Yamaha MX49BK Music Production Synthesizer, Black

Excellent pro keyboard (the blue one looks & sounds great). I wanted a compact great sounding board & this is it. I thoroughly researched all the 49-key boards & the mx49 dominates by far, especially in the sample/sound quality. In the 80s I used to gig with pro boards like the DX7 & Roland D50. This little beast blows em away. TIP: I always set it one octave down (easy to do w/button) for best sound. Pros: + breathtaking sample quality & choice. strong piano, ep & synth patches, & lots to choose from. + it looks awesome in blue + hardware 4 knobs excellent for realtime pitch shifts + performance mode w/drum tracks & arpeggiator brings it to life + USB card port makes it easy to tweak & save many different setups; works great. tip: save factory defaults into usb file as well; vs job/restore fxn + total pro patches; same as on $2k+ synths; it sounds Awesome and its a great value Cons: - no looper/sequencer (I bought a digitech pedal looper) - no layer & split simultaneous mode - no aftertouch or weighted/semi weighted keys; though keys are still excellent - almost no 3rd party patches for this available (!); I only found 4 - I'd like more dance/EDM style sounds I have lots of fun with this; its easy to use; very smart design engineering; classic high quality Yamaha synth. Update: this works great with the Digitech JMSXT Jamman Solo XT Stereo Looper Phrase Sampler Pedal... must-have gear; i use it w/alto or behringer mixer. I hate DAWs; the idea of using software in front of a pc is ridiculous to me (I'm oldschool); using a hardware pedal looper works great. Last night I jammed for 2 glorious hours with this keyboard + looper. Tips: use auto-quantize mode on looper, and set tempo in looper & MX49 to match performance (120 or 106bpm etc). record 8-16 bars or whatever of mx49 performance drums & bassline into looper, then store as main loop. Next i added lots of mx49 percussion bits one loop at a time. then bg chord comps with clav or pads. so it stacks /overdubs til it sounds fantastic. then i play over it with organ or synth lead patch for improv. Huge difference in fun vs playing over performances alone. Question: why do so many patches play just one note max at a time? like synth leads... I like playing 2-3 notes in chords; am i missing something? tia to the music, ken Update 2/2019 The more I play this, the more I like it. I play along with music videos on youtube with a mixer. HIGHLY recommend this keyboard; also I love the patches in the 3rd-party "mx dance pro" download (under $50); those are what I use primarily to play along w/edm like tiesto umf etc; stunning quality that beats the built-in patches (thx Peter).

OH my word this is a great sounding keyboard and easier than most to play and layer sounds and synth. We love it! we use it in a small church and it has made a tremendous difference in our music. The quality is amazing for the price and the keys feel real - a good weight and fit for our needs.

Good: Just about everything. Physically solid, sits nicely on a standard X-style stand. Wide variety of voices, many of which are an absolute joy to listen to, even with my horrible playing. The keyboard has a natural, acoustic-piano feel to it; key action is smooth and solid, glissandos don't feel like you're about to break a finger as with some keyboards; velocity sensing sounds natural. Lots of bells and whistles (figuratively and literally) to play with and tweak up the canned voices. I count the lack of built-in speakers as a plus; this beast deserves good headphones and/or a good external amp instead of tinny, low-powered built-ins. Generally looks, feels, and sounds like it should cost more than it does. Bad: If anything, the keys seem to me to be a little *too* heavily weighted; this may well be more a reflection of my own lack of conditioning than anything else. Would be nice to have some dedicated preset buttons for voice changes instead of the rather awkward method used. Also, my stand has straps and bolts to secure an instrument to it. It looks like a standard method, but the MX88 makes no provision for such. Mind you, the keyboard rests well on the stand, and I don't plan on channeling Keith Emerson any time soon, but accidents do happen. Ugly: Nothing; a very attractive and professional-looking instrument. Bottom line: After being away from keyboards for 30-odd years, I wanted something I could grow (back) into. I found it. The minuses above are nit-picks; this is an outstanding instrument for the price. Five stars.

So, as an owner of a Nord Electro 5d, I need another one for...reasons. Anyway, this seemed to be a great "budget" Electro. I've used Yamaha keyboards for years. I actually learn Beethoven's Walstein on a PSR 280 (haha) so Yamaha has a special place in my heart. okay, I'm going to skip a lot of my thoughts here. A lot of my thoughts have to do with things that have already been said a lot. For example, the sound samples are great, the key bed feels great to play on if you enjoy the Yamaha synth beds, and all the functionality on this keyboard is fantastic. But I will highlight a negative. The menu diving. I understand that with this many features, it would be impossible to put all control at your fingertips. However, I do think they could have streamlined things better, or at least offered a version with a large touch-screen or a bigger screen with more information. or hey, even some kind of laptop connectability so you could control the keyboard with your laptop. My point is, the menu system and the display are reminiscent of digital technology from the mid-90s. I feel like I'm hacking a computer 20 years ago whenever I need to change the threshold on a compressor insert effect Etc. That might be sort of nitpicky, but really, it's the only time that I feel like things could have been improved. Other than that, this is a fantastic little keyboard. It can do anything you need. Obviously it does not have the magic of the Nord electro, but that's okay. It's not supposed to.

If you are looking for a great 88 keyboard that is light weight and has all that Yamaha sound, this is it.

I got this specifically as a second keyboard for live performance, to avoid the dreaded mid-song patch changes on my Yamaha MOXF6. I am TIRED of switching a single keyboard from a piano to an organ and back again! The four octave size was perfect for what I needed, I prefer synth action to weighted, and I knew the user interface would be familiar. If you've played any Yamaha synths from the last many years, it's easy to get going with just a skim through the manual. Given this was originally released in 2012, the sounds are decent but not stellar. A small number have annoying ticks or minor glitches in them, the few mellotrons included have way too much low-end noise, and some of the underlying samples are looped a little too tightly. Due to the looping to save raw wave memory and keep the cost down, some of the voices sound a little weird soloed, but fine in an ensemble context. There is no good brooding rock 'n' roll B3 organ in here. The build feels a little flimsy compared to my MOXF6, and the keyboard is that "narrow-guage full-size" type that Yamaha uses for its cheaper instruments. All that said, I got this bundled with an MX49 gig bag for well under $500 via Amazon Prime, and it is fitting into my rig exactly as expected. Pianos, organs, electric pianos, strings, brass and woodwinds are all by and large excellent, though of course not as good as the much more expensive MOXF6. There are some decent synth sounds, though I wish there were more diversity. The drums are perfectly fine (but again, not stellar). Once I got used to the keyboard, the real musicality of the instrument started to become apparent. After spending one day with the MX49, it's pretty much what I expected it to be and it's perfect for my peculiar needs. For other needs, this would be a decent first synth if you can live with four octaves. It is simply amazing you can get an instrument that sounds this good for less than $500, with a gig bag to boot. I remember paying that for a Casio CZ-101 in 1984 dollars! If you can afford an MOXF6 or something comparable, though, start there instead... UPDATE: in the last few days I have been exploring the layer function, which couldn't be easier to use. Press the "LAYER" button, cursor down to the 2nd patch in the display (which is inaudible without layer turned on) and pick whatever patch you want. The sounds on this MX49 are organized very intuitively, so if you have a Rock Grand Piano as your primary patch and want to layer it with the "String Quartet," it couldn't be easier to find. Whichever of the two voices the cursor is on in the display is the voice the knob parameters like volume, pan, attack, decay, etc. apply to. This couldn't be easier for on-the-fly layering & tweaking during live performance, jamming or songwriting. This is a feature I plan on using a lot in the future...

They make one of the best products for keyboard enthusiasts.

There should be more synths like this MX49 and Korg Kross 2. A joy to perform with. Additional sounds are available for free, and make sure to make use of MX Tools by Mr. Melas to edit the tones down to waveform level. Connect ot a computer with USB, and audio plays on the keyboard, practice along silently using headphones. Takes a whole lot of tasks from the computer away like effects, mixing, EQ, thus unburdening the computer.. I recommend read the manuals that come with it, and buy two of these instead of one 61 or 88 keys, switching between upper and lower and splitting is easier than plugging it in. Saves/loads from USB pen drive and USB connection both, and also makes a heck of a MIDI controller. Does have the the standard 5 pins DIN for in/out, through is missing though. Instead of getting a flight case, I took the factory bag, cost about $125 extra. The bag comes in blue only, while the keyboard can be black, blue, or white. AND, don't forget to download the free B.O.M.B version 2 for free: Best of Motif Banks. Making/saving/exporting sounds and songs are easy, system file format is .A5X Sounds from certain S series synths can be edited and loaded in it.

Great Yamaha sounds. Very lightweight keyboard Easy to use. Performance patches can be up to 16 parts

good

Buen producto a tiempo y forma

Works better than I imagined. Can plug in my iPad for the joy music piano app and play along. Nice sounds. Of course I’ve got a great speaker for it.

Got what I expected and what was advertised.