A great starter and advanced instrument, Yamaha's EZ-250i touch-sensitive keyboard features the Yamaha Educational Suite and lighted keys to help you learn, and quality sound topped by a stereo-sampled piano voice with dynamic filtering--technology previously reserved for much more expensive, professional keyboards. In addition, you'll find that playing piano is fast and easy with 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.
The 32-note polyphonic EZ-250i comes equipped with 480 voices that include all the sounds of the orchestra, synthesizer patches, 10 drum kits, and 2 sound-effects kits. It is both General MIDI (GM) and XG Lite voices, making it compatible with pretty much every MIDI file available anywhere.
The EZ-250i also has many state-of-the-art features to make connecting as quick and easy as possible. These features include a dedicated PC button, which takes a snapshot of your MIDI settings so you can instantly return to them at the press of a button, and a USB port for transferring song data to and from your computer. In addition, the USB port acts as a MIDI interface, freeing you from having to purchase other MIDI peripherals like cables and adapters.
Once you're done practicing, challenge yourself to a multi-level game against the computer using Konami Keyboard Mania software (PC only). Post your scores online and see and how well others are doing. And without even knowing it, you'll still be learning to play music. The software challenges you to find notes on the keyboard before they disappear from the computer screen. There are different levels and different tasks, such as practicing your timing as the notes drop or finding the actual pitch of the notes. In addition, there are variations that stop and wait for you to find the notes before continuing. You can choose any tracks of the music that you like (even the drum track) and load in new General MIDI songs that you download online with your computer.
And no matter what your level of playing, you'll appreciate being able to build combinations of your favorite sounds. Pressing the "split" button divides the keyboard into 2 parts, allowing you to have 2 different sounds on the keyboard at the same time, such as piano on the right and bass on the left. "Layer" mode allows you to combine 2 sounds across the keyboard range. For example, you could layer piano and strings and play both sounds at the same time. With 480 voices to choose from, the combinations are only limited by your imagination. The EZ-250i comes with 80 built-in songs. But if you've never played before, where do you start?
The Yamaha Education Suite, a set of music training functions. Seven types of lessons are included, as well as a convenient chord dictionary. You get 3 keyboard lessons for each hand, timing mode (you can play the melody or chord by pressing any key using the correct timing), waiting mode (playback pauses until you find and play the correct chord or melody note; keys illuminate to guide you to the correct notes), minus-one mode (mute the left-hand, right-hand, or both parts of a song and play along nonstop). Lesson grading monitors your progress as you practice each lesson, and the chord dictionary shows you how to play chords by lighting the keys.
The EZ-250i comes with 100 built-in styles--it's like having a built-in band. Call up your favorite style of music like rock, big band, or country, press a chord or play single-finger mode, and the 250i will follow you through a piece of music, providing all of the drums, bass, piano, guitar, horn, and string parts.
What's in the Box
Keyboard, music rest, song book, CD-ROM, USB cable, a user's manual, and warranty information. Batteries and PA-C3 power supply not included.
