Digital Piano Yamaha PSR E453. Full Review. Is it a good purchase?

In this article, you will find a quite popular electronic keyboard of the brand Yamaha. It is a very versatile musical keyboard with an extensive collection of very powerful additions.

You have to keep in mind that it’s not a piano as such. It has a sensitive keyboard and pedal with what it is worth to simulate the function of a piano but does not have a Hammer Action keyboard. So it’s not optimal to learn at the conservatory.

​Note: The new model has been released. Check out our review of the Yamaha PSR E463 where we compared them.

The Yamaha PSR E453 is a musical keyboard aimed at someone who wants to get started in the piano experience. But its main function is as a keyboard with a lot of different sounds and a very good portability thanks to the fact that it only weighs 6 kg.

The approach of an electronic keyboard is different from that of a piano keyboard for studying. It is perfect for playing with many different sounds, both as a MIDI controller and as a composition tool.

Sound

I’m sure you’ll be interested in…

It has a polyphony of 48 sounds enough to play two hands comfortably. Polyphony is the number of musical notes that can sound at once. It’s not an incredible polyphony either, but it’s good. You can do a lot with it for the price it’s got. The more layers of sound you put in at the same time, the more notes are consumed.

It has a huge amount of different sounds and effects. Both piano and other instruments. It has 758 sounds+ 24 drum kits and many more sounds. How do you see the purpose of this keyboard is to give you a wide range of sounds rather than focus on imitating the sound of a grand piano. The idea is to give you a lot of sound possibilities for interpretation.

Of course, it has Reverb, Chorus, and DSP effects. And metronome too. Also the sound quality is acceptable and these sounds are not toy sounds.

It also has a Pitch Bend wheel that modifies the sound wave that is sounding and more things. Quite usable live.

Here’s a video where you can hear some of these sounds. Then read on to review and study more aspects of this electronic keyboard.

Sustain pedal and sensitivity velocity keyboard

It has a sensitive keyboard to be able to make dynamics but that yes, it does not simulate the Hammer Action of a piano keyboard. You can play the same note louder or louder, but it has no escape effect or anything similar to an acoustic piano.

It has a sustain pedal input which is the pedal that keeps the note ringing even if you don’t press the key. This is a very important interpretative resource. You have to buy it separately, though.

Connectivity and MIDI

Pretty good for the price. It has USB to HOST, which gives you the possibility to use your keyboard as a MIDI controller keyboard. This means that you can use the keyboard to write scores with programs like Sibelius or record MIDI tracks in music production software like CUBASE.

It has a headphone output to study in silence. This output can be taken out to a small amplifier to play in a small restaurant. But if you want to get this signal out for a bigger stage you’ll have to boost the signal with something to make it sound good.

You can arrange to play live but it is not the best sound to use the output of the headphones.

You can record what you touch and has a USB port to pass it to a flash drive. Quite useful.

Portability

Suitable, there are lighter keyboards but it weighs 6 kg. Which makes it quite portable. Very comfortable to rehearse and take to small restaurants.

It has 6W speakers each. Enough power to rehearse on acoustic or play in a small restaurant without extra amplification.

Supports battery power. Although it includes power supply and lectern.

Yamaha PSR E453 vs Yamaha PSR E463

The Yamaha PSR E463 is the new model of the ultra-popular Yamaha E453.

There are some changes and they are as follows:

  • Possibility of sampling with its Quick Sampling engine to create your own sounds. You can create a phrase in an instrument that lasts a few bars and repeat it to play over it. You can also generate percussion. Very useful to use in loop mode.15 rhythms more than PSR E453 including more Latin rhythms.
  • Possibility of recording audio in WAV format (80 minutes of audio)
  • The PSR E463 features its Groove Creator function to create custom rhythms from patterns.

Right now the Yamaha PSR E463 has already replaced the 453 for the same price. We encourage you to see our review of the Yamaha PSR E463.

Yamaha PSR E453 vs Yamaha PSR E353

If you like keyboards with effects and the Yamaha PSR E453 is a bit expensive there is another option. The Yamaha PSR E353 is priced well below €200 and is an option for low budgets. Although the truth is that now the Yamaha PSR E463 is at a good price regularly hovering around 200 euros. Something that didn’t happen in 2017.

What if you have to understand that to play live is a much better option than the Yamaha PSR E453 because it has line output. So you can connect it to a PA mixer without having to amplify the signal with an injection box. With the PSR E353, you have to use the case output that will work but with a small amplifier.

Both keyboards have the pedal capability, 61-key sensitive keyboard, and MIDI.

That does bring a lot less sound and effect than you’d expect. Although it’s a little lighter at 4 kg. Although it gives a more delicate appearance. It’s only an option if your budget is too low. Of course, we do not recommend a lower range of Yamaha PSR E353.

If you want to know more don’t hesitate to read our review about the Yamaha PSR E353. Although the new version of the Yamaha PSR E353 has now been released, we, therefore, recommend that you take a look at our review of the Yamaha PSR E363. Also if you like keyboards oriented to many types of sound the PSR range, in general, is very interesting. Both the E series and the professional S series. Take a look in that case at our post about the PSR series.

Where to buy the Yamaha PSR E453?

There are many shops but this model can be bought perfectly online and saves a lot of money. The PSR 453 is out of stock and you can buy the E463 for the same price. If you live in America check your local Amazon website and if you live at Thomann check the Thomann website. Here the direct links to the product:

For a similar price you have the following pianos and keyboards:

 

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Jaime Echagüe

Hi! I'm Jaime Echagüe, a musician and an authentic fan of musical instruments. With this blog I want to give general information about musical instruments in an easy, direct and honest way. I hope you enjoy my website and that you find it very useful.

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