Yamaha DGX-230 76-Key Personal Keyboard w/AC Adapter, Stand and Headphone

If you're looking for a reasonably priced piano replacement, look no further than the DGX230. It is the music student or professional musicians' answer to "I need more keys!" and many music teachers encourage new students to get a keyboard that will grow with their needs. It features 76 non-weighted keys that not only look like piano keys but have a Graded Soft Touch (GST) action with different levels of resistance, making it easier for a budding musician to move to an acoustic or digital piano.

The DGX230 has 30 built-in songs plus 70 more on included CD-ROM for you to learn to play using the Yamaha Education Suite. The songs are separated into left and right hand parts, providing 7 levels of lessons plus a convenient chord dictionary.

• Three keyboard lessons for each hand
  • Waiting Mode – stops the playback of a song until you find the correct note and then continues
  • Your Tempo Mode – Learn to play the correct notes with the correct timing. Song playback tempo will vary to match the speed you are playing at. The song will slow down when you play wrong notes, so you can learn at your own pace.
  • Minus One Mode – Here's where you can perfect your technique. The song will play at the normal tempo, minus the part you have chosen to play. Play along while listening to the song.
• Lesson Grading – monitors your progress as you practice each lesson and gives you a grade.
• Repeat and Learn – the song location will move back four measures from the point at which you pressed the button, and playback will begin after a one-measure count-in. This section will repeat allowing you to practice until perfect!
• Chord Dictionary – shows you how to play chords and tells you which chords you are playing by displaying the notes and chord names on the LCD screen.

The DGX230 comes with 30 built-in songs plus 70 more on an included CD-ROM and an interactive lesson system, divided into left and right hand parts, for learning them. In addition, you have the ability to connect to a computer via USB, download more songs from the Internet into the internal Flash ROM (PC only), and use all of the Yamaha Education Suite features to help you learn to play them. Yamaha makes it easy to get connected with the new PC button. Now, instead of wading through function menus and fighting through a maze of selections, one button is your expressway to music on the web and your computer. In addition, once connected, you can play your songs into the computer (PC and Mac), edit them if necessary, and e-mail them to your friends and family. And with General MIDI (GM) and XGlite compatibility, song data always plays back with the correct sounds.

There are many tools in the keyboard that make it easy to be a power user from the first day you own the keyboard.

• Expandable Music Database: Complete keyboard setups by song title. The keyboard selects an appropriate voice for the right hand melody, the correct musical style and the correct tempo. Simply call up a song title and start playing.
• One Touch Setting (OTS): Provides you with a recommended voice with effects for each Style. For example, on a jazz style OTS might be piano, for a Latin style it might be acoustic guitar and for a rock style it might be a guitar with overdrive etc.
• Registration Memory: Set the keyboard up just the way you like and take a digital snapshot by memorizing it to one of the Registration buttons. Load and save up to 16 Registrations to User memory. The Registration buttons are conveniently located just above the keyboard.
• Performance Assistant Technology: Performance assistant technology is a feature from Yamaha that guarantees that you can't play a wrong melody note or chord. Here's how it works. Select a song, press the Performance Assistant button Chord Mode and play the keyboard – any notes you like. Every note you play will fit the music! If you move up the keyboard, the pitch goes up. If you move down, the pitch goes down. Play a perfect arpeggio, or play chords in time with the music, or really "go for it" and play a solo. As long as performance assistant is "on ", you're " on". Imagine being able to give a concert to your friends or relatives the very first day that you bring this remarkable keyboard home. Well, with the DGX230 and performance assistant technology, you can! This keyboard is the first in the line to offer Chord/Free Mode in addition to Chord Mode described above. Chord/Free Mode allows those that have learned a melody with their right hand to have the keyboard correct the notes of their left hand. This allows you to concentrate on one hand at a time while learning. Play the correct notes with the right and any notes with the left and you're making beautiful music. In addition to working with any of the internal songs with chords, this feature also works with XF MIDI files.

Five different master equalizer (EQ) settings are provided to give you the best possible sound when listening through different reproduction systems—the instrument's internal speakers, headphones, or an external speaker system. You're in control.

You can change the "feel", or arrangement, of songs by simply pressing the Easy Song Arranger button, allowing you to re-mix any MIDI file. For example, you can try your favorite song with a Rock feel, Hip Hop, then Jazz. It's fast, powerful and one-button simple.

The DGX230 comes equipped with 116 panel voices, 12 drum/SFX kits plus 361 XGlite voices. Included in this selection is stereo-sampled Piano, a selection of special voices including Sweet! Trumpet, Flute, Pan Flute, Soprano & Tenor Saxes and Cool! Voices including Galaxy Electric Piano, Organ and Rotor Organ.

In electronic keyboards, the more sounds made at the same time — polyphony — the more memory is needed. Obviously, more is always better, because too little polyphony can cause dropouts in dense passages of music. The DGX230 has 32 notes of polyphony and will play back 16 different parts or sounds at once (16-part multi timbrel); enough for the most demanding needs.

Yamaha has long been a world leader in digital signal processing technology. In fact, Yamaha professional audio products are found in most professional recording studios around the world. The DGX230 takes full advantage of this know-how, giving you an extensive range of nine, top-quality reverb effects that simulate playing in everything from a small room to a large spacious concert hall and four chorus effects that add richness to electric pianos and guitars in particular. You'll also find 26 types of Harmony effects for your melody part.

Just what the teacher ordered! A fully adjustable metronome is just a button push away.

In addition to the 100 songs mentioned above, the DGX230 also has auto accompaniment styles that "follow" your playing. Simply select a style of music from the 160 built-in styles (example Rock) and start playing. The DGX230 will create a backup band (bass, drums, strings, guitar etc.) and "follow" you through the song. You can play your songs and try different genres of music. And if you can't find the right style for your song, you can go to yamahamusicsoft website, preview from the selection, purchase and transfer it to your keyboard (PC only).

You're never more than a button push away from the most realistic piano sound in portable keyboards today. One press of the Portable Grand button resets the entire keyboard to a stereo-sampled piano — perfect for when it's time to practice. Yamaha is known around the world for the quality of our acoustic pianos and this attention to detail is evident as you enjoy the warmth and clarity of the DGX230 Portable Grand piano. And of course, the keyboard includes a Sustain Pedal jack on the back for practicing and playing piano pieces.

The DGX230 features USB MIDI, Sustain Pedal jack and a Headphone jack for private practice.

Designed to provide you with everything you need to get started. Kit includes a two-year extended warranty, energy saving * power adapter, footswitch, stereo headphones, and bonus coupons. Look for it at a dealer near you. 

* Adapter goes into low power mode when instrument is turned off.