The Yamaha DJXII a DJX Mutant

The Yamaha DJXII a DJX Mutant

            

The creative team at Yamaha must have been working overtime when they thought up this keyboard.  The Yamaha DJII is the consequent of the Yamaha DJX keyboard. It has the same basic configuration as the DJX but with more bells and whistles.  This portable 61 key digital keyboard has MIDI and sequencer functions.  What makes this DJII keyboard stand out from the rest is the cosmetic treatment Yamaha gave it.  

            With black, silver and red trim the design is distinctive.  Even more unusual are the grey, black and white keys.  The grey and white keys help to identify various function sets for the keyboard such as accompanying style or voice parts can be toggled off and on by pressing one of these keys.  Underneath a smoked plastic cover along the back of the keys are red LED lights to indicate the on/off toggle status.  The dashboard of the keyboard is packed with black, white, red and grey buttons and knobs used to control the functions of the keyboard.  Rounding off the collection of knobs and buttons is a Ribbon Modulator Strip.  This strip can be used to produce DJ type scratch sounds or to modulate the voice sounds included with the keyboard.  There are cool red LED lights around the perimeter of the control panel that light up along with the function toggle lights to indicate the power-up memory scan when you turn the keyboard on.  The lights have a psychedelic affect when you watch them during the memory scan.

            Released in 2000 the keyboard has the same features as the original DJX but enhanced.  There is more memory available than on the DJX. You can store more custom samples, sequences and styles.  The samples that come with the DJXII continue the sample types included with the DJX.  If you already have a DJX the DJXII will make a great addition to the first draft DJX.  A new effect applicator toggle switch sticks up off the front control panel and allows you to quickly apply special audio effects by flipping the switch up or down. The DJXII has two built in 8 inch speakers the allow you to instantly hear the keyboard in action.

            With an advanced sound chip, MIDI capabilities, microphone input and standard main audio outputs the DJXII is a well rounded digital keyboard with advanced DJ style functions. 

            

The Amazing Yamaha PSR-3000

The Amazing Yamaha PSR-3000

            The Yamaha PSR-3000 is an amazing digital keyboard for the money.  For around $2,000.00 USD the keyboard is packed with functions that are included in keyboards costing thousands of dollars more.  Some of the interesting options that come standard on the PSR-3000 are a USB to device connector port that allows you to connect to external hard drives, Flash Memory Sticks, floppy drives and Internet broadband connection capabilities.  There are In and Out MIDI ports, Main Out, Auxiliary Fixed Level Output, Auxiliary Input, Microphone/Line Input, Input volume knob, Video Out, Foot Pedal 1 and 2, USB to Host and Device and a LCD Contrast adjustment knob all located on the back of the keyboard.  This is just the back of the keyboard and it is just amazing!

            A musician’s dream that is what this keyboard is.  For a relatively small price you can have the capability of a full blown studio that you would pay hundreds of dollars per hour for a few years ago.  So how could that be?  Thanks to the advancement of digital audio technology, sounds, effects, sequencing, mixing and mastering can all be done on the PSR-3000 digital keyboard.  The Yamaha Corporation has come a long way since its inception on October 1^st, 1987.   On the front of the keyboard are multi-pads, buttons and dials that allow you to change the parameters of the keyboard. 

            Other features include a music holder that connects directly to the top back part of the keyboard so you can prop up sheet music in front of you while you play. Oh, and if you are into Karaoke then this is the keyboard for you.  You can “play” karaoke files via a USB flash drive or upload files from a memory card inserted into the front SmartMedia storage card slot located on the bottom of the keyboard.  You can store MIDI, STYLE, REGISTRATION and SYSTEM DUMP files on either flash memory medium.  The keyboard comes preloaded with USER files and you can create your own and store them to your memory media.  The keyboard can also act as a conduit that allows you to transfer files from one type of memory medium to another. 

            There is a large QVGA color screen located smack dab in the middle of the keyboard.  This is the Holy Grail; this is the control portal for all the functions of the PSR-3000 workstation.    You navigate the screen functions by pressing buttons surrounding the screen that interact with the graphic tabs displayed within the screen area.  There are many other silver colored buttons all over the top of the keyboard that control other keyboard workstation functions.  Along with these silver buttons there are brown rubber “multi-pads” that allow you to instantly setup and control the keyboard. For example, styles have 1 to 4 variations that you can switch to instantly using multi-pads on the left side of the keyboard.  On the right side, multi-pads control the setup of the keyboard instantly with a single touch. And let's not forget the Tap Tempo button that provides a method of tapping in the tempo speed.  You tap this large silver button four times and the keyboard will start the style or song tempo at a rate that equals an average of the time between the four taps.  Did you get that?  Moving right along, there are transport control buttons like those found on the front of a tape deck.  These allow you to stop, play, pause, and advance and reverse the status of song play. 

            The sounds in the keyboard are generated by a sophisticated AWM Tone Generation chip.  This keyboard can play 128 sounds at the same time (polyphonic) and comes with a set of 12cm and 4cm dome speakers built in.  It is capable of recording and playing 16 tracks simultaneously which can be “bounced down” to create an almost infinite number of virtual tracks.  The drum kits included with the keyboard are extensive, from jazz, hip-hop or trance any drum kit you can think of comes standard with the PSR-3000.  There is also a “Player Assist” function that helps to teach you how to play or sing.  For example there are special song files that will stop playing if you are off-key (remember the microphone can plug directly into the back of the keyboard) the PSR-3000 will wait for you to sing the proper note and continue playing once you have hit the right note.  

            You can show Karaoke words or sheet music scroll graphics on a TV with the video RCA connector located on the back of the keyboard.  Connect directly to the Internet and download content from the keyboard's web browser.  We can go on and on but this may be a good place to stop.  We can revisit the Yamaha PSR-3000 at a later date.  To describe all the nuances of the functions for this keyboard would take hundreds of pages; we will start here for now.  With all of these functions and then some, the PSR-3000 Digital Workstation Keyboard is truly amazing!

            

The Yamaha DJX a Ground-Breaking Hip-Hop Keyboard

 The Yamaha DJX a Ground-Breaking Hip-Hop Keyboard

Jazz gig, pop music, sampling, drum beats, sound effects, sequencing, midi, all instrument sounds, Hip-Hop scratch, play with no electrical cord just batteries, is there a keyboard that can do all this?  Yes there is, and it is named the Yamaha DJX or more technically the Yamaha PSRD1-DJX Digital Keyboard.  This ground breaking keyboard was introduced by the Yamaha Corporation in 1998.  It was designed to be a relatively inexpensive portable keyboard with an emphasis on Hip-op or Rap sounds with DJ functionality.  But what made this keyboard so unique was the Hip-Hop sampled sounds, scratch board and high quality instrument voicing all wrapped up in a cordless (power AC adapter cord could be used) battery powered digital keyboard for a price of about $150. 

            The Yamaha DJX Keyboard or DJX for short, had functions that were new and innovative at the time. For example, on the middle top area of the keyboard there is a “scratch strip.”  The scratch strip is an electronic device that allows you to run your finger along a rubber membrane to reproduce the sound of a DJ “scratching” records.  To compliment this, the DJX has a bank of sampled sounds like a record with scratches playing in the beginning part where there is no music playing just scratch on a record.  Other samples include a wide variety of actual human voices saying catchy dance or pop phrases.  You could combine keystrokes to create whole sentences or clips of words.  Hitting the proper keys in the sample section could produce the phrase with a female voice saying “Oh Baby, Baby!”  or a male voice saying “Let’s get down…” and many other phrases.  This is a very impressive keyboard.  If you weren’t satisfied with the samples that came pre-loaded on the keyboard you could sample your own.  About 8 different instrumental or vocal samples lasting up to 8 seconds each can be loaded into the keyboard by the user. 

            Yamaha chose to include its state of the art Yamaha 4-operator FM sound chip (YM2164) to augment this 61 key keyboard.  This sound chip accurately reproduces the sound of most any instrument like brass horns, string instruments, bass and drums.  23 different drum kits are included.  This sound chip also has the capability of producing electronic synthesizer modulations.  There is a pitch bend/modulation wheel on the left side of the DJX that allows you to shift the pitch or modulation of a sound in real time.  And to top it off, the DJX comes with programmable MIDI and sequencing functions.  You can create a whole song and store it in the keyboard or control other digital sound devices using the MIDI functions.  The keyboard is polyphonic and is capable of playing multiple sounds at the same time.  There are more costly and complicated keyboards that do the same things a DJX can do, they may have more memory to store stuff, but that is about it.  Most of them, if not all of the expensive keyboards are not cordless.  Think of the possibilities.  To find out more about the DJX go to http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical-instruments/keyboards/digitalkeyboards/djx/?mode=model  online.

If you are new to digital keyboards, search for tutorials with the keywords MIDI and Sequencer.  For DJs, beginner and experienced musicians, the Yamaha DJX might be just what you are looking for.