Being a synthesizer manufacturer who actually made some of the finest synths ever produced, Roland (unlike Yamaha), saw fit to have extensive synthesis features within their arrangers and workstations. If one delves into the inner workings of their arranger as Fran found out, there's often far more under the hood than you ever expected.

Roland's keyboards and modules also make great use of Expansion cards, unlike Yamaha who often produce a product that can use expansion cards although heavily gilded. For example... on my Yamaha 9000 Pro it had expansion slots which Yamaha heavily touted but they were mere afterthoughts. Most of the editing for the expansion cards wasn't implemented within the 9000 Pro's software and in fact the real time hardware itself couldn't be utilized to control the feature set of the expansion card. That's like saying we're going to give you a Superbird Hemi 440 but you can only drive it on 2 cylinders. What the hell!

Leave it to Yamaha to tout a product as professional, expandable, and future proof, only to knowingly sell a product that was outdated before it ever hit the market. The 9000 Pro didn't fail because it wasn't built well, actually it was the only Yamaha arranger that was well made as far as construction went and one of the primary reasons I purchased a 9000 Pro. It failed because what Yamaha claimed it could do it couldn't deliver on and it's software was so bug ridden and its CPU so underpowered, it couldn't perform the tasks Yamaha claimed. Their only option.... discontinue the 9000 Pro and try not to lay claim to it like a redheaded stepchild.

Yamaha manufactured the CS80, the holy grail of analog synthesizers and a personal favorite of mine. Why then can't they make an arranger or workstation that has extensive synthesis features that are easy to use, sound fantastic, and aren't packaged in a manner akin to Playskool? Actually that's disrespecting Playskool because they build their products well to withstand the rigors of small children.

I realize the bulk of users buying Yamaha PSR and arranger products are home users but for the few professionals that do use these products, Yamaha's build quality is laughable. I'd never even have considered buying the 9000 Pro if it were built in the same manner a Tyros 2 is. From the specs it looks like the Tyros 3 will be the same build of the Tyros 2 yet it costs a ridiculous amount of money. For me that just means one less purchase consideration.