Why bring that up right now? Well, the key word here is control, and the YDP-144 isn’t really the best in this department. Yamaha has always been known for making quality, well-built instruments, and the YDP-144 continues that design trend. The Yamaha YDP-144 features the company’s standard GHS ( Graded Hammer Standard) keyboard, the same keyboard featured on the previous YDP-143. For example, Casio’s PX-870 includes some guiding indicators above the keys, which is a simple solution that manages to sidestep the problem of cumbersome controls.

The limited number of controls means that you’ll need to access many functions by using key combinations, sometimes involving the piano keys themselves. The third piano acoustic piano sound, is the Pop Grand Piano sound. This setting is great for all of you who love playing songs of the likes of Elton John and other pop artists that use piano heavily in their music. It has a slight jazzy vibe to it, and it’s a lot of fun. The speaker system on the other hand, is another big let down of the new YDP-144. Even though it is slightly more powerful than the YDP-143, it’s still not nearly good enough. The IAC is most noticeable when playing dynamic piano pieces that use a wide range of octaves. At a high intensity, the IAC serves as a compressor, ensuring that the overall volume is consistent throughout. Damper Resonance. Allows you to choose whether damper response simulation is on or off for the piano sounds.

The feel of the keys is what you would expect at this level of quality. The keys will feel lighter on the high end, and progressively heavier towards the lower end. This mimics the feeling of an acoustic piano’s keyboard very well.

As you can see, there are a total of 10 different sounds on this digital piano. As said, the number is not that impressive, but the quality surely is. Yamaha P-144 Key Action With the update to the YDP-line of instruments, Yamaha implemented their CFX sound sampling, which was previously a hallmark of the CLP-series digital pianos.You can record up to two parts per song. This is particularly helpful when you want to record individual left- or right-hand parts for practice. You can even turn off individual recorded parts using key combinations. As expected from digital pianos, you’re getting a full-size, 88-key keyboard, and this includes a pair of stereo speakers built into the chassis.