Forgive this newbie question on the poly issue but when you are playing styles or backing rythyms on the Casio or Yamaha's does this use the poly? I understand that each note takes up one poly but lets say I'm playing a four note chord on each hand and have a rythym track going in the background, does the rhythym track eat into the overall capability of the keyboard?

Hi Gibson,
There are no newbie questions.

When you play in auto accompaniment mode each note of the accompaniment takes up from the polyphony no matter how many keys you have pressed with your left hand.

When you play in full keyboard more each note of the drums track eats up the polyphony.

Basically, every sound that comes out of your keyboard uses polyphony.

Squeak and Rick, Yesterday I went over the local yamaha store and noticed they have the YPG-625. Tomorrow I'll try it and will post my review.

Regards,
George

GeorgeV-Thank you for the fast reply. Well, that being the case, if I want to use the board for backing tracks to record and play along at the same time then I'm going to need more that 32 notes. I was really looking hard at both the Casio 310 and the Yamaha 625. I guess the next step up would be the S08, S90 or the Alesis Fusion 88. I was hoping to get by a little cheaper but I guess you get what you pay for. LOL

The polyphony is used for that instant in time. If you hear a piano note (and it stops sounding), and a micro second later a bass note, the piano note polyphony was released and the bass was able to use it. In an accompaniment, the notes are not all played at the same instance.
Starkeeper