Well here's my review on the PSR-2000. I wasnt going to post it here because the boards been reviewed so many times already and many are up to the 3000 now. Several have asked that I post it here as well.

First of all the OS is SOOO simple. It's well laid out and easy to understand. I was playing and recording in less than half an hour.

Cosmetics: Overall it's a good looking keyboard. The color shceme is well balanced.

Build Quality: This area has some weak points. The case is thin plastic and can be scratched easily. Also the underside seems to have some weak spots as well. The quality of the pitchbend and modulation wheels is a joke. VERY flimsy. The Casio WK-3500 has much better wheels.

SOUNDS

Pianos: The acoustic grand is a little questionable to me. It's not bad, but also not the best either. It is very weak in the lower register. In my opinion the 2000's grand piano sounds EXACTLY like the PSR-550. Only it's louder and has more bass due to a more powerful speaker system. To be honest I think the Casio WK-3500's Stereo Grand, Stereo Mellow Grand, and Stereo Bright Grand are better than the PSR-2000. The Casio's seem more "full bodied", and have a much better lower register. I was however surprised to see that the PSR-2000 does not have a mellow grand in the preset. The only one on the unit is in the XG voice set. The EP's are really good. Some very funky sounds in this category.

Guitars: The guitars are quite good. There are several good distorted guitars (that beat the Casio). The acoustic guitars are also pleasing and above the quality of the Casio. I still have yet to edit a Wha guitar to sound liike Jimi Hendrix. The Casio can hit that one dead on. The bass guitars are "so so". Some good and some not so good. Again the slap bass is terrible. Yamaha should be ashamed of themselves for putting this low quality sample on a high end arranger. The Casio blows the PSR-2000 out of the water when it comes to bass guitars.

Saxes: These range from decent to just ok. The sweet tenor is nice, but his sax is for slow solos. It will not work for fast solo work. I'm still undecided on the sweet alto. It's nice, but I need to play with it more. The sweet saprano is dead on! Absolutely mouth watering. The growl sax is pretty good. It works well for hard solos that require some balls. The standard preset saxes are ok. Same as on the PSR-550. However I have to say with the exception of the sweet saprano, the Casio-WK-3500 takes the cake in the sax department. Casio's Vel. Tenor, and Vel. Alto Saxes are awsome. Even the GM saxes are quite good.

Woodwinds/Pipes: The flutes, clarinets, and woodwinds are quite good. The sweet clarinet is damn good, as is the sweet flute.

Strings: The "live" strings are very good. There are several versions of live strings too. The solo violin is quite good too. The cello is decent. However, the 2000 lacks a "slow cello" voice. I edited a preset on the 2000 for a slow cello and got favorable results, but the Casio's cello has a better "raw" sample. When edited it really sounds great. I'd say the Yamaha has the lead on the strings over the Casio with the exception of the cello.

Organs/Flutes: All I can say is TOP NOTCH! the Casio WK-3500 has nothing on the PSR-2000 in terms of organ sounds and editing ability of the flutes. Hats off to Yammie on this one. The Casio's organs are good, but are not up to par with the Yamaha.

Drums: Yamaha carried over the usual kits that they have been using on their boards for years. They're quite dated now. They're not bad, but Yamaha fixed this with the release of the PSR-3000. I use a Zoom drum machine so it's not problem for me.

Synth sounds: They range from good to ok. They're pretty much the typical synths pads and leads you find on Yamaha's.

The biggest plus here is that with the 2000 Yamaha incorporated voice editing. Just a few minor tweeks here and there can make a world of difference for a sound.

The styles are very good. You don't feel as if you're competing with the style while playing along with it. They're simplistic, but this is what makes them so good and versitile.

The song and style recorder is very very very good. Starkeeper, you'd be in heaven with it when comparing it to the PSR-550. There are a lot of good options available when recording songs and user styles.

Now on to the Vocalizer.... All I can say is DAMN! Boy was I thrown back. I've never had the need for one, but I tell you what....., After playing with it for an hour I can see the potential. It was so cool hearing all that harmony while I sang. Great feature to have on any keyboard.

Overall I'm very happy with my purchase. It's a good arranger, and where it lacks it makes up for with other features. My only concern was the slight hiss noise from the speakers. The only thing I can think of is that I'm getting some kind of interference with another device in this room. I noticed this sound got worse when I moved the board closer to my computer. Odd huh? There is an easy fix for it. I also have decent outboard speakers. You can hook up external speakers, and then plug a 1/4" headphone adapter into the headphone jack. This cuts off the internal spearker and in turn kills the background hiss. THe sound isn't so bad that you can't play the board, but I can get quite picky at times. Well that's about it. Off to play some more. IF there are any typos I apologize. It's nearly 11pm.

Squeak

"Organs/Flutes: All I can say is TOP NOTCH!"
This is good to hear. Can they be made nice and dirty, like a Hammond B3? I use organ voices quite a bit when I'm playing.
Starkeeper

Great review. You werent one sided at all you gave it a fair, and equal rating against others.

Im glad to see that your pleased with your purchase. You have only had it for several days now, and im sure your just digging in to it. Once you edit the voices and so forth im sure you will be pleased as ever.

Good luck

Phil

Squeak

And later you can download those excellent Tyros conversion styles.

For me they saved me upgrading for a further 1 1/2 years.

I've now bought a PSR 3000, btw...

Jerry
Amsterdam

"I noticed this sound got worse when I moved the board closer to my computer. Odd huh?"


Errr nothing odd with common knowledge ( part of the reason I said in jest "dont put a cell phone on your keyboard" ). I dint think someone would be surprised a monitor spewing out radiation would cause interference.

Cause like I said common knowledge, that can be gained from the first page of almost any electronic device.

Would you be shocked if a guitar amp started to buzz when next to a neon sign, its the same thing.

Past that...thanks for posting up!

Alone,
The problem isn't cell phones or my computer.. Those have been ruled out. My borad is picking up a signal from somewhere, but at the moment it's a mystery. I talked to Steve Deming on the phone and even let him hear the noise. Something really is not right. Even though I didn't hear the noise when I took it to my wife's grandparents house there was still a considerable amount of "white noise" generated from the speakers even with the volume turned all the way down. So the board is unplayable to me at the moment since not one room in my house is free of the mystery signal.

Squeak

Star

The 2000's organ voices are nice enough. I even thought they were "good", until I bought myself a 3000 this week...

A nice organ combination on the PSR 2000 is the Jazz Organ 1 (or Click Organ) on right 1 in combination with Blues Organ (from organ flutes) on the second right hand voice.

The PSR 3000 has "great" organ voices and I am really unexpectedly happy with how good they are. The cool organ and Jazz organs are both exactly what you'll be looking for...

Jerry

Excellent.
Thanks Jerry

Squeak,

You are an excellent writer of reviews. Maybe this is your calling.

I hope that the noise problem is resolved for you. You sound very frustrated. I don't blame you for that, as I know we would all be. I wish I could help, but I can't give you any other reasons why this would be happening.

By the way, I have a chance to buy a 2000 with extra "stuff" for $500. It would be a step up from my 740, however, would it be a giant step, or a baby step? (anyone remember that kid's game?)

I'm not sure what to do. I need some input from anyone with a thought on this.

Thanks,
Larry Hawk

Larry,

The PSR-2000 is light years ahead of the 740, providing you with options that are beyond your wildest dreams. If you have the opportunity to try the keyboard out first, you'll be astounded.

Good Luck,

Gary