Wifi vs smart pianist

[Nico_Burgundy]

Hello everyone,
I just received my CVP-909GP a couple of weeks ago, and I read it could connect to a tablet to help with piano lessons for my 3 kids.
So far I bought a tablet compatible with the piano (pretty much all samsung galaxy tab seem legit).
The thing is when I am launching the app smartpianist on the tablet it tries to connect to the piano in a way I can't understand.
It is proposing me to connect with wifi, but tells me to buy a wifi key to connect in the piano.
I paid good money for this thing, and it tries to politely telling me it does not have any wifi capability on its own to talk to a tablet.
Do I understand correctly, and by any chance does anyone here knows how to make sure the two pieces of equipements are talking to each others ?
Thank you all
Nico

[Amwilburn]

The CVP909 does *not* come with wifi (in fact only the CVP600 and 700 series did); it's because the 809 and 909 include bluetooth, not wifi. (while the 600 and 700 series had no bluetooth)

But (the 809 at least) only includes bluetooth audio, not midi. Since the 809 and 909 are identical in most respects, I believe the 909 is also only bluetooth audio; which doesn't help for app connections. You need to either get the UDWL01 wifi adapter for the CVP *or* just use a cable.


Believe me, I'd rather have bluetooth and have to add wifi, than have wifi included with no option for bluetooth! (which is what the 800/900 series do)

Your salesperson should've explained all of this? Unless you bought it online?

Mark

[pjd]

Hi --

Yeah... Yamaha is kind of inconsistent about supplying the UD-WL01 wireless LAN adapter.

In the USA, my CSP-170 shipped with the UD-WL01 wireless LAN adapter included. However, I noticed that the Yamaha USA site has a promotion: CVP-800 & CVP-900 Series Wireless LAN Adapter Rebate.

I guess enough people got burned that Yamaha decided to offer a rebate in the USA. I agree -- it's kinda chintzy to sell someone a very expensive CVP and not kick in the Wireless LAN Adapter.

https://usa.yamaha.com/promotions/CVP800Series2020Rebate/index.html

If Nico is outside the USA, then maybe their Yamaha regional office has a similar promotion? I hope so.

All the best -- pj

[Amwilburn]

CSP170 *always* came with the UDWL01, because it has no bluetooth. All CSP100 series did.

Not surprisingly, the CSP200 series don't include a UDWL01, because they include bluetooth (and I believe that's both midi and audio) so there's no need to include one anymore.

Did you know that the Tyros 5's all came with the UDWL01 as well, while the Genos just had built in wifi (good decision, but they *still* didn't include bluetooth!)

Mark

[Nico_Burgundy]

Hello,

Thank you both PJ and Mark, your help was super helpful, see update section down below.

To give a little bit more background behind the purchase, yes I did buy the piano online from Yamaha Europe, as no retailer around here (France, Burgundy) had any in their inventory in the first place.
Actually, I was looking for a used CVP709GP/809GP but there were none on the second hand market in the country, thus I ended up purchasing a CVP-909GP.
To my understanding, the one and only difference between the 800 and 900 series is the "follow the lights" colors that are white/blue with the latest version, to help colorblind people.

UPDATE: So I went for the cheapest option, (thanks again Mark) and purchased an USB B to USB C cable on Amazon to connect the tablet.
It does work flawlessly with both flowkey and smartpianist, mission accomplished thanks to you guys!

Still, I'll activate plan B from PJ, and ask if I can get a rebate on the wifi dongle from Yamaha Europe, leveraging on the USA rebate.
Why? In fact, I do not like:
i) the Christmas tree effect on the piano with running wires.
ii) with the usb C port being on the tablet side, therefore the tablet can only be used in landscape format, which is not ideal imho to read scores
iii) unfortunately, once connected the samsung design places the tablet upside/down, (volume+start buttons at the bottom and can't be directly accessed without lifting the tablet). Or I need a longer wire, looping back to point i)

What I still do not understand: Smartpianist cannot access the USB Stick inserted near the keyboard in the CVP, so I'll have to copy/paste the midi on the tab for the kids to practice, no big deal, but that would have been a nice to have.

So, definitely thank you everyone, I'll come back to you if I can get Yamaha to finance the wifi thingamajig.

Nico

[Amwilburn]

Ah, I can explain that too; the port on the left underneath the piano is specifically for the UDWL01!

Best of luck with the free wifi; I can tell you we're running no such offer here in Canada (but, frankly, as a dealer, if a customer asked for one on a 909 I'd just include it myself, especially ifyou're using android, as you said the tablet doesn't sit correctly in some situations). Ironically, they added the ability for Smartpianist to sit in any orientation, so I finally can use my samsung phone to demo Smart Pianist to customers.

That is not the only difference between 809 & 909, but the other differences are also just as minor.
-Blue and white instead of red and green led's.
-the CFX has *very* heavy VRM on it on the 909, it's actually cleaner sounding on the 809 (but unless you have them side by side, it's almost impossible to notice). The bosendorfer, on the other hand, sounds *better* with the heavier VRM, so 6 of 1, half a dozen of the other.
-this is the biggie: the 909 has a much nicer half pedal mecahnism; the 809 used a spring so that the further you depressed, the more tension you'd feel, but the 909 has a nice pocket.

That's it. Even the registrations are fully compatible back and forth.

Ah, c'est dommage, il ne rien de magazin grand a vorte ville! (ah that's too bad, no large stores near you for you to try the 909)

Mark

[Nico_Burgundy]

Hello all,
Thanks Mark for the details about the 909 features, i did NOT know that. In fact, it is true the 909 pedals really feel like my other accoustic piano, I thought Yamaha mastered this feature years ago. Congrats on your French btw

About getting a free wifi dongle, well I realized Yamaha was offering a €250 discount to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Clavinova series when I purchased mine, so my feelings would not be hurt if the discount on the wifi dongle would not come on top.

In the meantime, I am still trying to get rid of this USB wire.
Thus, I purchased a second-hand "Yamaha MDBT01 Adaptateur MIDI Bluetooth sans fil - noir" (link: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B01AXSYSLU?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1)  from Amazon with a really nice discount attached to it.

Feedbacks when the midi bluetooth adaptor is plugged in the piano ports:
Pros:
i) It does work with smartpianist and flowkey.
ii) Wire is obviously gone, piano looks neat.
iii) kids can now adjust tablet volume and manipulate the tablet without me worrying about them damaging USB B or USB C ports from aforementioned piano/tablet.
iv) The tablet got itself a fully armored case upgrade to survive point iii) and increase its own life expectancy.


Cons:
i) Displaying (downloading) scores between piano and tablet is REALLY long in Smartpianist.
ii) This one i cannot fathom : Flowkey does not detect keys pressed on the piano keyboard when the headset is plugged in the piano (no sound from piano speakers), which is working when using the USB wire.

Well I tried for science® ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Anyway, I know myself, and I won't be able to listen to harry potter songs training on flowkey for hours on piano speakers => the headset functionality has to come back, and the wire has to go!

Therefore, I'll come back to you when the wifi usb key will arrive next week.
I'll then be able to run some more tests and get back to you.

Have a wonderful musical week-end

Nico

[Amwilburn]

I haven't used flowkeys myself, but I think the default mode uses acoustic detection (listens to the piano with the built in ipad mic), which is why it doesn't work with headphones. I believe you can switch it to midi detection (much more precise) but as it should be within the app itself, I can't help (but try digging around with the options, especially something that reads "note detection" or "key reading"

My French is really bad, actually; I only took it up to Grade 10 high school (form V in the UK system) so it's been almost 40 years since I've had a high school French lesson (il y a trente sept ans quand j'etudie le francais dans l'ecole secondaire!)

The fact that I remember *any*, I'll take that as a win!

I can still speak phrases, but when someone speaks French to me, I need them to talk really slowly and enunciate for me to understand *any* of it!

Mark