The Yamaha NP12 Recording keyboard is designed to be user friendly for any level of musicianship. From the first note, Piaggero can amaze you by its compactness and the excellent quality sounds it contains, from its beautiful, authoritative tones sampled from one of Yamaha’s best concert grand pianos to an expressive, light-weight piano. The NP-32 has an “Electronic Soft Keyboard” with pre-programmed sounds that respond to the touch of your fingers. It is amazingly natural and intuitive, and with practice you can even take it with you wherever you go to play.
One of my favorite features is the ability to undo what you’re doing. There is no need to physically move pieces on the keyboard. The grand piano is so large, you have to have at least two hands, one to hold the instrument while you pluck with the plectrum, and another to hit the keys. Then there is the trouble of holding on to the instrument, which can become an issue with large people, short people or just getting older. With the NP12pi, all you have to do is pluck and hit the keys and undo what you were doing. It’s a great feature when you are in a hurry or need to go back to the beginning of a piece.
Another great feature of the Yamaha NP12 is that it has sixty-one keys. There are some large pianos that have sixty-two keys, but I find the 61 keys more comfortable. In fact, I would say the keys are weighted very evenly on the piano. With other pianos the weighted keys tend to be in an uneven pattern which makes hitting the keys with an uneven frequency. This isn’t a problem on the NP12 and the effect is very pleasant.
If you are looking for a piano with a big keyboard and a lot of keys, you might want to think about the Beelebone family. These pianos usually have sixty-two keys and come in three standard sizes: the smallest size is eleven keys, the medium size is eighteen keys and the largest size is twenty-six keys. While the larger-sized pianos might be a bit pricy, they certainly have a big price range and are definitely worth looking at. However, if you are just starting out and aren’t sure which type of keyboard you want, the Yamaha NP12 is a good place to start.
The final feature I want to discuss with you is the weighted keyboard. When the keys are weighted, you have a nice feel when you pluck them because they aren’t hard or too light. The downside is that you can’t remove some of the keys, but overall this isn’t a major issue for most people and it shouldn’t be a huge problem for the price range the Yamaha NP12 falls into.
Overall, these main differences between the Yamaha keyboard and its competitors are very minor. The main thing that you need to remember when comparing these types of keyboards is that while the Yamaha is cheaper, it has a smaller touch-sensitive keyboard and a lower price range. So, if you don’t need a flashy or exciting touch-sensitive keyboard on your next keyboard, you should probably save some money for something else. On the other hand, if you like having an entertaining and interactive keyboard that feels great to hit, you should definitely consider the Yamaha.