DGX202

76 Keys for the advancing keyboard student, or musicians wanting an extended keyboard

The DGX202 has professional features that include bass ports for enhanced sound, 76 full-sized touch-sensitive keys, 32 notes of polyphony, Yamaha's exclusive Advanced Wave Memory tone generation technology, and an icon-based LCD display. It also features a pitch bend wheel, MIDI IN/OUT connectors and is General MIDI (GM) and XG Lite compatible, critical for computer use. Although the performance and features are professional, the DGX202 is still easy to carry and can be battery operated. Other cutting-edge advances include a built-in 6-track sequencer (recorder), over 600 voices and Touch Response, so that your playing can be as expressive as on an acoustic instrument. A newly designed panel layout includes a blue backlit LCD and panel lights, making the DGX202 look as good as it sounds.

Customers have always listed the piano as the most important sound they were looking for in a portable keyboard. The DGX202 is part of a new piano-focused series of instruments from Yamaha called Portable Grand. In keeping with this piano focus, the Yamaha DGX202 features a stereo-sampled piano voice and dynamic filtering; technology previously reserved for more expensive keyboards. And playing piano is fast and easy with Yamaha's Portable Grand function. One dedicated button brings up a great sounding piano, stunningly rich and authentic in its sound and exceptionally responsive to your playing touch, as well as setting up the keyboard to play as a piano in full keyboard mode. On top of all this, a wealth of special piano-only "Pianist" styles, like Piano Ballad or Boogie Woogie for example, provide professional-sounding piano accompaniment that changes chords automatically as you do, while you play a piano melody on top!

The DGX202 is the music student or professional musicians' answer to "I need more keys!" and many music teachers encourage new students to get a keyboard that will grow with their needs. But the DGX202 isn't all about work and no play. There is a complement of over 600 sounds to explore. Not only do you get full compatibility with General MIDI (GM), you get hundreds of XG Lite Voices and full MIDI control of voice and effects parameters like Reverb and Chorus, which add an extra dimension of richness. In an effort to give the player maximum flexibility, the DGX202 is capable of layer and split modes. Split mode allows you to have two different sounds on the keyboard at the same time, like piano on the right and bass on the left. That's when you really appreciate the 76 keys. Layer mode allows you to combine two sounds across the keyboard range. For example, you could play piano and strings at the same time. With over 600 voices, the combinations are only limited by your imagination.

The DGX202 offers you state-of-the-art features to help you get started on your musical journey. It comes with 100 built-in songs with Songbook, plus the ability to connect to a computer and download more songs from the Internet into the DGX202 Flash ROM. Once a song is in the Flash ROM, you can use all of the built-in features to help you learn to play it. But if you've never played before, where do you start? Well, if learning to play music is important to you, the Yamaha Education Suite II™, a wonderful set of music training functions, makes learning music incredibly easy. Seven types of lessons are available as well as a convenient chord dictionary.

Yamaha Portable Keyboards are famous for their ease of use. But, even when the keyboard is easy to operate, how does the novice know which settings to make that are appropriate for the song he wants to play? With Yamaha's remarkable new Music Database, you simply choose from over 200 song titles in the database and the entire keyboard will set itself up for that song. It couldn't be easier.

The DGX202 comes with 135 built-in styles, waiting for you to play along with. It's just like having a built-in band. Call up your favorite style of music like Rock, Big Band, Gospel or Country, press a chord or play Single Finger mode, and the DGX202 will follow you through a piece of music, providing all of the drums, bass, piano, guitar, horn and string parts for you. And to make it easy and entertaining, when you select one of the styles, the One Touch Setting function will automatically configure keyboard parameters, such as voice selection and digital effects, to match that selected music style. For example, for a Country style, the keyboard might select an acoustic guitar, fiddle or steel guitar for the right-hand voice with appropriate effects.

For a demonstration of "What is a Style", click here (1.3MB download – requires Macromedia Flash and computer sound).

"Polyphony" is how many notes a keyboard can reproduce simultaneously. As with many things, more is often better. Some keyboards in this price range have 16, 24 or 28-note Polyphony. The DGX202 has a full 32-note Polyphony allowing you to play intricate instrumental arrangements and dense musical passages.

Yamaha makes it easy to connect the DGX202 to a computer with the new Computer function button. Now, instead of wading through function menus and fighting through a maze of selections, one button is your expressway to music on the web and your computer. All Yamaha keyboards have a special MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) port on the back that let you connect your keyboard to a computer (requires a MIDI Interface like the Yamaha UX16 and music software). Once connected, you can play your songs into the computer, edit them if necessary, and e-mail them to your friends and family. And with General MIDI (GM) compatibility, song data always plays back the correct sounds.