Yesterday we took our after breakfast little weekly road trip to a few Music stores & made our rounds looking & demoing different gear out of what they had available on the floor. Surprisingly both of these store had a T2/S900/S700/S500, so I had a chance to sit down & check out the S900....I had previously just glanced at one a few weeks ago in another store also.

Pros: Nice sleeker design compared to the 3k better lines dimensions etc,...Nice color screen I had no problem seeing the display at all with adjustment on deck also nice change form the rear. Buttons that were removed on the 3k are now back on the deck which are very useful for live play without going into the page menus...Harmony/Voc/ to name a few, some buttons are smaller & rubberized for a tackier feel. Nice navigational layout I found myself (being an old Yamaha arranger guy) to easily get around the S900 with no problem.....I loaded the MY USB Thumb Drive with my Registrations & User styles with no problems and was off to making music.Right off the bat I noticed the sound was better distinguished then the 3k, my Reg assignments worked flawlessly, volume levels on styles parts all responded well, no spiking or undertone modulations to adjust just nice well balanced sound emitting clear thru the on-board speakers. SA voices as I remember them on my T2 also sounded outstanding, including Sax breath, Guitar slides, Trumpet shakes, etc they are nice to have on board if you utilize them the right way while playing. Jumping around & navigating on the KB while playing was a cinch very 3kish in that sense but it stops there as the S900 certainly is Sonically & Polyphonically better in many respects then its older arranger brother models. Tight, polished, & crisp. Weight is excellent light and easy to carry. I had no time to try a recording on the USB.

Cons: USB socket is badly positions in the middle of the rear deck which can be blocked when using certain keyboard stands like my APEX, or any center pole stand, etc, etc. This should of been put in the front or dual front & back. Key feel is light like the 3k which I dont mind, but should of been made more sturdy...there was a S700 right above the S900 and there was a CHIP out of the bottom of one of the keys & a small crack on another....this is definitly something for Yamaha to look into, & beefing up with better construction on future models. Flash Rom needs to be doubled to accommodate more user data.


All in all for the money it is definitely a Best Bang for the Buck contender!

Maybe you should get one.

But then for the next six months, we'd have to listen to what a piece of cr*p the PA800 was.

chas

Foreplay.

I'd sure hope not

zuki

Yes, so true.

How are you liking the PA-800 so far, Zuki...you did get Donny's, didn't you?

Ian the Inquisitive

OOOh, the truth come out! I didn't say anything.

Cassp...we must not interpret Zuki's silence on this matter too strongly or literally.

But, it is rather revealing.

I am currently gigging with an S900 and will continue to do so I just ordered a Yamaha bag this morning

I've never had my hands on an 800

zuki

Ian besides being a busybody .....what else do you do for a living?

Donny won't even tell me..he says it is none of my business..

Fran......I dont want this toi turn into the G70 selling frenzy we went thru last time if you remember that torid affair!!!!
http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/013808.html


[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 01-29-2008).]

No, I'm not selling my PA800, in the immediate future. If I do it would be to buy a Pa2Xpro. I liked the PA800 so much that once I purchased it I played the T2 on one more gig, and that was only because I didn't have enough time on Saturday the day I bought it to set the PA800 for the next day's gig. I never even fired up the T2 the night before I packed it up for shipping to it's new home.

I like all 3 boards, Pa800, Tyros2, and the G70. If my money pit was endless I'd own all 3. When Tyros3 or whatever it's called and Roland releases a G70 replacement I'll look at those when the time comes.


BTW good review on the S900.




[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 01-29-2008).]

Now Donny, you be nice now, hear?

No name calling...please?

Glad you like the S900...about time your eyes were opened.

(Sings) I can see clearly now...my Korg is gone....

I know dnj has the PA-800 and it's a great keyboard but for the yamaha s900 at 1,599.00 or cheaper is a great bang for the buck. I bought my s900 at the local guitar center at 20% off day, that they were having. so it worked out to be 1280.00 plus tax. so if you can get them at a major retail store when they have their one day sales it gets even beter. If the s900 wasn't out I would have purchased the PA-800 but I chose not to since the s900 was $1000 cheaper and sound for sound they both do the job very well.

It is amazing that anyone has the ability to switch out keyboards and continue to successfully play their gig - that is a testament to one's ability to quickly grasp an OS.

For me, my feeble brain works slow, so I have to labor to make it sound good finally.

Kudos to those that switch boards. I believe the audience likes change as much as the musician. We all change - period!


zuki

Correctomundo, Jim, but I guess most of it depends how you use the instrument...some people just use them basically as MIDI file players and sing or play over them...finding the new locations for the "play" and "stop" buttons can't be that hard.

For the ones who delve deeper into their 'boards and do more actual playing, you gotta give them credit for learning a new OS literally by the seat of their pants...it could quite a challenge.

Ian

I hope to only say this once - My e60 has arrived. Sweet!

Cass congratulations!! Keep us posted.

Yeah! Cool! You'll be havin' fun.

Congratulations.

Ian

Cass......Congrats my friend.....I only wish you Mucho success & happiness with it....make some wonderful music....
its a very kool unit!

Good Luck

Well!!!!!!!!!!

What do you think?

Ahhhhhhhh...nothing better than new toys that everyone seems to getting these days

Zuki, we treat ourselves well....don't we?

Now back to th main topic of the post.

Donny,

Thanks for the update. I do appreciate your opinions on the board. It sounds like it is a definite improvement in sound, and worth upgrading from the PSR3000. The audience will probably realize there is an improvement in the sound of the performance, but will not be able to put there finger on exactly what it is.

Thanks,

Jerry

I also found the review very useful.

I'm one of the crowd who is more midi-files than styles, but when I get a new keyboard I re-mix and re-voice every midi file, because you will never do the new keyboard justice if you dont.

I have found that there can be significant audible differences between the same "bank / program" voice even between keyboards from the same manufacturer. This was definately the case when going from my PSR2000 to PSR3000.

Thanks Donny!

Jerry....

All kidding aside, S900... it is definitly an improvement compared to the Psr3000. & Not because of the SA sounds of which are nice to be added to the pallette if you really knpow how to UTILIZE them CORRECTLY while playing. Although a cute novelty I dont think the Sax Breath or the Guitar Knock are practical in the real performing world, yet some other could be very useful again ONLY IF MASTERED while playing them. I'll know more if & when I can try it on stage where I'm able to EQ & tweak the sound to my satisfaction. Navagation is #1 for me and the RE-addition of the Voc/ Harmony.... Harmony/Echo.....Reg +/- etc is a good thing.

Your on the right track Mac....I do the same thing with my SMF collections ....I have re-tweaked all of them which is almost 300+ for each keyboard I have owned and re-saved them to a folder if ever needed. The proprietaries of the sound for the particular Keyboard is very ESSENTIAL if you care about what you sound like....its a lot of Homework but when completed its well worth the effort for sure for you & your audiences.

Good Luck!!

Michael Bedesem's Midi Player program can take care of the midi files and does batch conversions in seconds. Check it out.

Gary

------------------
Travlin' Easy

Thanx for the info Gary...

Michael Bedesem has truly done some remarkable work in creating very useful programs for the Arranger KB Musician, he is to commended many times over.

I've endorsed Micheals MidiPlayer program a few times here. If I didn't use that as my first "conversion" step it would take me a darn sight longer!

mac.....although I am not a fan of batch conversions.....there is no substitute for meticulously tweaking Each song to an artists perfection IMO. There are too many variables with generalized sound assignments efx.