Every Yamaha arranger keyboard has built-in styles that are included with that keyboard. Sometimes called internal styles, these styles are stored in the PRESET area and they are always available and can not be changed or erased. They can, however, be modified and then 'saved' to the USER area or to a HARD DRIVE or to a USB drive.
The navigation bar on the left takes you to a page of styles for the indicated Yamaha arranger keyboard. You will find there a listing of all the internal preset styles that came with that keyboard. On many of the pages, there are also additional style sets that are compatible with, indeed, have been tuned to work with, that particular keyboard. All of these style sets can be downloaded. In all cases, you will be downloading a compressed file (a zip file) that must be uncompressed to get at the included styles. Be sure to check each page and to scroll to the end of the page. There are many thousands of styles available in this section.
In addition to styles for each keyboard, you may find one or more links to YouTube video demos of the keyboard. You will also find the original Yamaha press release for that keyboard.
If Yamaha and/or arranger keyboards are new to you, you might be interested in learning a bit about these keyboards and the 'styles' they contain as well as Yamaha's track record for announcing new keyboards. This site, the PSR Tutorial, originated when the PSR2000/1000 models were introduced. These models represented a brand new mid-range Yamaha arranger keyboard very different from the previous PSR740/640 series. Hence the PSR 'tutorial' was born. Since then there have been many more models and the PSR Tutorial kept expanding with each new model. To learn a little bit more of this history, read on below.
New Keyboards Every Year
Keyboard | Press Release |
---|---|
PSR-S975, PSR-S775 | Feb, 2018 |
Genos | Oct, 2017 |
PSR-S970, PSR-S770 | July, 2015 |
Tyros5-61, Tyros5-76 | Nov, 2013 |
PSR-S950,PSR-S750 | Sep, 2012 |
Tyros4 | Oct, 2010 |
PSR-S910,PSR-S710 | Jul, 2009 |
Tyros3 | Sep, 2008 |
PSR-S550B | Sep, 2008 |
PSR-S900, PSR-S700 | Jul, 2007 |
PSR-S500 | Oct, 2006 |
Tyros2 | Nov, 2005 |
PSR-3000/1500 | Jan, 2004 |
PSR-2100/1100 | Apr, 2003 |
Tyros | Nov, 2002 |
PSR-2000/1000 | Jul, 2001 |
9000 Pro | Jan, 2001 |
PSR-550 | Jan, 2001 |
PSR-9000 | Feb, 2000 |
PSR-740/640/540 | Jul, 1999 |
PSR-8000 | Jan, 1998 |
PSR-730/630/530 | Jul, 1997 |
Anyone who has had an arranger keyboard for a few years knows how much this industry changes over time. These keyboards are, at their heart, computers and like your typical desk-top computer, the features available seem to get better and better every year (although sometimes users are disappointed to see the disappearance of appreciated features). So, I've arranged the Yamaha styles section to reflect a small part of the historical record of Yamaha arranger keyboards.
The table shown on the right lists the various Yamaha arranger keyboard model families and the month and year of the press release for that model. You can click on any of those press release dates to see the original press release for that model. This information is also provided at the bottom of each model's styles page. Of course Press Release dates often precede the actual arrival of the keyboard in stores by months. For recent models, you can see a detailed listing of features and specifications by clicking on the keyboard model.
The pages in this section are focused on the models starting with the PSR730 series introduced in 1997 and going all the way to the present PSR-S975 model introduced in February 2018. Some models represented a series of keyboards, for example the PSR740, PSR640, and PSR540. Keyboards in a 'family' generally operated the same way with the more expensive models having more styles, more voices and, usually, more features. I refer to the top-of-the-line model in a keyboard family, but many of the styles provided will also work on the more junior brothers.
We also include the high-end series along with the mid-range series. The high-end is represented by the PSR8000, PSR9000, 9000Pro, Tyros, Tyros2, Tyros3, Tyros4, Tyros5/5-76 and, most recently, the new Genos. The mid-range is represented by the PSR730, PSR740, PSR2000, PSR2100, PSR3000, PSR-S900, PSR-S910, PSR-S950, PSR-S970, and the new PSR-S975. As the table indicates, a new mid-range keyboard is introduced one year and a new high-end keyboard the following year in a two-year sequence. There's no guarantee that this pattern will continue, but chances are that new and better keyboards are now on the drawing board. The PSR-S975/S775 were introduced in 2018 as replacements for the PSR-S970/S770. The Tyros5 replaced the previous flag-ship model Tyros4. The Genos keyboard, however, has a significantly different interface than the previous Tyros5. It represents a new generation of high-end model for Yamaha.
Similar Keyboards Every Year
If you have paid attention to the evolution of car models, you will undoubtedly have noticed a major model change occurring in one year and then that basic 'body style' being carried forward for several years before another major style change. You'll find that same idea in these arranger keyboard models. The PSR730 and PSR740 model families operated much the same way. The introduction of the PSR2000 was an entirely new and different operational system. That system has been carried forward in the Tyros, the 2100, the 3000, the Tyros2, the PSR-S900, the Tyros3, the PSR-S910, the Tyros4, the PSR-S950, the Tyros5, the PSR-S970, and the PSR-S975. It is also essentially the same operational system used in the Yamaha CVP digital pianos. The similarity in the operating system means it is fairly easy to move from one model to another. It also means that many of the styles will be somewhat interchangeable. I say 'somewhat' because while the operating system may be similar, the hardware is not and the voices included with each new keyboard are generally different. Thus, a style from an older keyboard may, indeed, play on a newer one, but it may not sound exactly the same. Styles, however, can be 'tuned' to optimize their sound on each of the keyboards. More on this below.
Preset and 'Tuned' Styles
For each keyboard, the Styles page gives you the internal preset styles provided with that keyboard. In several cases, you will also find additional style sets, tuned specifically for that particular keyboard, available on the 'Styles' page. For example, you will find the Tyros4 styles tuned for the PSR-S950 on the PSR-S950 Styles page. You'll also find thousands of styles from earlier (and later) Yamaha keyboards tuned specifically for the PSR-S950 on that page.
Style Compatibility & MegaVoices
While there have been a series of Yamaha keyboards produced, they have ALL included a basic set of 480 XG and GM voices. These voices are used in creating the styles for many of the keyboards. It is for this reason that one can take a style that was available on the PSR8000 and play it in the PSR740 or the PSR2000. This style compatibility, however, was broken with the introduction of the Tyros model. This model included a new MegaVoice technology. This technology provided more realistic sounding instruments, particularly the guitars, for the styles built into the Tyros. But the technology was only available in the Tyros. Those original styles will play, as is, in earlier keyboards, but they will NOT sound good. The earlier keyboards do not have the megavoice technology. Fortunately, there is software available that can detect and remove the megavoices from the style and replace it with a standard guitar or similar voice. When you see Tyros styles for the PSR2000, that is what had to occur. All the styles had to be tuned, fixing up the accompaniment voices where needed.
In addition, the styles on the models from PSR2000 onward, included one-touch-settings (OTS) built in and stored with the style. The OTS use the preset voices on the keyboard. If newer keyboards have voices not available on older keyboards, then these voices would also have to be adjusted to 'tune' that style to use the voices available on earlier keyboards.
This 'tuning' of styles is one of the strengths of the PSR and Tyros arranger line since the PSR2000 model. Not many users actually create their own styles from scratch, but many have learned how to modify an existing preset style to 'tune' it to their own particular preferences. It is fairly easy to modify accompaniment voices and volumes to suit your own personal tastes. You can change the default tempo of a style and the various OTS voices saved with that. You can even take parts of a style, for example, a bass pattern used in one style, and put it in another style. All of this can be saved in a new version of the style that you can name whatever you like. So each user can create as many styles as needed with these keyboards. The lessons available in the Lessons section of this site help you learn how to do all this style tuning. In this section of Styles as well as other sections, you will be able to download styles created and/or tuned by other owners for your use and enjoyment.
This page updated on May 16, 2019 .