Yamaha YDP-161 Arius Digital Piano with Matching Bench

Unlike a real acoustic piano, the Yamaha Arius YDP-161 boasts some very useful features that enhance your overall playing experience. Onboard are 10 different voices. A generous 128-note polyphony ensures you’ll never run out of notes, even during long sustained exercises up and down the keys, and especially useful when layering 2 sounds simultaneously.

Reaching new heights of realism, the 88 weighted, full-size hammer action keys of the Arius YDP-161 have a heavier touch towards the bottom notes and a lighter touch as you climb up the octaves, just like a real acoustic piano. You can adjust the overall touch by easily selecting the hard, medium or soft setting button to match your playing style or finger strength. Turn off sensitivity for a fixed response setting, ideal when playing the organ. Tempo, transposition and tuning functions are easily accessible from the top panel.

The minds over at Yamaha achieve the Arius YDP-161’s authentic piano sound by multi-sampling each key of a real Yamaha grand piano. As the player strikes a key, it’s digitally recorded and then repeated at different strengths, from pianissimo to fortissimo. Each recording is allocated to the proper keys resulting in a very realistic, authentic playing experience.

Also adding to the authentic playing experience is the 3 pedals built in to the cabinet. Just as on an acoustic piano, Damper, Sostenuto and Soft, as well as the Half-Damper effect are onboard, giving you nuanced, expressive control over the sustained sound. High quality built-in reverb further enhances the sound and offers 4 different flavors. A built-in, 2-track recorder allows you to record a backing track, and then solo over it. You can change tempo or voices even after you've recorded your performance. A built-in metronome helps you stay in perfect time.

Pre-programmed into the Yamaha YDP-161 is a collection of 50 different piano songs. These recordings were chosen for their beauty as well as their functionality. Many of the songs are classic piano pieces, so if you’re taking lessons you can listen to them for reference or just hit play and serve dinner as you and your guests enjoy the stellar sound coming from your piano. The rich sound of the Arius is made possible by 2 x 20 watt amplifiers driving a pair of 4.5 x 2.5 full-range speakers. There are also 2 headphone jacks for private listening. There are MIDI I/O ports around the back enabling hookup to an additional tone generator or to drive the sounds of the Arius from your computer software.

The Arius cabinet sports a rich, dark rosewood finish and has a built-in sliding keyboard cover. A sturdy, well-constructed piano bench (BC-100) is included as is a songbook, “50 greats for the Piano”. It’s hammer-time!