Before buying the PSR 740 I made an extensive search and compare comparable models such as Roland G800, Yamaha PSR 640, 540. Roland G800 is discontinued and and it has the same sounds of SC-55 which I don’t like, so it’s out. PSR 540 is much cheaper (half the price of 740) but it seems to be designed for a budget player so it’s also out for the following main reasons:
- 540 doesn’t have the AUX output, if you want to amplify the sound you have to get it from the headphone output, which is noisy
- 740 sounds seems to be much better than 540.
- each of the style on 740 has 4 variations while on 540 there’re only 2. You get bored after playing a style time after time , so more variations is a big help
I nail down to 640 and 740. 740 is $200 more than 640 and is better on these main items:
- 740 has 64 notes polyphony while 640 has only 32
- 740 has a vocal harmonizer
- 740 has 2 wheels, pitch and modulation, 640 has only pitch
- 740 has a ‘groove’ function.
What I like:
- Styles: most are good to very good and each has 4 variations. It also includes ‘piano-only’ styles which, I think, is a good feature from Yamaha. Other manufacturer like Roland doesn’t have them. This add more selection to a number of popular styles. After playing a style over and over you get tired of it. The addition of a ‘piano-only’ style is a big bonus since these styles are very different from the ones played with the whole band.
- Sounds: there’s quite a difference between 740 and 540 when I connect the output to my external amplified system (to do justice to 740 you need to feed it to external system, if you listen with the local speakers there not much difference though). I particularly paid attention to the ‘sweet voices’ advertised to be taken from PSR8000, and yes, they sound great. Draw bar organ is fun to play. However except for a handful of sounds, most are not at professional level (I have the Roland JV1080).
Update 5/25/01: most preset sounds are swamped with to many effects such as reverb, chorus and hence sound worse than they are. To get good sounds you need to turn off some of the effects.
- Effects: tons of effect on this keyboard. There is also a separate effect for vocal harmonizer. The effects are surprisingly good and if used wisely produce good better sounds (however as I mention above the manufacturer abuse them and make the sounds worse than they are).
- 64 note polyphony: remember that the accompaniment has multiple parts (drums, bass, strings, guitar, pad etc...) and with advanced sound as in 740 a voice may use 2 layers (which takes 2 notes polyphony), so you run out of polyphony notes quickly. So 64-notes is a good help. However I think 32 would be OK in most situations.
- Preset is retained without battery: in the cheaper keyboard such as 340 I have to buy 6 batteries to keep the preset but sometimes I forget to plug in and use up all the batteries. With PSR740 the presets are kept thanks to some internal capacitors(however if I don’t plug in for a week it is erased). So I if need to unplug to take it to a performance I don’t have to worry about loosing presets. This seems to be a minor thing but, believe me, it’s a big deal after you spent so many hours setting your own stuff.
- display screen. Oh man, I like it. After using PSR510 (very old model) and PSR340, I really appreciate bigger displays. This model has actually 2 big screens. The bottom screen displays 16 channels, allowing me to mute any channel at a single stroke.
- footswitches: this keyboard 2 foot switches and they're both configurable to many functions such as volume, sync stop, sustain, bass sustain etc... This is very helpful since there're times you are busy playing with both hands and need a third to increase the volume for example.


What I don’t like:
- vocal harmonizer: I don’t sing and don’t care much about this feature. However when friends come and try it seems that the input level is not loud enough. I have to lower the accompaniment level and raise the master volume, making the vocal pretty noisy
- big and heavy external adapter: I think with a list price of $1300 Yamaha should make the power supply internal rather than an external adapter. This one is so heavy and cumbersome
- Limited user styles: 740 allows me to download styles from the internet or create my own styles, but then I can only load 3 styles, this is a NO NO to me since I buy this type of keyboard because it has styles
- No memory for editing song: this means everything I do is saved on the floppy and therefore slower. I think Yamaha should has memory for at least one song
- No aftertouch
- Limited editing capacity. However this is minor to me. I use Cakewalk. So I record the styles, save to a floppy and bring it to Cakewalk for more editing. In this area 740 works real well for me, otherwise I have to pay twice the price to get the PSR8000 or 9000 for more editing capabilities
- only 61 keys and flimsy keys: at this price range I think 740 should have 76 keys and better key quality.
- Flimpsy wheels: pitch and mod wheels seem to be on the verge of falling out.

Overall I find that this keyboard is very good for home use or parties but not yet for professionals(professionals don’t use preset accompaniments anyway). However because of limited user styles and 61 keys I would not buy it for $1000 (price at Guitar center in Houston, TX). I was lucky to find a used one for $780 on ebay. If I have to buy at regular price ($1000) I probably opt for the PSR640 instead less features but same sounds, same styles, same display and $200+ less.


Recommended: Yes