Yamaha PSR8000 Portable Keyboard
January 29, 1998
The PSR8000 is the new flagship of Yamaha's Portable Keyboard line to be introduced at the Winter NAMM (98 Session in Los Angeles. "Incredible power and innovation best describes this keyboard," states Jim Presley, marketing manager, Portable Keyboard Department, Pro Audio & Combo Division, Yamaha Corporation of America.
The PSR8000 is a 61 key, touch sensitive, 64 note polyphonic, keyboard using Yamaha's remarkable "XG" MIDI standard. A direct to computer, "To Host" port, and both pitch bend and mod wheels are included. This instrument was designed for the professional, live performance, musician, the serious hobbyist, or anyone who loves to play and sing music.
The surprising list of professional features continue with an optional hard drive, SIMMs expandable wave RAM, after touch, multiple pedal control outputs, and a 3.5" HD disk drive with "Style File" and "Disk Orchestra" compatibility (enabling access to a huge library of songs on disk).
The expandable wave RAM compliment the sampling capability of the PSR8000. Memory is expandable to 32 Megabytes. Sampling complete with loop editing is another unexpected feature of this remarkable keyboard.
The stunning sound quality is due, in part, to Yamaha's Advanced Wave Memory (AWM) tone generation, Yamaha's XG MIDI compatibility, a newly designed bass reflex sound system, and enhanced, multi-efffect DSP.
Yamaha's XG MIDI format, never before available in a portable keyboard, is backwards-compatible with GM (General MIDI) but adds a super set of voices and controls for audio, effects and more, resulting in unparalleled life-like sound reproduction.
The "To Host" port enables the direct connection to the serial port of a PC or Macintosh without the need of a MIDI interface card or box. A simple cable from the keyboard to the serial port is all the hardware needed. This opens a world of music, educational, and creative possibilities to the more than thirty million U.S. households with personal computers. Especially important for laptop users, where the addition of cards may not be an option. Laptop users are becoming a bigger part of the total computer market. Much attention has been paid to ease of use, with a larger, icon-based, backlit display. All user interfaces have been completely redesigned, taking the PSR8000 to a new level of user-friendliness.
Yamaha's auto accompaniment is world renowned for its styles being natural, musically correct, and a joy to play. VA (Virtual Arranger), a new innovation from Yamaha, adds more than a simple variation of the style the user plays. It will add riffs, phrases, chord changes, and other embellishments appropriate for that style, making users sound even more professional.
Innovations continue with a microphone input for vocals which links up with an internal vocal harmonizer, enabling the player to, literally, sing harmony with him/herself in real time.
If remembering the words is a problem, another innovation called "LY"(Lyrics) will scroll the words across the large, backlit display, in time to the music, becoming a comprehensive Karaoke system. Want to enhance voice a little? How about adding reverb using the, built-in, multi-effect processor. Yamaha is world famous for its DSP technology.
A large library of professional performing sequences is available that include both lyrics and harmony parts. The harmony parts actually tell the PSR8000 when to add harmony to the user's voice in the song, how many parts, and at what intervals.
The PSR8000 at a SRP of $2995.00 will set new standards of performance/value. The musician who has wondered why someone couldn't put it all into one package will be delighted to see that Yamaha has listened by providing the PSR8000. The stunning performance of the PSR8000, in one complete package, is going to make musicians rethink the way they play live music. For more information, please write Yamaha Corporation of America, Pro Audio & Combo Division, Portable Keyboard Department, PO Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622-6600; call (714) 522-9011; e-mail info@yamaha.com or visit the Yamaha World Wide Web site at http://www.yamaha.com. |
