splits/layers than Electro (i.e. you can split/layer any two sounds, regardless of what section they are in, unlike Nord).

I don't know if the new CP can do assignable outs, so you could route the Sub to one output and the pianos to another. The Electro gives you that flexibility.

It doesn't look lke the CP can do that.

I think the heavy rolling case offsets any weight advantage.

You don't have to use that case. Any case for the CP73 should work for the Nord, which is just slightly smaller.

I think I read somewhere that the CP73 action is the same as on the P125/P121.

No, the P125/121 actions are graded, the CP73 is balanced.

[maxpiano]

I think I read somewhere that the CP73 action is the same as on the P125/P121.

No, the P125/121 actions are graded, the CP73 is balanced.[/quote]

Blake Angelos on https://www.yamahasynth.com/yamaha-synt ... age-pianos states it feels like the Montage 8 action, which is pretty likely.

[Happy]

Some things for reference

Sounds

Check out the sounds from 25:00 for the subsection sounds and advanced mode /rotary speaker
"CPOS" for regular updates with new sounds
Soundmodo is used to download free new sounds between users.
Every 6 months new release of CPOS with new features.
@ 5:60 and 8:00 for Clavi sounds
Effects can be independently assigned to any section.
A section can be assigned to multiple sounds.

Looks & design
One person said the keys are plastic with Wood finish, true ? P.S:The CP88 and CP73 keybeds are different.
Don't like the mechanical look of the rocker switchers too much, but that is just personal. Perhaps it's good to have for durability and it does send some kind of "I am solid" message. Red is nice but black is also beautiful.

MIDI
In contrast to Clavia, Yamaha has been always very open on their MIDI SYSEX implementation in their documents.
Besides DSI/Sequential Yamaha it's one if the last companies doing that still very well.
Manual does not state the MIDI USB port or Audio is class compliant but it was said it works with a phone.
There is USB host port to attach an external USB device like USB memory , but not clear that could be also a 2nd MIDI keyboard.
What is not really clear if each of the the sound sections has it's own MIDI channel for playing sounds from each section/layer from an external source, like from USB or the external DIN MIDI . This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMs9o-8KHPo discusses at 16:00 that there are 4 zones with their own MIDI settings and even can have their own external controllers, but can a "Zone" span all octaves?. Perhaps those are different MIDI channels or even separate MIDI interfaces. Would be nice to have some more detail on this as the manual seems not to detail this much

Audio

This video at 17:00: The USB audio from the PC can be send to the CP.
The CP support audio over USB, however only 2 channels and only at 44.1 Khz. 48 or 96 would have been nice
Really, each zone, layer or section should have support each individual section to have an individual USB audio output.
Perhaps that can be supported in future upgrade if not a hardware limitation

A Nord vs Yamaha post:

Guess we'll see more of comparison video's soon.
Those Nord Lead 3 knobs came back... Can''t go unloved , right ?
Really need to feel that keybed and compare to the Electro's

Other video's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... qXYfOM7C_0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hpb9eTJRow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBef8xbGQzU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMs9o-8KHPo

It's probably not an easy time for Nord in the niche market of Drums (Love the Drum2/Pad though) and VA Synths, while Yamaha has seen an opportunity get some of the crumbles (or slices)from Nord's bread and butter stage/live market segment. The Nord hardware may be running out of steam with the limited memory storage, the old CPU hardware platform and absence of USB / digital audio, but who knows what will be shown at NAMM.

[danrv]

These new boards from Yamaha look interesting. Thought it wouldn’t be too long...
Not sure why 73 though. I find 76 much better for a compact piano.
E-E is restricting for any ballad type arpeggio stuff in F or G.

[analogika]

These new boards from Yamaha look interesting. Thought it wouldn’t be too long...
Not sure why 73 though. I find 76 much better for a compact piano.
E-E is restricting for any ballad type arpeggio stuff in F or G.

Rhodes Standard and, more relevantly, Yamaha CP-70 standard.

[danrv]

These new boards from Yamaha look interesting. Thought it wouldn’t be too long...
Not sure why 73 though. I find 76 much better for a compact piano.
E-E is restricting for any ballad type arpeggio stuff in F or G.

Rhodes Standard and, more relevantly, Yamaha CP-70 standard.

Thanks, I see that now. I knew that was a Rhodes standard but didn't know much about the CP70.
I was comparing it to the Stage 76, Yamaha S70.

[anotherscott]

There is USB host port to attach an external USB device like USB memory , but not clear that could be also a 2nd MIDI keyboard.

Extremely unlikely. Lots of boards have ports for USB sticks, almost none of them can support a second keyboard that way. Kronos is an exception, but it is built on a stock PC/linux foundation, which as I understand it would naturally have that ability (i.e. they would have had to specifically choose not to make it work).

What is not really clear if each of the the sound sections has it's own MIDI channel for playing sounds from each section/layer from an external source

Based on the MIDI Implementation Chart and the list of menu options, it looks like the answer is no. You can only specify a single receive channel for the entire instrument. I've seen some boards where you can specify only one channel but additional sections are assigned incremental independant MIDI channels upward from there, but there's no indication in the manual that the CP does that. {Edited here to remove some misinformation.}

there are 4 zones with their own MIDI settings and even can have their own external controllers

What do you mean by a zone having its own external controllers?

an a "Zone" span all octaves?

Yes... as the manual indicates, each zone can span any range of notes ("Note Limits") between C -2 and G8.

Perhaps those are different MIDI channels

If you mean that each zone can have its own MIDI channel, then yes ("TX channel").

But just to be sure there's no confusion here... zones have nothing whatsoever to do with the board's internal sounds or sections. Zones are for controlling external sounds (i.e. from an iPhone/iPad, laptop, external sound module, or another keyboard). They are the equivalent of the EXT sections on a Nord Stage.

[wartaler]

(Wow, they seem to have borrowed quite a bit of user interface from Nord keyboards!)