After owning a PSR-2000 for over 10 years, decided it was time for me to change keyboards.

Not that i was not satisfied with what the PSR-2000 offered me, but the hassle of swapping
floppies made me step into the next decade.

Now my budget was somewhat smaller then 10 years ago and a PSR-S650 or a PSR-S710 would
be the only choice, when going for a new keyboard. The PSR-S650 offered expandability, a
lower price and the PSR-S710 more polyphony, voices, multipads, styles and € 400, - more to
spend. What i really needed, was a keyboard that was fun to play and with naturally sounding
voices and styles. That there would be less styles didn't bother me, since i could store hundreds
on a USB stick.

So i went for the PSR-S650. After the PSR-2000 it took some time to realize, that i was now
owning a less "complicated" and "programmable" instrument. But after all, didn't i just want to
play ? Because that is what's making the fun !

So, how is the PSR-S650 ? Well, check Youtube ! Over the internal speakers, it is sounding great,
but in comparison to the PSR-2000 a little "flat". Perhaps i should check the equalization. Over
the headphones the sound is really amazing ! The styles sound very compact and natural. The
guitar parts are as real as you can imagine and contribute a lot at the overall sound. You can
hear that Yamaha did a great job over the past years in improving their keyboards.

After purchasing my keyboard, i downloaded a free expansion pack. Every new owner gets one
expansion pack for free. I chose the Celtic pack. Besides that, i also downloaded the "Best of .."
pack. That is free for everyone. Both packs offer at least 20 new styles and 20 new voices. The
Irish low Whistle Air" (flute sound) and the Italian Saxophone are amazing ! Yamaha also offers
10 bonus styles per pack, so you can expand your instrument with at least 30 styles. It's a pity
you can only load 1 expansion pack in the flash memory. As i mentioned before, you cannot do
all the things you can do on a bigger instrument like the PSR-2000 or one of it's brothers. The
file handling is a thing to get really used to. I do miss the buttons on the sides of the display of
my PSR-2000. You have to press and dial a lot to get at the function you want. Luckily, there
isn't much to load and save. Styles, registrations, user songs (yes, you can record your own
songs: Quickrecord, multirecord, no step recording), user styles.
The music finder is very simple, but great to play. The names are Yamaha cryptic, but once you
deciphered them, after choosing them, they are precisely are what the name promises you. I
still don't know, how to load new entries, but perhaps Yamaha is working on that ??? One thing
annoys me and that is that the headphone jack is at the backside (behind the music rest.
Plugging in a headphone switches off the speakers. So every time you want to play by yourself,
you'll have to dive behind the keyboard, plug in the jack, vice verse if you want to hear the
internal speakers. Also, the headphone jack is also the line out jack. What a hassle !

Overall, I'm satisfied with my new keyboard, considering the price i paid (€ 699,-) and the sound
and possibility's it has to offer.

Henk (from the Netherlands)

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Offline Bill Grosse

Moderator

Senior Member

*****

Posts: 11,566

Re: my new PSR-S650

« Reply #1 on: December 31, 2011, 09:14:26 AM »

Henk,

Thank you for the review of the PSR-S650 keyboard. 8)

User reviews are always a bonus to this forum for all members. :)
Bill G

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Offline tomtomsf

Charter Member

Senior Member

*****
Posts: 740

Re: my new PSR-S650

« Reply #2 on: December 31, 2011, 05:25:15 PM »

Congratulations on your brand new Yamaha keyboard! Happy new year and many, many more
with it!

Can you tell me, are you able to save the internal styles? How about the expansion styles? I
would like to try them on my T4.

Tom G.
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Tyros 4

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Offline business_usa_mex - Al Ram

Supporter

Senior Member

*****

Posts: 184

Gender: Male
my new PSR-S650

« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2012, 10:28:04 AM »

I just purchased a new PSR-S650. Overall it is a very nice keyboard. However, there is
something i have not been able to figure out yet. Maybe someone will be able to provide a
solution.

The PSR-S650 has a number of buttons with preset voices. You can also select a voice by
selecting category and then moving the wheel until you select the voice you want. You can
select the main voice and a second voice for dual voices. It also has 4 One-Touch-Setting (OTS)
voices that are preset depending on the Style you are playing. This way for example you play
piano with the right hand and then change to one of the 4 OTS preset voices.

This OTS is a nice feature, however, the OTS voices do not seem to be programmable on this
model. You cannot change the preset voices for any given style.

My problem is that i want to be able to quickly change from one voice to another voice in the
middle of a song. Say i am playing the piano with the right hand and want to change to violin
to also play with the right hand. Let's say the style i am playing does not include violin in any
of the 4 OTS preset voices. Also, violin is not one of the voices preset on the buttons.
There is no numeric keypad to enter the voice number. So, how do i enter violin as a main
voice in the middle of the song ? or how do i preset violin as a second main voice so i can
quickly change to it.

I can preset piano as the main voice and then violin as the dual voice but then it plays both
voices at the same time, what i want is to play one voice at a time.

I believe that other psr higher models have a RIGHT1 and RIGTH2 voices that can be preset
according to users want.

Is there something similar that i can do with the PSR-S650 or do I need to return this one and
exchange for an upper psr model and if so what model would be recommended that has the
RIGHT1 and at least one other RIGHT2 voices.

Your advise is greatly appreciated.

thanks

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AL
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Offline Bill Grosse

Moderator

Senior Member

*****

Posts: 11,566

Re: my new PSR-S650

« Reply #4 on: April 26, 2012, 11:58:45 AM »

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your S650 keyboard.

In case you missed the Home Pages for this forum, I post a link to them HERE!

Be sure to check out the home pages because you will find lessons, songs, styles and more
there.

You need to learn how to use the registrations for doing what you ask about in your post.

The registration feature is one of the most important functions on your keyboard.

The following link will take you to the lesson on registrations:

http://psrtutorial.com/lessons/playing/regist/index.html

Be sure to come back and ask for more help if you need it.

Regards,

Bill G
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Offline business_usa_mex - Al Ram

Supporter

Senior Member

*****

Posts: 184

Gender: Male
Help - my new PSR-S650

« Reply #5 on: April 27, 2012, 12:29:30 PM »

Thanks Bill G.

You pointed me in the right direction. I checked the lessons and tutorials as well as the user
manual.

Your suggestion to learn how to use registrations is a good one. After reading the suggested
material, in theory, it looks like i can do the settings for a song, including the main voice and
then register the settings, i guess then freeze everything else but the main voice and somehow
change to a second main voice and register those settings.

On paper it looks conceptually easy, however, it is easier said than done. I think Yamaha did
not make those registrations easy. I tried but could not do it.

I will keep on trying over the weekend. If not, by Monday morning i need to decide if i will just
trade my psr-s650 for a higher model that has a Right1 and Right2 button that can be preset to
any voice i want. The psr-s650 does not seem to have that feature readily available.
Your help is greatly appreciated, if you have any other suggestions are welcome.

Thanks again

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AL

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Offline travlin-easy

PSR Professor

Senior Member

*****

Posts: 9,637

Gender: Male

Gary's Gig Disks

Re: my new PSR-S650

« Reply #6 on: April 27, 2012, 01:36:16 PM »

Welcome to the forum. Here's a link to make those registrations very easy for you.
http://psrtutorial.com/lessons/playing/regist/10regGD.html

Have fun,

Gary 8)

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Offline business_usa_mex - Al Ram

Supporter

Senior Member

*****

Posts: 184

Gender: Male

Re: my new PSR-S650

« Reply #7 on: April 28, 2012, 03:44:27 AM »

Gary and Bill,

thanks a lot for your advise. You certainly pointed me in the right direction. I have read the
forum material on Registration as well as my keyboard User Manual. I believe I am very close
to doing what I need. Some success already.
Will try more.

Thanks a lot.