More Like a One-Man Orchestra Than a Keyboard (Yamaha PSR-3000)

Member Name: derek-a

Product:	Yamaha PSR-3000
Date:	07/02/07 (3834 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A great variety of sounds - Good for professionals and amateurs alike

Disadvantages: -

I was first introduced to keyboard playing in the form of a piano when I was around 6 years old. My two elder sisters were both learning to play with a local music teacher and whilst they practiced I was fascinated by the sounds coming out of our old iron-framed piano and couldn’t help but “play along” with them on the lower or upper part of the keyboard, much to their annoyance. My parents decided that it was obviously “in my blood” and thought it best that I go to lessons also. Within a couple of months I was playing a few simple tunes and even came second in a local kids talent contest!

I kept to my lessons going right through all my exams, but at the age of 16 decided that a career as a classical concert pianist was not for me. My ear was definitely bent towards modern jazz and improvisation and then in the mid-sixties, I was really getting hooked on the likes of Jimmy Smith (a jazz organist), so I turned my attention to the electric organ.

My first instrument was a small Lowry Holiday followed by a small Hammond (great keyboard sound, but rotten base). In my twenties, I turned professional and purchased a small Yamaha with Leslie speaker - (a sort of spinning speaker inside a cabinet that produced a rich sound). Because of it’s light weight for portability and reasonable prices compared to most other organs, I have stayed loyal to Yamaha ever since. I now own a HE 8 (old technology now, which I will soon be updated no doubt) and a PSR3000 – a 61-key electronic keyboard, which is the focus of this review.


What I Like About The Yamaha PSR 3000 is the sound quality and a huge range of “voices” – these are synthetic sounds that even the most critical of music lovers would be hard-pressed to distinguish from the real thing. For example, grand piano, electric pianos, "live" and "cool" nylon guitar, tenor sax, alto sax, baritone sax. Pan flutes and a large range of different flutes and wood-wind instruments. Far too many others to list here… These sounds are so authentic, that you can hear for example, the wind as it is blown into a wind instrument and the subtle sound of the fingers being applied to the strings on the frets of a string instrument. These authentic sounds come about because the keys are “touch sensitive”. That means, that just like a conventional acoustic piano, the harder you press and hit the keys more expression and volume you get out of the tone.

You can listen to some of the instruments capabilities by simply pressing a button marked Demos and allowing it to play – it is like listening to a group of musicians.

At around £1,000 the PSR 3000, is the penultimate in professional keyboards, known also as work-stations, the Tyros being the Yamaha’s flagship costing from around £2,000 to just over £3,000. As a trained musician, I find the PSR 3000 more than adequate for my needs, but it can also be a excellent instrument for beginners too, as on the mounted colour TFT screen, the user can select from a variety of songs, have the instrument play them and have the music score play along and watch a “bouncing ball” indicate what notes are being played and even permit the player to play along with it. An excellent way to practice.

To top all this, the instrument can connect to the internet via USB to a broadband modem and download songs and styles (explained below) from the Yamaha website – full instructions are included with the keyboard and are also on the Yamaha website (http://music.yamaha.com). When I registered on the site, Yamaha was sending free a USB to LAN adapter necessary for connection.

A floppy disk also connects to the USB port so that the user can save his/her sound combinations - for example, piano or any other instrument chosen as lead instruments backed by strings or any other of the thousands of sounds available – the combinations are endless. On the front of the keyboards is a slot for a smart media card that can store a lot more information than your standard floppy disk.

There are also full *MIDI connections, to connect to another MIDI instrument so they are networked, like two PCs and share their sounds, files etc. and enable to players to work together or one player to access both instruments – the creative possibilities are endless with this.

*MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It can also be connected to a computer this way, but the USB connection is a far more modern and convenient way to do it. Your musical masterpieces can then be saved to the computer, converted to MP3 files which can then be e-mailed or put on a website. With midi software, which is not too expensive, midi files can be manipulated, mistakes corrected etc. and converted to different musical formats.

Styles:
Styles of which there are 240 on the PSR 3000 are like the “backing tracks” (or automatic orchestrations) that play along with the melody line and include rhythm (a drum beat or tempo) and backing instruments such as strings, brass, guitar, pianos etc., that also play along. The key of the backing is determined by the chords and notes the musician plays with his left (accompaniment) hand. If he/she wants, the styles can be switched off of course and the instrument will only play the sounds that are played with the fingers – like a conventional piano or organ, or whatever other sound is selected.

From ballroom dance, to disco in the style of the 70s, 80s, house, acid, to country and western - you name it, these are available as styles. You can even get it to sound like a vocal choir singing away in the background. The feeling to be got from playing this instrument can be quite awesome and can be likened to conducting your very own orchestra with one difference, you are the musician playing each of the instruments. All tempos can be slowed or speeded up and styles can be customised.

Also you can record any of your creations and play it back afterwards. The controls for this works just like a tape recorder. Your recordings can be saved to disk or card, loaded onto your computer, and edited.

To a musician like myself, the instrument can be as challenging as I want it to be, yet to a beginner, it can have him/her playing some wonderful songs and sounds with some fantastic built-in styles in no time at all which in my opinion, provides the impetus to learn even more about the world of music.

For those who feel that spending £1000 on an instrument is too much, Yamaha have PSR keyboards that produce fairly decent sounds from under £100 and there are many on-line dealers selling second-hand instruments, but you will need to ensure that you get a good guarantee, know something about the age of an instrument, and if spares are available, and what happens if something should go wrong. But I’ve got to say that I have found Yamaha instruments to be very reliable.


If you love music, you will love the Yamaha PSR range of instruments, but before buying, you might wish to go to your local musical-instruments dealer and discover what’s available, you never know, you may even get it there cheaper than you can on the Internet.

Summary: Synthetic sounds hard to tell the difference from real instruments.