Thanks for posting this! It looks like a fun keyboard. With the audio loop feature, I wonder if it's possible to get real vocal ooh's and aah's that follow the chords of the song. That would be especially helpful for '50's - '70's music.

Its the same old same repackaged..

Tough i am happy with the fact that there are atleast some knobs featuring on a PSR keyboard, really hope they make it into the next generation of Tyros..

I will always boycott keyboards which don't have 5-pole midi out so that to connect modules like SD-1000 or Integra you would have to install a laptop with drivers and USB. That's just stupid of Yamaha. (Direct usb to usb doesn't work). The behavior of a company that wants to have a monopoly.

I dont think that this keyboard is aimed at people that have an Integra 7 or other high class or classic rackmount stuff...

This is the entry level keyboard...

I thought it was meant to be midrange rather than entry-level.
Yamaha skipped midi-out also with DGX-630/640/650. It's meant as a 'home' instrument, but in fact I've seen several DGX on stage or in churches, where midi out would make a lot of sense. Are these connections so expensive?

No they are not that expensive . The company are just making clear demarcation lines between their home and pro products that's all . Just because someone takes a home product and puts it on stage does not change its intended use .

Arrangers Keyboards have always been designed for the home market (There just keyboards based on the easy play features that were first introduced on home organs) with probably about 99% being used in this role, however you will find many out in the wild (Usually TOTL models though) being used by professionals who want something light and compact. (Although over the last few years (Particularly in the UK & Europe) pro players have been adding a second keyboard and pedalboard to turn then back into portable modular organ, so that they can get away from being stuck with having to use boring and monotonous styles)

Home users have also started to move to the multi-keyboard line-up route, (I think Roland is the only Arranger that has not had a dedicated multi-keyboard organ designed for it) as users find it more satisfying to play the instruments, rather than playing along to a style. (I also suspect that manufactures will be adding more real time controls to give some of the flexibility of a Workstation to try and entice younger users)

As to Midi sockets, then it confuses most home users as they try and work out how to use them, whereas virtually everybody knows how to use a USB cable, and this combined with the fact that all modern OS have Midi Drivers built in, makes it a logical choice. (Even if an arranger has Midi sockets built in, the Midi features supplied are usually pretty limited)

Bill

I think the real power of arrangers is indeed the ease of use and a layout perfect for playing live, where backings, keyboardsounds are sepperated interfaces, while still being integrated..

The philosofy behind arrangers just makes them perfect for one mand bands and duo's yielding great resluts with top class sounds and clear operating structure..



I somewhat dissagre with you that home users go a 2 keyboard route these days.. tough i agree they want to play an instrument, and thats why digital piano's are extremely popular these days and arrangers are somewhat on the way back..


However all those nifty arranger features, do fit perfectly on top of a digital piano, which gives the students both a great piano to play solo on and some accompaniments for quick fun..


In the end i am convinced that Totl workstations and Totl arrangers will be replaced in the future by instruments that combine the best of a stage piano with the best of arrangers (easy opperation) that have a whole deep edditable sound engine hidden under the hood... offering 88 weighted piano keys for an instrument not weighting more then 25 pounds.. just look at the Privia PX-5S, it has weigthed keys great piano action at only 22 pounds..


I dont think people will be wanting to have multiple keyboards in their livingroom, unless its a great piece of furniture (Wersi Organ) but then, when it comes to furniture and looks, nothing beats a piano.. and thats where the ladies in the househeld of musicall kids will have an important vote..

And thank goodness for that. IMO, never start a kid on an 'easy-play' keyboard. If he/she masters the piano, learning another keyboard (arranger, ws, synth) will be a piece of cake...mastered in months. Unfortunately, the reverse is not true. Same principle as learning to drive; learn on a manual transmission, the 'automatic' will be mastered in minutes.

I'm sure that most of the people here, even those that LOVE their arrangers, will admit that they are grateful for their early training on piano or accordion. In fact, compare THEIR arranger playing with those who STARTED on arrangers. JMO, though.

chas

I won't admit it Chas, because I really didn't have any training on piano. I've found that some trained pianists have a lot of trouble playing arrangers in the basic modes, because they have trouble retraining their left hands to ONLY play chords.
Of course the full keyboard chord mode might work for them, but it's still foreign to what they are accustomed to doing.
I think the most important factor in arranger playing is learning music theory and the relationship between chords.
But I'm old and growing much more stupider every day. See, even using bad grammar.
Having said all this, I strongly agree that if you want to learn to play piano, whether you are young or old, you must have a piano, not an unweighted keyboard.

I think you of had to play in a band to be a good arranger player as you need to know the workings of playing with others & how to sit in the pocket controlling all the elements of the mix timing, tempo, when to solo, when to comp, when to sing,. Many I've heard don't do that or even know how due to the lack of experience in what I said above,...not their fault.

Bill (Abacus)-- Roland has the Atelier series, and especially the AT-350C which competes with the Electone STAGEA, etc. I don't believe Korg produces a self-contained two manual arranger though.

I had a few years of piano lessons in elementary school, but we only had an unweighted single-manual organ at home. It had neither the sound, nor the heavy rewarding feel of my teacher's piano. I struggled with the meter of unfamiliar songs in my lesson books, and with syncopated changes in the left hand. Once I discovered automatic organs with a reasonable repertoire of chords I never looked back. My only regret is that I never learned to play pedals.

I don't gig out. For a while I had two arrangers MIDI'd together on an A-frame stand. I might even go back to this setup. One advantage is that you can use a MIDI file AND style at the same time, or even drive the style from a channel in the MIDI file. One board can be set to recognize chords in any inversion, while the other is set up for 'on bass.' I hate turning pages, so Yamaha's "follow the bouncing ball" rolling score display was another plus (although I'm told there are notebook and iPad apps that do this.)

I agree with Rosetree--I would insist on having real MIDI jacks. I don't know of any workaround to connect USB MIDI directly to another instrument.

To my observation all of the improvements to arrangers since the late 1990s have been in the quality of the sound samples (which is a shame, because this could have been accomplished through VST's or MIDI sound modules like Ketron's SD-1000.) Think about the core feature set which defines an ARRANGER: chord recognition, style programming and behavior, etc., have not advanced, and I think there is plenty of room for improvement.

With today's tendency to release "patchware," it will be years before this kind of integration is realized reasonably bug-free in a single machine. My $.02.