I keep hearing (reading) references to a 76 key Yamaha "PSR 9000 Pro". The only 76 key PSR shown at the recent NAMM expo was an expanded PSR 280. Anyone have any info on this?

Yes there is a PSR9000 pro keyboard coming out soon. It will feature the same 76 note keyboard found in the EX5 pro synth. I haven't seen pictures yet, but my Yamaha Rep saw it at the summer NAMM show and says it looks really cool. The estimated retail price is about $3800.00- $4000.00. The other keyboard you saw is a 76 note version of the low end Yamaha PSR keyboards. It will retail for around $399.00.
George Kaye

Is it true that the PSR-9000 Pro will also include one or more PLG slots, like the MU100R, MU128, CSX6, S30, S80, and SW1000XG (and probably others I'm forgetting) all do?

Yamaha's PLG expansion system should not be confused with the plug-in ROM/RAM voice cards of the Roland "expandable" synths, etc. Those merely add new sounds, or storage for user sounds. PLG cards, on the other hand, add whole synthesis/effects engines, complete with their own tone generators. Yes, they ADD TO the total polyphony of the base unit!

WHY didn't Yamaha include at least one PLG slot (there's probably room in there for at least two) in the original PSR9000!?

Granted, a 9000 Pro user would probably have little need for an XG (64-voice Level 1 XG tone generator plus three additional DSP engines for Reverb, Chorus, and Variation which itself can be System or Insertion) or VH (Vocal Harmonizer) card, since the 9000 itself already has those abilities (though adding 64 notes of ADDITIONAL polyphony and three extra DSP engines might make the XG card worthwhile, and perhaps with a VH card one might have a co-singer singing into it while you sing into the 9000's own VH so you can get up to six-part harmonies with two different lyrics simultaneously), but being able to add the AN (Analog Physical Modelling synth, equivalent to a Yamaha AN1X which in turn is a modern equivalent of the classic Prophet 5 polyphonic anlog synth of the 70s), DX (FM synthesis, equivalent of a DX-7 only more so), PF (basically a P200 digital piano on a card), and especially VL (S-VA Sondius Physical Modelling solo synthesis, basically equivalent to a Yamaha VL-70m -- BY FAR the most realistic and expressive brass/wind synthesis available electronically [yes, even better than the 9000's own Sweet! and Cool! and Live! panel voices! BY FAR!!!], and pretty darn good at bowed and plucked strings and wild modern synth effects, too!) cards would be outstanding!

VL really has to be heard to be appreciated, and merely selecting a VL voice and playing keys on a machine connected to a VL tone generator such as a VL-70m, an MU100R (which came standard with the VH and VL PLG cards in its two PLG slots -- these were the first two PLG cards available), or (most bang for the buck) a PC running Windows95/98/Me equipped with a DS-XG sound card (currently using only the VxD [Win95-compatible, but will work on the later OSes] drivers, NOT the WDM [Win98 and up, and will also work on Win2K unlike the VxD] or WinNT drivers -- make sure the Sondius-XG option is enabled on the Synthesizer tab of the DS-XG Control Panel) -- Yamaha calls theirs the WaveForce 192, but third parties also make equivalent cards for a lot less, and some motherboard makers even build-on the requisite YMF724/744/754 chipset! YMF724-based DS-XG cards (which are also decent gaming cards, being PCI 3D DirectSound and supporting most 3D APIs except A3D 2.0 [does support A3D 1.0, plus EAX 1.0 AND 2.0, plus Sensaura, plus DS3D]) can be had for FIFTEEN BUCKS or even LESS! This for the equivalent of both an MU50 (sans QS300 and DOC modes) PLUS a VL-70m! The 744 and 754 support multi-channel speaker systems and some DS-XG cards even have coax or even OPTICAL digital I/O!

Oh, yeah, if your CPU is genuine Intel P6-core with MMX (Celeron, Pentium II, or Pentium III ONLY! -- the VL part WILL NOT INSTALL on ANY AMD, even thought the Athlons and Durons should have WAY more than enough FPU "oomph" to handle it -- hopefully Yamaha will fix this soon -- as for Cyrix or Centaur, etc., don't even ask) and is fast enough (recommend 233MHz or better), you can try out VL for free without buying a new sound card (even a $15 one): go to http://www.yamaha-xg.com and follow the Soft Synth links to download the S-YXG100plus Soft Synth. None of the other Soft Synths include the VL, only the XG, but they will work on more CPUs (if S-YXG100plus is installed on a non-Intel P6+MMX, it will basically only install S-YXG50 functionality: no VL). The download also includes some sample songs in the VL_Songs directory that will blow you away. DS-XG driver/bundle CD-ROMs often contain many of these also. I recommend starting with "CoolJiva.mid" and "DinoJung.mid", but they're all pretty good. Use a MIDI player that has displays MIDI note activity per MIDI channel (the one that comes with S-YXG100plus will, and the XG Studio MIXER that comes with many DS-XG cards can also do this) so you can see when MIDI Channel 1 is doing its thing: the VL notes play only on that channel. Using XG-Studio MIXER one can even Mute and Solo any of the MIDI channels individually, so you can Solo MIDI Channel 1 to hear JUST the VL stuff without the XG wavetable backup.

I will be happy if Yamaha makes an expandable arranger, but I am not that excited about the expansion options. The VH-vocal harmony and XG are built in. The piano should be. I do not really care about the DX, although format synthesis might be fun to explore. Maybe the analog modeling would also be. I have an MU100R and like the VL physical modeling synthesis. However, to use it to full effect requires several controllers that may not be available on a given keyboard. Also, a separate interface is required for both access and for programming. This is a lot of work for one extra voice of polyphony. If it were Korg's MOSS explansion board with 6 voices, it would be more worth it.

Roland's expansion system is more practical. You do not have to learn a new operating system for each plug in. While they just may be new sounds, I would love to add "world", "Asian" and "Choir" to my arranger.

What I really want to see is two generic memory expansion slots like those used with digital still cameras. These could be filled with pre-programmed ROM or programmable FLASH memory. The memory should be useful for storing styles, sounds, or whatever the user wants. I would have a USB port that allows an external floppy to assist data transfer and for operating system upgrades. I think we should get away from keyboards with disk drives built in. If a hard drive is needed, make it external or use IBMs microdrive in a memory slot.

You say: YMF724-based DS-XG cards can be had for FIFTEEN BUCKS or even LESS! This for the equivalent of both an MU50 (sans QS300 and DOC modes) PLUS a VL-70m! I have a Sound Blaster Card, which does a poor job with XG (wrong instruments).

1) I tried the Yamaha 100 Soft Synth; nice but the hardware you mention above is cheaper than buying the "key" to unlock the trial software.

2) Can you have two sound cards in a PC at the same time? E.g., switch from one to the other when desired?

3) Where is it that you can get this YMF724 based card for $15???

Thanks, Bob