Yamaha PSR-295MS Portable 61-Key Touch-Sensitive Electronic Keyboard with Adapter and Stand

by Yamaha

Product Features

• Electronic Keyboard with Adapter and Stand

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 30.2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000622AD2
• Item model number: PSR295MS
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,378 in Musical Instruments (See Top 100 in Musical Instruments)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

A good choice for anyone who wants to learn how to play keyboard, the Yamaha PSR-295MS features a beefed-up version of the Yamaha Education Suite (Y.E.S.) found on previous models. In addition to the standard left- and right-hand lessons, Y.E.S. Version IV includes Your Tempo and Repeat and Learn modes. The keyboard also comes with 30 preloaded songs, flash ROM internal storage for adding more tunes, and 70 additional selections on an included CD-ROM. Simply connect the keyboard to your computer via the convenient USB port and transfer songs to the keyboard for learning or listening. The PSR-295MS is also the first keyboard in the line with a recording function. And thanks to the performance assistant technology, you can play along with songs without making a mistake--even if you're a complete beginner.

Learning Functions
Learning to play songs moves to a new level of simplicity with the Your Tempo learning mode. Call up a song, choose the left hand option, right hand option, or both at once for two-handed learning, and the keyboard will speed up and slow down as you do, literally following you through the song. Once you get accustomed to where the notes are, you can keep the keyboard at a single fixed tempo to learn correct timing. If you find one section of the song a little difficult, simply engage the Repeat and Learn button and the PSR-295MS will stay on that section, repeating it until you feel comfortable. Once you've mastered one section, move on to the next section. And to top it all off, the Yamaha Education Suite works with Standard MIDI Files (SMF), allowing you to learn the songs you want to learn. To add songs to the keyboard, simply connect it to your PC via the convenient USB jack on the back, and head out on the Internet in search of your favorite songs.

Additional educational functions include a lesson grading feature, which monitors your progress as you practice each lesson, and a chord dictionary that not only shows you how to play chords, but also tells you which chords you're playing by displaying the notes and chord name on the LCD screen.

PC Button and USB Port
The PSR-295MS offers a host of state-of-the-art features that make connecting to your PC as quick and easy as possible. These features include the PC button, which takes a snapshot of your MIDI settings so that you can instantly return to the settings with just the press of a single button, and a USB port for transferring song data from your computer. The USB port also acts as a MIDI interface, freeing you from having to purchase other MIDI peripherals like cables and adapters to play music. Simply connect to your computer, open your favorite music software program, and hit Play. That's it.

Portable Grand
Playing piano is fast and easy thanks to Yamaha's Portable Grand function. One dedicated button brings up a great-sounding piano, stunningly rich and authentic in its sound and exceptionally responsive to your playing touch. On top of all this, a wealth of special piano-only "pianist" styles, such as Slow Rock and Stride, provide professional-sounding piano accompaniment that change chords automatically as you do--all while you play a piano melody over the top.

General MIDI and Yamaha XGlite
The PSR-295MS comes equipped with 487 voices that include stereo-sampled piano; a selection of "Sweet!" voices such as trumpet, flute, pan flute, soprano, and tenor saxes; "Cool!" organ and electric piano; 10 drum kits, and two sound effects kits. "Sweet!" voices are special voices from Yamaha that reproduce all the natural expression and vibrato of their respective acoustic instruments. "Cool!" voices, on the other hand, feature long samples of electronically amplified instruments.

And for the utmost in compatibility, the PSR-295MS is both General MIDI (GM) and XGlite capable. The Internet has thousands of MIDI song files available, and you can rest assured that your keyboard will be able to competently reproduce these files.

Mix and Match
You can also create sound mixes of your own using Layer and Split modes. Split mode allows you to play two different sounds on the keyboard at the same time, like piano on the right and bass on the left. Layer mode lets you combine two sounds across the keyboard range. For example, you could play piano and strings at the same time. You're only limited by your imagination.

Performance Assistant Technology
Performance assistant technology guarantees that you won't play a wrong note or chord. Here's how it works. Select a song and press the Performance Assistant button. Play the keyboard--any notes you like. Every note you play will fit the music! If you move up the keyboard, the pitch goes up. If you move down, the pitch goes down. Play a perfect arpeggio, or play chords in time with the music, or really "go for it" and play a solo. How about stride piano? No matter what you play, as long as the Performance Assistant button is on, you're on. Imagine being able to give a concert to your friends or relatives the very first day that you bring the keyboard home. Well, with the PSR-295MS and performance assistant technology, you can. This feature also works with any XF MIDI files you download into the keyboard.

Sound Quality
The PSR-295MS boasts a two-way speaker system with separate woofers and tweeters. The system ensures a clear, precise audio performance with lifelike instrument voices. Adding to the fun is the bass boost system, with a special port on each speaker that adds a powerful impact to low-frequency reproduction. Additional audio functions include digital signal processing (DSP), which enhances sound quality with such sophisticated digital effects as harmony, reverb, and chorus, and advanced wave memory (AWM), which delivers amazingly realistic sound.

32-Note Polyphony
What's polyphony, you ask? Simply put, polyphony is how many notes a keyboard can reproduce simultaneously. The PSR-295MS features 32-note polyphony allowing you to play intricate arrangements and dense musical passages.

Keyboard Styles and One-Touch Setting
The PSR-295MS comes with 135 built-in styles. It's just like having a built-in band. Call up your favorite style of music, such as rock, big band, or country, press a chord or play Single Finger mode, and the PSR-295MS will follow you through a piece of music, providing all of the drums, bass, piano, guitar, horn, and string parts for you. And to make it easy and fun, when you select one of the styles, the One-Touch Setting function will automatically configure keyboard parameters--such as voice selection and digital effects--to match the selected music style.

What's in the Box
PSR-295MS keyboard, AC adapter, stand, CD-ROM, music rest, songbook, user's manual.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Value for Money, June 5, 2005

By 

Rajat Ahuja "RAj" (San Jose, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Yamaha PSR-295MS Portable 61-Key Touch-Sensitive Electronic Keyboard with Adapter and Stand (Electronics)

[This review holds for Yamaha PSR-295. Please note that this product is currently available from Amazon under two packagings: PSR-295AD (includes adapter) and PSR-295MS (includes adapter and stand).]

I got this full-length keyboard at a great price of $190 with included adapter and keyboard. Both accessories are a must, since this thing is huge.

The product shipped in two days (from PA to MD) with free shipping. I was delighted to find a helpful instructional DVD in the package to get started with the basics, so I didn't have to go through the manual, except for detailed and advanced features.

Also included was a Song Book, with staff music for some popular songs. It's great for someone who knows how to read music - I'm still learning to. There's also software to transfer music between PC and keyboard.

"Portable Grand" is just a one-touch button option to set the keyboard to Grand Piano mode. Of course, this cannot be expected to sound as great or realistic as a high-end digital piano or an expensive wooden one. However, the touch sensitive feature makes it as realistic as possible.

Here are the features I liked:
* Display shows notes and chords being played in three ways - staff notation, note name (ex. E# m7 aug etc.), and graphical (actual keys on a diagram).
* Truly Touch (Force) Sensitive Keys (can be toggled on/off).
* 487 Voices (incl. ~360 XGLite voices).
* 136 Accompaniment Styles to play along.
* Built-in songs which can be practised using Yamaha Education Suite. (Buil-in feature).
* Jog Dial to move between voice/style/song numbers.
* Flash memory to record your songs.
* Direct USB connection (MIDI-USB connecter cable *not* required - that cable would cost around $40).
* Software to transfer songs and voices between PC and keyboard.
* Truly stero output (not just two speakers).
* Phono/Line-Out socket.
* Sustain pedal socket (pedal not included).

Here are some things I didn't like:
* USB cable not included. ($7 extra from Amazon).
* Volume sometime seems a little low. But then, you can always pass output through amps if you really need it that loud.
* No mic or line-in socket.
* Phono out uses 1/4 inch pin. Had to buy a 1/8 to 1/4 converter from RadioShack.
* LCD display is highly "directional", visible only when looking at a particular angle. This is not much of a problem when playing sitting. However, if playing standing, this may be a little inconvenient.
* No sustain toggle switch. If you don't have a sustain pedal, turning sustain on/off manually takes a couple of steps.

Overall, at under $190, free shipping and included adapter and stand, this is a great buy for beginners as well as advanced users.

I had a Yamaha PSS-11 long back. It was a good beginner keyboard but it soon outgrew me, since you couldn't play it with two hands. Overall, I like Yamaha quality and find their keyboards much more professional than Casio ones (maybe I'm wrong). Of course, "real" professionals would use KORG, but that'll be upwards of $1000! :)

53 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Portable Grand" feature is not as advertized, April 9, 2005

By 

Kona (Emerald City) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Yamaha PSR-295MS Portable 61-Key Touch-Sensitive Electronic Keyboard with Adapter and Stand (Electronics)

In addition to a myriad of musical sounds, this keyboard has the "Portable Grand" button, which was the reason I bought it. Yamaha claims this keyboard produces a "stunningly real and authentic piano sound." Not so. It still sounds like like a cheap electronic keyboard. I was very disappointed and had to pack it up and return it to Amazon.

If you are looking for a keyboard with almost endless musical sounds, tempos, and computer features, this is a good buy; but be advised it will not sound like a piano.

Kona

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple despite lots of features, good sound, great price. The stand is the right one., January 8, 2006

By 

kwb - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Yamaha PSR-295MS Portable 61-Key Touch-Sensitive Electronic Keyboard with Adapter and Stand (Electronics)

I bought this for Christmas (2005). All my family members love it.

It has lots and lots of features, many of which I still haven't learnt nor tried yet, but the bottomline is this: Despite all the features, the basic functionality as the keyboard is simple enough even for my kids (younger one still in kinder), and the sound quality is very good for the price.

1: Simple to use
Switch it on. Play it. Simple as that.
Use jog dial to change sound (like organ, saxophone, vibraphone etc.). Lots of fun (some sounds really good, some bad). Press "portable grand" button to immediately go back to piano sound.
A dedicated metronome button conveniently lets me access metronome for practice. I especially liked this. Useful functionality with simple interface. Press "tempo" and use jog dial to change tempo.

2: Good sound
I don't think the portable-grand mode sounds like "cheap electronic keyboard". Rather, it sounds to me like some piano on my car stereo. It's good, somewhat hampered mainly by the built-in amplifier and small speakers (and probably to lesser extent by sampled sound itself). Using a good headphone helps a bit if you have one, and I assume using an external amp should also help.
No it doesn't sound like a really-real piano. If you need that, probably you'll need a good "digital piano" (not digital keyboard) plus good amplifier. You have to pay MUCH more for digital piano alone, even for entry level instruments like YAMAHA P90. Me, I'm just satisfied with this.
(However, all of the "guitar"s, especially acoustic ones, sounds very crappy. Maybe I'm too harsh because I play real guitars, but when I played this "guitar" sound, my wife couldn't tell what instrument it was supposed to be.)

3. Stand was the correct one
At first I didn't understand one of the spotlight reviewers' complaint about the stand. Mine was good for the keyboard, and the dimension of the thing was just the same as on YAMAHA web page.
Later it occured to me that probably he misunderstands the "built-in arm-rests on the underside of the keyboard". There are two straight short grooves underside of the keyboard. These are meant for bolting on sturdier, fixed-height stand, like YAMAHA YZ and YAMAHA L3C. These models are supposed to fit snugly into the grooves and be bolted, for heavier use. OTOH, YAMAHA PKBS1 has oversized arms because the edges on the bottom of the keyboard would sit on them.

Please remember, this is X-style, height-adjustable stand. First check out PKBS1 on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006AMBW/103-4081268-0691001?v=glance&n=172282

Or you can go to YAMAHA website and see the picture if you like:
http://yamaha.com/yamahavgn/CDA/ContentDetail/accessorydetail/0,,CNTID%253D15268%2526CTID%253D209100%2526CNTYP%253DPRODUCT,00.html

Imagine what happens if the arms fit snugly into the grooves underside of the keyboard and you cannot change the distance between two arms. Can you still adjust the height? I think I can't.

Anyway, this stand is good enough for my family learning at home. For home use, I think you don't have to buy another stand unless you want the ultimate stability or something like that.