Hi mc,
Whether or not to trade up from a T3 to a T4 would depend on:

1/ If you had plenty of money - Hey why not.

2/ If your money is hard earned - Different story.
The sound of these 2 keyboards when properly set up (the T4 sounds fuller out of the box than the T3 did out of the box), is very similar.
I had the T3 & T4 set up next to each other through my external sound system and after appropriate setting up (EQing etc.) My wife couldn't tell the difference between them (when playing the same styles/voices).
When you play the new stuff, styles/voices that are on the T4, then is stands out.

3/If you had a T3 with the Vocal pack, then ponying up the dough for a T4 would need to be a very considered decision.


Hi Dnj,
I'm still fiddling around with the VH2, I’m not there yet trying to find a suitable preset (I can't believe Yamaha didn't include the T3 VH type/presets) as the ones I used are now gone from the VH2 and it looks like I'm going to have to make up my own using the edit function. I'll let you know how it goes.


Hi Diki,

SA2... well...
To my ears the SA2 Ballad Soprano Sax and SA2 Pop Soprano Sax are the same voice except they have different effects when using the 'ART' buttons - no big deal I guess.
SA2 Celtic Violin - it's ok
SA2 Jazz Violin - Had some fun with this but you can probably get a similar pitch bend as I do using an FC-7 foot pedal, which to me feels more intuitive and gives more variation anyway.

You mentioned the pianos unfortunately.
In my opinion the T3 live Concert Grand and the SA Concert grand are identical.
I can hear nothing at all to delineate them from each other.
If you bought a T4 for the SA pianos you'd be very disappointed. It looks like a name change rather than anything more substantial, at least to my ears - you can still hear the same tinny mid range notes with their tinsel bell overtones and with certain notes prominent to others with this effect within each mid range octave.
Again the very low and very high notes are lovely as they were before.

A friend had a listen to the new pianos and he could not hear anything wrong with them, then he told me his hearing was high frequency attenuated and couldn't hear anything much above 10k. He wasn't aware of the problem until he had a hearing test (he's a drummer and been playing loud for over 30 years).

I am very impressed with the live 'Symphony Horn1' voice it is really sensational.
I'm also impressed with the vocals, Yamaha have really filled a gaping hole in the Tyros series keyboards with these.
Personally, for me the jury's still out on the VH2 because I haven't given it a fair go yet.

Hi Charley,
Re. the vocals on the T4; they are the one big change from the T3; yes, you will no doubt get tired of some of the scat sounds etc. but in the styles, the vocals are very well implemented and really are well done.
I don't think you'll get tired of the styles, plus the vocals are only in a few of the styles anyway. The vocal voices on the keyboard will find a place in some of my music.
There are also some vocal stabs in the percussion section that can be programmed into the multi-pads that could add a bit of zing, if that’s your thing…


Newman.