Do you play mid eastern music exclusively?

If you do
1.or 700 or PA 500

Or 700 (better OS),OK hardware

PA 500 (stronger sounds and also plays old PA 80 syles (except for styles that uses 8mb ME card)
.Most mid east musicians use Korg or Ketron(and some roland,roland used to be good @ that area),you'll have better 3 rd party styls than Yamaha.

For ethnic sounds wise I generally prefer Korgs and Ketrons.


Do you need 76 keys and do you need a KB with a little better key feel,and good piano -E 60 .Ok in OR department since E80 is used by ME musicians(not as much as PA though).

Do you play in a band or sequence/write instrumental music,Is your gig mostly SMF playback? -if you do -PA 500(has all workstaion quality sounds,editing power and sequencer),will load triton program banks (minus EFX ofcourse).Better than both Yam and Roland in this area (compared to above keyboards).If you care about overall voices in general -PA500.


Do you play western music / or pop/rock/contemp, etc and sing and use your arranger function as your main act?

Yes PSR S 900.

Again, specify your needs in your question.

Are you Turkish or Armanian? If you are -new Ketrn SX3000 TURKISH should also be put to consideration after putting alittle more $.

PSR A1000 was not a hit (compared to PA 80)@ that time in ME arranger world.(PSR 2k was a hit or better selling than PA 80 in western arranger world).


Yamaha has been not that sucessful (they are trying) to compete the other 3 in OR market and recently there are some improvements.(Since Yamaha has the edge in OS and others have edge in orientalsound department).The major challenge for Yamaha is putting quality samples percussion and drum kits for OR music.Others have done this right for more than 10 years(Ketron ,Korg and some Rolands and a few GEMs).
Unlike western music, percussive and drum tracks are major seeling point for OR music.Korg has a strong market there.

watch these.

E 60 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvDdLZaqeng&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkI8K68c9E0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-b80hqk91s&feature=related

for OR 700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPCGp6sRKio&feature=related
or 700 is a new generation


PA 500 will sound similar to this in OR music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agDec6BEA6c&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiJs61jI7Bk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrYlEVpoAHY&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-flvpCCiUM
a little like this too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzLHxcHuQHQ

The 1 st choice for ME musicians now is Korg PA series (1x pro ,800,2x)
So yes,PA500 is looking good for OR music above all those choices (plus better 3 rd party support).


But if you want straight ahead western music or international pop/rock and want to play mainly arranger-

this is the choice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCmkBSJLIxo


BTW, this is the keyboard that had beaten Korg I3 in early 90's in OR arranger world.Was the the primary choice until g1000.It was also he first arranger that has direct disk play (while I3 struggled to load).It was the KB (like PSr3000 was mid 2000's )in terms of popularity (plus better keys and hardware).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFvicYiMwwY&feature=related



[This message has been edited by jamman (edited 02-22-2008).]