Introduction to the Yamaha YPT 260

When purchasing a musical instrument costing a considerable amount of your money, such as a digital keyboard, you need a device that’s not just packed with the right features but one which will be able to serve you for a long time. The right keyboard should give you a great experience and the feel of what an acoustic piano sounds and plays like.

If you have any experience in buying or using keyboards, then you know that Yamaha is one of the most reliable companies when it comes to making musical instruments. The Yamaha YPT 260 joins the long list of some of the most remarkable keyboards that Yamaha has ever produced. This gadget has everything that anyone would ever need and on top of all this, it comes with extra features that allow you to experiment on new aspects to boost your creativity. Surprisingly, the most outstanding part of this instrument is its price tag. At less than $100, the Yamaha YPT 260 is arguably the most affordable keyboard that offers a wide spectrum of high-quality features for any musician out there and especially the beginners.

In this review, we will be taking you through some of the most notable features of this keyboard. By the end of it, you should understand why we believe that it will be an incredible addition to your home and day-to-day music life.

So, what exactly does the YPT-260 has to offer?

Build Quality

When you are buying an electronic that’s a lot cheaper than others it’s a norm to assume that the quality is always poor. For a piano to cost less than $100 we were also expecting not just fewer features but poor quality too but Yamaha has really proved us wrong.

One of the best things that we have come to love about Yamaha is how they dedicate themselves to making high-quality products even when they are making budget-friendly instruments. Unlike many other manufacturers out there, Yamaha doesn’t compromise on quality just because they want to make a cheap product that everyone can afford. The Yamaha YPT 260 is a clear testimony to this. The keyboard is covered with a hard plastic casing offering excellent protection to all the internal microchips and other tech gadgets. This keyboard is built to survive the hard life of a home or on-the-road use. The Keyboard will be able to survive accidents and other impacts without damaging the interior.

The high-quality construction doesn’t just stop with the plastic casing. All the buttons and knobs around the keyboard are also made with durability in mind. The buttons that are meant to be used more frequently are also covered with rubber. This offers extra protection against wear and tear while also improving your grip when using them. The other buttons are made of plastic and they’re also designed in a clickable manner which makes using them even easier. With the fine click sound, you’ll never have to second guess yourself whether you pressed the button or not. The volume knob, on the other hand, is made of metal. It is designed with a significant resistance which allows you to select your preferred volume more accurately.

When you come down to the keys, you’ll realize that they are very well laid out for easier accessibility. Keys that work together are closer to one another while the others are reasonably spaced to prevent pressing the wrong key. We found this layout time saving and very easy to use. Unfortunately, the keys in Yamaha YPT 260 are not weighted. They, therefore, won’t give you the exact experience of playing a grand piano or other premium keyboards.

Finally, you have the screen at the center of the Yamaha YPT 260. If you have used other high-end keyboards, then you will realize that this one isn’t very flashy. The good news is that it is bright enough and conveniently placed for you to read and navigate through various features with ease.

Yamaha YPT 260 Features

Yamaha Education Suite

If you have less than $100 to spend on a keyboard, chances are you are a newbie in the whole music thing or perhaps you are just getting it as a gift for your kid or someone else who probably doesn’t have much experience with these instruments. This is a struggle that all beginners have to deal with and that’s why Yamaha has equipped this device with the Yamaha Education Suite. This is a special feature that provides the player with an easy guide on how to play and utilize the different features of the keyboard. The guide has a 9-lesson plan which is well explained for anyone to understand and follow.

Learning how to play piano has never felt easier thanks to the Yamaha Education Suite. This feature makes the YPT260 one of the best keyboards for beginners particularly the young ones.

Now, don’t get me wrong by thinking that this piano has nothing to offer to a more experienced musician. The education suite feature alone has already proven to be very useful to established musicians who found extra tips (which they never thought they needed) on how to get the best out of their keyboards. Combine this with the other brilliant specs of this device and you end with an incredible machine that will polish your talent and provide you with the perfect platform for creating something from your skills.

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Voices

With Yamaha YPT 260 you’ll gain access to 400 instruments, sounds, and voices! That’s quite a lot of sounds to work with and this should really stretch your creativity to new heights. With all these instruments and voices you should be able to create different kinds of music. This also means that experienced players will never run short of new sounds and instruments to experiment with.

Styles and Backing Tracks

To make it easier for you to create unique music, the keyboard provides you with 130 accompaniment styles. In simple terms, these are notes or rather beats which play on the background continuously as you play along. It creates the feeling of an orchestra or a full band. This will be useful in making sure that your learning and playing is both creative and entertaining.

Once you’ve created some music, Yamaha YPT 260 allows you to record your performance for future use. The recorded session can then be polished further with other professional recording software to come up with the final masterpiece. Ideally, you should be able to record and store your sessions on a laptop while you are using the keyboard but what if you don’t have a computer? What if you were on a practice session at your pal’s house and you left your laptop behind? The Yamaha YPT-260 has an onboard recording capability which allows you to record all your snippets, backtracks, practice sessions or even an entire song without the need of having a computer around!

Song Bank

Yamaha YPT-260 has over 100 songs in its song bank. The best part is that there are different kinds of songs ranging from some of the latest tracks, kids’ songs to classics such as Mozart and Beethoven. The keyboard, therefore, gives you different kinds of songs to learn and work with.

Alternate Key Functions

At the top of the keys on this keyboard are pictures showing their alternative use. These pictures are easy to see and recognize making sure that you don’t confuse any of them. On the left, for instance, you will see drum symbols which show the exact part of a drum kit that every key is mapped to. With this alternative use function, you can make drum beats and incorporate them into your music.

Next to the drum symbols are chord types and root notes both of which are illustrated above each key. These will help you to know the note corresponding to each key.

Specs

• Dimensions: Width – 37” (940mm); Height – 4 3/16” (106mm); Depth – 12 1/2” (317mm)
• Weight – 8lbs, 13oz (4kgs)
• 61 keys
• LCD Display
• AWM Stereo Sampling
• 32 polyphony
• 16 drums/SFC kits and 384 voices
• 3 ultra-wide stereos; 6 Master EQ; 5 Chorus; 9 Reverb
• Panel sustain capability
• 130 preset styles
• 100 preset songs + 12 chord study
• Multi-finger capability
• One touch setting (OTS) capability
• Data capacity of up to 300 notes
• 11-280 tempo range
• Sustain pedal capability
• Aux in port (Stereo mini jack)
• Standard stereo phone jack for headphones
• Two 12cm speakers
• Automatic power off feature

The verdict on the Yamaha YPT 260

As far as we can tell, the only big limitation about this keyboard is the fact that its keys are not weighted. Even then we loved how responsive the keys were. Everything considered, we found this keyboard to be a great buy for both beginners and other experienced pianists. Yamaha YPT 260 houses, perhaps, the most features ever seen in a keyboard costing less than $100. We love it and we’re confident that any keyboardist will have an amazing time using it.

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