PSS-A50 - Portable, Digital Keyboard with Phrase Recording, 42 Built-in Voices and 138 Arpeggio Types with a Lightweight Design, in Black

Velocity and touch sensitive mini keys which actually are not that bad to play. It has some nice on board sounds, the arpeggiator is so much fun, as are the effects, and the speaker does a half decent job. this is a great keyboard for pro's and beginners alike, and its portability makes it an ideal product to chuck in a bag and go, or just chill in a chair and jam. The price is a give a way. its not a toy.

Extremely portable and versatile. I wanted something that can go anywhere with me, something that I can play on the go or just have next to my bed and can grab and play some keys. This is just perfection (for me at least). Pros: Small, lightweight, great sounding for the size, good selection of voices, I've been running this for days on battery and it's still going strong, great options for power: battery, micro-usb or power bank. Can be used as Midi interface. Cons: Keys are a bit small, ok for me but maybe not if you have big hands. Does look a little cheap for the price. Might just be my keyboard, but there is some slight static noise when listening on headphones.

I've wanted a small but functional USB MIDI keyboard for some time. I like composing, but at 5am in the morning it's not great to play my piano or my larger keyboard. I also have a small office which is ideal if I could find a smaller keyboard to place on the desk 'at will'. Enter THIS keyboard. Small footprint, compact, USB or battery powered, light, reasonably well featured and sensible MIDI instrument set if slightly imperfectly chosen. If I was to design my OWN keyboard it wouldn't be far away from this model. It comes boxed and with a USB lead. The keys are semi sized, but relatively easy to play despite my slightly oversize hands. One feature I use a lot is the drop/raise octave as there are only three octaves which doesn't quite cover full vocal range for all musical keys. All in all it does what I hoped it would, performs well, doesn't need additional power, and with a decent pair of headphones serves my purposes. If there was one tiny criticism I would say that some of the sound samples aren;t of the best quality, causing some winces when playing some tracks. That's a minor observation but at its' price-point it is sufficiently adequate.

Purchased for my 8 year old daughter as a first non-toy keyboard. I like Yamaha (used to have a TRB bass guitar) as it is well-priced for the quality you are getting. The size is great for getting little hands capable of some interval stretches (she can manage about a perfect 5th on this) and chord playing. The sounds are impressive and there are some effects to muck about with. You can also record phrases and play back. Hooked it up to Garage Band just to see if you can (you can). I would recommend this for anyone who doesn’t want a toy and is wanting to progress to beginner level.

A great little thing. I have high end gear. I bought this as a toy to take on holiday, but it's actually amazing for the money. I may even use it on one of my tracks.

i wanted a light small keyboard with touch sensitive keys as i have that on a larger piano...this one with 37 keys and the octave button means you can adjust to make the keyboard play up 8 notes x4 to get the high end notes and also down 8 notes x four to get low end notes, so that means one touch and you can play a full range of notes...great for me who is still learning what they are so that i do not need to miss them... a great keyboard, very light, comes with a usb power chord but i use an extension as that is short. the manual has instructions which are simple, and from page 14 on it state the voice, and all other tone lists. transposable and metronome etc, drums and all you can do...it works as a midi but for me that is not needed. yes a good buy that i am very pleased with. touch sensitive is adjustable 1, 2, 3 or turn it off. i use it on setting 2 the default. smaller keys but still playable. ej

Irritating point no.1 - Visual Clarity Of Operation With regard visual clarity of use there is no colour differential or tonal separation between the function buttons and voice preset buttons - they are all black against a black case. For anyone with sight problems or when using in low light this plus the fact that the descriptive text beside the function buttons is low contrast I found problematic. Irritating point no.2 The 4 AA batteries (Amazon Basic) lasted about 3 days of fairly extensive testing .. The manual states “ When battery power becomes too low for proper operation, the volume may be reduced, the sound may be distorted, and other problems may occur” Proper operation?… Other problems may occur?……. Rather than volume loss , or sound distortion, by day 3 using batteries my PSS-A50 began to randomly switch itself off without warning Adjusting the Auto Power Off timer setting to “off” made no difference to this occurring. Testing with both new batteries and the usb power from computer resolved this issue. A warning that the batteries are too low would be a nice feature. A battery tester showed that the batteries were far from being flat suggesting that the PSS-A50 is more selective than other small keyboards I own. Irritating point no.3 There is a jump of volume between many sound presets voices. The organ default preset iI found is too loud by comparison and the bass sounds too low. Similarly many of the arpeggio setting can range in volume. Irritating point no.4 The default piano voice 1 ‘Grand Piano’ when dropped 1 octave loses voice integrity on the lower 3 notes G, G♯ and A. Of interest point no.1 The USB to USB micro B cable that comes in the box is 1 metre in length. To power the keyboard by running it off a USB power adaptor (not supplied) I would suggest buying a longer cable. Points of Merit it’s cute size is perfect for sitting on the sofa with , sitting up in bed , under a tree etc etc The touch sensitive keyboard bed has a nice feel too and is responsive. The default piano voice 1 ‘Grand Piano’ is particularly nice at a 0 octave range for a keyboard of this price. The sustain and portamento buttons are useful The Drum Kit/Percussion voices 41, Vibraphone and 42 Marimba make for very sweet arpeggio sequences to play over

Bought as a xmas present. Great quality, excellent battery life, although we will probably get the charger soon as we use more frequently. Great selection of sounds, and voices for the keyboard. Speakers are pretty decent. Sounds excellent with the pressure sensitive keys. It can also record.