Dennis and Chico:
Great assesment of the 9pro. I own one, a PSR2000 and an X1 as well.
With the exception of it's weight, size and lack of speakers, this machine has it all over anything else on the market. As Dennis says, it is not only an arranger but a full flesh "work Station", that means not only is great on "live" performance but for "studio" work as well. Also features like being able to add a computer Keyboard for fast file naming and parameter selection, or interactive programming for the MFC10 foot controller, it makes it a snap to program it. Also, of all the keyboards I have ever own, the PRO has the most advanced, best natural sounding vocal harmonizer I've ever heard. The note Harmony is also flawless and seemless. Style editing is fast and can be done almost on the fly. It's Pianos, Brass, guitar, strings and percussion sounds are peerless. Ergonomically, placement of buttons is on the right place for both hands access. Mike settings couldn't be easier and more comprehensive. Due to the amount of features, learning Curve on this machine is far steaper than most others, and this may be quite overwhelming and discourage most people who buy it at first, if you are not patient(as most of us are), you will miss out on possibly the best arranger ever built today. You really need to burn the "Midnight Oil" to tame it. For a hooby I fly Radio Contolled Helicopters(I own 7 of them now. obscene!) and fly Airplanes as well and helis are infinitely more intricate than planes to setup and flight. Same case here. But if you want reliability, versatility, interactivity and a comprehensive machine in all aspects, this is the machine to own. I truly feel that I finally purchased my "last" keyboard.
Since I only have the board only for a month, I am still discovering features I didn't know it had. I performed twice with it and spite the weight and size of it(thank God for wheels on the case), it's a "keeper". It performed flawless.
In a negative coment, the manual falls short of explanations on some of it's advanced features and, I have not been able to make the "parameter Block" to do what it's suppose to do, block. Maybe one of you guys can tell me something I don't know about this problem.
Dennis, you've mentioned that other styles can be easyly converted and played on the PRO. can you shed some info on how to accopmlish this? I'd like to convert some of the X1 styles to the PRO.
Mario