Yamaha Tyros 5: One of the most powerful, easy-to-use, and versatile arranger keyboard workstation available in the market.
The Tyros 5 is Yamaha’s flagship arranger synth, packed with top-quality organs, orchestral sounds, ensemble voices, sweet on-screen effects, and more! The sounds and styles are top-class (as if you’re listening to a audio recording).
Is Yamaha TYROS Keyboard Really Worth the Price?
This is one question that gets asked quite often, but the fact is that there are many who are big fans Yamaha keyboards.
Even for a professional musician, investing a few thousand grands on a keyboard is still a lot of money. But then its one of the best arrangers around with pristine sounds, tons of sounds and styles (with the ability to add many more).
Tyros gives you Yamaha’s industry-standard Motif sound set at your fingertips, as well as Super Articulation voices (for ensemble voices) that sound and respond like a group of actual musicians, and lot more.
PROS: Available in 61 and 76 keys. Fresh sounds. Super Ensemble function. Superb support for additional Styles, Voices, and Songs. Powerful Registration functionality.
CONS: Many feel its Expensive. It allows marginal amount of sound editing (compared to a Korg).
You may also want to read more about professional arrangers vs synthesizers, and Yamaha vs Korg arrangers.
If you are more into music creation, you may value features that give you more control over the sound, in which case you might want to look at other brands. However, in case you want a powerful performance keyboard, where you get everything at your fingertips, this is the one.
If you are primarily into arranging and recording backgrounds, and do not want to spend much time editing the voices, then the Yamaha Tyros is an excellent keyboard as you can use most of the voices and styles right away. That definitely doesn’t mean you cannot create your own sounds.
If you have spent a lot of time playing professional music, then you would know how important it is for the board to be rugged and handle all the roughness while travelling. The Tyros 5 is sturdy and suitable for onstage performances.
The Tyros sounds out-of-this world, especially when you hear it through excellent PA / speakers. Do spend a few hundred bucks to get the best accessories for it: case, keyboard stand, pedals, professional speakers, etc. Get a solid keyboard case to ensure your investment is adequately protected.
Checkout these Videos
Songwriting with the Yamaha Tyros5
Yamaha Tyros5 MIDI and Audio Recording Demo
Tyros 5 is Yamaha’s flagship arranger workstation and it is a perfect instrument for someone who wants to use it for playing live or use it for creating quick demos for composing/recording purposes. With the Launch of the Yamaha Tyros 5, Yamaha has raised the bar even higher.
The Tyros is now available in 61 keys and 76-keys!
If you are singer and if you’re ready to sing along, just plug your mic into the new built-in XLR combo jack – no special cables are required.
The Yamaha Tyros comes with very realistic Voices & Styles. The Ergonomic panel layout makes it easy-to-use and helps playability.
Important Features
- Available in 61 keys & 76-Keys keyboard, with aftertouch
- Over 1790 voices, including Yamaha’s Motif sound set, Organ World, Ensemble Voices, and much more
- More realistic sounds with Super Articulation 2 voices, including improved flutes and horns
- 539 flexible Accompaniment Styles
- Number of Polyphony (Max.) : 128
- Pitch Bend, Modulation wheels, Sliders: 9 (including 1 assignable), Cross Fader
- Enhanced, powerful DSP including Real Reverb and Real Distortion effects
- VCM circuit modeling provides accurate sounding emulations of older analog effects
- Super Articulation Choir voices provide authentic vocals
- You can further expand your sound set with Yamaha’s optional flash memory
- 16-track Song Sequencer to record your performances (as MIDI)
- 2-track Audio Recorder to quickly capture live performances
- 7.5-inch color LCD with musical score notation and lyrics display
- USB port for your thumb drive
- 1/4-inch/XLR microphone input
- VH2 vocal harmony generator and vocoder work with your own voice
- Video output means to allow connection to bigger external displays
Useful for songwriting
Just hit the record button, and you can get fully arranged songs, with top notch accompaniment styles, in no time. Very useful feature for songwriters, as you can save all your ideas almost instantly, and make them sound good too.
But then, you don’t have to use the existing sounds and styles; you can create your own accompaniments, and you can create your own chord sequence. And you can get pro sounding songs in minutes.
You get 16 tracks to record your ideas, and you can record anything from a few tracks to even a full orchestra.
Accessories for Yamaha Tyros
Keyboard Case
You’ll need to decide if you want a soft case or a hard case, though I would be more comfortable with a hard case that is lightweight and adequately padded from inside. You can also opt for a custom case/bag but then it can turn out to be a bit expensive.
If you travel a lot, you’ll definitely need on with rollers. The case needs to be well-built, should have extra padding so that the interior fits the tyros like a glove.
Here are some features of a good keyboard case:
Thick foam padded interior, Rugged molded outer shell, Tough inset wheels for comfortable travel, Multiple retractable handles (usually three) for convenient transport, Lockable chrome latches, Inner access handles for easy retrieval
Useful accessories designed specifically for use with the Tyros keyboards:
A tough case such as the Yamaha Deluxe Keyboard Case is required to safely carry this keyboard around.
External Links:
Tyros Official Site
Summary
Though the Tyros 4 is a great arranger workstation, it is an expensive instrument. Nevertheless, if you have been performing using a high end PSR keyboard then the Tyros is definitely the natural extension with its incredible orchestral voices/styles and hardware upgrades such as the vocoder. It also has decent programming abilities and can be used to come up with a quick demo in case you are pitching for composing/recording work. But the USP of the Yamaha Tyros 4 is that it is more focused on simulating a live band where the instruments sound as good as the real thing. Acoustically, the Tyros sounds much better and gives you more control over the nuances compared to other instruments.
Buying Links
How to Learn to Use Yamaha Tyros Keyboards
To learning all the bells and whistles available on this keyboard, you can check out the various videos, showing the Yamaha Tyros capabilities, here on this page. Check them out; they cover most of the important features. I don’t think there is any video which takes you through each and every button and every feature of the Tyros. But the Tyros keyboard is easy to use; you should be able to figure out things going through the manuals.
Yamaha Tyros vs. Motif
The Tyros 5 is a great arranger but has limited programming abilities compared to the Motif. So if you are a studio guy and like to create from scratch then you will definitely like the Motif.
Most professionals prefer to use synthesizer workstations that gives them more editing features and more control over the various features.
On the other hand if you are a performance guy, like simulating a live band, and want the instruments to sound as real as possible, then you will like the Tyros. You have more control over the performance related nuances on the Tyros compared to other keyboards.
Tyros and Motif are the flagship products from the Yamaha brand. If you have been playing keyboards for some time and thinking of an upgrade, you need to understand that the Tyros is an arranger workstation, whereas the Motif is a Synth Workstation.
The Tyros is a great arranger but has limited programming abilities compared to the Motif. Motif gives you more and better effects, as well as other music creation/editing tools. Many use Yamaha Synths as sound generator and do all the recording things with their DAW! Daw is more reliable and gives larger recording, editing capabilities.
On the other hand, if you are live performer / singer, you’ll mostly prefer an advanced arranger like the Tyros because of their chord recognition feature, top class accompaniments that can be readily used, and the vocal processor which is really useful if you’re a singer or have a singer in your band.
Yamaha Motif is impressive but tyros is “easy to use”! There’s no point buying a top of the line workstation if you don’t like to spend lot of time tweaking things and trying to get that unique sound that nobody else has. It might look impressive initially, but over a period of time, you will end up using a fraction of the features available, unless you do arranging / studio composing work full-time.
Irrespective of whether you buy a Tyros or a Motif, if this is going to be your first advanced Yamaha keyboard, you can expect a steep learning curve.
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
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