This will be an album of 10 quiet, introspective, reverent standard hymns arranged on solo piano. Pic related below (you can also see plans for Acoustic Hymns Vol. 3!).
There are already three tracks done and you can see them on SoundCloud (and also track my progress):
Hey. I thought I might tell you what I’m working on these days. Pic below related.
Emmanuel (God with Us) – this will be an album of 10 quiet, introspective, reverent Advent hymns arranged on solo piano.
There are already three tracks done and you can see them on SoundCloud (and also track my progress):
Some interesting tidbits of our adventures along the way…as we attempt to record a solo piano album (Into the Green) in the forest of Idaho.
Now that I have released Into the Green, Londonderry Aire, and Cabin Medley, I feel I can comment on the wonderful keyboard that allowed me to create those recordings: the Yamaha CP88.
First I should point out that I played the CP88 at Ted Brown’s in Kennewick, WA on an almost daily basis when deciding whether to purchase it. I’m sure they grew tired of seeing me, but I felt like I REALLY had to get a feel for what this keyboard could do for me and my music.
Once I got this puppy home and into my cramped music studio/office, I then began to play it probably 2-3 hours PER DAY for many many weeks (I would guess maybe 4-6 months of solid playing). I went through ALL the grand piano presets and I settled on 4 of them that I liked:
All the while I was pounding on this thing during the 4-6 months, I was playing every possibly type of solo piano music you can think of in an attempt to see how it handled various “stuff”. I also basically finished writing and arranging the tunes on Into the Green during this time. I ALSO played many many Christian hymns during this time and nailed down some arrangements that will be released soon.
It’s funny, at one point I was going to record FOUR different versions of the entire album Into the Green, one for each of the grand piano types shown above. But when I started actual recording, I quickly realized that I do not have enough time nor patience for this monumental task. So I chose the Hamburg (Steinway) preset for Into the Green, Londonderry Aire, and Cabin Medley. I maaaay revisit some of these tunes with the other 3 grand pianos if I have time. We shall see.
RECORDING:
I typically record the CP88 straight into the MacBook Pro into Logic Pro X via USB cable (which captures MIDI and stereo Audio at 24-bit/48Hz). I use slight compression on the master track (typically 2db with 20ms response time and I get the overall audio up to -0.2 db (in other words, juuuuust before 0).
I use NO on-board effects of the CP88 except the overall Reverb which I have set at Depth: 20/Time: 40. I also typically have Damper Resonance ON.
Therefore, dear reader, you are hearing the CP88 in its truest form with a minimum of studio magic and trickery.
I believe the songs recorded so far show the incredible depth, realism, and overall playability of the Yamaha CP88. Great job Yamaha engineers! You have given us a keyboard that we can use to express our gifts.
I also absolutely LOVE the action of the CP88. It is somewhere between the XF-8 and the DGX-640 (or the various Mo-DX keyboards). The Yamaha GHS (Graded Hammer Standard) keybed (used on the Mo-DX and DGX-640) is indeed very stiff and SIMILAR to a grand piano, HOWEVER, in my experience, it DOES NOT have the triple-strike capability nor the same escapement as the keybed on the CP88. Therefore you cannot get really fast notes to work very well on the GHS.
The CP88, on the other hand, has the Natural Wood – Graded Hammer (NW-GH) keybed, which, in my opinion, is simply their best keybed yet for solo piano realism. It DOES have triple-strike capability as well as good escapement and therefore you can really shred on fast passages. Also, I believe the NW-GH keybed, coupled with brilliant programming of the samples, gives you the capability to play extremely softly, much like you could with a real grand piano.
That reminds me: of all the examples I managed to listen to out on YouTube before I purchased the CP88, none of them used as much of the keybed (from lowest A to top-most C) nor did they show the dynamic range as much as my recordings. There are some songs where I play single notes one at a time (I believe a grand piano should be strong enough for A SINGLE NOTE to stand on its own), while other songs have huge giant chords that use much of the keyboard. I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you were looking for a REAL EXHAUSTIVE exercise of the CP88, my recordings should give you plenty to listen to. You can hear the softness of single notes (the early section of Londonderry Aire) as well as multiple notes played VERY softly (the ending to “Have You Heard the News (Carol’s Song)” all the way up to smashing giant riffs from the bottom of the keyboard to the top on “Conversion Reprise” (last song on Cabin Medley). Hopefully, at least for the Hamburg (Steinway) preset, you have a very large set of music to listen to which will give you a REALLY good idea of what the CP88 is capable of.
Yamaha also includes half-pedaling which, briefly, simply means that you can hit a chord or note and hold the sustain pedal down and then quickly release the sustain pedal and then quickly hold the sustain pedal down again and the sound WILL NOT go completely away…this is much like a true grand piano. I have examples of that on several songs on Into the Green (Forge Ahead at the end of the song as well as The Lull and possibly Freedom Cry).
I will try to create a YouTube video that shows this feature.
Finally: Yamaha included Damper Resonance and it can be turned ON or OFF. After playing the 4 grand pianos listed above for many MANY hours over many MANY months, and experimenting with Damper Resonance being either ON or OFF, it is my humble and semi-professional opinion that overall it sounds better with Damper Resonance ON than OFF. Yes, it colors the overall sound, but I believe Yamaha made this effect subtle enough that it doesn’t “ruin” the sound at all, I believe it enhances the sound in a good way.
Finally, I am a software developer by trade, which basically means I’m a nerd and I’m completely unafraid of delving into the depths of many different programming languages, operating systems, and all that stuff. Therefore, keyboards and synthesizers and software and plug-ins and all those things do not scare me and I can usually figure them out.
THAT SAID: if you are an older person and/or a person that does NOT like delving into the depths of a keyboard to figure things out, and you want a SIMPLE interface with SIMPLE buttons that do SIMPLE things: I have great news: the CP88 is FOR YOU! Yes YOU! You can literally take the CP88 out of the box, plunk it on your keyboard stand, plug in some headphones or in-ears, turn it on AND START MAKING BEAUTIFUL MUSIC. You can easily turn the other “sections” of the keyboard OFF (the electric piano section and the additional sounds section), simply have the Grand Piano section ON, leave all effects OFF (except maybe leave the overall Reverb on) and begin making music. It’s funny, even though I’m a techno-nerd (heck, I understood the deep mystery of the Yamaha XF-8 as well as the Tyros 5), I actually breathe a HUGE sigh of relief when I sit at the CP88 because IT IS SO SIMPLE TO USE!
So yeah…if you’re looking for a keyboard that will allow you to play gorgeous and nuanced solo piano, out of ALL of Yamaha’s keyboards, my personal opinion is that the CP88 is FOR YOU.
RUN, don’t walk to your nearest music store and give it a try, preferably with headphones or in-ears on and you will begin to understand all the blather I have belched out above.
I will try to create a YouTube video some day where I walk through all of what I have talked about above so that fellow grand piano enthusiasts can get a good picture of the features, sound, playability and other aspects of this wonderful CP88 keyboard. For now, simply listen to what I have already recorded and read my comments and you should have a good idea of what this keyboard is capable of.
Until next time,
Kevin B. Selby
Hey…it’s me again (“Hi, me!”).
First, check out the Cabin Medley on SoundCloud (g’head…I’ll wait), then come back and read about it.
YouTube Video:
So on that fateful day, Thursday, October 6th, 2022, my wife and I had spent 5 weekends trying to record Into the Green (fairly unsuccessfully) and it was late afternoon heading into evening. We actually WERE NOT planning on knocking out Into the Green that particular day.
We pounded out Londonderry Aire (see this post), as a test of the systems (cameras, laptop, etc.) and my hands, heart, and spirit were feeling pretty good, so we knocked out what I call the “Cabin Medley” which is shown above.
Let’s see…I’ll have to go back a-ways in this story to tell you how all this crazy stuff came together. Hmmm…you have enough time to listen to me blather? Yes? Good!
So sometime after we sold our dream house and left the so-called American dream behind and moved into an apartment, I was blessed with the purchase of the Yamaha CP88, a truly amazing and fantastic machine. I have literally waited all my life for something like this. I remember pestering the poor folks at Ted Brown Music in Kennewick by coming in multiple days in a row and pounding the DICKENS out of the CP88 they had on display (which I ended up buying).
During the first week I had the CP88, I began to explore all of the grand pianos hidden inside it. Many keyboard players will tell you that they have many “medleys” of songs they play to warm up, or to test out new keyboards(!) and for other purposes. As I spent maybe 1-2 hours per day playing this fantastic instrument, I began to develop a plan and vision for how I might “tell the story” of this great machine to the world. The first song that shows off the CP88 was Londonderry Aire. I then put together a medley of songs from At My Father’s Cabin and between these two performances, I then began playing them against every single grand piano in the CP88. I soon narrowed down my favorites to FOUR grand pianos (the Hamburg, the Imperial, the S700, and the CFX). I then hatched a plan that still has not come to fruition: why not play Londonderry Aire and Cabin Medley on ALL FOUR of these grand pianos and record them all? I mean WHY NOT?! So I began practicing 1-2 hours per day (sometimes more!) playing these two songs on those 4 grand pianos over and over and over AND OVER. Oh…I should mention that I hatched this plan to not only someday use them to showcase the CP88, but ALSO so that I could fully understand every possible nuance of those 4 grand pianos. While this approach worked, (and believe me, I know those 4 grand pianos very intimately at this point, which is what I was after), when it came time to record the songs, even though the plan was to record them on all 4 pianos, the limitations of time led me to simply pick the Hamburg (Steinway) and record just on that particular grand piano. I *may* record these two songs on the other 3 grand pianos some day and post them on SoundCloud…we shall see.
Okay…so back to the story at hand: we knocked out Londonderry Aire and I was feeling good! So we knocked out Cabin Medley as well. Hmmm…I was STILL feeling good (heart, mind, spirit, and especially my HANDS were feeling great). Sooooo…with not much daylight left, we threw all caution to the wind and simply knocked out Into the Green. How cool is that?! Most of the tunes were one-takes. How cool is THAT (fellow musicians are vigorously nodding their heads in agreement!).
Moral of the story: if you’re feeling good and in the moment, you might as well knock out an entire album and getter done. So we did! It’s funny to me how much time and effort went into the previous FIVE weekends (which resulted in NO album done) and then when the time was right, about 2 hours was all it took to knock out Londonderry Aire, Cabin Medley, and the entire Into the Green album. Life is weird man.
By the by: there were various reasons the previous 5 weekends didn’t work out for Into the Green:
So there ya go…waaaaay more detail than you wanted, but now you know more about what it took to do all this.
Until next time,
Kevin B. Selby
Hey folks! I have uploaded a recording of Londonderry Aire to SoundCloud.
This was more of a test than anything. We had all the equipment setup and I’ve always loved this song, so we knocked it out and the above is the result.
This was recorded in the forest of Idaho on a Yamaha CP88 using the Hamburg (Steinway) preset. The only effects were the on-board Reverb and a little compression/mastering in Logic Pro X on the MacBook Pro. You are hearing the CP88 in all its glory (great keyboard folks…I’m in love!).
Funny story: a looooong time ago, when the band Take 6 was just becoming famous, they had a concert at College Place, WA. We somehow showed up late and the ushers escorted us RIGHT TO THE FRONT ROW. Yeah…that was intense! Anyway…one of the Take 6 band members was an amazing piano player and he knocked out an arrangement of Londonderry Aire that blew my mind (his is much better than mine!). I was inspired from that and came up with my own arrangement.
YouTube video to follow (in fact, I’m going to dip my toes in Final Cut Pro here in a minute and see if I can figure out how to mix down 3 cameras and the audio. We shall see!
YouTube video:
I’m very happy to announce that Into the Green has been released to SoundCloud.
See the Into the Green page for details.
It was released as “full album” .wav’s on SoundCloud so that you basically listen to the entire album as a single track.
I will be uploading the individual tracks to CD Baby for further distribution to Apple Music, Amazon, etc., in the coming weeks.
We will then embark on mixing down all the video we shot (3 cameras!) up in the forest of central Idaho and uploading to YouTube. That should be fun!
Sincerely,
Kevin B. Selby
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén