Yamaha NP11 Piagerro Review

This review is written by a professional musician, sound designer and synth programmer - other types of users may have different perspectives - as always, these are just opinions - so YMMV.  :-)

The Yamaha NP11 Piagerro is a 61 note electronic keyboard with built in sounds targeted at the home user market, and sold in places like Best Buy.  It gained my attention after being mentioned in a music discussion forum as a possible inexpensive keyboard with a usable synthesizer action (for the money).  
I thought I would try it out.

The velocity sensitive keyboard action isn't bad at all for a keyboard in this price range - it’s not weighted, semi-weighted or piano like in any way, but more of a true synthesizer action which some players may actually prefer.  The keybed isn’t as deep as a piano adding to the synth feel.  The keys do not have sharp edges which is a bonus.  Glissandos are a breeze - though when playing in a piano-like style it’s easy for fingers to slip off of the notes.  It's slightly springy, but not disruptive to the point of un-usability like most low end consumer keyboards.  You can guess that they use the same springs on black keys as the whites.  Shorter = less leverage on those making them slightly more resistant and it's noticeable.  There is a choice of 4 velocity curves to suit a small range of different kinds of “touch”.

One big bummer is no pitch or mod wheels or aftertouch.  Also - strangely, there doesn't seem to be a fast way to switch octaves*, hitting any notes below C1 from the default keyboard setup is hidden.  They only clearly document transpose by +/-6 semitones.   BUT I found a way to do octaves through a  button+key press - even though after inquiring with tech support, they told me it couldn’t be done.  HA!  Though if you play in Dual Mode (2 sounds at once), it doesn’t work.  And even though it's primarily a "piano", you will get no sustain pedal from Yamaha in the box.  In fact they originally didn't even include a power supply - "power supply not included" touts the box - but you can tell this went over like a turd in a punchbowl, so now there's a sticker on the box "Free Bonus - power supply included!"  ha ha  In yet another strange move - the box also say absolutely NOTHING about back panel connectors and in particular, nothing about any MIDI at all.  It's not in the online information either.  MIDI was mentioned in an online forum discussion I read before buying the NP11, otherwise it's only found deep in the manual...  There is MIDI I/O only - no THRU and no MIDI implementation chart, but looks like xmit on only 1 channel (assignable) though receive is not clear.  It's assignable to All, 1-16, or 1+2.  Does this mean you can access two programs simultaneously on two different channels?  No clue - but my guess is probably not.  Maybe?  There isn't even a list of MIDI Program Numbers - probably because there are so few.

To offset the above missing items, there are built in face up speakers on the ends of the keyboard, a music stand and it can run on batteries so you can jam out at the beach.  Yes, so it's a little consumer-like, but the action is a step above the pure junk consumer stuff.  The back panel is simple - power adapter in, 1/4” TRS audio out (line level or phones) MIDI I/O, sustain pedal in.  It also has a smart saver Auto-Power Down function for when it’s left alone…it can be disabled.

Then there's the internal sounds - 10 in total, but really only 6 instruments - half of which may be useless to most players.  Some sounds can be combined in “Dual” mode, but not all.  They are nothing to write home about, but for the target audience, well…?

Piano 1/2 - These two variations use the same samples.  One with effects and EQ and one that sounds completely raw.  The transients sound nice but get quickly bright and piercing.  There appears to be a velocity switch in there as well that gets even brighter, but where it really falls apart is with sustained notes or chords.  The loops aren’t great in the samples, and decay isn't natural so it’s a little “buzzy” sounding and organ like combining those two things together.

E. Piano 1/2 - One dark and one bright.  Both have velocity switches.  The dark one is the best sound on the instrument in my opinion, maybe the only one really useable for a pro musician.  You can really have fun playing this sound - and spank the keyboard to get some of that old Wurli/Rhodes feel.  The bright one is more FM-like and loses it’s bright transient right in the middle of the keyboard, then again in all the upper octaves.  Strange.

Pipe Organ 1/2 - 2 stops - I’ll pass on comments other than they are not terrible sounding, but not something I would ever use.  Church market maybe?

Vibes - This only sounds decent in about the center of the keyboard.  Anything too low or too high is rolled off to be much quieter - for a good reason - pretty bad and no excuse as vibes are simple to create samples for.

Strings - Very synthy - warm and soft sounding.  A good secondary pad sound - only good up to the middle octaves though, the loops aren’t good and it ends up sound awful higher up - very chipmunk like.  YIKES!

Harpsichord 1/2 - The Addams Family would be happy but I’m not sure who else on earth uses these sounds?  The second one is the same as the first, just with an added upper octave harmonic.  #1 most useless award.

Effects & Metronome - There are built in effects to help the instrument along.  With some button +key presses one can change the effect for a few variations.  Room, Hall 1/2 and Stage are offered with a possibility of 0-10 dry/wet setting.  The effects are pretty decent sounding.  The internal metronome is also handy for students.

In the $150 range the NP11 is fairly nice for limited uses and possibly better than anything else on the consumer market at that price point.  The playability of the keyboard action is it’s strong suit - though it does not have many useable sounds, and is hindered badly by the fact it’s missing any sort of real MIDI controller features or functions.  So the one good thing is countered by two, not so good things.

I tried the keyboard only (without sounds) combined with a Kurzweil MicroPiano module to see if it was worth keeping around - but couldn't get past the lack or pitch/mod wheels and aftertouch for use as a controller - so it was returned to the store.  If the NP11's key action assembly ever came out in a full function MIDI controller version near the same price point, it could be a real winner.  


Equally or alternatively, if they wanted to keep it simple and just improve the quantity and quality of the internal sounds - that could also make this a much more compelling purchase.  As it stands, I would have to give it a 7 out of 10.


*Update - 


By popular demand - the instructions to change octave are as follows -

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