Yamaha DGX-500

I moved into an apartment in Austin, TX from a house in Louisiana. I couldn't bring my baby grand with me, so the search began to find a reasonably priced keyboard with good samples and features. I got it home from the music store at about 3pm on a Friday. By Sunday, I had the keyboard doing every trick in the book, and I didn't even read the book!

The MIDI feature works like a champ... I use it with Reason, Audition, and Sonar. The 88 touch sensitive keys are very responsive, though not weighted (which is not a big deal). The onboard sequencer is not very friendly for large projects, but does work quite well for it's design. But, with the studio software that I use, that too isn't an issue. The DGX-500 does have a floppy to store completed works on, but again, I don't use the feature.

When I was at the music store playing on different keyboards, trying to decide which one to buy, I stopped in my tracks when I laid my hands on the DGX-500. The instrument samples are so close to the real thing, that people are amazed to find out that I do all of my studio work with this keyboard. The salesman at the music store was trying to convince me that the piano sounds weren't as true as a Roland that he had on display for $2,600 (with only 61 keys). After playing on both keyboards for over an hour, there was no contest to which one had the best sounding piano voice. The instruments on the DGX-500 keyboard do sound a bit dull through the onboard speakers, as some others have complained, but when wired into a mixer through a recording setup, it is very true sounding with no artifacting whatsoever.

I'm going on year 4 of playing it daily without a single problem. I would definitely use this keyboard without a backup - it's the only keyboard I own!

Never had to deal with customer support on this unit.

If my Yamaha DGX-500 were stolen, I'd be lost. I would buy another in a heartbeat. I've been playing piano and recording sequences for over 10 years, and have not worked with another keyboard that sounds this good, for any price... and yes, it is worth far more than I paid.

i use sonar software but the keyboard its self is so much easier to use then any other out there. this is my second keyboard so far and it took me atleast 2 months to figure out everything i neaded on that. but on th eother hand this yamaha i got last 3 or 4 years ago is still like brand new and no problems yet. i figured everything out about it in probably 2 to 4 days.

this keyboard has alot of effects on it already yes. it has a in and out midi and a headphone insert, and a flopy disk built in it. it is perfect for recording on a computer. the sequence on this is so flexible that it amazed me by a long shot.

i really dont know about the speakers it has because all my stuff is ran threw the computer and a mixing board which i do not use for the keyboard. so i cant answer that one folks sorry. the insturments sound so realistic that it tricked my friends when i shoed them my recordings. they asked me who is your drumer.lol. the distortioned guitar sounds ok but not the best.

hey if i have had it for over 4 years now and not a single problem. i can prety much depend on it. and i have used this keyboard on many of gigs without a back up.

i really did not like the costomer support because when i bought it when it first came out i ordered the first one ever sold in okinawa japan and it took them 6 weeks to send me my stands.

if it got stolen most like i would either buy the same one because its cheaper now. and i love it . i own a $20,000 recording studio and it is perfect for the recording. i have 6 guitars. a pearl drumset, a ibenz bass guitar, the keyboard of couse, a nother keyboard which is a Korg Triton Extreme 61 Keyboard, 4 alesis studio speakers, 5 mixers, 2 amplifiers, a computer with a sony flat screen, a laptop, sonar and cakewalk projects software, and alot of expensive cords.

This was really user friendly. And I never really read the maual because I didn't need to. I sort of just figured everything out on my own, it was that easy!!!

I love all the built in sounds, they work great. I also like that it has touch sensitive keys. Great for playing.

Since i love classical music and this keyboard has a whole list of them to pick from , I'm really enjoying it. It's also nice because I am finally taking piano lessons and the touch sensitive keys are great for that. But I have to admit, it doesn't exactly have that classical piano sound to it, it's just a bit muffled. But still great for playing on.

I could definitely use it on a gig withouot backup. Extremely dependable, I LOVE IT!!!

I haven't exactly dealt with the company so I really don't know how they are.

My parents had to give away my upright when we moved, so they got a Yamaha DGX 500 Portable Grand for me the following Christmas, and I was a little disappointed b/c I had wanted another piano, but less than 2 monthes later I was already memorizing songs and I love it! I would definitely beg my parents to buy another if this was stolen.

This keyboard is GREAT!!!!!!! It's is my first keyboard,I decided that I wanted to learn to play the piano. I did some research and found that this keyboard was user friendly and ideal for beginners just learning to play.

It's loaded with features. I've got my keyboard for christmas 2003 and I still have not used all of the features. I like the different styles and voices. It has a cool metronome or you can use the styles function for it seems like hundreds of different rythums and beats

When I first heard it I was amazed at the sound. I thought that since the keyboard was so affordable it wouldn't have a good sound. BOY WAS I WRONG!!!!!! It has great sound, it sounds like a real baby grand piano. I was very impressed.

This keyboard seems to be very well put together. Yamaha has been around for a long time, that was another deciding factor for me to consider when I purchased my keyboard. I wouldn't hesitate to use it outside of my home.

I have not had the need to contact customer support, so I can't say how efficient they are. I would think that as long as they have been in business support should be great.

If it were lost or stolen I'd get the new version of this model. This keyboard has made my childhood dream of playing the piano into a reality. The only thing that I can think of that could use some improvement would be the manuel. The section on recording is not as clear as the rest of the manuel

I think the piano sounds sound extremely muffled. I'm really disappointed since that is where I spend most of my time. After reading the other reviews, I'm wondering if I missed something.

It's probably reliable. Although I was very disappointed in a previous Yamaha I had that also had a disk drive. After one year, it broke and Yamaha had alread made the part obsolete--couldn't be ordered.

If it were lost or stolen, I'd probably look for something with a better piano sound.

this keyboard rocks, i had an older yamaha, but this by far exceeds there expectations. For the price I paid I dont think i could get a better keyboard. Its definatly one that I will hold on to.

it has a nice 32 polyphony, which is very good, seeing as how most people with keyboards cant play the 32 notes to begin with. The midi is also very easy to use with access with only one touch of a botton.

most of the sounds are very good. The live concert grand is the best piano sound i have ever heard. It is better than most korg piano sounds, and thats because Yamaha makes some of the best Pianos.

It is very reliable. I could take this baby anywhere. It is biult very well, and it looks like you paid three grand for it. I will be holding on to this one for a long time.

i have not yet dealt with customer service. but I do know from past experience, that they have great customer service.

i love this keyboard. i recomend it for anyone. especially for beginners, who are intimidated by large keyboards. So buy this one!!!!

Wow, this keyboard is sweet! It is very easy to use. You could bring this to a gig and call up any voice u want very quickly. It has a Regestration memory bank so u can program sounds into those for quick voice setup. The manual is very easy to read and has a voice data list in it.

This is where the keyboard shines. The polyphony is 32 (that is plenty) and the keyboard action is beautiful. It is semi-weighted and has a great feel. The keys do have the "bounce back" action like a piano has.The effects are very nice. The keys are velocity sensitive with inital and aftertouch.

This is another place where the keyboard really shines. The sounds on this keyboard are incredible! The pianos are awesome with every little nuance.They are super realistic. It sounds like a Yamaha grand. The organs, synths, strings,etc are all beatiful and realistic. This would go well with any type of music. It reacts super well to the touch. Great Sound.

You can depend on this keyboard. I would definatly use this keyboard on a gig without backup. You can depend on this, unlike kurzweil keyboards.

I have never had to deal with Customer support. They have a great site though, if you ever need specifications and online manuals.

If this was stolen, i would definatly go buy another one of these. It is worth every cent i paid. I have been playing for a while, and i used to play on a crappy casio ctk-518. Boy, that was a mistake. But now, with this beatiful yamaha, i can produce and play anything i want. This is a great keyboard to use on gigs or with a band. It is a great studio or music room keyboard too. The piano sounds and other sounds are just incredible. Great Job, yamaha!

The presets for the standard instruments are very nice. Some of the XGLite sounds are a bit weak but might be useful in a mix, and not "up front." The Piano, Sax and Flute sounds are real standouts, string pads are nice, the oboe and english horn are less than perfect and don't have the right level of bite to be identifiable.

Patch editing? I see other comments about editing patches...well there really isn't patch editing beyond editin reverb and DSP settings. Unfortunately these are done through Sys-ex and cannot be set on a per-channel basis when using an external sequencer. Oddly enough, the internal sequencer allows you to select these parameters for each track independently. One of these days I will see if I can hack the data to see how they are doing this.

The manual is good except for the MIDI parameter pages which took a bit of figuring out. This is probably not a problem as most users won't be messing around with this.

32 note polyphony (wish it were 64 but hey at this price...). The action feels nice even though it's unweighted and the responce and feel is even across all 88 keys. The floppy drive is a nice addition for archiving scratch pad songs and backing up my kids ramblings (my younger son has a PSR280, which is not easy to backup from the sequencer) as well as playing MIDI songs from floppy.

One of the nicest features is the MIDI local on/off. This is the greatest, since I created an OMS names file and can select names directly from within Vision when I'm sequencing. Without this feature I would have voice doubling and burn through the polyphony.

The onboard sequencer is basic without quantization or section editing (unlike my old ESQ-1). It's good for a scratch pad and is probably OK for folks using the nice auto-accompaniement/styles features. The coolest feature about it is that it will record most user functions of the keyboard while playing. This includes using the Dual button and changing patches mid-stream.

This keyboard could definitely use a mod wheel, but the inclusion of at least a pitch bend wheel closed the deal for me.

As mentioned above many of the basic acoustic sounds are great, including the pianos, fllutes, sax, clarinets, bassoon, horns, etc. The guitars are also very nice, including the nylon and steel 6 strings and the 12-string. The sound FX patches and some of the XGLite patches are pretty weak. The SFX especially have noticeable loop points and lack variety across the keyboard which really limits their usability. It could also include a better, more accurate Rhodes and/or Wurly sound instead of the DX based e-pianos that abound.

The sound set would work well for most jazz and "classical" styles, probably ok for rock, but doesn't seem biting enough for dance or variable enough for techno. The effects work well with the sound selection: it would be nice to be able to have these as channel parameters for outboard sequencing. They seem clean enough with a fairly natural drop off for the reverbs et al. It would also be nice to sync the delay effects to a clock signal, but that's life.

Seems to be working fine so far...

I've talked with their CS folks twice. They seem fine but not necessarily informed of detailed issues. My questions were really about outboard sequencing and the use of channel messages which they didn't seem all that prepared to answer. They're probably spot-on when talking about general issues.

This is definitely worth what I paid for it, especially since I bought it at Costco and got the power supply and matching piano bench as well as the sustain pedal. If it was stolen or otherwise rendered unusable (except because of internal failure), I would definitely try to replace it with another.

Since it lives in my living room it also needed to meet with my wife's decorating approval. This keyboard definitely looks nice on the built-in stand with the matching bench. The kids enjoy playing and I can get a musical quick fix without having to fire up my studio.

I've been playing on and off for about 25 years but have not had much opportunity to play in the evenings on our studio upright after the kids have gone to bed. With the DGX-500 I find that I'm playing more regularly. I have a studio with a number of (now) vintage keyboard and rack mounted synths but it's great to have something that sounds good and is not isolated from the family environment.

The only real downside is that I don't think the amplifier/speaker system is loud enough. Another poster mentioned this as well, and I can can verify that at the 80-90% position there is definitely an audible hiss from the sound system.

I did check out the new Casio 3x00 series which sounds great (really nice amplification), has good Rhodes and Hammond sounds, but was not as good in either overall aesthetics or user interface.

I really enjoy playing this keyboard (although it can never replace my beloved ESQ-1) especially since I can enjoy within plain sight of the rest of my houshold. It's the only keyboard in its price range that looks good as furniture but also has great sound and playability. Even if you can't find it at Costco, it's still a great value.

Man, this keyboard is the bomb! The presets are excellent. The "Live! Grand Piano" sound is superb! It sound exactly like a yamaha acoustic grand piano. The manual is easy to understand. The buttons are well marked.

This is where the keyboard shines. The polyphony is 32 and the keyboard action is excellent! The keys are semi-weighted. They feel great. The action is also excellent. It has plenty of built in effects. Yes, it is a MIDI keyboard so you can access a whole bunch of programs on the computer.

All of the sounds on this board are great!!!! They are so realistic. The pianos are excellent. As a classical pianist, they are exactly like the real thing. All the other sounds are great! This keyboard is very responsive. It feels great when your playing it. It has great velocity and aftertouch.

You can definatly depend on this keyboard.

Never had to deal with yamaha. Im sure there great. I do know. however, that they are very friendly and helpful.

If this was stolen, i would buy another right away. Ths keyboard is excellent. It shows what yamaha can do and how good there instruments are. All the other brands(Casio, Roland, Kurzweil!!!, etc.)try to get a great sounding piano but they cant. Yamaha can and the dgx-500 shows they can. If you want a great sounding keyboard with awsome features and a superb action, the yamaha dgx-500 is the one to buy!

I own DGX-300, 76-key version of this synth. Preset sounds are very good. What is bad, there's no way to edit patches from the keyboard - to set ADSR or effects parameters you need a PC. Manual is good, but IMHO, this synthesizer is so easy to use, you dont need manual at all!

Polyphony is 32 (64 would be better), keyboard action is excellent. Effects are just basic, I dont like them. This synth has no expansion capabilities, and MIDI functions are basic. On-board sequencer is pretty and easy-to-use, although without quantization.

Grand Piano sound is excellent! Electro pianos, organs and vibes are very good. Synths sounds are not so, and there's no portamento on DGX-300/500. This instrument is smart for jazz, rock or latin playing.

I think DGX-300 is the best keyboards for this price. My friend asked me to exchange this keyboars on more expansive Roland EM-55... I refused! I use my DGX with a PC, Yamaha DS-XG and Yamaha SW-60XG sound cards.