Lots of sounds and functionality, packed into a pretty affordable package. I see people complaining about the synth action - but what do you expect in this price range? It's totally fine. I love the bold color. The sounds feel a bit dated overall, but there is a good variety and the basics are covered well. Integration with my DAW was painless. I will likely use it more as a controller than as a sound engine, but I do appreciate having a good collection of sounds built in.

I'm a guitar player and I needed to good board. We use one of it's organs sounds to perform Green Eyed Lady. It has the Motif sound bank with many many killing patches and drum kits. My friend Kelly, in the video, is accustomed to a 110 key board, but she the MX 49 was easy to adapt to, and had a great feel, better than her Roland boards. So you can take that for what it's worth.

For me, I use Q-Base and this puppy can be configured as a direct controller for Q-Base functions, so it is a compositional workstation. I'm sure a real synth dude could do a lot more, but if a humble guitarist and figure this out, you can too !

Such a great synth! The motif sounds are amazing and it's great to be able to access them at such a small price tag. Very powerful unit, and the interface is so easy to use. As far as voice quality, I would say that the pianos are great, keyboards are good, organs are good, guitars are, well, what they are (like any synth guitars lol) and that goes for the woodwind/brass/strings as well. Bass is good, leads are great, pads are amazing, percussion is great, and the effects aren't bad. Overall, a great board and at such a low price!

On balance, I really like this keyboard. First off, it looks amazing. In a sea of identical looking black keyboards this blue really pops. I've gotten a ton of compliments just on the visual appearance of it and I'd be lying if I said the aesthetics weren't one of the things that shot it to the top of the list.

The sounds on it are excellent as well. Obviously, like with any keyboard, a lot of the off-the-shelf presets are bonkers (who is using these sitar belly dancing patches, or honky tonk vaudeville sounds?) but some of the included presets actually rip, and more importantly, the sounds you can build yourself using the different voices are wonderful. I've already got over a dozen very strong presets put together that are a joy to play.

The only knock I have against this keyboard — but it's a big one — is that the user interface is terrible. I saw a review describe the screen as 'antediluvian', which is both hilarious and unfortunately accurate. It feels like programming a VCR back in the 90s, or trying to set up a complex defrost cycle on your microwave. The number of steps it can take to do something as basic as save a preset truly feels almost hostile. I read all three of the manuals and I still cannot keep the jargon straight — a 'voice' is different from a 'performance', neither of which is entirely a 'preset'. I don't know. Typing all of this is making me so annoyed I want to take another star off the review.

But if you can machete your way through the trackless jungle of this thing's UI, it sounds so good. The ability to layer voices on top of each other opens up such delightful possibilities, and the sounds are inspiring. If you're patient and good at navigating menus on a tiny calculator screen it's well worth checking out.

OK, I've been in rock & pop cover bands since 1978. Had to play EVERY major hit imaginable! As any keyboard player knows, this entails a LOT!-- Lots of parts, lots of sound designing, sound creation, and covering for MANY different instruments (some acoustic & some purely synthetic/electronic)... Here's where the Yamaha MX49 comes in-- suffice it to say that, if I'd had this baby way back "in the day" life would have been SO much easier for me!!!... This little synth is one of the BEST sounding instruments I've ever owned (and I've had/still have nearly every "classic" synth out there- from Roland to ARP to Oberheim, etc.) and the MX49 simply WORKS! I use it as "satellite" instrument on top of the larger keys and it works, sounds, plays, operates and programs FABULOUSLY! Remember, all this praise is predicated upon the SUPER SMALL price tag! If you think you wouldn't be "getting much" because of the low price point-- THINK AGAIN!!! Do yourself a HUGE favor and pick one of these babies up while you can- you WON'T regret it! After over 45 years in the rock game I can easily say the Yamaha MX49 is a veritable steal... try it for yourself -- you can thank me later!!!... Peace...

I purchased this keyboard to have a set of stock sounds in my studio and for playing live. The acoustic piano on the MX49 is quite good. There are also a good assortment of other sounds that are also quite good. Of course, there are a portion of sounds that aren't as useful.

The MX49 is really light, which means it's great to take with you. Also, since the MX costs much less than most keyboards, that means if something does go wrong, I am not out a thousand plus keyboard.

The sound engine isn't fully programmable unless you use a computer application, which looks like is no longer available. The built in effects do have a lot of ways to modify them, which is nice. There is more than chorus and reverb in there. The phase shifter has a lot of programmable parameters for example.

The iOS FM app that is bundled with the MX is useless. The copy of Cubase has potential and so does the ability for the MX to act as a controller for Cubase.

The only thing I really don't like about the MX49 is the quality of the key bed. The keys are plastic, thin, and the action is lighter than any other keyboard I have used. I mean the action on the keys feels very cheap. I have been playing keyboards since the early 80's. It used to be that most keyboards came with a decent feeling key bed, even on lesser expensive models. I guess that is no longer the case.

All and all I find I like the MX49. The sounds and effects are good. It fits in my studio with out taking up much space or weight requirements. The AC adapter doesn't eat up a lot of watts. I can take it out to play live and use it in my studio for stock sounds. Also, if you turn off the chorus and reverb, you can run the MX though efx pedals such as the Lester K, and dial in a organ patch. The only thing I am putting up with is the cheap feeling keyboard.

Thanks.

This is probably the best keyboard I've every purchased. Bought it around 3 years ago. So full of every sound you will ever need. Use it for top tier board and in other words, I love it. It goes well with my Yamaha MOXF6.

I found this item during my search for a Wurlitzer voice keyboard and I am very pleased. Aside from that particular voice, it offers a plethora of other instruments which comes in quite useful; while I only use it for more rock oriented music this is easily capabale of fulfilling a full spectrum of genres. The lightweight packaging, vibrant blue exterior, and low pricing make this quite the bargain.

Wonderful keyboard. Great buy, incredible sounds. This is a great way to get into these sounds before investing big money in the Montage.

I play rhythm guitar in a cover band, and wanted something to play horn parts occasionally. The sounds are great for live situations, it's small, lightweight, and I love the price.

For portability, I prefer iPad with Korg iM1 and a MIDI controller. The MX49 changed all that. MX49 is small and light enough to take anywhere.

The limitation of either split or layer can be overcome by using a editor. Using John Melas' editor you can split and layer at the same time.

Brad Irvan is a very helpful sales engineer.

For months I looked at the MX49 on the Sweet Water web site. Then came a day when I decided to order it. It certainly surpassed my expectations. Of course Sweet Water is the best music retailer, they get things to you expediently and take care of your gear problems if any arise, which with the MX49 there were no problems. Whereas I would not be comfortable with the MX49 alone, it certainly works well with my three teir keyboard stand and set up. I play in a small church, but I kept the keyboard at home for a month to explore and woodshed on it. It is very simple to operate and learn the setup quickly. It has some wonderful controllers on it. The sounds remind me of another Yamaha I had a couple of dacades ago, the Yamaha S80. But unlike the S80 the MX49 is very simple and instant gratification. A wish list for it would be a set of envelope filter knobs and a dedicated set of organ drawbars, but I'm sure that would double the price. What you get is quite satifying and you'll be able to do most of your tunes with it. 1. First; the MIDI implamentation is a lot better than what I expected. Of course I have an advatage: My controller is a Roland RD2000. But I found that I could control three seperate zones on the MX49 from the RD2000. That's truly multitimbrel. My Roland RPU3 sustain pedal for my RD2000 controlled the sustain on the MX49 as also it did the sostinuto pedal. That was a pleasent surprise.
2nd. The controllers on the MX49 are very active and do a lot more than you would expect and without minue diving.
A word here about the resonense knob: It can get loud quickly, but if your left hand has an octave reach you can control the volume while spining the resonense knob. Those controllers (and the Mod wheel) do more than you would expect, so explore!
3d. All the the sounds are high quality, believable and very controllable. Being the organist in a small church that's quite important to me.
4. If you have a cheaper controller, the grand piano sounds are quite elegant and useful. I wouldn't want to use the 49 note keyboard as a master controller, but if you need a better sounding piano than your controller offers, it's there with a MIDI cable. The electric pianos are very good. There are a lot of Rhodes, Wurli and DX7 EPs and the Pad section gives you so many wonderful pads you should find one for every tune you play. The guitars are so very authentic, some you need to hold down the keys to experience the sound completely because it goes through some algorythims that are very satisfying. There are many good Brass, Woodwind and Synth sounds of most recordings you've ever heard. Remember with the synth sounds the more you use the controller knobs the more you'll experience sonically.
With 1130 sounds you wont run out of sounds to use. 5. The Program section is useful and easy to edit as sequincers go, but it only has about six rhythm patterns and you cannot modify them much, You can of course change the tempo, but I don't plan for the Program section as my go to sequincer, but it's there for simple stuff. I haven't hooked the MX49 to a computer or tried to connect a DAW to it. I ran into some trouble trying to download the Cubase software that comes with it, but that is likely the computer I have, on a good computeer it'll probably work fine. I like the blue color. Keyboard does look tiny sitting above my other two keyboards, but I love the sound of the thing and have figured out a lot of useful manuvers on it and sound layering. For $549.99 you can't beat it. And with the good folks like Alan Carter at Sweet Water you can't lose. This thing is fun to play! It sounds a lot better than you'd expect.

I'm loving my new MX49 Synth along with the support and service I received from Sweetwater.
The MX49 is nearly self explanatory right out of the box, but has the quality I was looking for to take my recordings to the next level. I would say that if you are looking for a Synthesizer that's affordable, simple to use and has great quality sounds and playability, the MX series rings the bell! (literally, it's got bells:-)

Easy to Use, Navigate and Edit. Mucho options of sounds + top notch quality. Great Drum loops. Great Bang for the Buck. smaller footprint fits in my apartment studio perfectly.

Amazing keyboard in such a small package. I added this keyboard to my collection for "jam night" when my pals come over to share their new tunes. Everyone takes turns on it. Fun...! Good fun for the jammers and the kids. Get one....!!!