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Congratulations on your purchase of the Yamaha PSR-280 PortaTone!

You now own a portable keyboard that combines advanced functions, great sound

and exceptional ease-of-use in a highly compact package. Its outstanding features

also make it a remarkably expressive and versatile instrument.

Read this Owner’s Manual carefully while playing your new PSR-280 in order to

take full advantage of its various features.

Main Features

The PSR-280 is a sophisticated yet easy-to-use keyboard with the following features and functions:

Yamaha Education Suite

The PSR-280 features the new Yamaha Education Suite — a set of learning tools that utilize the latest
technology to make studying and practicing music more fun and fulfilling than ever before!

The Yamaha Education Suite includes:

Lesson ............................. page 60

The convenient and easy-to-use Lesson feature, guides you through the parts of a song — just like a
patient teacher! Select from any one of 100 songs on the PSR-280, and learn the left- and right-hand
parts independently at first, then together. Lesson features four easy steps that help you master each
song: Timing, Waiting, Minus One, and Both Hands.

Grade & Talking ............................. pages 65, 66

The PSR-280 also has the Grade and Talking features. Grade is a virtual “teacher,” evaluating your
practice sessions and rating your performance. The convenient Talking function “announces” each
Lesson step and your “grades,” among other things.

Dictionary ............................. page 45

Dictionary is a built-in “chord encyclopedia” that teaches you how to play specific chords by showing
you the appropriate notes in the display — perfect for when you know the name of a chord and want to
quickly learn how to play it!

Portable Grand ............................. page 20

The PSR-280 also has a

Portable Grand

function for realistic piano performance. Pressing the [Piano]
button instantly calls up the stunningly authentic “Stereo Sampled Piano” voice and configures the entire
PSR-280 for optimum piano play. Special Pianist styles — with piano-only accompaniment — are also
provided.

DJ ............................. page 22

The DJ feature is an exciting new addition to the PSR-280, that puts a wealth of contemporary sounds and
rhythms at your fingertips. Pressing the [DJ] button instantly calls up one of the special DJ songs (“DJ
GAME”) and a DJ style, and provides the appropriate voice and sound effects to match.

Other powerful features include:

256

exceptionally

realistic and dynamic voices

, utilizing digi-
tal recordings of actual instruments.
Special

Split voices

, with two different voices playable from
separate sections of the keyboard.
10 different
Drum Kit voices
, with individual drum and per-
cussion sounds on each key.
High-quality
Reverb, DSP, and Harmony effects
for enhanc-
ing the sound of the voices — and your performance.
100 auto accompaniment styles
, each with Intro, Main A and
B, and Ending sections. An Auto Fill function adds dynamic
fills when switching sections.
Powerful, easy-to-use
song recording
operations, for record-
ing and playing back up to five of your original songs.
Registration Memory
presets for storing all of the PSR-280’s
panel settings to a single button for instant and automatic
recall.
One Touch Setting
function for automatically calling up an
appropriate voice to match the style or song you select.
Touch Response
and
Dynamic Filter
that give you extraordi-
narily expressive control over the voices. They automatically
change both the volume and tone according to your playing
strength — just like a real musical instrument!
Full MIDI and
General MIDI (GM) compatibility
, letting
you easily integrate the PSR-280 into a MIDI music system,
and use the built-in GM voices with all GM software.
Built-in high-quality stereo amplifier/speaker system.