Yamaha PSR-S500 Arranger Workstation Digital Keyboard

YAMAHA Updated: 2007-10-03

Arranger Workstation Features: USB, extensive accompaniment control, powerful sound
Yamaha has squeezed a lot of technology into this reasonably priced keyboard, opening the door to an Arranger Workstation level of product for musicians on a limited budget. It has tremendous sound quality and state of the art features like USB MIDI and USB Storage capability. Like other Arranger Workstation keyboards, there are dedicated Registration, One Touch Setting and Octave buttons on the panel and Style and Voice category buttons to get you where you want to go quickly. In addition, the musical Styles in the PSR-S500 have 3 Intros, 4 Variations and 3 Endings – unprecedented in this price range.

Sound Quality: large selection of realistic Voices
The PSR-S500 gives you the realistic voices you need to sound your best, drawing on some of the recent technologies of other Arranger Workstation keyboards. You'll find a vast selection of 283 realistic instrument voices, 361 GM/XGlite voices and 15 drum/SFX kits. Highlights include Live! Grand Piano; a number of Cool! Electric Piano and Organ Voices; Live! Pop Brass, Strings and Orchestra; Sweet! Trumpet, Trombone, Tenor Sax, Alto Sax, Soprano Sax, Flute, Clarinet and Pan Flute; a large compliment of Cool! Electric Guitars plus recent Yamaha favorites – Dynamic Nylon and Dyno Steel guitars.

Just below the Voice category buttons, you'll find buttons that allow you to Split and Layer Voices, turn the Harmony, Touch and Sustain on and off and a dedicated DSP button.

9-Track Sequencer: record your own music
With the PSR-S500, you have the equivalent of a built-in multi-track recorder to record one or multiple instrument parts at a time and assign each part to a different track. Nine tracks (eight melody plus one chord track) are provided to accommodate sophisticated melodies, chord accompaniment and rhythm parts.

LCD: displays lyrics, chords, notation
Have you ever played a song and wondered what it would look like as sheet music? The PSR-S500 can display the score to a song whether it comes from the Internet, the internal selections or ones that you record yourself, and the pages scroll automatically when a song is played back – no more page turning! This is a great way to learn how to read music. And for singers, the screen also displays chords and lyrics to XF compatible songs.

Ease of Operation: Music Database, One Touch Settings, Registration buttons
There are many tools in the keyboard that make it easy to be a power user from the first day.

* Music Database (MDB): 500 complete keyboard setups by song title
* One Touch Settings: factory recommended setups for each Style in the keyboard
* Registration Memory: digital snapshots of all of your keyboard settings
* Transpose: easily transpose the keyboard and songs to the best key for you
* Metronome: useful for practice and for recording tracks to the built-in sequencer
* Tap Tempo: set the tempo for the next song exactly where you want it by tapping this button

Digital Music Notebook: Flash Demo Included
Digital Music Notebook is a multimedia Internet service that enables you to preview, purchase, download and print learn-to-play music books and chart-topping sheet music. From scales to chords to your favorite riffs, Digital Music Notebook is jam-packed with all the secrets you need to master your instrument. Add accompaniments, record and mix yourself, sing karaoke with friends, learn new techniques while having a blast – Digital Music Notebook delivers everything you need to bring music alive! Check out the Flash Demo on the included CD-ROM.

Three effects blocks: tailor your sound
Whether it's a rotary speaker effect you're after or flange or overdrive guitar or just simple compression, the PSR-S500 offers the utmost in control over your sound. You'll find 25 Reverb, 30 Chorus and 178 DSP effects plus 26 Harmony and 5 preset types of Master EQ. The 178 DSP effects can be added to the Main, Dual and Left Voices.

Other Great Features:

* 2-Way Speaker System: Separate woofers and tweeters deliver sounds with clarity and precision for more lifelike instrument voices.
* Bass Boost System: A special port on each speaker adds a powerful impact to bass sound reproduction.
* Function Button: 49 Functions provide a wide range of both detailed and overall instrument parameters, such as adjusting the tuning, setting the split point, and editing the voices and effects.
* LCD CONTRAST Control: Adjust the LCD CONTRAST control on the real panel of the instrument for optimum display legibility.
* Mute Independent Song Parts: You can mute individual tracks of songs using the Registration Buttons during song playback.
* Play Songs Saved to USB Flash Memory: When you press the dedicated USB button on the panel, you can dial up the song you want and simply press the PLAY button, allowing for quick changes in live environments.