MisterED,

About Yamaha PSR9000's capability, I can think of a few things:

Have you used the sampling feature of 9000 yet? With a pair of optional 32 MB SIMMs you can have a total of 65 MB of sampling memory. You can record, save and load sounds as wave files with optional internal hard disk / external SCSI storage via your 9000's SCSI port. 65 MB of sampling is equivalent to more than 13 minutes of sound.

Clif is right that with sustaining and heavy sound layering any synth can easily run out of polyphony. Have you tried layering sounds with a different keyboard or sound module using MIDI B out port of your 9000?

Have you tried playing MIDI files with lyrics (karaoke files with .MID as file extension) and output the lyrics display on an external TV screen with the RCA video cable hookup at the back of your 9000?

How about using the built-in harmonizer for effects/harmony on sound input from another sound source/keyboard through the left-front mic/line input jack?

Have you installed Yamaha CBX driver on your PC(s) such that you can use software on your desktop/laptop to communicate with your 9000 through its "To Host" serial port so you can try software packages linked to the following page?
http://home7.inet.tele.dk/js/musik/740pages/link7406.htm

Paul Ip
from Texas