Hi,

I think the time has come to upgrade from my old Yamaha PSR-630. I don't really need a professional keyboard as I only play for fun at home, but there are some things I am looking for:

- I want more and better styles
- I want more Intro, Variations and Endings for my styles
- I want an Fade out option
- I want some kind of song library (preferably with scores)
- I want an option to download new styles and add them to the keyboard

Frankly, the voices don't have to be top notch. If the voices are too professional, I am afraid my lacking playing skills will become too obvious (blush). Ok, I know I suck, and if you heard me play you would probably recommend a CD-player rather than another keyboard, but anyway.... I should also say that my budget is limited to roughly about what a PSR-3000 would cost today.

A Yamaha PSR-3000 seemed to be the obvoius choice at a first glance in my local store. I liked the "Music Finder" function to store styles and tempo for a vast amount of songs, and I liked the styles and sound. I also loved the idea that I could see the score music on the display while learning a new song. At first I thought that the Music Finder actually had scores for about 1000 songs, but soon enough I learnt differently. That would be ok if I easily (and without having to pay a fortune) could get lots of simple MIDI-files with scores. I am not looking for professional arrangements, just for simple scores and chords so I can play it the way I'd like. Unfortunately it seemed that this was not easy to accomplish with the PSR-3000. The internal memory would not allow me to store a lot of new styles and songs, so I would have to use an USB or something. And when I tried an USB with a vast collection of MIDIs from the net, it couldn't read them as there were too many files or folders. When I at last managed to load a MIDI I realized it had no way to tell what tones were part of the melody, so the display ended up in a total unplayable mess. I understand I could buy MIDI arrangements, but then every single song would be costly, and what I really want is a huge library of songs just to try out for fun, so buying expensive MIDIs is not my thing.

I didn't buy the PSR-3000, but decided to wait for the next generation. I would have thought they had hard drives, or at least a couple of GB like any cheap USB, but unfortunately the new S900 doesn't seem to be much an improvement in the areas I was hoping for. So maybe I should be looking for a Roland, Korg, or something else I have never even heard of? Or is the PSR-3000 what I want after all, and I just need to know how to find songs or Music Finder info that could easily be added to it's memory.

Any nice people out there that understand what I'm babbling about and have any good hints what I should do please?

A Yamaha PSR-S900 or a Roland E-50 would both be good choices.

There's also the Yamaha PSR-S700.

If the folders on a USB device, or a Media Card were made smaller, then any of instruments would have no trouble reading MIDI files.

Ian

Hi Chall,

Styles: hands-down, the PSR S900. You have great styles and access to the vast style community of converted styles from competitive boards.

Intros/Variations/Endings: Again, plenty on the 900. They are also very fluid, which is a great plus when using repeatedly during your style playing.

Fade out: 900 has it.

Song library: Build what you want and throw it on a stick for easy loading (external hard drive).

Also: Has audio recording, great speakers, nice colored screen and more....

Good luck and this is only my opinion.

zuki

Too bad you live in Sweden; I've got a G70, like new, three months old and in the box just waiting for an SZ member
cassp50@gmail.com

Actually, it's nice that you live in Sweden; too bad we live so far apart. In that case, I would suggest the 3K if you can find one - I just bought one from a member here. The S900 just doesn't seem to be that much of a step up for me. Good luck.
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www.cassponline.com/

[This message has been edited by cassp (edited 10-10-2007).]

Cassp I ship KB's anywhere overseas all the time FEDEX Worldwide No problem.....its a bit costly to the buyer...but well worth it to them at the right price.

If you don't care about the color screen (which is more helpful than it sounds), I would go for the S700 just to save a few bucks! It fulfills the same sort of requirements as requested.

Thanks for all your input!

I'm afraid the S-900 is a bit too expensive, so I might try to find a 3000 after all, but I shall also check out those Rolands.

Btw, do you know if there is a lot of trouble if I'd import a keyboard from the US? I think at least something needs to be done about the electrical interface.

US boards use 110V whereas in Europe it is 230V