Yamaha has made yet another ‘grand’ instrument that is heavy on features, has the most beautiful sound, and is made of the best materials any company in the music industry has at their disposal.
This work of art is relied upon by the most iconic and talented pianists all around the world today.
This Yamaha Arius YDP-184 Digital Piano review will give you all the information you need to fully appreciate the beauty and functionality of this product.
If you want the best digital piano, then you’ll be glad to know that the Arius Series by Yamaha is well within that category.
Musicians and aspiring pianists need the best Yamaha digital piano reviews to research. This YDP-184 review will give you everything you need to discover all the benefits of having such an incredible instrument while giving you the necessary knowledge to make a well-informed decision to spend your hard-earned money.
Contents
The Yamaha Brand
This digital piano is made from one of the best brands in the piano industry, so understanding where the product is coming from is very important.
Everyone wants to know that their product is backed by a company that requires excellence at every turn.
Yamaha makes their products for professionals, even their beginner level digital piano and keyboard models are so well made, that they can grow with the musician.
Studios rely on the Yamaha brand for their acoustic piano sound, which has no equal, and this digital piano has that same sound embedded into it.
Rest assured, when you buy a Yamaha, you are buying the best on the market.
Design and Footprint
Most people buy the Arius series from Yamaha because they want that distinctive acoustic piano sound in a more compact form.
The piano is no bigger than a wall piano, but has bigger sound than a grand piano, which is nice for homes, studios, churches, and live shows.
Honestly, virtually every situation you find yourself in where you need the best piano is always going to end up with needing this piano. That is the best feature.
Voices and Sound
This piano has many different voices, but the CFX Premium Grand Piano voice is the main acoustic piano sound that makes this product incredible.
The voice was captured by the Yamaha CFIIIS Concert Grand Piano, which has been played by the world’s top pianists at the most prestigious concerts played all around the world.
So, the sound of this product is a digitally enhanced version of one of the best pianos ever made.
The sound of the grand piano is even further enhanced digitally with Yamaha’s “Virtual Resonance Modeling”, which is how they recorded every single note from two separate microphones to capture the sounds at various levels.
All these sounds were then digitally enhanced that you hear with every single hit of the keys.
The headphone experience is great to use. A headphone jack is conveniently located under the LCD screen.
Yamaha saw fit to enhance the sound of the headphone feature by inserting their “Stereophonic Optimizer”, which further enhances the sound and stereo abilities which give the user the best sound of the piano that is possible.
The enhancements create a spacial sound quality akin to what is heard at a high-quality studio.
Playability
The keys are synthetic ivory and are designed with what Yamaha calls “Graded Hammer 3 Action”, or GH3, which gives the player the best tactile response that is more of what a grand piano would play like, instead of the usual ‘organ’ feel of pianos designed similar to this one.
The key surface is even made with materials to help with absorbing moisture from fingers to prevent slipping notes. Every angle was worked in the making of this piano.
LCD Screen
A large LCD screen sits to the left of the keys, with different buttons and knobs to easily navigate through all the functions and features of the piano in real time, if necessary.
A player can navigate through 24 different voices, various rhythm patterns, and other tempo, metronome, and recording features.
Players can listen with headphones that further enhance the sound quality, the built-in speakers that focus on note and chord sharpness and tonal quality, or by hooking up through speakers and a studio set up with any accessory, mixer, and computer with compatible software.
Extra-Realistic Pedal Function
The pedals of the piano are as follows, from left to right:
- Half-Blow Pedal (Or soft pedal / Una Corda Pedal) – This pedal is common on all grand and upright pianos. The pedal moves the hammers forward on an acoustic piano, which give the pedal the name. The sound is then effectively softened in every key played.
- Sostenuto Pedal – While this pedal’s name actually means Sustaining in Italian, the pedal actually does a bit of a different job than its counterpart to the right of the middle, which is actually the sustain pedal.
- Sustain Pedal – This pedal is what expert pianists call ‘the soul of the piano’, because of the necessity of the function. This pedal allows players to sustain individual notes while the pedal is depressed, and also allows the sustaining of subsequent notes while depressing the pedal.
The pedals function just like a normal acoustic piano. The pedal sounds and functions were taken from the same piano used to record all the sounds during the sounds creating process in the making of this product.
Built-In Recording Features
Along with many other features, the piano gives the player the ability to record their sessions using only the piano.
The player can use the built-in recording feature and easily play the session back, pause it, rewind it, and even play over it with other sounds and features.
Two tracks can be recorded at the same time, so each hand can have their own track if the user prefers, which makes track playbacks and re-recording super easy.
What Comes with It?
The Yamaha YDP-184 Arius Series piano is bought as a package that includes a padded leather bench, a power supply, music stand, and a book of sheet music with all the classics in it.
Connectivity
This piano easily connects via USB to any iOS or Android device, so you can use all the wonderful features and apps the world has to offer.
Also, keep all your sheet music in a digital form so you don’t have to store physical copies of all the books, saving space and money.
Use the 1/4″ audio jack to hook up to headphones, which is honestly the best way to hear the incredible sounds of the Yamaha YDP-184 Arius Series digital piano.
Or, if you wish to go loud, you can easily use the stereo inputs to hook up to speakers, mixers, or computers or other pathways that support such features.
Final Thoughts
Even if all the digital features were omitted, the Yamaha Arius YDP-184 digital piano would still be comfortably sitting at the top of the piano making industry.
Everything the piano has is just a bonus. The sound quality is truly unmatched.
If you are a beginner wishing to learn, having the best digital piano will give you the best experience so you keep playing.
Experts use this piano for live concerts, studio recording, practicing, and playing along with their favorite songs, creating new songs, and everything else. This piano can do it all.
For the price, there just isn’t another piano that can even come close to what the Yamaha YDP-184 Arius Series digital piano can do.