The PSR-450 is all about great sound. It has a large selection of XGlite voices, plus eight Sweet! voices, five Cool! voices and lush Live! Orchestra voice and a special selection of music styles that take full advantage of those elite sounds. The floppy disk drive is Style File Format (SFF) and Standard MIDI File (SMF) format for backward compatibility and to keep the cost of data storage and exchange to a minimum. For ease of operation, the PSR-450 has the remarkable Music Database. Simply choose from over 200 song titles and the entire keyboard prepares itself for that song; it couldn't be easier. In addition, you'll find a new mode called Easy Performer that allows you to play melodies to songs and not make a mistake - even if you're a complete beginner!

The PSR-450 comes equipped with 627 voices that include stereo-sampled Piano, a large selection of Sweet! Voices including Soprano Sax, Tenor Sax, Alto Sax, Trumpet, Flute, Pan Flute, Clarinet & Trombone, Cool! Galaxy Electric Piano, Electric Piano, Organ, Rotor Organ, Electric Guitar, Jazz Organ, Live! Orchestra voice plus 10 Drum Kits and 2 Sound Effects Kits.

• Sweet!
Voices are special voices from Yamaha that reproduce all the natural expression and vibrato of their respective acoustic instruments.

• Cool!
Voices feature long samples of electronically amplified instruments.

• Live!
Voices use stereo samples to ensure the most accurate reproduction of each instrument's natural presence, resonance and vibrato. It all adds up to great sound.

And for the utmost in compatibility, the PSR-450 is both General MIDI (GM) and XGlite capable. The Internet has thousands of MIDI song files available and you can rest assured that the PSR-450 will be able to competently reproduce these files.

You are also able to create sound mixes of your own using 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. Layer mode allows you to combine two sounds across the keyboard range. For example, you could play piano and strings at the same time. You're only limited by your imagination.

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 Slow Rock and Stride, provide professional sounding piano accompaniment that change chords automatically as you do, while you play a piano melody on top!

The PSR-450 comes with 140 built-in styles plus 5 more on floppy disk, many of which are exclusive to this model because of the huge selection of voices. Styles, or auto accompaniment, are just like having a built-in band. Call up your favorite style of music like Rock, Big Band or Country, press a chord or play Single Finger mode, and the PSR-450 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 fun, 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 a demonstration of "What is a Style", click here (1.3MB download - requires Macromedia Flash and computer sound.)

The PSR-450 has a 3.5-inch disk drive with the ability to read and write Standard MIDI Files (SMF), which is still the choice of many professionals and teachers due to the low cost of data storage and exchange. MIDI files are small and one floppy disk can actually store many song files. In addition, floppy disks cost a fraction of what other forms of data storage, like SmartMedia™ or a thumb drive, cost. In addition, many professionally made MIDI song files, education software with music, and style disks from the Internet or your local music store are in floppy disk format (see www.yamahamusicsoft.com).

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.

Easy Performer is a new feature from Yamaha that guarantees that you can't play a wrong note. Here's how it works. Select a song and press the Easy Performer button. Play any note in time with the melody and the keyboard will play the correct pitch. For example, you can play the melody simply by tapping one key. Even if you can't play piano and can't read a note of music, you can still have some musical fun.

The PSR-450 features Chord Dictionary making it simple to learn chords. Select a chord and the notes are displayed in the backlit LCD screen on a music staff and on a picture of the keyboard. The keyboard even tells you when you play it right. There are 12 Drum kits to create percussion tracks including Standard Kits, Room & Rock Kits, Electronic & Analog Kits, Dance, Brush, Symphonic and Sound FX Kits. On the back of the keyboard are MIDI In/Out jacks so that you can connect it directly to a computer (requires a MIDI interface like the UX16 - see under accessories) and sustain pedal jack.

• 2-Way Speaker System
Separate woofers and tweeters deliver sounds with clarity and precision for more lifelike instrument voices.

• Bass Boost System
A special port on each speaker adds a powerful impact to bass sound reproduction.

• Stereo (Not just 2 Speakers)
We all know that stereo sound adds realistic character and spatial depth. But how can you tell if the portable keyboard you're looking to purchase is stereo or not? With Yamaha, the answer is simple. All Yamaha Portable Keyboards are true stereo.

• Digital Signal Processing (DSP)
Enhances sound quality with sophisticated digital effects like Harmony, Reverb & Chorus.

• Advanced Wave Memory (AWM)
Yamaha Advanced Wave Memory technology delivers amazingly realistic sound.

What's polyphony, you ask? Simply put, polyphony is how many notes a keyboard can reproduce simultaneously. The PSR-450 has 32-note polyphony allowing you to play intricate arrangements and dense musical passages.