The PSR2100 is overall a disappointment. Let’s go back one year when many of you owned your PSR2000s. You know, when you play a keyboard every day, you start to wish it had this and it had that. And you start to ponder about the next generation that Yamaha’s going to come out with. You start to think about the limitations of the PSR2000, albeit it’s a fantastic keyboard value. Here is a common wish list for PSR2000 owners:

• more voices
• more styles
• more internal memory
• outside storage option
• dedicated buttons for intros and endings
• a better sequencer
• a file utility program so you can transfer files directly from computer
• sturdier keys
• correction of glitches
• a button that brings you directly to the title of each registration button
• three foot pedal inputs
• two midi inputs (maybe for the MFC10 and other options)
• an accessible mic volume switch

The PSR2100 has a few of these features, but overall it is a major disappointment. Now we have known for months that this keyboard was going to be a slightly souped up PSR2000. We saw that the chassis and buttons were in the same place. We saw that the only outside difference was the USB. How many of us were disappointed when we found out that you couldn’t access styles and midis through the USB? Everyone was disappointed.

We knew we weren’t going to get sturdier keys. We knew we weren’t going to get new buttons, we knew we weren’t going to get a better sequencer, we knew we weren’t going to get other inputs outside of the USB.

All was riding on the new voices, the new styles, how much internal memory it would have, the usefulness of the file utility program, and correction of glitches.

The internal memory in the PSR2100 is a real disappointment. Yamaha added about 500kb – about 1/3 of a floppy disk. That’s a pittance when you look at all the cheap memory out there in the computer world.

The new voices on the PSR2100 are very good, but you won’t notice when you play the styles. First of all, this isn’t like the improvement of the PSR2000 over the PSR740. It’s not like the improvement of regular panel voices over the meager rom of the XG voices. As we have just discovered, 90% of the styles are from the PSR2000, and Yamaha did not bother to revoice these styles with the new added voices. Not the styles, not the OTS. Sure, we can create registrations with these revoices, but why should we have to bother? Isn’t that Yamaha’s job? I smell a skunk.

The new Live! Piano sounds more like a real piano throughout the whole keyboard. You hear extra harmonics when you play it, especially next to the old piano sound. Nevertheless, you won’t hear much of a difference when this piano is mixed in a style.
The new string sounds are excellent. The Cool! Jazz Guitar also has more harmonics. But it has more of a pickup sound and string resonance sound that makes it different from the old Jazz Guitar. The old Jazz Guitar had a mellow sound. I might have wished for a Cool! Jazz Guitar that had this mellowness but with more harmonics. The Cool Solo Jazz Guitar is slightly different. Just the slightest hint of distortion, more pickup sound. Very good. The new nylon and classical guitars sound more real, especially the nylon guitar.

The two new organ sounds, Cool! Jazz Organ and Cool! Electric Organ really turn me on. They sound alive, like a real organ, not like a synth imitation.

The Sweet! Harmonica is wonderful. Again, more harmonics, more depth.

The Sweet! Oboe is great sounding, but I won’t be playing much oboe. This applies even more with the two new harpsichord sounds.

The muted trumpet is now a useable voice. It’s not extraordinary, but it is definitely a keeper. I will be using it. The other three new horn sounds were big disappointments. I was hoping for a voice to replace the Brass Section voice of the PSR2000. The Brass Section voice on the PSR2000 is pretty realistic, but a little lacking as well. I was hoping for that type of sound but less synthy and more live. The Live! Octave Brass, Hyper Brass, and Pop Brass, sound more synthy. They do have a lot of resonance. They’re good voices. But they don’t sound like good substitutions if you want a real brass sound.

The new gospel voice is pretty cool, but I probably won’t use it much. I’ll substitute this voice in the Jazz Vocal style. I wish there were a Live! Choir voice or Live! Angel voices.

The Sweet! Violin will be good for country tunes. It has some personality.

The Aloha guitar is excellent because it sweeps up if you attack a note in a certain way, so you can get a bend without relying on the pitch wheel.

I was able to install my HDM hard drive system into the PSR2100 and transfer all of my registrations into the new keyboard. I brought the keyboard to one of my regular gigs this morning. It sounded good. No one mentioned that I sounded better than before. I would get comments like that when I first got the PSR2000 and ditched my PSR740.

The new USB software looks good. I haven’t used it yet. I’m especially happy that you can transfer files from the computer to the keyboard’s floppy drive. With my HDM device inside the PSR2100, it is like I have 81 floppy drives. Now I won’t have to go from computer floppy to keyboard USER drive to keyboard floppy drive in order to transfer files. I heard that the USB drive is slow, but it’s probably quicker than floppy to USER drive transfers.

The new styles sound pretty good with the new voices. There are only several that I will regularly use. The Schlager Rhumba works good with, “You’re Just Too Good to Be True.” The Mariachi Waltz sounds beautiful. I will definitely be using it for Cielito Lindo. Some of the styles are quirky, like the Orchestral Polka and Orchestral Waltz. The Orchestral Waltz is only good for Johanne Strauss and nothing else. I haven’t figured out what to do with the Orchestral Polka. The Classical Ballad (I can’t remember the name of the style) is extremely beautiful. It sounds good on the PSR2000 but wonderful on the PSR2100. I’ll have to find a song for that style.

It’s a disappointment that there is no style disk that comes with the PSR2100. When you count the styles on the style disk that came with the PSR2000, the PSR2000 had more styles than its successor.

I have a lot of work ahead of me revoicing hundreds of styles, getting that Live! Grand Piano in there and the Cool! Jazz Guitar, and adding some of the great new voices to the OTS. But remember, that in the mix, these lusher voices don’t stand improve the sound that much.

If you have a PSR2000 and you don’t have money to burn, keep it.

I justify buying two of the PSR2100s for the following reasons:

1. Slight improvements
2. The two PSR2000s I own have a lot of mileage, and might need work at some point this year that wouldn’t be covered under warranty.

Speaking of warranty, another slap in the face by Yamaha is discontinuing the Survival Kit which gives you the 2 year extended warranty. You can still get the Survival Kit, but Yamaha is phasing it out. The standard warranty is 90 days labor and 1 year for parts. Believe me, if you play this keyboard a lot, you are going to have to bring it in to get worked on. My PSR2000s needed a lot of work: Many buttons ceased to work properly because of overuse, one keyboard needed a replacement internal amp, the other needed new speakers. A 90 day labor warranty doesn’t cut it.

The PSR2100 is a great value for the money, but for those who owned the PSR2000 and were yearning for improvements, there is not much added. The fact that Yamaha did not revoice the old styles from the PSR2000 to showcase the new added voices is a sign of shoddy design and disrespect for its customers.

Beakybird

Beakybird

Thanks for the post Larry. Guess I hang on to my 2000s until I see what the PSR-2002 or 2003 has to offer. If you have the opportunity, download my latest gig disk #6 from www.psrtutorial.com and let me know if anything sounds different when played with the 2001.

Thanks again,

Gary

Larry,

In other words, you want a Tyros

Alex,

TYROS will be a more expensive disappointment to a PSR2000 owner, than PSR2100.

Beakybird,
I certainly concur on your voice evaluations and preferences. I also concur with your bottom line conclusion -- great keyboard for someone moving up from the PSRxxx, but PSR2000 owners will see only limited improvements. I don't know how long it takes to develop and release a new model, but the failure to provide a more substantial mass storage option is very disappointing.

I've also noticed something else. Styles "tuned" for the 2100 do not play as well on the 2000. They are like loading the Tyros styles on the 2000. The Main/Layer/Left voices are better when set to the 2000 equivalents. By the same token, when I loaded some of the CVP209 styles in the 2100, they sounded fine and some of them actually called for some of the new voices in the 2100 in the OTS. I suspect the "original" Tyros styles & OTS (excluding Mega voices) will sound just fine on the 2100. I'm now faced with the dilemna that styles tuned for the 2100 will have to be retuned for the 2000 and vice versa. The accompaniment can be restricted to the standard XG voices, but the OTS, even if specifying similar instruments, will sound different on each keyboard.

Beakybird (Larry): Thanks for your candidly honest PSR2100 review. - Scott



Joe, interesting assessment, as I find most of my PSR2000 styles sound real good & pleasingly balanced on my Tyros. - Scott

Scott, How do the Tyros styles sound on the 2000? In particular, how do the OTS voices compare? I guess I misspoke a bit with the vice-versa. The 2000 styles seem to play fine on the 2100. It's when I take a 2100 style, using the 2100 voices in the OTS, that it doesn't play quite the same on the 2000.

Hi Larry

Your observations are very similar to what Joe W. said. I can't believe Yamaha did so LITTLE with this new keyboard. Especially the pathetic amount of user memory. And not even bothering to "retune" the styles to take advantage of the newer voices! What's up with that?
Speaking of which, why the heck did they choose to put TWO NEW HARPSICHORDS in the 2100??? I mean, come on, how often to we even play a harpsichord voice? What were they thinking???

Tom G.

Interesting observations so far. I guess if one wants a keyboard to sound like a Tyros then they have to get a Tyros.

I think really that the PSR2100 was designed to make you want a Tyros and no amount of tweeking and button pushing will ever accomplish that.

What I sense here is there should be a model smack dab in between the two. One where all the live play features and sounds are there but not all the rest of the gizmos.

I know I'd rather just play music than futz around with disks and buttons and menus. If I had wanted that I would have bought the Korg PA80 and a noose.

My two pesos.

Scott Langholff

Hi Joe, I'm hearing the same results as you. Both PSR2000 & PSR2100 styles (I was lucky enough to receive these to checkout) play & sound good on my Tyros, but when I load a Tyros or the new PSR2100 styles on my PSR2000, the voices and levels don't match up or sound right. - Scott