Yamaha Ypt420 61 Key Portable Keyboard
Whether using it traditionally or through a pc or macintosh, your originative potentials will rise to new heights with the yamaha ypt420! the ypt420 evolves from the mutual to the rare and combines conventional learning tools with hands-on performance features like pitch bend wheel for authentic playing of guitar and horn sounds, control knobs that grant you to have real time control over filters, effects, eq, tempo and an arpeggio function for techno and synthesizer keyboard playing that may mechanically add the playing of notes in rapid succession in ascending and descending fashion. these are easy to use professional features that set this keyboard apart from others in it is class. the ypt420 even includes real-time assignable control knobs! two assignable knobs on the panel give you flexible, powerful real-time control of filter (voice or style), effect settings, sound envelope (attack and release) and style tempo. it comes with 30 built-in songs plus 70 more on an included cd-rom and an interactional lesson system, separated into left and right hand parts, for learning them. in addition, you have the capacity to connect to a computer thru usb, download more songs from the internet into the internal flash rom (pc only), and use all of the yamaha education suite features to support you learn to play them. yamaha makes it easy to get connected with the new pc button. there are a lot of other tools on this ypt-420 keyboard that make it easy to be a power user from the introductory day you use it. most of all, it’s a musical instrument you may grow with.
Yamaha Ypt420 61 Key Portable Keyboard Photo
Yamaha Ypt420 61 Key Portable Keyboard Photo
Yamaha Ypt420 61 Key Portable Keyboard Picture
Yamaha Ypt420 61 Key Portable Keyboard Photo
Yamaha Ypt420 61 Key Portable Keyboard Photo
Yamaha Ypt420 61 Key Portable Keyboard Image
Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
 Great, versatile for the gigging musician
By C. Marcet
I’m probably not the usual target audience for this keyboard. Instead of someone who’s just learning to play the piano, I’ve been playing for nearly 30 years, and I became a gigging musician for the first time this year as part of a rock n’ roll cover band.
I thought I needed a substantial keyboard with weighted/graded hammer keys to gig with, so I sprung for a Yamaha P-155Yamaha P155S Contemporary Piano with Cherry Top Board, Silver. Now, that’s a beautiful instrument, and playing it feels more like a real piano than a real piano. It also cost $999, and weighed 57 lbs, so while I love to play it, it’s not practical for unplugging and taking it to small stage shows. And besides, that big beautiful piano only has a handful of sounds. I’d be scared if anything happened to it out in the real world!
I resisted the idea of getting a cheaper, lightweight keyboard for the stage. I thought the sound and feel would be cheap. And don’t get me wrong, the YPT-420 is very plastic, and there’s no weighting to the keys (although they’re touch-sensitive, somewhat, it’s not quite the same). However, this instrument actually puts out some pretty decent-quality sounds, AND it’s very versatile and customizable.
You can split the keyboard, have dual voices, and then tweak them to your hearts contend– transpose the octave or key, adjust the brightness or warmth, give it echo, make the notes “attack” and “release” faster or slower. You can really do complicated stuff. Granted, it’s not the most intuitive interface– you’ll need to consult your manual a lot. But once you get used to the routines to adjust the functions of your sound, and how to save these special sounds as presets and call them up (it takes three button-presses to call up another preset), you’ll be impressed how much sonic ground you can cover from this modest little machine. Not having graded hammer action is a GOOD thing. That makes the keyboard extremely easy to play.
I think it’s a fantastic value for the money. Sure, people who expect to see the Roland brand might not flock to your knock-around Yamaha. And on top of that, the price is so low that if someone did steal it when your back was turned, it would be mildly annoying at best.
I did not return the P-155 after I picked up the YPT-420. In fact, I kept the “better” piano in my room because for things like basic songwriting or practicing, the real-feel of it really beckons play. I don’t get the same “inviting” feeling from my cheaper keyboard, but I don’t need that for stage use. The number of voices, the fun of tweaking the sound to your individual standards, the layering potential, and the ease of use are completely worth while. If you’re in a band and you’re on a budget, this will probably be the only keyboard you need.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
 Disappointing keyboard
By William Miller
I purchased the YPT-420 Keyboard to replace an older Yamaha PRS-540 Keyboard I had. Although the YPT-420 has some nice new features (like HARMONY) that the PSR-540 didn’t, in general I have been quite disappointed with the YPT-420. The PSR-540 had 707 VOICES while the YPT-420 only has 504 VOICES. Since I only regularly used 37 VOICES on the PSR-540, I thought the 504 VOICES on the YPT-420 would be more than plenty. But it seems that they kept the weird voices (like a machine gun or a train passing, VOICES that I never use when playing music) and dropped many of the common VOICES I used and liked. For example, the PSR-540 had both clarinet and mellow clarinet VOICES. For many songs, I preferred the mellow clarinet VOICE over the clarinet VOICE. The YPT-420 only has a clarinet. Likewise, there are other VOICES that I liked that no longer exist or have equivalents. The same thing with STYES (rhythms). They dropped some of the more common rhythms from YPT-420 (like Rock & Roll, Gospel Shuffle, and Slow Waltz all of which were available in the PSR-540) with no equivalent replacements. The human engineering on the YPT-420 is not as friendly as on the PSR-540. Yamaha eliminated some of the buttons that were available on the PSR-540 (probably to save money). So although the functionality is still there, it is more complicated to dial or type it in. Also on the PSR-540 you just typed in or dialed in any VOICE you wanted. On the YPT-420, if you want VOICE numbers 144 to 504, you have to remember to hold in the VOICE button for an extended period of time before entering the VOICE you want. Otherwise you can’t get any VOICE over 143. That and other things like that (which in the interest of time and space I haven’t mentioned here) are in my opinion real pains.
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