Yamaha PSR-A700

The Yamaha PSR-A700 is a 61-key arranger keyboard designed for performing, accompanying, and composing Eastern and Middle Eastern music. Designed for musicians seeking traditional sounds and accompaniments suited to these genres, it features 1,144 sounds, 473 styles, and expressive controls for live performance. Its built-in amplification and expansion capabilities make it suitable for use at home, in rehearsal, or on stage.

Key Features

• 1,144 built-in sounds, including Eastern instruments such as the oud, qanun, and ney, for performing a variety of traditional and modern repertoires.
• 473 automatic accompaniment styles to build rhythmic and harmonic arrangements around your melodies.
• Super Articulation, joystick, and Crossfade Portamento sounds for working on ornaments, pitch inflections, and transitions between notes.
• Oriental scale settings to adapt the keyboard’s tuning to the modes and intervals used in these musical traditions.
• Chord Looper function to record a chord progression and play it on loop during improvisation.
• 2 x 15 W stereo amplification, Bluetooth Audio, and approximately 700 MB of expandable memory to diversify the keyboard’s uses.

Oriental Sounds and Accompaniments

The PSR-A700 features a library of 1,144 sounds covering traditional Middle Eastern instruments and a wide selection of tones designed for modern arrangements. Sounds such as the oud, qanun, and ney allow you to create melodies suited to various Middle Eastern musical styles.

Super Articulation sounds reproduce specific techniques unique to the sampled instruments, including variations in attack and articulations that enrich phrasing. The 473 accompaniment styles provide automatic rhythmic and harmonic parts, useful for playing solo with a full arrangement or preparing for a performance.

Oriental Scales and Expression Control

The Yamaha PSR-A700 features tuning settings optimized for Middle Eastern music. These allow you to adjust the pitch of certain notes to use intervals characteristic of various regional modes, particularly when Western tempered scales do not match the piece being performed.

The joystick allows you to directly control pitch and modulation while playing. This lets you add inflections to a melody or adjust the expression of a note without interrupting your performance.

The Crossfade Portamento feature ensures smooth transitions in pitch between notes. It is particularly useful for practicing legato passages, melodic glissandos, and certain ornaments characteristic of Eastern instruments.

Accompaniment and Improvisation

The Chord Looper function records a chord progression and automatically plays it back in a loop. Once the sequence starts, you can focus on the melody, improvise, or modify your performance without having to replay the chords with your left hand.

Smart Chord mode makes it easy to create harmonic accompaniments using simplified controls. These features allow you to prepare arrangements, explore different melodic ideas, and develop songs around a repeating harmonic structure.

Amplification and Live Performance

The PSR-A700 features two 15-watt amplifiers paired with built-in speakers. This setup allows you to play directly through the keyboard without always needing to add an external amplification system, especially when practicing at home or rehearsing.

For performances requiring greater sound projection or mix control, the Line Out audio outputs allow you to connect the keyboard to a mixing console, powered speakers, or a PA system. Its 61-key design also makes it easy to set up in a performance space or transport between different musical sessions.

Sound and Style Expansions

The Yamaha PSR-A700 features approximately 700 MB of memory dedicated to expansion content. This allows you to supplement the built-in sounds and styles with additional resources tailored to your repertoire and musical needs.

The Yamaha Expansion Explorer app makes it easy to search for, manage, and install compatible content. This expandability allows you to grow the keyboard’s music library beyond the sounds and accompaniments available out of the box.

Bluetooth and Recording

The Bluetooth Audio connection allows you to wirelessly stream music from a smartphone or tablet to the keyboard’s audio system. You can play along with a reference track, rehearse a part, or accompany a music track without needing an audio cable between the two devices.

The PSR-A700 also offers MIDI and audio recording functions. MIDI recording preserves the musical information of your performance so you can work on the parts later, while audio recording allows you to save an audio version of a performance or arrangement.