I noticed a marked difference in instrument quality with the PSR-520. It only got better from there. I feel self-conscious about my PSR-510, since some of its instruments are decidedly not realistic in sound, but what it does have is something most keyboards, then and especially now, don't--main and submenus. The 510 has buttons for **everything**, and that's why it's what I ended up getting second-hand from my keyboard teacher. I'm blind, and I find menus to be maddening. So imagine my surprise when I got the 510, and could press a button for transpose, then use my arrow buttons. Boom! Same with so many other things. But as far as quality, the 520 was like the gateway to something beautiful and new for me as a teenager. Good stuff.
The 9:24 Harpsichord song is actually the 3rd movement of Bach’s Italian Concerto and the demo even plays the rarely noted Forte and Piano dynamics (you can’t play loud or quiet on it by changing the pressure on the keys, but can add one or more sets of strings to make it sound louder) as instructed in the original music sheet by changing the voice to Harpsichord Coupled, when you engage two or more sets of strings for the same note (voice #13 for Forte dynamics) or a single Harpsichord sound (voice #12 for Piano dynamics). That’s huge attention to detail for the time it was produced. Most keyboards only have one sound for Harpsichord and it’s not even a nice one in many cases. The ones here sound beautiful and convincing. It’s a shame that the keyboard compass starts from C2 rather than F1 or G1, which would be preferred for someone playing baroque repertoire. But luckily, Bach did compose a lot of keyboard music within a C2-C6 compass, so this instrument will suffice most of the time for any Bach enthusiast.
The pitch bends and CC#74 (Filter vadiations) just snap into values giving some oddly satisfying glitchy feel to the harmonica at the country rock demo, as well as R&B😂 I guess the MIDI resolution is somewhere near 96 PPQ, I.E. General MIDI 1.
My favorite is the one at 19:38 Good stuff! I like some others, I just love that one in particular. I remember being at Circuit City in 1996-1997, playing the 520 in the store--I never owned one, though I wish I had. That song jumped out at me and grabbed hold. :P
Wife swapped one of these for a technics kn 2000 she always regretted it beautiful machine, sadly no music in house now or on stage , tammy williams ,aka diamond lill passed in feb at the age of 73 we had 41 great musical yrs together. The kn 2000 plus 3 orhers went to the mill Ford school for learning disabled kid s in plymouth , they love there music machines
