Just came in to the store. Very first thing....I thought there was no AC adapter in the box. Finally I found it. It was in a seperate flap at the bottom of the box, so don't throw the box away until you find the PA-300 Adapter. It's the same one used with the PSR3000.
It's a very lightweight keyboard. The display is the same as on the YPG-625 with lyrics and score. It's functions work just like the YPG keyboards as far as the way you search through catagories and then use the data wheel or + or - buttons to change something. There are 8 banks with 8 choices of Registration locations. The sounds are much like the PSR3000. The guitars have the different samples when played with different velocities. The styles are catagorized so that when you select a catagory like 8 beat and you use the wheel to change to a new style, you keep going through only the styles in that catagory. In the other models, similar in the way this works, you don't stay in one catagory but keep moving through all of them. I like this feature better. This way, you select a catagory from a dedicated button and then search through. I would have liked to have a keypad to select by numbers but Yamaha didn't include one. Basically, everything works like the easier to use models in the lower price range, but with the styles and sounds of their better models. Like the PSR3000, there are 4 one touch buttons with dedicted buttons for 1touch link and dedicated button for fill in when you change or hit one of the 4 variation buttons for the style.
Unlike the other models similar to this, there are now 8 tracks to record a song plus an accomp. track as well.
Yamaha has come out with a keyboard with PSR3000/Tyros sounds and a better style (3 intro's and endings and 4 variations) options. There aim I would think would to be between the PSRE403/YPG products and the PSR3000. At a MAP price of $699.00 they have done a good job.
I would have like this keyboard to have line outs instead of headphone/output so as to be able to use the onboard speakers as monitors, but I think this model was less for the working musician and more for the hobbiest who is more interested in sitting at home and playing/recording.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

George,

Would you tell us how the keyboard feel is? Is it like the DGX action or like the PSR 3000? Thanks.

Regards,
George

the keyboard feel on the PSRS-500 is better than the PSR3000. I'm not a great player but the keys have more resistance and they have a longer throw from top to bottom.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

Thanks for the great review, George.

Perhaps this is a new action, and even better, will be on the PSR-S900/S700.

Ian

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