I'm primarily an electric bassist, but about once a month, I lead worship services in church on acoustic guitar. With no keyboard ability, it was difficult at times to show melodies to the other people in the worship band, so I decided to teach myself a little bit about the keyboard.

I'm a bit of a gearhead (as you may have noticed from my other epinions), so before I bought a synth, I did a little research. I was looking to spend between $600 and $1000 on a synth setup, and in this price range, you basically have two choices:
Digital Piano - Roland, Kurzweil, and Yamaha all make digital pianos in this price range. They have a limited number of onboard sounds, but most of them have the advantage of feeling at least sort of like a real piano. They usually have 88 keys and real piano action. A digital piano would be a good choice for somebody who doesn't have the space for a real piano or needs a few other sounds (church organ). Their major disadvantage is that they're not as portable as comparable synths.

Synthesizer - Most synths in the $600-$1000 range feature professional quality sounds, expandability, built-in effects--pretty much the bare essentials for a gigging keyboardist. Most of them don't have advanced features like a built-in sequencer or a floppy drive. On the other hand, most of those capabilities are available on computers, which you can interface with the synth. Compared to a digital piano, you have much more flexibility and variety with regard to sounds, but in this price range, you won't get piano feel.

I decided to go with a synth. Since I play with some bands, I figured the extra sounds might come in handy if I ever needed to cover a piano or synth bass sound. Although I was willing to spend up to $1000, I knew that as a beginner, many features would be meaningless to me, so I wanted to get away with spending as little as possible. Doing research online, my two choices, both under $700, were the Korg N5EX and the Alesis QS 6.1. At the time, however, the S-30 was on sale, marked down from $999 to $799. Not one to turn down a deal, I ordered it and it showed up at my house a few days later.

The S-30 is a 61 key synth with semi-weighted action. It has features typical of keyboards in its price range--64 note polyphony, 256 preset sounds, and some expandability. One highly-touted feature of the S-30 is its ability to accept one of Yamaha's Modular Synthesis Plugin Boards. These boards not only offer more sounds, but a whole new synth engine, and even increased polyphony in some cases. It also has a SmartMedia slot that you can use to store your presets and other stuff.

Sounds
I'm sorry that I can't give a really detailed explanation of the sound editing capabilities of the Yamaha S-30; I've stuck strictly to the preset sounds. That said, the preset sounds are very good. One neat feature is the "Quick Access" button. When you press this button, the sounds are arranged in banks (piano, e. piano, organ, strings, synth, brass, etc.) that are really easy to choose from. This is a great thing to have. As for the manual, it's understandable, but it doesn't seem to provide enough basic information for those of us who need it. It explains how to operate it, but some of the instructions are so tedious. Maybe it's just my unwillingness to thoroughly examine its capabilities. On the other hand, I really haven't needed to because I'm quite satisfied with the onboard sounds. Some of the pianos are extremely realistic, and the electric pianos (Rhodes, Wurlitzer, and Yamaha's own DX7) are awesome. There is quite a wide variety of organs, strings, and sound effects. Overall, I can't complain about the sounds--my guess is that its $200-$300 premium over the cost of the N5EX and QS6.1 is largely due to the quality of its sounds.

Construction
The board was made in Japan and seems sturdily built. However, it is light in weight; an advantage in the portability, but a disadvantage from the durability perspective. If I were gigging with this keyboard, I'd definitely invest in some kind of case, preferably a hardshell one.

I guess I should remark on the action in this section. Simply put, the semi-weighted action is horrible compared to that of other comparable synths. This is not just my opinion, but that of many others whose comments I've read on the internet. Other synths have a more natural-feeling action--when you press the key, it comes back up smoothly. On the S-30, it just feels cheap somehow; almost like it's unweighted. I would recommend trying this synth out in the store before you buy it. Compare it to other synths and you'll understand what I mean. Although I'm not too hip on the action, it is still playable, so I guess it's not all bad.

A Good Deal
Online prices for this keyboard range fromm $799 to $999. It pays to shop around. I think the majority of the cost is in the quality of sounds that you get; you're certainly not paying for better action! Everything on this keyboard is good enough if you gig, but if you want the same sounds as the S-30 with real piano action and 88 keys, you should check out the S-80 ($1500). The fact that the S-80 is highly regarded and shares the same sounds as the S-30 says a lot about the S-30's sound quality. If you can live with the less-than-ideal action, it's a very good buy for the money.

Recommended: Yes