Yamaha DGX-500

As always some idiot who has more pride than knowledge post something to try and sway you away from the truth. The sounds are excellent for this type of keyboard in this range. Editing patches is limited but still easy to do with ehat you have.

Poly is 32 and you shouldn't need more. If you do you need to go to a pro style synth. It does have the basic effects and you can have fun with them and really change your sounds and the get the creative juices flowing. It has basic midi functions and a six track seqeuncer. Remeber this board is not designed for pros although some of the sounds do have a professional sound to them.

The accoustic sound quality is untouchable at this price range. Just agreat job. The strings, basses, drums and other things are pretty good too. It has great action and feel but it is not have hammer graded action. So no true paino feel, but for soft keys its much better than some of the top synths out there.

It's built kinda cheap but so far no problems

They've been good to me and easy to work with.

I would get this again if it were lost or stolen becuase its supreme value for the price. It's better than anything in its price range and good for multiple types of users. While its not a pro board it wil work great live, when using an external sound source and will do the job for recordings as it has many useable sounds. All in all a great board fo those not looking for the pro stuff.

I own a DGX 300 which is basically the 76 keys portable version of the DGX 500.
I bought it for playing in bars and restaurant. It's really light for a 76 keys keyboard with speakers.
All I can say is that it looks good, does the job amazingly well and makes both owners and customers happy :)
It's quite easy to use, reads XG and GM Midi disk pretty well, and the speakers are fine for a 40 peoples room.
Some of the function takes a few extra steps that are sometimes anoying in a live setup, like changing the balance between the acompagnment and the solo piano, for ex.

Polyphony is correct for Piano solo or piano and an light MIDI accompagnment.
Like I say the MIDI player works fine - as long as the MIDI sequence are well prepared of course.
Not a wide choice of style but enough to bring people to the dance floor, which is all I askingfor.
The only way to hhok the DGX 300 to an external amp is throught the headphone plug. The sound quality is still good but it cuts the speker off, which is too bad since I can't use the speaker for monitoring my playing...
It came with a external power adapter, can use Yamaha or Roland foot pedal, has a small Midi notepad sequencer I haven't tried yet... and a handy music stand which doesn't move even when I play rock'n roll :)

Piano Drums, bass and organ are very good for jazz, which is what I play most of time. The other sounds are honnestly quite good, especially for the price.
I have my own arranging studio, with a fair amount of gear, and the DGX-300 sounds amazing well even agaisnt tmy main studio setup.
The effects are basic but, again quite good for live playing.
The keyboard is unweighted but the Keys are 'piano style". I found a touch setting that works for me. It's easy to change the touch setup for different sounds, even while playing live, which is great.

Have been using it using it for 4 months, caring it in "bag" in my car and haven't had any problem yet. Never had any problem with Yamaha gear though.
Like I say, I use it mainly for playing bars and restaurants, often for 5 hours in row, loading Midi files and having custommers banging on it sometimes and it seems sturdy enough for the job. :)
I'ts made out of plastic though, and wouldn't not stand well falling from the back of a pickup or having a bass pseaker crashing on it :)

Don't know... Their web sites are pretty good though.

If it would goet stolen, I would have to get another one. There's nothing like that for this price (new) on market today.
I've been working as a pro musicians for 25 years, and if I had this keyboard when I started in the 80 th, it would have been heaven !
At the moment iI own a MU100R, KORG WS, AN1X, AKAI VX-90S-2000 and other sofsynths, plus a QY700 and Yamaha Grand Touch electric Home Piano.
There isn't a lot of 76 keys portable keyboard with a with a good paino sound and a MIDI Player with nice GM-XG sounds.
I love Roland synth, but not their portable keyboard...
To be honnest, for the price, there isn't any competition for the DGX-300 today...

Ignore the previous, worthless, review - the writer must have been having a bad hair day. Presets are fantastic - best I've heard on a keyboard anywhere near this price level, including some of the best sax sounds I've heard on ANY keyboard. Limited editing facilities, but I do all this on the pc anyway. Manual is very comprehensive, but Yamaha could include a full listing of the Music Database contents (style, tempo, voicing, song name etc etc) & some of the songs represented are very obscure (had to do this myself - took six hours!)

32 note poly, keyboard very light but VERY responsive - makes you want to play it. Effects seem good, and lots of variation. No expansion, only a disk drive (which I haven't had any real problems having downloaded hundred of midi files from the web). Pressure sensitivity is VERY good and expressive. No aftertouch sadly, but you can't have everythign at this price. MIDI seems OK, sequencer is fairly easy to use.

Grand Piano is beautiful. Sax (067) and strings (049) are great too - most all the XG sounds are musical and very realistic. The demos show this keyboard can deal with almost any musical style, from classical to garage. Reacts very well top paying style and is very responsive. No aftertouch. There are some hidden features (some sounds used in the MDB have special effects added when in dual mode - ie vibes!).

No problems so far. I've owned loads of Yamaha gear and only one problem - I literally wore out a keyboard on a DX27! This would not last up to gig work (but I'd love to try it). The low power internal amp and speakers do not do the sounds justice. Try recording it and playing back through a decent hi fi - you will be amazed!

No recent dealings with Yamaha, but in the past I've found them to be 100%. They repaired my old PS6100 out of warranty without any charges whatsoever. Thos people that knock Yamaha should think why they have become such a large and diverse company.

I would replace it with the latest version. Its worth every penny of #469. I've been playing keyboards semi-pro for 20 years & own several other Yamaha keyboards + supporting gear. I love the sheer MUSICALITY of this instrument,the beautiful sound and the fact that it makes me really want to play it. There is nothing I don't like about it - I was thinking about buying a claivinova and I'm glad I didn't. The styling is a bit IKEA - not everyone's taste. Yamaha need to pay attention to the accessibility of preset sounds - the system of putting them in banks, only having two available for immediate use, is very restrictive. Tempo control needs to be on a rotatable knob - inputting tempo data is clumsy. Aftertouch would be great - I'd pay more to have it. These are minor niggles - go and buy one today, you won't be sorry!

It is impossible! No Yamaha software works with it and the cable they suggest to use doesnt either!
What a complete waste of money! And they dont even throw in an AC adapter! You have to buy it seperately!

Its is made of cheap components and has a problem with GM and its own XG files. You can expand it into your trash bin! The midi jacks are encased in cheap plastic. They broke the first day!
Nice 3 minute sequencer. All my songs are 4 minutes.

Sounds a little better than my Emanee portable, but I still think
its better than my cell phone.

I wouldnt try gigging with this without a Casio or 2.

They send you emails, but ask you for more specifics even though you explain your problems in detail.

I think I would beat on a tree if this were stolen, the police dont work well around here anyway. It makes a funny sort of midi noise like speed dialing the White House.

This is such an easy keyboard to use. I like most of the sounds. Some are very good and some are. The sampled piano sound is one of the main reasons I purchased this keyboard. You get over 600 sounds and the XG sounds which are a huge step up from the standard GM sounds. I can't believe Roland and Korg, (other keyboards I owned Korg Trinity and Roland XP80) have never been able to get a decent piano sound. My DGX 500 has a much better piano sound than both of those combined. Editing is very limited on the sounds but you have all the basics.

It has 32 polphony. I wish it had 64 but still at the price I shouldn't be complaining. Not many effects but if you really dive into this keyboard, you can do some interesting things. It has midi in, out and thru and you can play standard midi files through the sequencer. No expandability, but it does have a disk drive so you can download most PSR styles from the internet as well as midi files and XG files. This gives you almost limitless options and for an extremely reasonable price.

Great action for a non weighted keyboard and the piano and EP sounds are amazing for a keyboard like this. It has velocity and aftertouch and reacts as expected. Bottom line is this: If you are into dance music get a Korg, there sounds are better for that style. If you play jazz, latin, rock or require any sort of true instrument sound, especially a good piano, this keyboard is a great fit at a great price

Have never owned a Yamaha and since it's new I can't comment.

See above

I would replace this because it's so inexpensive and such a good value. It's a well rounded keyboard with many features that doesn't break the bank. I would say nothing comes close this keyboard for features and quality in this price range.

Excellent sounds, esp. the realistic "portable" Live! grand piano, sweet breathy tenor sax and flute, Cool! organ and DJ voices. The 135 Accomp.styles covers from traditional/classic standards to modern dance beats. These styles are well programmed with parts for Intro, Fill-in, Variation and Ending, but only limited to 1 each in a style.

Accessing all these are very quick and easy with own Registration Memory presets or the built-in 200+ MusicDataBase presets. Also with OneTouchSetting, every Style has a preset matching Voice #000.

32-poly from over 600 XG voices. Mains or Battery operated. Portable at just over 4.5 feet long and 30 lbs.

The 88-key Keyboard is light weighted with four touch velocity settings - Off (velocity = 80 constant), Soft touch(narrow loud range), Normal(wide range) and Hard touch(narrow low range). Normal Touch setting produce reactions that is either too loud or too soft, but maybe it is just me with my amateur fingers.

The floppy disk unit midi capability is limited to SMF format type 0 and not the type 1 which one usually download from the Internet, hence you have to convert all your midi files to type 0 before it can be played by DGX-500 keyboard.

On-board arranger is six-track 5 songs with 10,000 totals notes memory with savings to floppy diskettes. Only User songs can be created and saved. No Style file creation or editing.

MIDI terminals only basic IN/OUT, but no THRU as another reviewer incorrectly mentioned.

Built-in 6W+6W 2-way stereo speakers has enough loudness and bass punch for a medium room. However volume knob usually need to be at 70% - 90% levels for a meaningful playable volume even in a small quiet room. At lower volume, the mix balance can be poor. At 95% + level, only a very slight hiss noise can be heard if you place your ear next to the speakers.

Yamaha QUALITY should be very dependable in every area of music making.

None needed yet.

Overall the DGX-500 gives VERY GOOD value for money! Limitations mentioned above are trade-off to keep price low. Even Casio would find it very tough to compete with this quality Yamaha unit coming out from China.

The presets on this keyboard are very impressive. The instrument sounds are unmatched. I was shocked when I heard the sounds for the first time. The XG bank is very nice and lets you create some great sounding midi files. This keyboard is so easy to use. I have been able to figure most things out without referring to the manual. Manual is well written and logically outlined.

The action is super for a non weighted keyboard. I was surprised at that. The Polyphonyis 32 but with most sounds you couldn't tell the difference between that and top of the line synths. No expansion options, :( but with midi and floppy drive,you can add different styles fromthe PSR series and bring anything compatible into the keyboard, ie patches, songs, files ect. Has a song sequencer and works very well with computer sequencer interface.

All instrument sounds are incredible and very realistic. Flutes, Pads, strings and EP sounds are great. The piano sounds are to die for. The keyboard has all the bells and whistles, touch response, dual tones ect. This keyboard really reacts well to the touch. I prefer the action to many more expensive keyboards.

It's brand new but I assume it will last. I owned a DX 7 forever so I assume since it the same maker it will last at least as long.

They were laways good to me in the past. I have only had minimal interactions but never had a problem.

Originally I was looking at digital pianos and the Roland XP 30. Loved the price, it is an unmatched value. With all the possibilities and this has and the endless styles and things I could bring into it, it seemed stupid not ot get it. I didn't need a top of the line synth, ie Triton, Motiff or Kurzweil 2600, nor did I want to pay the price for one of them either. I feel like I got so much more than I would have with a digital piano and saved some major $. If you can't make music with this keybaord, you really need to consider whether or not you can call yourself a musician. Ironically with this keyboard, they even thought of that. If this was lost or stolen, I would replace it in a heartbeat. I play in church sometimes when the main guy isn't there. He uses a Roland XP 60. I can't tell you how many people came to me and told me how much better the music sounded. I played the same songs they always play and used a variety of different sounds. It has everything to do with the sounds. Especially the piano sounds!

version 1, the preset sounds are unbelievable, especially the piano, sax, winds, strings and flute sounds. haven't gotten into editing patches yet, to be honest no need at this point. Manual is easy to read, and well organized

I think the polyphony is 32. Action is very impressive for a non-weighted keys. Effects are basic and well layed out.. This machine has midi in, out and thru and a disk drive to load midi files, styles ect.

Instrument sounds are very realistic and the main reason I bought it. Tried so manyothers but in the end, I loved the sounds on this so much more. It is very reactive to my playing. The after touch and velocity react the way they should. I was very impressed at how expressive I can be on this keyboard.

I had a DX 7 for years and I believe in the Yamaha products. I have had problems with other equipment breaking down. Roland (three times), ensoniq, and quasmidi all gave me problems

I have never had any dealing with them. I have always gotten things through the net or just ordered directly. I don't know how to rate them and be fair.

Check out the DGX Yahoo Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/YamahaDGX/

I would replace this in a heartbeat. I love this mahcine for what it is. I didn't need a workstation and in my opinion this was the best value and bang for your buck out there. The instrument sounds are great. The guitar sounds are ok but I have yet to hear a keybaord with great guitar sounds. I also considered a Roland XP 30, Yamaha PSR 740, Korg i30 about 10 others that didn't make the final cut and some crappy casio thing because it was cheap. In the End this was the best way to go!!

The preset sounds are very goodand there are lots of them. The piano sounds are crisp and very realistic. Among the best I have heard. The strings, pads and winds are also very good. Wasn't to happy with the wierd type of sounds. Overall this keyboard is very easy to use and understand. Manual is very easy to use and very easy to read.

The polyphony is 32 but it sounds as good as many of the 64 note. Keyboard action is very very good for non weighted keys. Effects are limited, but you have the essential ones there. An arrpegiator would have been nice. It does have midi compatibility and a disk drive to upload styles, midi files ect. Not a true sequncer but decent for an arranger

This is where this keyboard shines. The sounds are very good for the most part and this keyboard is very responsive. It reacts very realistically to the touch and pedal. Only down side is the lack of more effects but you can't complain for the price.

Since this is a new keyboard it is hard to say. Generally Yamaha products are very reliable

I personally have not dealt with them. I have heard some bad things about their customer service, but again I have no personal experience.

I would definately buy this again if I lost it. I actually downsized having owned many workstations in the past. Although this is not a pro keyboard it is still an amazing keyboard for the price. I would recommend this keyboard to anyone not looking specifically for a pro keyboard. Anyone looking for a great keyboard on a budget, you should strongly consider this

This is a good board for a beginner of even someone who who
wants styles to play with. Editing is fairly easy and the manual is easy to use. Patch editing is more of an advanced issue but it is easy with
this board. This board is a great deal for the $. I have had many other top of the line synths on the past. This one ranks right up there in terms
of what you get for the $.

32 Polyphony. The action is good, 88 keys non weighted. Average effects, not much expansion options, does have midi compatabilities and
disk drive for floppies. This board comes with software that will play along and teach you how to play. don't mistake this feature for a cheap
feature as on other baords. This one is nice. It also comes with a stand, and sustain pedal included.

The piano sounds are incredible!! Ohter sounds are good, some better than others. Strings are good and drum kits are good. It reacts very
well to the touch and is touch sensitive.

Since I have a new one and this board has only been out a few months, I can't accurately rate it

See Above

If you want a great sounding keyboard, don't care about all the combi pre set sounds (ie Roland, Korg) but still has all the sounds you would
need, has 88 keys, awesome piano sounds, good action, easy to use, midi compatible w/ disk drive and is very reasonable priced for what you
get than I highly recommend this. i also very highly recommend this board if you are someone learning to play that wants lots of bells and
whistles. I have been playing for years and I got this because of the value and it ghas everything I need. Keep in mind this is not a pro board
but you could use it in a pro set up, especially for the piano sounds.