Yamaha PSRE213 Portable Keyboard Review

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(More customer reviews)It really does not look like a professional keyboard but it could be a beautiful present for a beginner. Got it for [...] so its well worth the money. I would recommend the starter kit that comes separate for [...] more. It includes a headphone,footswitch,an adapter and a DVD.

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Guitar Accompaniment: Playing Lead for a Singer/Guitarist Review

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(More customer reviews)This VCR tape is a good artistic production by guitarists Artie Traum and Diane Zeigler. Numerous demonstrations and tips inspire one to create, improvise and experiment with lead lines garnished with slides, bends and vibrato and well-placed chords. Schematics of specified harmony chords, fretted in the best positions, could be added to the musical scores so that the accompanist may determine the relationship of his notes to the notes in the chords or even attempt to arpeggiate.
The technology of producing tutorial music videos such as this has improved tremendously since this VCR tape was made in 1993 and the artists may wish to bring this recording in line with ambient practices so as a make a good product better! Working with videocassettes on VHS players is not only laborious but it is very susceptible to wear and tear due to frequent play-stop-rewind cycles to aid repetition and learning.
Diane and Artie may not have to add another note to the product but they'll need to engage sound engineers not only to put the entire session on DVD or SVCD or CD but also to create and add tracks of Diane playing alone after each mini lesson. The best way students will learn from this product will be to accompany Diane on their own immediately after they shall have seen Artie demonstrate the proper lead exercise and technique.
As such, the DVD would have to be broken up into lessons - variable-time intervals for recorded separate chapters indicated in the accompanying booklet -- each with two parts, one with Artie's demonstration and the other without. This is a better arrangement than alternatively muting Artie's parts by turning knobs to control outputs at various speakers.

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Keyboard Bench by Stageline Review

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(More customer reviews)Nice firm seat, much wider than I thought it would be. Great for a higher seat. It appeared for $59, bill arrived printed for $79 which was confusing. Arrived very quickly in perfect condition.

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Apple Garageband Jam Pack: Symphony Orchestra Review

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(More customer reviews)The day before I ordered this Jam Pack, I had received an M-Audio 88es USB velocity sensitive keyboard from amazon (reviewed separately) Keystation 88es 88 Key USB MIDI Controller and sustain pedal M-Audio SP-2 US65010 Sustain Pedal Piano Style Sustain Pedal for Keyboards
The standard Garage Band 'Grand Piano' sounded just "OK", and there was no harpsichord. Those were my prime reasons for ordering this Jam Pack... and to have fun with the other sounds, of course.
The Steinway Piano in this pack is substantially better than the standard Garage Band piano. Neither is perfect - but this Steinway is great for the price. The difference is more than the soft hammer sound of a Steinway vs a hardened hammer sound of the standard piano. The velocity response and the behavior of sustained notes is much more realistic. The default settings have a fair amount of reverb - to simulate a concert hall. Adjusting that and other sliders can give a sound more appropriate to other settings.
It still does not sound like a real grand piano of course - there are no induced harmonics when the sustain pedal is depressed, for example. But, not bad at all.
The harpsichord is pretty disappointing in comparison. The lower register is amplified way louder than the upper - roughly everything below middle C as I recall. I haven't tried adjusting bass reduction effects etc to make it sound more 'correct'. Also, considerable reverb in the default 'Orchestra Harpsichord' to reflect a large hall. Lower that to get a chamber sound.
The variety of attack modes that are adjustable by keyboard control are pretty nice for instruments such as the strings and brass.
The huge quantity of loops (over 3 GB) will be of less use to me, but can be handy for making some quick transitions or tracks for videos - since Garage Band is basically THE sound editor for iMovie and Final Cut Express now. I had expected that the loops would be performances on real instruments, but many (most?) sound like sampled digital instruments to my ear.
If you want a better piano, a harpsichord and/or symphonic instruments, this pack is a great deal.
PS Not in the product description, so I just noticed: The Jam Pack comes with a selection of 'demo songs' reached from the File > Open Demos menu. (If shared, these reside on disk at Users > Shared > Symphony Orchestra Demo Songs.) Five symphonic themes as an orchestra of MIDI instruments and 8 loop (wave) compositions. Fun to mess with and good for learning purposes.

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Led Zeppelin - Complete - P/V/G Artist Songbook Review

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(More customer reviews)First off, I know it's a Piano/Vocals/Guitar book: I bought this many, many years ago (pre-tab: you actually had to read music!) as a beginning guitarist/bassist to learn how to play some of my favorite songs, because this was the only book available at that time. I got to noodle through some pieces of my favorite songs, but I was never satisfied with their handling of the guitar and bass parts (although some of the bass parts were very close): very few leads, missing pieces, and some parts that never quite seemed right. I don't particularly play the piano, but it seems to me there's only a passing effort to show the keyboard parts. Today there's too many better places to go to learn these songs note for note (music mags, YouTube, LickLibrary) no matter what instrument you play. Think of this as a Led Zeppelin Fake book for the first five albums. I give it three stars because it gave me a starting point to make me hungry for more, but if I were looking at it today for the first time, I wouldn't give it a second glance.

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Yamaha PSRE403KIT PSR-E403 61-KEY Midi Portable Grand Yamaha Keyboard With Survival Accessory Kit B Review

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(More customer reviews)I don't know much about music, but after tinkering around with "Virtual Piano 2.0" I decided to give the real thing a try.
Browsing online I saw that there were literally dozens of different keyboards out there, many at affordable entry-level prices. So what made me pick this one?
PROS--
EXTRA FEATURES: Sure, you could buy a real basic model for less, but sooner or later you're going to wish you had a few extra sound effects and knobs to tweak. The Yamaha has a nice display with a blue back-light, which makes it easy to see which note you're playing.
SOUND: Plug in some Bose 2 Quiet Comfort headphones (worth every penny, believe me) and you can bang on your keyboard all you want without disturbing whoever is next door to you. The sounds and sound effects that this keyboard produces are really amazing, everything from pianos to church organs to brass, world sounds, guitars, choirs, drums and special effects.
NITPICKINGS--
SIZE: Call me naive, but I thought it would be a little bit smaller, like small enough to fit in a large footlocker. Not quite. Fortunately the box is pretty good if you toss in some extra foam when you ship it. I wouldn't really call this keyboard portable, though. As much as I'd like to bring it to work I'd consider it too much of a hassle and just leave it where it is.
EASE OF USE: The basic actions like playing the keyboard itself and selecting a "voice" to use is really straightforward. However, other actions like transferring data to and from the keyboard to your PC is still a puzzle to me (granted I haven't tinkered with this that much). And as I'm still a beginner, there are lots of functions I have no clue what they do or how to use them, which is good in a way, because that leaves you something to discover later on, giving your keyboard more "replay value".
CONS--
ACCESSORIES: About the only thing that might turn you off is the fact that you need to buy the power adapter, headphones, USB cables to plug into your PC and foot pedal all separately. Or you can just buy a Survival Kit (which comes with a foot pedal that didn't work, cheap Koss headphones, a CD and the all-important power adapter. So whatever the price of this keyboard, make sure you factor in all the accessories you, unfortunately, need to buy separately.
OVERALL--
As this is my first keyboard, I have nothing to compare it to, but I feel like I got my money's worth and I'd definitely say it's worth 4 stars out of 5.

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FastTrack Keyboard Method Starter Pack - Includes Book/CD/DVD Review

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(More customer reviews)Soul is a very deep and emotional style of music emerged in the 50s and 60s with soul artists putting their feelings and emotions into their songs, which seemed to mix gospel with R&B, to create a new sound that dominated the 60s and early 70s. Of course soul mixed with jazz creates a very unique and cool sound that adds feeling to the jazz. Three of these songs were made most famous by the jazz organist Jimmy Smith, The Sermon, Back at the Chicken Shack, and The Preacher, which are very rare to come by and this may be the only book to find these songs in. They are arranged pretty well, although the Sermon had to be condensed to 6 pages since it is normally a 20 minutes jam. Of course you have the godfather of soul, Ray Charles with What'd I Say, Unchain My Heat, and You are my Sunshine. Then you have a few my Jack McDuff, a jazz organist from the 60s and 70s. And of course you have other hits by other jazz performers, and the songs are all arranged pretty accurately in the right key, and simple enough for the intermediate player to easily sight read. If you are an organist, you will be more pleased, as half these songs are better arranged for the organ.

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Novation Remote 25 SL 2-Octave Soft Label USB MIDI Keyboard Review

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(More customer reviews)I just purchased the Novation 25 SL used for $130 on Ebay.
I must say it is a great value for the money.
When you use this little keyboard with Novation's Automap software, you can control most DAWs (such as Ableton and even Protools) in a primitive way, not like a full-blown surface controller, but you can use this keyboard to do things such as stopping and starting the transport, etc.
Another great feature is the touchpad, which is great when controlling VST's filter resonances and frequencies at once. You can also control most VSTs synths with Automap, using the various knobs, faders and buttons on the Remote 25 SL.
You can even use this keyboard as a stand-alone MIDI controller, without a computer, and without Automap.
The only drawbacks i can find with this unit are:
1-The LCDs are hard to read when the keyboard is sitting flat. I wish they would have angled the LCDs towards the user.
2-I was laughing when i read about the "Superb 25-key, semi-weighted, high-quality keyboard with velocity- and aftertouch-sensitivity"
I think this has to be some kind of marketing joke, because the keyboard on my Remote 25 SL certainly does NOT feel "superb" "Semi-weighted" or "high quality". It feels light, plasticky and very cheap, like something you can expect to play on a $20 casio synth. As a matter of fact, i opened the unit and the keyboard is not really semi-weighted but uses spring resistance.
But, hey, i didn't expect much for $130.
Anyway, i recommend this nice little keyboard, which is very useful in the studio, but when getting a used one, do not pay more than $150.
btw, this keyboard's successor, the Novation 25 SL mk. II is literally identical: same layout, same plastic shell, same cheap spring loaded keyboard, same buttons, knobs and faders, except the buttons and knobs light up, that is it.
The only difference between both units is are the main cpu board and the board that contains the knobs and buttons. The rest is identical.
The Novation 25 SL mk. II's lit knobs and faders will probably come in handy if you are playing live in a dark club, but i really don't see how this plastic keyboard can stand live playing and touring abuse without getting destroyed.
Not worth $300 in my opinion, specially when you can get a used, real weighted controller for a lot less.

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Casio WK200 76 Key Personal Keyboard Package (With Stand, Headphones and Power Supply) Review

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(More customer reviews)I love this keyboard, have had it for just over a month and enjoy it a lot. We bought it for home use. It's our first electronic keyboard so I cannot compare it to others.
There are many useful and entertaining features such as the large selection of 570 tones (instruments), many of which sound quite authentic, plus you can use two at a time if you want. The metronome is helpful and has some different settings such as sounding with or without a bell on the first beat of each measure. There are so many other features that I doubt I'll use many of them. One of the main reasons I selected this keyboard is because it has 76 keys, giving it a wider range than most keyboards.
Being able to use headphones with a keyboard gives a family a lot of freedom from noise if you want to play something very loud, avoid waking others, or let a child practice at times where the practicing might disturb others.
On the down side, I wish the keyboard had a USB port. But the real reason for giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is that I think it may have a defect. On day 31 of owning it, one of the keys started to make a clicking sound that I find disruptive and annoying when trying to concentrate on reading sheet music. Within a few days, two other keys started to behave the same. When very slowly and gently depressing the keys that click, I can feel resistance. I hope the problem doesn't spread to other keys. I called Casio and they said I have to pay shipping to and from their repair shop for them to look at it; as the keyboard is large and heavy, this would cost quite a lot. The place I bought it (Best Buy) said that they only cover the keyboard for 30 days and would not make an exception for 31 days. Fortunately, when using the headphones, the clicking noise is not audible.

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Behringer FCB1010 MIDI Foot Controller with Two Expression Pedals Review

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(More customer reviews)I use it to control my Line6 PODxt, and they work perfectly together if you download the proper bank settings for the job, or you set up your own, which is a pain in the foot (literally) if you do it "manually". I found a
software app in a FCB yahoo group that allows you to set it up using your computer, which is great.
I've used it to control my Korg Karma keyboard as well, and even to control my Sonar 5 Production (to start/stop recording for instance). All fine.
In short, the product works very well for what it's meant to. You might need to get your hands a bit dirty with
the setting-up, but once you understand how it works you'll realize you could even control your microwave oven with
this if it had a MIDI IN port :O)

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No matter what you play, or even if you're an engineer with a MIDI arsenal, you'll appreciate the way our FCB1010 helps you get the most out of your gear without tying up your hands or slowing down your performance. On top of its impressive MIDI functions, it gives you two jacks for analog switching and rugged, road-proof construction.

Professional and Ultra-Flexible MIDI Foot Controller

Something for Everyone The Behringer MIDI FOOT CONTROLLER FCB1010 is an ultra-flexible controller unit for a wide range of applications, whether you are a guitarist, keyboard player or studio engineer. The easy-to-use programming interface gives you fun instead of frustration, and invites you to fully exploit the capabilities of your MIDI equipment.
MIDI Controls Galore The FCB1010 offers 10 banks with 10 fully user-editable presets, customized for Behringer guitar amplifiers but programmable to your needs. Two fully user-programmable expression pedals will give you enough flexibility to manage your MIDI equipment, with freely assignable MIDI Channel, Controller number and range.
With this pedal, you'll get simultaneous transmission of five MIDI Program Change commands and two MIDI Controllers per preset. You can also send MIDI Note commands for trigger and tap-tempo applications.
Guitarist-Friendly Guitar players will particularly appreciate the option of selecting channels using two programmable analog switches, as they allow you to fully control both amplifier and effects from one "switching center." Perfect for selecting channels on guitar amps, etc. Additionally, there's no need to take a seat--everything can be easily programmed while standing.
Built to Last With its ultra-rugged enclosure and built-in power supply, the FCB1010 is absolutely ready for the road, too.
What's in the Box Behringer FCB1010 MIDI Foot Controller, User's Manual, Power Cable

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Shure PG81-LC Instrument Condenser Microphone, Cardioid Review

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(More customer reviews)I use 2 of these overhead for recording my drum set, they sound great and capture my crash, hihat and ride cymbals perfectly. I haven't used the batteries to power it, only phantom power on a cheapo samson mixer and it always works fine. Ive had 2 of these for about a year now with no faults.

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Alfred's Basic All-in-One Course for Children, Book 1 Review

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(More customer reviews)This little book is very easy to use and my kids are really enjoying it! It presents music in a fun way and makes it so the kids really want to do it. I highly recommend it!

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Yamaha GO MO DVD Instant Guide for Making Music on the MO6/ MO8 Review

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(More customer reviews)After purchasing my MO8 I was quite impressed with the poower and capability of this keyboard. However, being new at programming, sequencing etc. I was intimidated by the complexity of how to take advantage of what it could do.
I was pleased to find "Go Mo Instant Guide to Making Music With the Mo", so I gladly spent the $35 to order it. It helped me to see what the Mo was capable of and to dig into the manual, step-by-step to find out how to do it. The video does not give you that step-by-step instruction but it does show you how to use some of the keyboard's functions and programs.
I would recommend this to someone, like myself, who needs that extra push, or someone that wants to get an insightful look at what this keyboard does before making the purchase.

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DeRosa Childrens Red 7 Key Toy Accordion Squeeze Box Review

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(More customer reviews)I've never owned an accordion before, but I am a musician (guitar, piano...) and this accordion is great. Small enough for a child, but not too small for an adult to play. Sounds great - in tune, pleasant tones. Can't beat the price!

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Yamaha DGX-205AD Portable Electronic Keyboard with Adapter Review

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(More customer reviews)This keyboard seems to fall near the low end of Yamaha's middle series of electronic keyboards, judging by price and features. But it has everything I was looking for: large number of voices (400+), great sound, 76 keys, MIDI capability, USB interface. It also has teaching/learning tools, sequencing, styles/rhythms etc., but I wasn't as interested in those. The sound that comes out of this machine is wonderful. Even just the basic grand piano sound is terrific, and all the other instruments are incredibly realistic. The touch-sensitive keys are also a nice feature, and you can hook up an external sustain pedal (not included).
The previous reviewer who blasted this machine for having a long boot-up time and hissy sound is just plain wrong. This thing switches on and is ready to play instantly, and I haven't heard any kind of hiss, even at full volume.
This package came with a power adapter, which you would think is a given, but apparently is not in this product segment. It also came with a CD-ROM with software and drivers for the computer, and a DVD with some training videos. We've watched a couple and they're very easy to follow. The keyboard seems reasonably well built, but is also very light weight for its size so it should be easy to move around. I bought the Z-lock stand to go along with this also through amazon and it's a good fit. My only complaints are that some of the controls (like the jog dial and some of the pushbuttons) have a somewhat mushy feel that makes me wonder how they will hold up over time, and there doesn't appear to be a way to secure the keyboard to a stand. The piano keys themselves have a nice, springy feel with a decent amount of resistance that makes it easy to modulate the touch-sensitive response.

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DD-502mkII Digital Drum Set Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this set on sale as a local music store was closeing, I never heard of this brand before, but at 70% off, I couldn't pass it up. I figured at this price it would be ok to practice quitely at the house. I was very surprised when I set it up. it really sounds pretty good. I was used to a roland electric set, and it dosn't have as many bells and whistles in the computer, but we travel and play gigs with it, and it has played very well. a lot of the "voices" are just worthless jokes, but their are a few good sets programed in, and I have set up a couple custom sets I really like. I was looking at spending $15,000 on a roland set, but now I think I may just buy another one of these OSP set and put them together to have all the toms and cymbals I want at one time. I would highly recomend it for beginers to intermediate drummers.

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World Tour WTPA3 PA3 Yamaha Power Supply Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought the power supply for my husband's old Yamaha keyboard so that I could teach myself how to play piano. It had been sitting under the bed collecting dust for years, but thanks to this site it is now cleaned off and in use! :)

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