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PSR-300
PortaTone
Electronic Keyboard

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The PSR-300 is an early 1990s Yamaha digital keyboard, featuring
first-generation AWM (Advanced Wave Memory) waveform ROM.
Notable characteristics of this accompaniment
keyboard include 100 AWM voices, a polyphony of 28 notes, 50
auto-accompaniment styles, touch response, MIDI, stereo
speakers, and 15 demo songs.
Other nice features include split and fingered
mode for the left hand, separate controls for accompaniment
volume, transpose, and tempo, and a dedicated button for setting
the split point. |
The accompaniment controls consist of an "intro/fill in"
button, a "synchro start on-off/ending" button, and the obligatory
start/stop button. You can also layer two voices using the "Dual
Voice" on-off button (great for improving/fattening the base sounds).
Then there is the "sustain" button I was talking about
earlier, and a "Harmony" control (adds harmonized parts to the right
hands) - you can pick between Duet, Trio, Block, Country and Octave
harmonized parts, very handy, especially with the jazz styles.
A typical omission for keyboards of this era is the
absence of an input for a sustain pedal - In its place, we find a
"Sustain" on-off button on the front panel (I remember a similar
setup on my very first digital keyboard, the Gem DSK-8).
Even though the early sampling technology is a bit
raw, certain tones are absolutely a joy to play, and several of them are
very nice-sounding. Some of the synth string patches even exhibit
a retro analog nature. |
Yamaha PSR-300 factory demo songs:
00 ORIGINAL THEME
01 SING
02 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
03 SPRING
04 CARMEN
05 GRANDFATHERS CLOCK
06 MINUET
07 SOMETHING
08 HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN
09 EDELWEISS
10 LA CUCARACHA
11 AMARYLIS
12 O, VRENELI
13 GREENSLEEVES
14 WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS
Yamaha PSR-300 audio demos in mp3:
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Features at a
glance |
| Year of release: |
1991 |
| Polyphony: |
28-note |
| Presets: |
100 voices |
| Rhythms: |
50 rhythms |
| Keyboard: |
61-note (5 octaves) |
| Responds to velocity: |
yes |
| Responds to aftertouch: |
no |
| Sound generation method: |
AWM |
| MIDI: |
in, out |
| Sound expansion capabilities: |
no |
| Effects: |
no |
| Controls: |
buttons |
| Outputs: |
aux/headphones single jack |
| Display: |
alphanumeric, two red digits |
| Misc: |
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Yamaha PSR-300 pictures
(click on thumbnails to enlarge)

Yamaha PSR-300 manual
available at www.yamaha.com
Links
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Type of resource |
DESCRIPTION |
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home page |
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Yamaha PSR-300 review with audio demo |