Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18236 in Musical Instruments
• Brand: Yamaha
• Model: YPT-200
• Dimensions: 6.50" h x 17.00" w x 42.00" l, 1.00 pounds

Features

• No AC Adapter included in this package
• Portable Grand Piano for the Realism of a Stereo Grand Piano
• Large Backlit LCD Display Shows Musical Staff and Chords.
• Stereo Speakers, Bass Ports and Bass Boost System Provide Great Sound Quality
• 61 standard keys

Amazon.com Product Description
Designed for the beginner or music hobbyist, the Yamaha YPT-200 Portable Keyboard with Portable Grand Function represents the first model in its price point to include complete General MIDI compatibility and functions that, up until recently, could only be found on higher-priced units and professional workstations. With a broad set of features and functions, including Yamaha's Y.E.S.5 Education Suite, this is not only a truly affordable portable keyboard that allows you to play almost anything you can imagine, but that can act as your own personal music teacher as well.

The Yamaha Y.E.S.5 features 102 built-in songs for you to learn to play, separated into left- and right-hand parts and providing seven levels of lessons plus a convenient chord dictionary. The three keyboard lessons for each hand allow you to listen and learn the melody or rhythm of a selected song. A timing mode allows you to play the melody or chord by pressing any key using the correct timing. A waiting mode automatically stops the playback of a song until you find the correct note and then continues. Y.E.S.5 includes "lesson grading" that monitors your progress as you practice each of the timing and waiting lessons and gives you feedback. Finally, the chord dictionary shows you how to play chords and tells you which chords you are playing by displaying the notes and chord-name on the LCD screen.

The Yamaha YPT-200 also allows you to take advantage of the Internet on a whole new level. This unit includes General MIDI (GM) compatibility with a MIDI in and out connection to your computer giving you access to thousands of MIDI songs and files on the Internet. This portable keyboard features a built-in, fully-adjustable metronome, additional jacks for a sustain pedal, headphones for private practice, and stereo speakers that have individual amplifiers with stereo-sampling technology.

The YPT-200 also includes 61 standard keys, a large LCD display screen, an auto-accompaniment with 100 styles and four variations to choose from, 134 MIDI compatible voices, and it allows a maximum of 32 notes of polyphony. The easy-to-use panel and function controls allow you to create or choose from almost any sound, such as trumpets, violins, drums and even a choir, giving you a virtual orchestra at your fingertips. The keyboard weighs only nine pounds and 11 ounces. User's should note that the UX16 MIDI/USB converter necessary to connect the keyboard to a computer is not included.

Customer Reviews

Could have been better
I am very happy with this purchase; Some added features would have made this product a fabulous buy though.

cons:
a) The LCD display is not backlit and has a small viewing area. It is extremely difficult to read it.

b) The keyboard body has notations for each key, but is engraved on the body, and it being the same body color, it is impossible to read those notations - even in the day light.

c)It cannot record your voice. It is important if you want to compose and transmit through midi.

d) In the learning section, it would have been helpful if there was a 'slow' playback function too.

Pros:

a) Light weight
b) Grand piano is an excellent feature. Very good for piano learners, until they buy full size piano of their own.
c) Great features.
d) YESS learning suite is simply fabulous.

This model is far better than casio 496, which I was planning to buy earlier.

Great purchase...I like it.

No Power Adapter, Industry Standard.
Casio and Radio Shack also force you to buy an adapter for their keyboards so there is no way to avoid it but to buy a much more expensive keyboard or buy Sharper Image. But don't do that because Sharper Image's keyboard is awful, just awful. This keyboard doesn't have as many voices and styles as it's big brother the 300 but it does sound as nice. It also sounds better then the Casio $99 keyboard. I tested them all out at the store where they were on display and the Yamaha 300 and 200 had equal quality with the piano voice and beat out the Casio hands down. They also beat out the more expensive Casios. Plus, music stores that sell nothing but instruments carry only one brand, yup, Yamaha. At least the music stores here in Maryland.

No touch-sensitive keys = dealbreaker
As for some other users mine was advertised (on eBay) as having touch-sensitive keys. Unfortunately, the YPT-200 does not (I only found this out after receiving it)... it's the next higher model, the YPT-300, that does. I was sorely disappointed by that, because no touch-sensitive keys means no expressive playing whatsoever. Just imagine every single note being the same volume and intensity throughout a song and understand what I mean (monotonous).

Going hand-in-hand with that is key feel. This keyboard (perhaps most keyboards without hammer action) felt very plasticky/springy, not like a real piano at all. Of course not being touch-sensitive just added to my disorientation. I haven't tried the YPT-300 with touch-sensitive keys but it's my suspicion that it is well worth the extra $.

Another thing I was very unimpressed with was the Yamaha Education Suite. It flashes notes on a tiny LCD screen while playing a song to you. Then somehow you are supposed to learn how to play it back to it. There were a couple of nice songs built into the keyboard that I'd have loved to learn, but gave up in frustration after several days. It would have been much better if 1) instead of notes flashing on the tiny LCD screen, have individual LEDs above each key that would light up when a song was being played by the keyboard, and 2) if sheetmusic for the songs the keyboard tries to teach you was included. Ultimately I think a beginner could learn how to play songs much quicker by spending a little bit of time learning how to read sheetmusic than by relying on the Yamaha Education system.

In conclusion, don't think of the Yamaha Education suite as anything of value, and the lack of touch-sensitive keys should make one seriously think twice about even considering this keyboard for anything but child's play.