Yamaha DGX520 Keyboard Review

The Yamaha DGX520 is loaded with great features. If you're on a budget, and you do not want to spend more than 700 dollars on a keyboard, the Yamaha DGX 520 (also known as the YPG525) is certainly worth checking out. Are you just starting out? Are you looking for a keyboard that the family can grow with? Then this Yamaha keyboard, released for summer, 2006, may be able to meet your needs. If you're thinking of buying the latest YPG/DGX keyboards try here.

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But if you're looking for a keyboard with weighted keys, the DGX520 is not for you. That's probably my only disappointment with it. While it comes with 88 keys just like a real acoustic piano, the keys are not weighted but lightly weighted. So if you want to develop strength in your fingers from the onset, I'm sorry. You probably need a keyboard like the Yamaha DGX620. However, some keyboard players have no intention of playing weighted key keyboards and spend their entire lives with lightly weighted keys. So maybe there is really nothing to worry about.

The Yamaha DGX520 comes with 500 instrument voices including 127 standard, 361 XGlite, 8 sweet, 5 live, and 5 cool voices. It also comes with an impressive stereo grand piano. You can use these voices along with as many as 9 top quality reverb effects, 4 chorus effects and 26 types of harmony effects.

If you're a beginner or aspiring keyboard player you will find the Yamaha Education Suite feature very useful. This feature actually helps you learn how to play. The keyboard comes with 30 built-in songs, plus 70 more on CD. You can learn to play these songs using the Yamaha Education Suite. There are three keyboard lessons for each hand. Lesson Grading monitors your progress, there is a repeat and learn feature, as well as a chord dictionary. The chord dictionary tells you which chords you are playing and also what notes to hold to form various chords. If you're looking to buy a keyboard for a student, I'd say buy one with this very important feature.

I've always liked the auto accompaniment feature of Yamaha keyboards. This feature has helped me a lot in learning about different genres of music. You can choose from 150 built-in styles, (example rock), play a chord and you will hear an entire orchestra that features piano, brass, strings, guitar, bass drums, and so on. The music changes as you play different chords. So there you have it - your very own one man band!

Other great features that the DGX520 comes with include an onboard sequencer that records 5 songs/6 tracks, a 2-way speaker system with a bass boost system, large full-dot matrix LCD, and flash ROM for downloading songs off the Internet. With a feature called Performance Assistant you can play along with any built -in song regardless of how well you can play. The Yamaha DGX 520 also has PC connectivity; it comes with USB MIDI and USB to external device storage.

All in all the Yamaha DGX520 is a pretty good keyboard. As always, be sure to do your comparisons before deciding on what to buy. For the best deals on the latest YPG/DGX keyboards go here.

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