I am very pleasantly surprised at the features that this board has for what it costs. 1920 ppq resolution in the sequencer...wow. Also, the internal sequencer allows me to record parts directly into it from an external source, be it another keyboard or my software programs ( Jammer Pro, Jazz sequencer..etc.) No other arranger I've ever had does this. certainly I can't do that on the PA80. This board is quickly winning me over. I wish it had a few of the sounds that my PA80 has, but the features are incredible to me. Except for the lack of being able to access and combine the internal samples themselves, and it's very basic synth edit parameters, I think at least in some areas ( pattern and song sequencer, mixer function and access to screens and functions, etc ) the 2000 has better features than the PA80 does. I never really noticed that style problem on the PA80 ( on several styles the fills sound out of sync with some of the variations ), because I don't rely on the styles that much except to play along to or listen to ideas, but after other members had mentioned it I went back and took a closer listen and I noticve it too.

I hope whoever is designing the updated OS for the PA80 is out there and is taking some notes on this, although my guess is that it is pretty much finished and may already being tested as a Beta version. I remember beefing at Yamaha for the 740's lack of features when I compared it to the MZ2000.( If only the Mz had a few better sounds and there was some customer support and add on products for it ). The PSR2000 has features even far beyond the MZ though. It's almost unbelievable to me that at this price the 2000 has such feature when it's predecessor ( the 740 ) had relatively so little and cost nearly the same when it came out. It makes me believe that Yamaha may have actually been listening to some ofus ..hey they even put in the rootless jazz chord feature that Scott always talks about. Makes me wonder...hmm Korg are you out there listening too ?

AJ

A.J.,
Record from external source? Interesting. Do you think we could midi a PSR510 to the 2000, play a style from the 510 and record it on the 2000? There are a couple on there I would like to have. I actually was able to do this with some success on the Roland G800.
DonM

It only seems to work in the song record mode Don. I don't think you can use an external source for style recording, but I could be wrong. I tried it in the style record mode but it did not work. You still though could play the style on the 510 ( preferably in C major ) while sending it out via midi to the 2000s song sequencer. It will definitely work.. It even records multitrack from an external device. If you play the amount of bars per variation ( I'm guessing 1 0r 2 on the 510 ..I had the 530 by the way ) and record them on just as they are onto the 2000, you could then save the resulting midifile and use a software midi to style converter and remake the style for the 2000 ( there is now one made available by Michael P Bedesem as a freeware download at SVP World ).

Don, if you do go through all of that, and you get as far as making the midifile in the 2000, if you don't want to do the conversion back to a style afterward, you can send me the midifile and tell me the order of the variations and bar lengths, and I'd be happy to test the new style converter software out and send you back the resulting styles for use on the 2000. I'm curious though. Most of the 2 bar styles stayed pretty much the same through the 20 and 30 series..for example, 8000 styles sound exactly like the ones on my old 530 did. I wonder how different the 510 styles were from the 20 or 30 series. I have all of the 8000 styles too by the way, from Bob's PSR styles site, and I think there is a 620 style zip available too..

AJ

Yes, you can use external source for style recording..

I have done it with a TRITON.
I am not sure if you can record multiple style parts at once, or record them one by one.

Hello AJ,
I have just recorded in the PA-80 via MIDI, I am confuse
I too have used Jammer and BIB also I can do that in sonar too?

Ooops..my bad..I can record into the PA80 from an external source. I tried for over an hour yesterday and it didn't work. Today...It worked like a charm. I'm guessing I had the midi cable hooked up backwards or something else dopey like that..LOL . I am not sure about multitracks though. That is the real issue here..Will have to try that one later. I'm assuming that would have to be done in the backing seq, since I don't think you can record more than one track at a time in the song sequencer...

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 11-19-2001).]

Glad you found it I was about to write step by step direction (whew )and no multi track recording is not possible I have tried it but one cool feature in PA-80 is that when recording in PA-80 in song mode you can change tracks without stopping the recording what I mean to say is if I am recording track 1 Piano in between the recording I can jump to track 2 Bass without stopping the recording.

AJ,
The 510 used a different method of making the styles I think. They do not work in the later models. There is one style in particular that didn't appear on the new models. It was perfect for Bo Diddly, Not Fade Away, Who Do You Love, Hand Jive.
I will see if I can record it via midi.
DonM

Don,

Sounds good, I want to play with the style convertor anyway, so if you get that style into a midi file, feel free to send it to me. Hey I can always use another style myself anyway. My email addy is on the profile.

Arbaz,
I appreciate you straightening me out on the PA80 midi recording stuff. I have midi pretty well figured out, but sometimes the simplest things escape me. I really wish it would record from an external source in multitrack mode though. It looks to me that the PA80's sequencer has 384 ppq resolution, ( a little more would have been nice ) but as it stands now, you can only edit ( no note insertion of course ) at an increment of 192..so that would have to be improved in the new OS..I am hearing that the new OS may come out around the 2nd or 3rd week of Dec. I am looking very forward to it. The PSR2000 just doesn't have all of the sounds the PA80 does, for my ears, so it will never replace the PA80 for me, but I do like much better the way the board and functions are laid out, and for playing out ( especially solo or duet ) I'll use it as my primary board and have the PA80 on hand as a backup. Of course, for me at home, in the studio, and as part of a larger band if I ever do that again, the reverse is definitely the case.

AJ