Topic: Yamaha NU1 Hybrid piano with Pianoteq
Hey everyone, first post for me a long time lurker.
After many years with a Yamaha P120 (with only 3 velocity layers so no good for Pianoteq) I finally upgraded.
I've just taken delivery of a Yamaha NU1 hybrid piano with the real upright hammers etc. I swayed between this and the yamaha Clavinova 585 but an in-shop comparison and the desire for simplicity convinced me to get the NU1. I also tried the Kawai equivalent but wasn't happy with the sound.
So i'm incredibly happy with the NU1 and so today decided to try it with Pianoteq 5. Setup was a breeze of course and it sounds very good indeed.
I decided to make my own custom velocity curve but I wasn't happy with the result. The standard Pianoteq straight line seemed much better which of course it shouldn't so i'm going to try again at some point.
During the calibration Pianoteq reported that the NU1 doesn't give out note-off info (probably due to the way the sensors work) so I have no idea if that has any effect on the finished curve.
The D4 sounds and feels beautiful, the K2 not so much. The U4 upright was really great, possibly my favourite and i'll be buying the add on for that. The Model B and Bluethner were also really satisfying but not sure if they justify the purchase yet, for me at least.
The NU1 onboard piano sound based on the latest Yamaha CFX Concert Grand appears to have a lot more weight in the lower end compared to the Pianoteq models but this may be due to it being optimised for the speakers or the need for a better audio device from my computer as I was just using the headphone out. I'll be experimenting and A/B-ing some more later.
I've only ever used Pianoteq with a synth keyboard thus far so finally getting some weighted and hammer connected keys was fantastic. It really feels like i'm getting the dynamics of Pianoteq now and it really is amazing.