Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The Yamaha DGX-230 / YPG-235 is a great keyboard! I travel and do concerts, shows, church services and live recordings in many countries and am so pleased with this keyboard that over the past few years I have purchased ten, leaving one in each region so it's available when I return. Let me tell you why. (Note, the DGX-230 and YPG-235 are exactly the same keyboard. DGX is silver, YPG is 'champagne gold', the DGX includes the sustain pedal and adapter, YPG does not.) The DGX-230/YPG-235 sounds great, is simple, versatile, durable, loud enough to lead a sing-along for a room of 15-20 people without needing added amplification, and can even run on batteries (great for the beach or campfire). It can sequence up to 10,000 notes (5,000 chord changes if you're running the arranger). It has 76 keys--a HUGE advantage--with three levels of touch-sensitivity, which is a big plus if you are taking piano lessons and need the range and feel of a real piano. Also, if you play music that ranges from quiet, sensitive and light (requiring a delicate touch and nuance) to loud and aggressive requiring heavy pounding, the DGX/YPG can adjust the touch-sensitivity three levels across the entire keyboard as easily as flicking a switch! In this price range that is amazing. I love the weight of this keyboard (18.4 lbs)! It's so portable and light you can take it on an airplane in a padded bag with weight to spare (even in Europe where the max is 20 kilos). It's durable and light enough to carry 'around town' without a road case. In fact my wife (who weighs all of 100 pounds and zips around busily on her 5" heels) carts this thing around, up and down stairs, in and out of the car, as easily as carrying a second purse under her arm! The Yamaha DGX230/YPG235 is simple to use and does its job VERY well! It has a LOT of capability, tons of sounds and great styles, and believe it or not shares about 90% in common with the more expensive models (DGX 530/630 and YPG 535/635). Granted, a little more effort is needed to access some of the various submenus, such as octave function, volume levels of sections, sound parameters, etc. but it's not overly difficult to access these functions, and user registrations can be set up to help out. On a personal note, this little Yamaha wonder even seems to have a spiritual side built in. Hear me out on this. For my use as a worship leader, it's important I don't get too distracted and caught up thinking and worrying about operating the keyboard. Rather I need to focus on sensing God and being inspired. This Yamaha keyboard (to use a church term) is really anointed--its sounds and styles actually help create an overall spiritual sense of inspiration. I'm not kidding when I say this. In my work I play a lot of Christian music using many different arranger keyboards, from 'tiny toys' to 'the big boys' (eg. I once did a concert at the Arctic Circle with a 24-note 'toy' keyboard with keys that were only half an inch wide!), including many advanced Yamaha, Ketron, Tyros, and Korg keyboards.But this much I can say: Whether performing a concert for thousands of people, or playing a small event with 20 folks, or recording inspirational worship videos for YouTube, or just playing on my own at home worshiping the Lord; when I really need to get into God's presence and be inspired, I love to use this inexpensive Yamaha YPG-235! Because it's SO easy to use, sounds great, and (for whatever the intangible intrinsic reasons) really helps me get into God's presence and be inspired. Plain and simple. I know what I'm speaking about, because I have six other arranger keyboards in my studio to choose from: ♫ Yamaha Tyros 5-76 ♫ Ketron SD-1 (made in Italy by Solton) ♫ Roland E-86 (also made in Italy) ♫ Yamaha YPT-400 ♫ Yamaha PSR-A300 for Arabic music ♫ Roland EM-GR1 for Greek music Notwithstanding all these, I still often choose to use the DGX230/YPG-235, especially in live performance, because it is almost fool-proof. I can easily focus on the music without worrying that I might hit a wrong button mid-stream, thereby causing my nice worship song to suddenly become a big-band (or heavy rock band) grrrroove! Advanced arranger keyboards are like flying an airplane: one wrong button can cause a lot of instantaneous problems, especially in a live setting. I don't want any live event (or live recording or live-stream) to suddenly crash to the ground! I could say lots more, but in my opinion, to get all this, for $250-300 is really a GREAT deal!! You can't lose! Whether you're a beginner, or intermediate, look no further. If you're a church looking for an economical alternative, do yourself a favor...BUY one of these! Buy two! I can't tell you how many churches I've gone into with huge expensive keyboard workstations (a la Motif, etc) which they've spent two or three thousand dollars on...yet with nobody who knows how to access 99% of the functions! If the truth be told, they have no need to. What they really need is a Yamaha DGX230/YPG235. It can function as a grand piano, a synthesizer, a church organ, a bass guitar, or whatever is needed! It's simple enough to not intimidate average musicians. BUT it can also be a GREAT arranger keyboard that supplies the sound of an entire band! --creating and playing songs 'on the fly'--no sequencing necessary! Get this 'basic' Yamaha, take an hour or two to learn the functions, then blow away the audience/pastor/board/congregation/mom/dad/family/school-mates with what you can do and how powerfully you can positively affect and inspire an entire audience or congregation in such a big useful way! ---------- To be fair I can think of five negatives. But for most people they won't matter a bit: 1) the stylistic variations are limited, each style having only an "A" and "B" variation together with corresponding intro and ending. 2) The stereo headphone output functions as the line out. This means that when you adjust the volume knob, the signal coming out of the keyboard is similarly affected. (note that since the headphone output level is louder than a typical 'line out' level, be careful so as not to overload the amp or soundboard with the high level, especially if the volume knob is up full.) 3) There's no midi-out, so if you want to run another keyboard via midi (for example if you need more than 32-notes polyphony) you'll have to hook up this Yamaha to a computer (via the USB A-type jack), and from there connect another keyboard. I don't know of any way to control another keyboard without using a computer to go-between. (If someone knows, please email me at stevekuban@hotmail.com) 4) On this keyboard you can't save to a flash-drive, nor load from a flash drive, because there is no "USB to Device" functionality (unlike the higher-level models). However you still have 'USB to Host' capability, which means you can connect the 230/235 to a computer (the host) and transfer songs, styles, etc back and forth, as well as record performance data while you play to a sequencer application running on your computer. 5) While the internal sequencer can record up to 10,000 melody notes (or 5,000 'chords'), there doesn't appear to be a way to transfer a song that you sequenced (or a performance that you 'recorded') on this keyboard to your computer as a standard midi file (smf) for further editing and manipulation in your sequencer application on your computer. However I am still looking into this. But regarding these 'negatives', it's worth noting that even the top-of-the-line electric grand in this series has only two variations, and no midi outs. So, if your application needs more variations or a midi out, then you'll need to consider the PSR series, or Tyros, etc.--but be aware that you WILL lose the extra octave, and it will cost you considerably more money. I've settled for less, and in so doing have been very pleasantly surprised. I can't be happier with my choice of the Yamaha DGX230/YPG235 electric grand, and I recommend it to everyone!