Yamaha PSRS650 61-Key Keyboard Production Station

very good product and price

I have barely touched the capabilities of this keyboard but feel constrained to set forth my initial impression, which is that within certain limitations, it is marvelous.The main limitation is the very light key-touch, much more like an organ than a piano. Moreover, the piano sounds aren't much piano-like either; they're really quite poor. (For piano I have a Yamaha P-155 digital piano with 88 weighted keys - using Behringer powered external speakers, it sounds remarkably real.) If piano is your main instrument, I don't think you will be very satisfied with this keyboard.But many other sounds are extraordinary. I have been spending most of my time using the organ and harpsichord settings, which are the best I have ever heard on an instrument anywhere near this size - I've owned dedicated electronic organs with multiple manuals and pedal board which didn't sound as fine. I've only tinkered a bit with other sounds - woodwinds sound quite nice, but I haven't yet done much with them. I also haven't begun contouring my own sounds, as this instrument seems capable of doing judging by the several manuals for it which I have downloaded from the Yamaha site and printed out. I have tried a few automatic accompaniments and found them somewhat lacking in nuance - too much drums for my taste - but again I believe I will be able to customize them when I get around to it. Finally, given its quality, it's incredibly portable - only 16 pounds!As you can see, this instrument promises many pleasurable hours of playing and, if you're so inclined, tweaking. Provided you can live with the light keyboard and mediocre piano sounds, I highly recommend it.

This keyboard has a lot more than what i was expecting. Best keyboard in my opinion from Yamaha yet!

I have used Yamaha PSR 550 before, and wanted a step up from that. This keyboard offered good functionality at a great price. Tones are closer to real instruments, I especially like the super articulated voices. Styles are plenty and will be more that sufficient for most players. The ability to download and install 'music packs' from the internet comes really handy. I have tried the Indian Instruments pack and it's quite cool. Styles are authentic and instruments sound very real. There are 8 programmable one-touch buttons, 20 instrument categories, 20 genres of styles (3 intros, 4 main parts and 3 endings) which are all one touch. This comes in very handy while playing live music.If you're into synthesizing music, studio recording, this obviously falls short of the detailed sequencing options. Another gripe I have is generic to Yamaha Keyboards, the pitch bend wheel scrolls up n down which's not easy to operate as much as a the sideways bending wheels on Rolands. But I'd say this keyboard is more than sufficient for budding musicians. I am totally satisfied with my purchase.

EXCELLENT

Sounds good in general,but I had expected a greater difference in quality compared to the cheaper onesof the same brand

Love it:-)

Overall this is a great keyboard. The finish looks decent, the buttons have quality feeling both when looking at and when touching. This is my second keyboard which I pre-ordered before its release and already own it for almost six months at the time of writing this review. I have never had a fully professional keyboard though. My first keyboard was Yamaha PSR530 which had been just released when I bought it in mid 90s and which was a decent mid-range keyboard at that time. Well, it is obvious that technological advancement brought the keyboards nowadays to a new level of advancement compared with the ones a decade or more ago, for example 64-notes polyphony on most keyboards today as opposed to 32-notes back then. So let me list what I liked in this keyboard so far. And then list cons.Pros:* A very good list of accompaniment built-in styles. I have been quite OK with built-in 181 styles ranging from Arabic to Chinese, from Bossa Nova to 5/4 Jazz. I'm pretty much sure almost all of them are of high quality. Though I've not tried playing with all of them yet.* Voice quality is between good and excellent. Well, most sounds are pretty realistic (but not all of them, see Cons), especially guitar sounds.* Expandable. This is a cool feature. I've already bought and installed the oriental expansion pack which gave new voices and styles to the keyboard. With this feature you are kind of peaceful that your new keyboard will not get outdated too soon - you can give it new sounds and styles whenever you want (well, there is a storage limitation, see Cons).* The external look and layout overall feels kind of minimalistic. Which I'm not so sure whether is a good feature or not. But I like it. Looks somewhat professional.* Good quality of speakers. No distortion at all even when I was playing at a fully maximized volume.* Has a USB port. You can use this port to install new expansion packs. To install new styles. To export your recorded songs. Very useful.Cons:* Only 1 audio out port. Even my PSR530 had two of them. One would not block (mute) the sound from the speakers which would be quite handy when you want to record a song playback from your keyboard to your computer. But with this 1 out port, your speakers will be muted so you cannot listen to what is being played during the recording. Well this can be overcome by a pair of headphones plugged into the computer, but still not so comfortable.* Screen interface is not very user friendly. Because the keyboard doesn't have too many buttons (which as said above looks somewhat professional), the screen has a kind of overloaded functionality. I already used to use it flexibly, but still not as flexible as I would do with my previous PSR530.* Some violin sounds are not so good. Especially solo violin voices sound somewhat artificial. Even the new Sweet Violin voice is not that good. (I'm not saying they are too bad, just not very realistic). Not the same in terms of quality as e.g. guitar sounds which are really great.* After recording songs you cannot change the instruments on different tracks. At least I cannot find a way to do so. It's possible to change individual track volume, pan, etc, but not the instrument the track is playing with. This is kind of limitation, but not a serious problem though.* Internal flash memory is only 16MB which is not huge. For example, the oriental pack released by Yamaha is about 14MB, so mostly you will be able to have one pack installed at the same time (but it's possible to remove an existing pack and install another one).Overall, I'm pleased with this keyboard. This is not a toy, but a serious keyboard. I believe I will use it for a long time and that it's a good value. This can be very suitable for enthusiastic hobbyist musicians, though can be used as a pro keyboard as well.