I finally did it. I was tired of hearing.. maybe next week, or ..Yamaha USA just doesn't have an answer at this time, or we just don't know when the new OS will be available. In the end I decided to commit to the PA80 for the portion of my act that will require the use of an arranger. I took the refund on the 2000 and ran.. about 40 feet from the counter right to a new Motif.

Kudos to Chris, Jon and all of Alto music in Middletown, NY for accomodating me as best they could. Maybe..for me, this was how it was supposed to be all along. I wanted my main setup to include at least one arranger, but deep down inside there were times when I also wanted one workstation / synth, even for live play. I really wanted to embrace the 2000, and for a time I even considered going from the PA80 to the Triton Le or a Roland Fantom or XP series board but the OS issues in the 2000 were just too much for me to overcome, and while I'm sure that at some point Yamaha will work this stuff out and make it right, in the end my patience with it just ran out.

I gotta do a lot of learning again, so that I'll be ready and able to incorporate her into my act and into my studio. The Motif is a whole other animal, but so far I am liking ths sounds a lot and I can glimpse the potential it has in features. The key feel is a tad bit stiffer than on the PA80, but I like it. I don't know much esle about it other than I have a basic understanding of the features it has and what I expect to get out of it.

In the end I opted to get the harmonizer for the PA80, and AI'll likely get one for the Motif as well. I gotta go study, but I also better find me a Yahoo type Motif group too. The manual is 298 pages long, plus a separate 62 pages for midi implementation data. whew !!

Korg AJ