Ok Guys i have some questions some of you may be able to answer which will greatly help my purchase decision. Whether I spend $2000 or $4000 I want the most complete solution. I sold all my modules (Alesis QSR,Proteus 1 and 2000,Roland 220,Alesis DM5) and Korg Triton and want to buy ONE board to replace those sounds.

As they apply to following Arrangers.G70,Korg Pa2x/Pa800 Yamaha Psr s900/Tyros 2,
I have the following questions.

1.Does the data of the style playing appear at the MIDI out port (or USB)?

I use an external Sequencer for final recording and separate tracks from processing in Sonar. This is very important to me as styles and tracks could be much easier edited using Sonar rathert then on the keyboard.

2. Does the Board accept 16 channels of Midi data from the in or USB?

Can your keyboard easily import SMF files? Can you import and convert MIDI data to styles easily?


Since Yamaha has a lot of styles available, can they be easily converted to either the Roland or Korg. Which is the most fool proof way? Software? On board?


3.Can I mix Audio sample loops with a style and have them synced by the keyboard?

4. I know MAP pricing for the Korg is $3699. Thats probably a 28-30% mark. What is the street price people are getting? Or are they holding fast to the MAP?


Its real important to me to have seamless operation between external sequencer/DAW and the board.(a la Workstation) I really am looking for a Workstation that is an Arranger rather then an arranger that can also be a Workstation. I believe Korg and Roland may be the better choice in that regard. I feel the Yamaha products to be more "controlled" and less open. I can get them at cost since I sell them. But I don't see the "workstation" part in a Tyros or S900.

As far as sounds go I realize each board has their best but all have great generic sounds. Guitars are especially important and the Korg and Tyros seems to excel in that area. I did not like the idea of playing string scrapes AND a chord on the Roland to get a nice strumming sound. The guitar part on the demo when listening through headphones seem "out of sync" The strumming sound and chord changes made me take a deeper look only to find they were two separate samples that had to be played together.Demos are usually perfect and if this stood out I though perhaps it's impossible to get right.

So my choices are as follows with pricing

Tyros 2 $2700 or less.PLUS 76/88 key controller.
Roland G70 $2000 new refurb
Korg Pa2x ???? Street prices?

Thanks all this is a great forum. People are very helpful and not so defensive and emotional regarding their choices.
I SELL Yamaha and will send people elsewhere if their needs can be better met. In my world many buyers are older adults and the Yamaha shines for stand alone usability.

Not many are going to use a $500 DAW software program rather than the keyboard OS as the creative heart and final stop for their projects as will I.