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MGR/Mrinal Kalakrishnan « Yamaha PSR 740 »
Published on 05/04/02 at 15:00This is my first keyboard (and only keyboard as of now), and I just needed a board to learn to play on. I got it for Rs. 40000 in India, two years ago.
It does whatever it claims to do pretty well. Nice variety of preset voices (around 700 totally, it's not a synth though) - the pianos, organs, strings, brasses, synth pads and leads are all pretty good, and usable. The "sweet voices" are... well... sweet! It has 3 DSP effects which is nice to have in a home keyboard. I can store patches sequentially in "Registration Memory" and advance through them using a footswitch, which is very useful for live playing. "Organ Flutes" is also a nice feature to play around with.
The sequencer was a disappointment. I had never used a hardware sequencer before, and I had expected more from the onboard sequencer than this. You can't record/play songs without inserting a 3 and 1/2 inch floppy, which are terribly unreliable and slow. Some onboard memory would have been nice. There is a delay while changing patches with different effects on them, but this happens with most keyboards. The "Vocal Harmony" feature is useful for nothing more than a toy, because it sounds so cheesy. And another gripe is that I can't edit sounds or make new sounds, but then it doesn't claim to be a synth, so I really can't complain.
Construction is mostly plastic, but I handle it with care, so it's not much of a problem. I face a lot of low voltage conditions here, and it's difficult to use it under such conditions, the unit starts buzzing periodically, and keeps resetting. Of course, the keyboard manufacturer can hardly be blamed for that. The key action is very light and mushy feeling, and I'm scared they might break.
Overall, it's a good keyboard for what it's supposed to do, i.e. a good home keyboard. Buy it only if you're very sure you won't need a synth in the future. I'm stuck with this now, and really feel the need for a pro synth now.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
It does whatever it claims to do pretty well. Nice variety of preset voices (around 700 totally, it's not a synth though) - the pianos, organs, strings, brasses, synth pads and leads are all pretty good, and usable. The "sweet voices" are... well... sweet! It has 3 DSP effects which is nice to have in a home keyboard. I can store patches sequentially in "Registration Memory" and advance through them using a footswitch, which is very useful for live playing. "Organ Flutes" is also a nice feature to play around with.
The sequencer was a disappointment. I had never used a hardware sequencer before, and I had expected more from the onboard sequencer than this. You can't record/play songs without inserting a 3 and 1/2 inch floppy, which are terribly unreliable and slow. Some onboard memory would have been nice. There is a delay while changing patches with different effects on them, but this happens with most keyboards. The "Vocal Harmony" feature is useful for nothing more than a toy, because it sounds so cheesy. And another gripe is that I can't edit sounds or make new sounds, but then it doesn't claim to be a synth, so I really can't complain.
Construction is mostly plastic, but I handle it with care, so it's not much of a problem. I face a lot of low voltage conditions here, and it's difficult to use it under such conditions, the unit starts buzzing periodically, and keeps resetting. Of course, the keyboard manufacturer can hardly be blamed for that. The key action is very light and mushy feeling, and I'm scared they might break.
Overall, it's a good keyboard for what it's supposed to do, i.e. a good home keyboard. Buy it only if you're very sure you won't need a synth in the future. I'm stuck with this now, and really feel the need for a pro synth now.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com