Yamaha CLP-825 PE Clavinova Upright Piano - Polished Ebony

Grand Expression Modeling and GrandTouch pedals deliver expressive approaching those of a grand piano, along with the voices of two of the world's finest grands: the Yamaha CFX and Bosendorfer Imperial. Full range of digital piano functions, including Bluetooth audio.

What is the Clavinova CLP Series?

The Clavinova CLP Series aims to replicate the sensations and experience of playing an acoustic grand piano on digital instruments by combing the latest digital technology with the craft of acoustic piano-making cultivated over more than 120 years.

Digital Never Felt so Grand

Classical music is one of the most demanding musical genres in terms of expression. Grand pianos possess an almost limitless range of expressive capabilities, and so they are the instrument of choice among master classical pianists.

Our development of digital piano is founded on more than intimate knowledge of the grand pianos on which they are based, and goes further than simply imitating the shapes of these instruments. It must, because digital pianos have no strings, no hammers, and no soundboard; they produce sound in a completely different way from grand pianos. What we rely on, then, is the deep understanding of what it means to express oneself musically on a piano. In our pursuit of such a deep understanding, our thoughts turn to the sensitivities of pianist who are thrilled to express themselves on pianos, and we create instruments capable of harnessing their excitement and giving a voice to their expression.

The Clavinova playing experience has improved dramatically with each new model thanks to the wisdom and skills learned and passed down through generations of developers and reflected in the creation of the instruments. However, it is no easy task to replicate the experience of playing a grand piano with digital technology.

The intent behind the phrase "Digital Never Felt So Grand" is to highlight the quality of the experience of the digital pianos we sell now, which in the moment are as close to playing grand pianos as ever before. And Clavinova will continued to evolve so that the next model is even closer.

Turn your living room into a performance venue for a top-flight grand piano

With resonance and tone variation similar to a grand piano, the CLP-800 Series allows you to enjoy a wide range of expression. The keyboard and pedals faithfully respond to the player's touch to provide a feel close to that of a grand piano. A full lineup of colors ensures that your piano will match your interior design.

We recommend this model for:

• People who focus on sound quality and elements of feel such as touch and pedal response
• People who seek a simple piano
• Players of all skill levels

Sound so good that you forget you're wearing headphones

One advantage of choosing a digital piano is that you can play with headphones on to keep your surrounding quiet. However, many people may find that their ears become fatigued if they play with headphones on for too long. One of the main reasons for this is that sound played directly into the ears is completely different from the natural sound of an actual piano.

Binaural sampling solves this problem. This is a method of sampling in which special microphones are placed on a mannequin's head in the same positions as the pianist's ears to capture piano sounds the way that they sound in reality. Yamaha chose this method to create the ambience and full, natural resonance of acoustic pianos in Clavinova pianos. This makes pianists feel as though they are sitting at a grand piano even when  they play with headphones on. The experience is so pleasant that they forget they are wearing headphones, no matter how long they continue to play. On the CLP-800 Series, binaural sampling was used for the Bosendorfer Imperial as well as the Yamaha CFX.

We also developed the Stereophonic Optimizer function to achieve the same effect for the piano effects. Stereophonic Optimizer technology replicated the natural diffusion of sound in headphones nearly as closely as binaural sampling for the piano voices other than the CFX and Imperial.

A variety of supportive functions and options for piano practice

CLP Series pianos feature 50 of the most famous classical pieces as well as 303 exercises by Hanon, Beyer, Czerny, and Burgmuller. Sheet music is also available for download and viewing on the Smart Pianist app. Try practicing with one hand at a time, or simply listen to enjoy.

The CLP-800 Series is also compatible with the FC35 optional three-pedal unit, which functions as an auxiliary pedal for small children to practice pedaling. Simply place the FC35 on a suitable stand or otherwise adjust it so that it sits in a position appropriate for your child's height.

Get more with the Smart Pianist app

Smart Pianist is a free application for use with Yamaha digital pianos/hybrid pianos that can create song data from PDF scored and then play it back, as well as analyze song data stored in your smart device and display chord progressions. The Bluetooth MIDI function of the CLP-800 Series lets you connect to Smart Pianist wirelessly.

Combining Smart Pianist with a CLP-800 Series makes it easier to enjoy playing songs you want to play and increases your performance repertoire.

Use Bluetooth to listen to music on the high-quality speakers of CLP Series pianos

You can play music through the audio system on the CLP-800 Series by using a Bluetooth-enabled smart device. You can stream audio data such as mp3 files, and even enjoy playing along with any songs on your smart device.

Enjoy playing along with dynamic rhythm playback

The CLP-800 Series comes complete with 20 different and simply rhythm patterns (drums and bass accompaniment) that are perfectly suited to many types of music, letting you spice up your performance with some backing musicians, make practice more interesting, or open up your creative flow with inspiring new ideas.

High-quality recordings of your own playing with ease

The CLP-800 Series offers a variety of ways for you to record your favorite performances, described below.

Multi-track MIDI Song Recorder

The recording function featured in the CLP-800 Series allows to record your performances* with a single touch, which is useful when you want to review your playing objectively. Additionally, you can record up to 16 tracks** for simultaneous playback, so different hands can be recorded separately or overdub parts with different voices.

*Recordings are made in MIDI format and can also be saved on a USB flash drive. Compatible software is required for playback of recorded data on a computer.

**CLP-825 features a 2-track song recorder

Recording to the Smart Pianist app

You can record your performance in Audio or MIDI format. The recorded data is saved to the smart device. When the piano is connected to Smart Pianist via Bluetooth MIDI, only MIDI recording is possible.

USB Audio Recorder

Insert USB flash drive into the USB [TO DEVICE] terminal to record performance to the drive and create audio files *** to save and play back on a computer or share with friends.

Adjust the maximum volume setting to suit your preferences

A new Volume Limiter function lets you set a fixed maximum volume level, to protect your hearing from loud sound over the speakers or headphones. The function is a safeguard against small children damaging their hearing by accidentally turning up the volume too high.

Virtual Resonance Modeling

One of the allures of the grand piano is the sympathetic resonance created by the vibration of the entire instrument. CLP-800 Series pianos reproduce a richer, more natural resonance than ever before, featuring a new tone generator chip paired with a groundbreaking technology called Virtual Resonance Modeling (VRM). VRM creates a richly varied sound by simulating the complex sympathetic tones created when the vibrations of the strings are propagated to the soundboard and other strings, corresponding to the timing and intensity of key playing and pedaling. This technology even replicated the sounds the dampers make when they are raised off the strings, in addition to the resonance of the duplex scaling, strings, soundboard, and case. CLP-800 Series pianos allow you to enjoy the same momentary dynamics and deep sympathetic sounds that re produced by the entire body of a grand piano.

Grand Expression Modeling

Grand Expression Modeling is a groundbreaking technology that enables richly varied, textured musical expression in comparison to conventional digital pianos, which tend to offer little tonal variation, inevitably resulting in a rather flat output.

The interaction and interplay of the hammers, dampers, and strings inside a grand piano respond to the intensity, speed, depth, and other subtle nuances of the pianist's touch, creating a limitless range of tonal expression. This range comes from both types of tonal variation, the type controlled by the player and the type that occurs naturally as a result of physical phenomena happening inside the piano when it is played. When playing a grand piano, the pianist infuses their performance with different types of expression, from the force they apply when depressing the keys to what they decide to do with sustained notes in terms of releasing the keys to cut them or layering them with subsequent notes.

Simple tone generator algorithms on conventional digital pianos are not capable of this level of expression. On CLP-800 Series pianos, Grand Expression Modeling now senses the depth of the player's touch on every key in addition to the intensity and speed to precisely calculate how a grand piano would respond physically to the nuances of the player's input. As a result, players now have access to more capacity for musical expression than ever before on a digital piano. 

Grand Acoustic Imaging and other acoustic technology

A grand piano is an instrument that amplifies sound throughout its large soundboard and case so that it resonates in the surrounding space. In contrast, digital pianos have a structural limitation - they can only produce sound through speakers. This results in the player and listeners hearing sounds differently depending on where they are in relation to the instrument, and the differences are more pronounced with digital pianos than grand pianos.

GrandTouch/GrandTouch-S keyboards

Yamaha developed GrandTouch/Grand Touch-S keyboards based on the concept of keys that convey the feel of a grand piano action. This does not mean that we take the approach of giving each key the same weight as its equivalent on a grand piano keyboard, or replicating the action of a grand piano. Rather, this keyboard mechanism is notable for how the loads applied to the fingertips and the way they change during performance is similar to that of a grand piano.

GrandTouch pedals/ GP Response Damper

Yamaha designed GrandTouch pedals to not only look similar to grand piano pedals, but also to allow players to feel the same resistance in their feet as on a grand piano when they depress and release them. They are structured completely differently than those of the precious CLP-700 Series; we positioned the pivots and set the pivot-to-tip lengths, angles, and other measurements equal to grand piano pedals when players use them. This allows players to apply the same force as they would on a grand piano pedals. Also, since pianists make minute adjustments to their pedaling depth in the half-pedal leverage friction to enable that finesse and reduce the force required to hold the pedals in place thanks to our creative decisions with the shapes, materials, and positioning of the rotating parts. This makes the pedals feel like grand piano pedals and also boots the control players need to express subtle nuances. With these innovative advancements, GrandTouch pedals bring everything about the digital piano experience - from initial contact with the toes to the finest nuances of pedaling - that much closer to the grand piano.

The higher-end CLP-895GP/885/875 models feature a GP Response Damper pedal. CLP-800 Series pianos not only simulate the resistance of grand piano dampers when the pedals first begin to take effect, but also accurately blend the tonal variation with the sensation of the dampers being raised off the strings with precision sensing of pedal depth. This allows players to practice proper pedaling - even half-pedaling - at all times. The combination of GrandTouch pedals and the GP Response Damper in higher-end models of the CLP-800 Series enables more authentic, grand piano-like pedaling than ever before.

Binaural sampling

As mentioned previously, binaural sampling is a method of sampling in which special microphones are placed on a mannequin's head in the same positions as the pianist's ears to capture piano sounds the way that they sound in reality.

Yamaha has developed a mannequin head specifically for binaural sampling. Yamaha also measured the ear shapes of nearly 100 people to create an "average ear" model and carefully examined the types and positioning of microphones to use with it to ensure that everyone can enjoy the same effects. As of 2023, Yamaha makes the only digital pianos with binaural sampling-based piano sound for headphones.