Yamaha REFACE CP Portable Electric Piano and Vintage Keyboard Sound Engine with 37 Mini-Keys

I held back on buying this for quite some time, wanting an electric piano like a Wurli or Rhodes, but not having the space for it, nor the available funds for expensive auctions. I had thought about going all DAW (Arturia and NI have great emulations as well as Logic X); I had thought about going with a higher end electric piano, but size is a big issue for me, as I only have a home studio and that's constrained to a small space in my apartment. This keyboard has the tones I wanted, in a physical device that fit my space. I know that in my DAW I can get the tones I wanted, but the form factor here makes this portable enough so I can sit away from my studio (say on my couch) and jam out. I am planning on taking this to work and playing when I need a break. It was easy to drop into the mix, it kind of cuts through the mix out of the box without much from the mixer or DAW. What took me by a pleasant surprise was how decent the speakers are. After hearing volcas and roland boutique speakers, I just assumed I'd need headphones (which this sounds quite gorgeous with btw) - the speaker sound is a bonus treat for the player. But for couch-surfing piano playing, the speakers do great. I think it'd be hard to hear them if you had a gig with other musicians and it'd be hard to hear if the person was in the back of a place... but it has flexible routing for i/o that makes it easy to adapt for the space you're playing in. The stomp-box style effects are good - although I think the drive could be a bit more crunchy. The wah only sounds good to me in the Clav setting. The tremolo was great, kind of giving me a bit of control over the attack. The chorus is lush, i prefer the phaser. Both the delays were above expectation. The reverb is nice, adding richness, but don't expect the best from the reverb. I'll probably stick a reverb pedal at the tail of this to get a really rich shimmer. The CP's got a good high and low tone, but i'd keep the tone set more to the middle, where it really sings. In my "sea" of analog and digital synths, drum and groove boxes. The keys are small, like any mini keyboard, and work as a midi controller. but vice versa the minijack midi has a splitter, so you can also hook in your midi controller of choice if you have stubby fingers or the muscle memory that makes using this harder. Overall - i'd go with it as is. That's what made me buy it - out of the box, with nothing added just by itself - it is a great electric piano.

I love, love, love this keyboard! The cool factor is off the charts and I like gear that "just works" without a lot of fuss or a steep learning curve. (I have wanted the Teenage Engineering OP-1 since it first came out, but I'm unwilling to put the time in to learn.) From the start, I noticed how refined and well-made the CP is. You might think it's a toy or a cheap kids' keyboard from a distance. Not so. It feels like it has heft and substance. The bottom line is this: you just want to PLAY this thing. I've been playing piano on and off for 50 years and since I got my CP I can't wait to pick it up, throw it on my lap, and play. It's also *really* nice to have onboard effects that I will use, with knobs and switches that feel familiar. While the built-in speakers are convenient and a must-have when you have immediate inspiration or are trying to figure out a song you're listening to, the CP sounds great on headphones and even better through a decent amp. I tested mine through a capable but small monitor, then through my '65 Princeton Reverb,,, and it sounds incredible. The small keys might be an issue for some people. I consider myself an intermediate piano/keyboard player and I had no problem adjusting to the key size. Frankly, I'm faster on this thing for leads than I am on my full-size Yamaha digital piano. To be fair, in college, I had a little Casio keyboard that I'd mess around with when I couldn't get a practice room. While that was years ago, maybe I'm just used to the tiny keys.

I've been playing piano for pretty much my whole life, and I really wanted to get something that a) is EXTREMELY portable and self-contained, and b) actually sounds good, and not like a toy. I landed on the Reface CP after watching some videos of it in action. First off, no, it probably doesn't NEED to cost $450, I can't deny that no matter how much I love it. But I will say, I don't regret buying it at all. This thing is just FUN. I have several other really nice electronic instruments that unfortunately have not been getting nearly as much use lately as this thing. I feel like sometimes, with all the endless options and menu-diving, I'll feel paralyzed by the choices available on some other instruments. I love how this thing kind of looks like something that was made 50 years ago. No screens, just a bunch of old-fashioned looking knobs and switches. And for something with relatively limited options, the variety of sounds you can get out of this is impressive, I love playing with all the different effects. Everyone I've shown it to has been likewise impressed at how professional it sounds, at such a tiny size. Plus, these are some of the most classic keyboard sounds of all time, I love being able to play things that sound almost exactly like some of my favorite 70s/80s recordings. I've always wanted an instrument I could carry around easily, now I don't have to be jealous of guitarists anymore lol. I can take it to the park, or a friend's house, or throw it in my car while I do my delivery work and use it to learn or practice songs in my down time. Yamaha crushed it with this thing, I wanna get the Reface YC as well someday.

Love it!! Great vintage EP tones, high quality construction, real-time tweaking with the effects. The mini keys are surprisingly easy to get used to. It sounds awesome except for the useless "Toy Piano", (WTF Yamaha?), "The Secret" acoustic grand piano more than makes up for it though. Also useable as a midi controller. Make sure you upgrade the latest firmware. v1.3 adds better midi control and the ability to transpose/change tuning.

I had recently moved back from Hawaii and had to sell my Nord Electro. This felt like a nice travel keyboard to have until I settled down. The Idea was to keep it for a while and use it to midi to a larger keyboard at some point. I've also owned the CS and loved the overall quality for the price. Here's what I found with the CP..... Pros : Pretty solid build quality overall and it never gave me a feeling that Yamaha cut corners. The slim keys aren't too bad to play and after a bit of getting used to it felt comfortable. I also never felt like they were going to break. Nice and robust. The velocity sensitivity added a beautiful dynamic to your playing like a piano would. Plenty of subtle nuances to add. The knobs and switches are all also solid and have a very positive feel when adjusted. The sound quality really stood out here. Nice accurate Rhodes, CP and even toy piano. I particularly liked the clavinet. Using the stereo outputs really brought out the dynamics of each keyboard. Also, the outputs allowed you to clearly hear all of the little sampled bits to the keyboard tones. The 128 note polyphony is more then any player will ever need. The effects are absolutely brilliant! Not a huge fan of modulation but the phaser had me especially with the Rhodes. Both of the delays are so usable and probably the best I've seen on any keyboard. Both will self-oscillate and give you a whole other spectrum of possibilities with creating soundscapes. The Reverb adds a nice flavor on the end of your signal. A little more of a springy sound then plate in my opinion. The onboard speakers are sub-par but still a nice addition. Cons : I only have two cons and one was the deal breaker for me.... The hidden piano turned out to be underwhelming for me. It seemed to be dark and a bit muted. Which was strange because after watching a few video's on youtube it sounded pretty accurate and lush. Maybe it was my set up but I don't think so. I'm a stickler for running solid gear. Dimarzio cables, Strymon power brick and multi-isolated power strips. This is the breaker...the price. Its hard to find a new one for under $350 and in my opinion thats just too much. Looking at it rationally for another $300 you could buy a decent 88 key like a Korg D1 or for that matter a used Nord Electro 2 or 3. Yes, its highly portable but still, for me its not enough to warrant the price. Some made the point of comparing the price on the Yamaha MX49 which I've also owned. Great keyboard and I've bought them for $275 on Amazon Warehouse. No, the effects aren't nearly as good as the CP's but they are highly creative keyboard. And at 49 keys fairly portable. All in all, a brilliant little board that will satisfy plenty of people, just not me ;)

Yamaha has proven time and again that they know keyboards. If you love the classic electric piano sounds of the seventies and eighties, and don't mind the smaller-than-standard keybed, this is a no brainer. It's portable, affordable, has built-in fx, and sounds great.

A lot of reviews have shown the versatility of this keyboard, and how well it emulates the electric keyboards of the 70s. It's exactly what I've wanted for decades in a small package with MIDI capability. It's discontinued, so it's hard to acquire a new one outside Japan - lucky for me this one was available 'used' although it seems to be barely open box. All the packaging and accessories were there and the keyboard itself was immaculate. Credit to the seller for a fair price and excellent condition. Thanks!

I love vintage '70s electric piano sounds, and this keyboard ticks all the boxes. Honestly I don't care for the newer Rhodes sound, but the original Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Clavinet and CP-80 sounds are all excellent and I've already used them in several recordings. The on-board effects are also excellent, and I really appreciate the simplicity of the controls. It's easy to know what you're getting and home in on a great sound. I could see criticizing the small keys, if you're used to full-sized ones. But for me they're fine — I'm used to using mini-key MIDI controller keyboards. It's nice to have 3 full octaves as well… impressive for a keyboard this small! So what's my one minor criticism? The "toy piano" sound might be very occasionally useful, but it's mostly a novelty. So why is it, then, that the acoustic piano sound is the "Easter egg" you can only access by turning the selector dial midway between two sounds and cycling the power? I suspect that the toy piano was actually supposed to be the Easter egg, but someone at Yamaha felt the acoustic piano sound wasn't quite perfect enough. I just wish these two sounds were swapped. It would make a lot more sense and make this keyboard even more useful. But regardless of that, I still love it!

El Reface CP es el mejor juguete que me he comprado en mucho tiempo. Si... solo son sonidos de pianos electrónicos de los 70... pero, ¿a quién le importa? Los sonidos suenan increible y los efectos le dan el empuje que les hace falta para hacerlo fantástico. El tamaño es el mismo de un microkorg, un poco más angosto, incluso las teclas son del mismo tamaño, la diferencia está en el peso o touch. Se siente mucho mejor, como si fuera un verdadero piano. Aun no lo pruebo con un pedal de sustain, pero así como está me parece que funciona muy bien y no lo necesito, pues compenso con el reverb o el chorus. También debo aclarar que lo utilizo para hacer acordes y muy poca melodía (ya ha pasado más de un mes y lo ocupo más para hacer melodías, vaya que si es un todo terreno). El toy piano suena tan bonito, espero no abusar de él demasiado. Lo ocupo para grabar en live y utilizo una interfaz us-1800 de tascam y complemento los sonidos con un maschine 2. Me gusta la textura del material negro, le problema es que se ensucia muy fácil y también se le hacen rayones, pero bueno... eseya ea problema mío.

Amazing sounds, no weighted keys but that’s nbd

Esta perfecto. El producto es nuevo Y suena increíble. Lo recomiendo. Muy satisfecho

I have received my order quickly and everything was ok. The sounds are excellent and nice when monitoring. It is not a real Rhodes but i have so much fun with it. The manual with instructions doesn't have many details, it includes some suggested presets, these are basic but great. I prefer to play with an external keyboard midi controller because the notes on the Reface CP are too small. I don't like to use plugins (virtual keyboards), for me it's more fast and simple to play and record with direct input-ouput. For recording i use a Tascam DP-24 SD, super. I'm satisfied of my purchase.

One of my favourite instruments I own. Batteries run out quickly so I recommend the wall adapter. For longer lasting portable power I recommend an external battery with PD and a third party power plug adapter.