DonM!
You are Right!
I Goofed up BIG Time!
Weird how I could forget that!
Thanks for reminding me in nice way!
rgtaa

I found another anomaly tonight on the job. You all know how much I like to play manual bass .... well, I set up a nice patch with bass, rhodes and drums and saved it to my user memory. I called it up later to find that the bass patch is dedicated to the style selected, and not a separate part of it's own. Bummed me right out. I can get around it by writing a left hand(Lower) sound instead, but I like the dedicated button to just hit the bass on & off as I need it.
Other than that - we(sax & I ) sounded great tonight. I played mostly with that trio sound, and with the added sax ... it was SWEEEEEET.

The styles are so much better when you take OUT a lot of the stuff they program. It's just way too busy. When I first heard it, I liked the fullness, but after playing with it ... I decided that I MUCH prefer Yamaha's treatment of styles and rhythms. For the most versatility, I need solid, simple, swingin' styles. No fluff - that's MY job !

My current mission is to try and find as many of the psr2k styles as I can (in Korg format) and see if my impression of the PA80 changes. If the rhythms were simpler ... it would be so much better.

Oh yeah - another BIG thing ....
That STUPID, unmusical, anoying "break" button ! What's up wit dat?
Aaaagh !
It has a loud cymbal crash and it crashes no matter where you hit the button in the measure. Almost makes it unusable. Unless the break is needed at the exact beginning of a measure - it's worthless. I'd rather turn off the drums and start them again fresh.(use the start/stop auto buttons)
This HAS GOT to be fixed in a future update. Take out the crash and make the pattern cut smoothly whenEVER you hit the button ... all we need is a little silence !

I use an arranger for live play, studio work, and just to jam along with. I owned a 2000 and still have the PA80 after a year. I still like my PA80 a lot. Still, I have to agree with some of what Uncle Dave says. To add my 2 cents.....

I don't like the acoustic piano at all in either board. I have the Yamaha Motif and the ac piano sounds great in it. The one in the 2000 sounds nothing like it unfortunately. I think I dislike the ac piano even more in the PA80 though. Overall though I do prefer more of the PA80 sounds versus their counterparts on the 2000.

I am split on the styles. I like some from each board. Korg's sound more realistic to me and are very cool to play along to, but during live play I also find that some of them can be a bit too busy and fill up the space I wanna play in. Sometimes simpler styles, like some of the ones on the 2k, are preferable to me. I just turn some of the parts off though, plus I converted 80 of my favorite styles from Yamaha for the PA80 and worked on them 'til they sounded good to me.
Then there is the fills issue. Only 2 per style on the PA80 ( and some of the fills are " out there " . For me that's the biggest gaffe on the board. I happen to like the way the vocalizer responds better on the PA80 than on the 2000. ( to my real time left hand chord voicings .. strike 2 notes, get 2 harmonies, strike 4 , get 4 ..etc..) I am in the minority on this one though I'm afraid. If you wanted to know more about it, I explained the basics of how the PA80 harmonizer works in a tutorial I did over at the Irish Acts forum.

My biggest problem with my particular 2k though was that it was rather buggy, especially in the effects and registration areas. In many instances, what I saved ( voices, effects, etc ) might play properly one time and totally wrong the next time ( On the SAME registration ). This rendered the board unreliable for me for live play. To make matters worse, I tried to get these items addressed and repaired for many weeks, but Yamaha offered me no workable solutions. In 2 similar instances with PA80 customers, boards were replaced within 10 days.

Much of this is why I stuck with the PA80, even though I wanted to ( and almost did )love the 2k better for live use. Also, in my particular PA80, I have experienced zero bugs after a year + of use. It's been sturdy and reliable. The 2000 just felt too flimsy. I play pretty hard on the keys, and I KNOW I would have broken a key or the pitch wheel eventually ( I'm a joystick kinda guy anyway.. advantage - Korg ). When I broke the pitch wheel on my 740, it took 11 WEEKS before the Yamaha authorized repair guy was able to fix it. Glad I wasn't trying to make a living with the 740..

After I finally learned and understood it, I found the OS more intuitive and easier to navigate in the PA80 vs the 2k as well. This is somewhat of a surprise to me too, as the 740 I had before was about the easiest arranger I ever worked with.

Still, for me, a 2000 working properly would give the PA80 a run for the money in the live act. In the studio, no comparison for me. If I still had it I wouldn't use the 2000 there very much if at all. I have all the Yamaha sounds I want plus some excellent synth / workstation features in the Motif so there would be no point in it for me anyway. The PA80 has many more "workstation" like features in it than the 2k for my money. Full synth editing for patches on par with the Motif and most other comparable workstations out there. It has sampling and it has much better media storage capacity than the 2k. It is upgradable via flash rom and disk.

As far as loading the styles for play, there is also a tutorial at Irish Acts for that one too. I know it might seem perplexing atr first, but once you get the hang of it, the styles play from disk with ease. Disk operations in general were hard for me at first too on the PA80, mainly because I was used to the Yamaha OS and their way of doing things. Now that I have learned the PA80 way, I like it bettter.

For a home keyboardist who wants something to play along to, doesn't need a multitude of synth type features, and doesn't desire to spend a fortune, I would give a properly working 2k very high marks. It's a lotta bang for the buck.

Most important though, is the inspiration YOU feel when you play one of these or other boards. A while back, when I was trying different arrangers and getting my feet wet, I received a lot of useful info and many good recommendations at this forum. Having come from playing non arranger synths, it was very helpful to me because it kind of gave me a feel of what to look for from each board I tried. Still, I needed to try and experience what I felt would suit ME best, and I think that every player needs to do that for him / herself. The bottom line : Try a few for yourself as extensively as possible before making a decision.

AJ

I haven't used it a single time; it's just useless. It also uses the same kick and the cymbal no matter which drum kit use are using. I just can't believe a musician made this decision.

Shiral

What were they thinking??????

I agree. I never use the break function either, ( I also find it to be useless ) and I rarely even notice it's there any more. I'd like to be able to use it though.

AJ

Is the break button on the PA60 also?

AS far as the picture shows - there is NO difference in layout, styles, buttons ... it's all the same. They cut out some extras like "to host" port, harmonizer option, user-installable HD(bad move),EC5 socket - that stuff. It looks to be the same from the standpoint of styles, buttons and sounds.
Without a cheap HD option, I won't be excited about it.