Well, I am a proud PA80 owner, with a 2 hours only experience with the Tyros.

My opinion is that KORG is easier than YAMAHA on programming side; but Yamaha voices are really great. Really.

Now, you will probably spend your time with your new board playing it (90%) and programming it (10%), so you should absolutely:

go to the shop;
put your hands on both boards;
evaluate how comfortable do you feel with them;
wich has the best sound (to your ears, of course).

Then take a look in your pocket, decide if your choiche is worth its price and ... have fun!

Stick with the Yamaies--they'll provide you with more options, superior voices, and while they're a bit more difficult to program, the learning curve is not all that bad. The PA-80 is a good board, but you should probably take the advice of many on this forum and compare them side by side, then dig deep into your wallet.

Good Luck,

Gary

Nobody refers to XD9 also as a good choice... Isn't XD9 a good choice?!...

I played PA80 for about 3 weeks. Currently, I own Yamaha PSR2000. Tyros is much better than PSR2000 from what I heard.

I would pick Yamaha anyday. I got frustrated with the PA80 and its un-intuitive user interface. There is no comparison if playing experience is what you are after. Of course, I'm just using the acoustic voices- not the dance stuff. Also the styles and fills on Yamaha is much-much better than the PA80. PA80 has serious issue on the fill-in department.

This is a major purchase for most people. I strongly urge you to try it extensively before committing yourself. I tried 5 keyboards (low-end) before settling down with the PSR2000. Guitar Center allowed returns within 30 days which is VERY useful.

Rod,

If you are considering PA80, make sure you like the way fill-ins behave. Some like it, but some don't. I don't like its behavior when playing factory styles, but I like it when it comes to user styles that are specifically created for a particular song. And the different behavior of fill-in and intro buttons, and chord variations will also come handy when creating styles.

Voice and drum kit editing is also very nice.
One can learn the OS for programming and editing. But when I plays live, some behavior of PA80 become annoying. e.g. To stop the acc and bass and play only the drums I have to push buttons: once to stop once again to start. On a Yamaha, you stop it from the keyboard and it synch starts when you hit the chord again. It's much easier; don't even have to take the hand away from the keys.

Shiral

Shiral,
Actually even though I am a Tyros fan now.....when I had my PA you can do what you are saying you can't.

With the PA you can hit one key and have the accmp. stop and just the drums playing or everything stop and either can start again by playing a chord as I recall...

I'm drawing from old memory here, so one of you PA owners help me out. There is a velocity setting seems to me on page 25 or 27 and by using this setting it gives you the options I just mentioned. Bottom of the page......chip in here someone, look at the screen that has the 20 something pages on it and look for the velocity settings.

Something that is kind of cool about the PA fills (though I think they suck in general) is that if you hit a fill 2x's quickly, it will stay on that fill and give you a long drum fill.

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jam on,
Terry
http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html

For the $$$, it's a great choice!

Hi
Terry is talking about the menu feature that allows you to map the fills to the velocity, I think.

RicFreak is a very talented programmer, so I think that is why he finds the pa80 so easy to program. I'm just the opposite. I find the pa80 a pain in the rear. I like my Yamaha PSR2000 much more for both it's sounds and it's functions and programming.

But, when you get into the pa80, it can be a very, very cool keyboard. Especially if you have a lot of time to devote to it.

Tom G.

Tom,
I think what you are saying about the PA being a pain to program or tweek was true for me as well.

Ric and my friend AJ (bluezplayer) are both tweekers to the max and find the PA cool for this. I tweek only what I have to and is not my thing, nor do I have any fun doing it, so when I have to I want it to be as painless as possible, that was not my experience with the PA. Conversely, I find the Tyros very easy to navigate around and do what I dislike doing.

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jam on,
Terry
http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html

The pa can mute any single style track, or all the ACC tracks and or Bass and drums with the Pad functions. Again you have to program them to do that, so once again it is a tweaky thing on the Pa80.

Seems the general idea is the Pa80 has a higher learning curve.