Frank, thanks for providing the info about the 9000's OS size.

In the meantime, I spoke with Steve Deming (Yamaha USA) again today in hopes of getting an answer to the Tyros 40MB OS question. He told me that 'he too' was wondering why 40MB was needed, but was not provided any info from Yamaha Japan. Sounds like Yamaha USA is basically a sub-division to Yamaha Japan, and isn't made privy (yet) to much of the information (secrets?) that Yamaha Japan has on the Tyros. Steve said that the answer should come in the Tyros Service Manual, but Yamaha USA hasn't received a copy yet. In the meantime, even though there's no official answer yet, Steve also suspects (as Roel conjectures) that the 40 MG certainly MUST include more than just the basic Tyros OS itself.

Steve also acknowleded there is some kind of 'production' hangup (from Japan) which is delaying the Tyros from reaching US shores. He didn't go into specifics, but said that Yamaha needed to 'make sure' all the bugs were worked out before shipping. Sounds to me like there may have been some last minute glitches (software or hardware) Yamaha discovered after the initial Tyros shipment to Europe, but of course it's just speculation on my part. Steve could not give me any definitive US shipment date now, though Japan had initially promised it for October. I personally wouldn't be surprised if the Tyros was delayed until the end of the year or Jan 03 (NAMM roll out?)

One interesting comment that Steve made to me was that even though the Tyros demos seem to show it to be a truly groundbreaking sounding keyboard, he recommended that I NOT pre-order one now, but instead, wait till it actually appears in the stores and then take it for a personal test drive. He says Yamaha truly wants happy satisified customers and that only by playing & hearing a keyboard yourself can you really determine if it's the one for you. I was impressed (yet surprised) to hear this coming from the manufacterer. Ok, back to enjoying the PSR2000 (for now).

Scott