Well where do I start. This review was quite simple for me because I used to own the PSR-540, which is nearly identical to the PSR-550 with a few additions added to the 550.
SOUND QUALITY: One of the key points in the advertisement for the 550 was that it now has 8mb's of wave rom. The extra mb's made a world of difference too. The sounds are much better IMHO compared to the PSR-540. They are cleaner, more crisp, and have a greater degree of realism to them. What's nice is that they added 2 more sweet voices. The original 540 only had one sweet voice and that was the sweet trumpet. The 550 now adds the sweet flute and the sweet tenor. The sweet flute is AWSOME! Great velocity curving on it..
Most of the sounds are really good, and some are ok. Yamaha still hasn't put a decent slap bass on their PSR keyboards yet. Sounds way too digital. The pianos are pretty good. Organs sound the same to me. The guitars have been improved. The samples are brighter, and have more depth to them. In all I think the sounds are great. Even though there is no synth engine, all you need is XG works and you can edit the voices.
MULTI COLOR DISPLAY;
It seems there has been some confusion in regards to the display on the 550. Some people are under the assumption the the screen is and actual "color" monitor like the Technics. This is FALSE. The screen is multi colored, but it's only the back light that changes color. It's actually quite helpful too. Its color depends on the function you are in. For example when you're in record mode the back light changes to "red".. I personally like the soft purple back light. It's easy on the eyes. When I hit the record button, the red screen really caught me off guard. It's REAL red. You have to see this for youself. The display is the same as the 540. It's big, clear, and easy to see.
STYLES:
Man George Kaye was right when he said they cleaned up the styles. They sound much better on the 550. Almost all of them have been re-arranged. They sound fuller, and more rich in texture. The SONG DATABASE was a great addition to the 550. There are over 200 of them and they give you much more to work with. You just select a song and the whole keyboard sets itself up.
SONG AND STYLE RECORDING:
The song and style recorder (16 track) haven't chaged at all. It's still a 16 track direct disk sequencer. This really isn't bad though.... The sequencer is almost identical to the PSR-640/740 There's a great deal of editing features too. Even though you cant copy a measure and paste it, it still is quite versitile. It has the basic editing tools like panning, track volume, and individual chorus, reverb, and dsp can be edited as well. It even quatizes too. What's nice is that like the 540 the 550 also allows loop and overdub recording under they style sequencer. Making drum tracks is quite simple. The only thing that can get annoying sometimes is pressing the next and back button so much to accomplish minor tasks. THey added a few new styles and they're quite good.
COSMETICS (keyboard appearance)
The 550 looks way better then the 540. It's much cleaner and doesn't look like a video game with piano keys. They dropped that ugly ass yellow demo button, darkened up the major function buttons that were bright blue on the 540. They are now a REAL DARK blue, and blend in well with the keyboard. The other buttons are a really close to the color of the paint on the boards face, but what's nice is that they are not painted like the 640 and the 740.. The face is a goldish color, and the speaker grills aren't purple like they were on the 540.... My wife actually likes how it looks. She hated the 540 because she thought it looked cheap (which was an opinion shared by A LOT of people)
In conclusion I think the PSR-550 has the most bang for the buck in its class. I can't think of any arranger with these features in the same price range. I got the full package for $484.00 That's including the keyboard, keyboard stand, survival pack, and free second day ground shipping. It's great board and I'm glad I bought it...... If you see them in a store, spend some time playing it. I think many will agree it's a great keyboard..
Squeak
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