PLAY AND SING ALONG WITH THE PSR K1

BUENA PARK, CA (March 5, 2004)—It's not very often that a manufacturer brings out a new product that appeals to a whole new set of customers, but the Yamaha PSR K1 Portable Keyboard is just that—an affordable keyboard that can be used and enjoyed by everyone that wants to play, as well as everyone who wants to sing. It's educational with its ability to display and play sheet music, and expandable with its ability to accept new music from a SmartMedia card or the Internet.

PSR K1 is Your Musical Partner

As always, realistic sound and feel are a top priority to Yamaha. The PSR K1 features 61 piano-sized, touch sensitive keys that emulate the tactile characteristics of an acoustic grand, 32 notes of polyphony, and a selection of some of the best voices available today—including 480 realistic instrument voices, 100 accompaniment styles and 12 drum kits—with a generous 4MB Wave ROM to add even more realism.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of the Yamaha PSR K1 is its function as a comprehensive performance system. Features include an integrated microphone input, plus vocal effects like reverb and echo. Song lyrics and music notation will scroll across the large bit-mapped LCD screen in time to the music.

The PSR K1 also functions as a self-teaching keyboard with the built-in Yamaha Education Suite (YES II), containing exercises, a chord directory, over 100 songs to learn and other interactive features. YES II will count down the beat and even offer feedback, just as a teacher would.

Using the USB connection and a home computer, users can have an instant music production studio. Bundled Scorch/XF software allows digital interactive sheet music scores to be downloaded from a PC to the keyboard and saved to SmartMedia storage. In addition, up to five original songs (with six tracks each) may be recorded by using the integrated sequencer.

A new innovation, Magic Performer™, allows anyone to play chords to either the built-in songs or any song with chord information. With the onboard Music Database, simply select from over 200 song titles, and the entire keyboard will set itself up for that song. The Multi-Fingering Auto Accompaniment function will automatically recognize either a single finger or full chords.

The Yamaha PSR K1 can be played through headphones or through the 20W/side speaker system with bass ports, adding the ambience of a concert hall to any performance.

"The Yamaha PSR K1 has a long list of 'firsts' for a portable keyboard in this price point," states Mark Anderson, product manager, Yamaha Portable Keyboards. "These include SmartMedia data storage, vocal audio capability and a bitmap graphics display that will also show lyrics. If there was ever a breakthrough product, this is the one."

For more information on the PSR K1, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Pro Audio & Combo Division, Portable Keyboards, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; e-mail infostation@yamaha.com; or visit www.yamaha.com.