I am in an instrument challenged worship band. We lost our keyboard player (and the drummer he would bring with him on occasion) and now have a 3 guitar “band.” Consequently, I would like to add a back-up band; the kind you find in the style section of an arranger keyboard.

I am not a piano/keyboard player, but I did purchase a DGX 300 a couple of years ago in order to play worship (and other) music with a back-up band at home. (When playing contemporary Christian worship music, I primarily use the rock and ballad styles on this keyboard.) Unfortunately, it seems to me that when I plug the DGX 300 into my sound system, or the churches sound system, the sound emanating from the styles (back up band) section of my keyboard sounds flat/canned.

Seeking to remedy this situation, and to increase the style selection available to me, I decided to upgrade to a Yamaha PSR S900. However, I ended up taking it back because the sound quality of the styles (back-up band) I was hearing through my (and the church’s) sound system, didn’t seem to be that much of an improvement over those of my DGX 300. [I did love the fact that the S900 has quite a few dedicated worship styles! Another thing I like about the Yamaha arranger keyboards is that you can access the “back-up band” by simply playing a single note (or two) on the left hand side of the keyboard; which makes it easy for a novice keyboard player to access the various styles using a chord chart.]

I have also tried out a Korg PA50 and PA800 at my local Guitar Center. To my ears, the Korg styles had livelier bass guitars, and a brighter sound than the Yamaha’s. These keyboards weren’t plugged into a sound system, so this might be simply a function of better speaker quality in the Korg keyboards. On the other hand, the Korg’s didn’t possess any of the dedicated worship styles like the Yamaha S900, and their rock styles sounded to me to be more, well… European? The Korg ballad styles were pretty good though, and the touch screen on the PA800 was very nice!

So my question is this. Which arranger keyboard, in your opinion, has the best sounding styles (back up band); and which would be the best arranger keyboard for a contemporary Christian worship band (specifically from a “back-up band” perspective)?

Yamaha? Korg? Roland? Ketron?

Thanks for your help!