I am plannaig to buy an keyboard. Which one is better as your opinion?

roland e60,
korg pa500,
yamaha s900,
yamaha or700

Tough decision, aramis.

Yamaha PSR S900 is most feature reach (and expensive) of all.

Yamaha PSR OR700 is one step down from S900 with specific features for oriental music (styles, sounds, scale setup).

Roland E60 is in the same class as OR700, but have 76 keys keyboard (all others are 61 keys).

Korg Pa500 is in the same class as upper two, it's "little brother" of Pa800 (PSR S900 class Korg keyboard).

Soundwise, You have to listen to each of the keyboards discussed, and then make Your own decision. That's the main reason why You can't depand on other peoples opinnion, because manny people get used to the sound (or operation work-flow) of specific brand, and (strongly) dislikes other brands.

I agree with Kalimero's reply except the E-60 might be equivalent to the S900 - just my opinion.

zuki

Purchase a quality headphone set, then sit down at each of these keyboards for at least an hour, put them through their paces without the aid of a distracting salesperson, then make up your mind as to which best fits your needs, sounds best and has the most user friendly operating system. Something else that must be seriously considered is the level and quality of technical support.

The reason behind this is everyone hears things differently. Each person has his or her specific requirements or needs, and you are the only person that knows your budgetary limitations or requirements.

There are lots of high-quality, good-sounding keyboards available for under $2,000. Each has a list of attributes as long as your arm, and they all have some negative aspects as well. Only you can decide which of these boards is right for you.

After buying a keyboard, most of the good folks at this forum can help you through some of the pitfalls by answering specific questions pertaining to navigating the various operating systems, or making the board sound a bit better than it did right out of the box.

Good Luck on whatever keyboard you decide upon,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

At this price point, the features are very similar and it becomes an item for item check list of likes/don't likes. The S900 definitely has the advantage in features; it even has the harmonizer, but the price is higher too. The Roland E-60 has the advantage of 76 keys, which for me is a very big, determining factor. My opinion is, that if you play piano style for a significant portion of your time the 76 notes make a difference. The Korg is making great impressions with this PA series and if you ike Korg sounds and styles, the PA500 is comparable to the S700 or E50.

All I can say, you have the mid-range keyboards of the top three manufacturers to choose from. What you gain with one, you will lose on the other. You'll have to listen and play. It may come down to something as simple as panel layout or a feature that only you think is important. They are all good choices. My pick is the E60, but...

My choice would be the E-60...It has too much to offer...to be ignored..

S900 or E-60...can't go wrong with either...each one has a few features the other doesn't, but both offer a great deal of bang for the buck.

E-60, with 76 keys, is better if you wish to play solo piano, the S900 offers a tremendous amount of third party support and, of course, the SA voices from the flagship Tyros2.

Most important...try BEFORE you buy.

Ian

thank you all of you for your helpfully answers

i have some other questions please?

can i do everyting on s900 that i can do on or700? i mean that, can i take a voice or a rhtym from a or700 and put into s900? if so; there is no need to think buy or700 except price?

i think i will decide between s900 and s60.
what about them. yes 76 keys very nice future. What about voices? which one has better voices? especially grand piano voice?

and which do you prefer between these boards and WHY?

thanks again

[This message has been edited by aramis (edited 02-22-2008).]

I agree pretty much with all the unbiased responses here. As for what Gary had to say, I also agree. Very well put, but with one addition. I recommend, if possible to test out the keyboards through the speakers you will be using. I have tested some both with headphones and speakers and found that it can sound real good through headphones and then trying the same keyboard through some quality speakers, it didn't sound as good. The same instrument I am referring to sounded much better using a Behringer UB802 mixer than just through the speakers alone.

Best
Scott
http://ScottLMusic.com

Psr-s900

Aramis,
I am one of the only stores in the USA that sells and stocks the 700oriental. No, you cannot play the oriental styles in the 900 and have them play correctly. The drum kits needed are not in the 900 and so will play all the styles sounding funny. The western styles in the 700 will play fine in the 900 but not the oriental styles. Also, the sounds for middle eastern musicians will not be in the 900.


------------------
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

aramis,

Don't You read what we have told You?! ;-?

Have You ever heard the expression: "The beauty is in the eyes of the beholder."?

The same is with sound. Although both Yamaha S900 and Roland E-60 have excellent voices, some people prefers Yamaha, while other prefers Roland.

There is no sense in making Your own decision by following others choices. Because, You might get conclusion that majority of people here prefers keyboard X, and then You buy it, and after some time You come to conclusion that keyboard Y sounds waaaaaay better.

The best answer You can get is to search for the sound demos on the internet (You have lots of audio demos and some videos).

Do you play mid eastern music exclusively?

If you do
1.or 700 or PA 500

Or 700 (better OS),OK hardware

PA 500 (stronger sounds and also plays old PA 80 syles (except for styles that uses 8mb ME card)
.Most mid east musicians use Korg or Ketron(and some roland,roland used to be good @ that area),you'll have better 3 rd party styls than Yamaha.

For ethnic sounds wise I generally prefer Korgs and Ketrons.


Do you need 76 keys and do you need a KB with a little better key feel,and good piano -E 60 .Ok in OR department since E80 is used by ME musicians(not as much as PA though).

Do you play in a band or sequence/write instrumental music,Is your gig mostly SMF playback? -if you do -PA 500(has all workstaion quality sounds,editing power and sequencer),will load triton program banks (minus EFX ofcourse).Better than both Yam and Roland in this area (compared to above keyboards).If you care about overall voices in general -PA500.


Do you play western music / or pop/rock/contemp, etc and sing and use your arranger function as your main act?

Yes PSR S 900.

Again, specify your needs in your question.

Are you Turkish or Armanian? If you are -new Ketrn SX3000 TURKISH should also be put to consideration after putting alittle more $.

PSR A1000 was not a hit (compared to PA 80)@ that time in ME arranger world.(PSR 2k was a hit or better selling than PA 80 in western arranger world).


Yamaha has been not that sucessful (they are trying) to compete the other 3 in OR market and recently there are some improvements.(Since Yamaha has the edge in OS and others have edge in orientalsound department).The major challenge for Yamaha is putting quality samples percussion and drum kits for OR music.Others have done this right for more than 10 years(Ketron ,Korg and some Rolands and a few GEMs).
Unlike western music, percussive and drum tracks are major seeling point for OR music.Korg has a strong market there.

watch these.

E 60 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvDdLZaqeng&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkI8K68c9E0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-b80hqk91s&feature=related

for OR 700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPCGp6sRKio&feature=related
or 700 is a new generation


PA 500 will sound similar to this in OR music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agDec6BEA6c&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiJs61jI7Bk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrYlEVpoAHY&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-flvpCCiUM
a little like this too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzLHxcHuQHQ

The 1 st choice for ME musicians now is Korg PA series (1x pro ,800,2x)
So yes,PA500 is looking good for OR music above all those choices (plus better 3 rd party support).


But if you want straight ahead western music or international pop/rock and want to play mainly arranger-

this is the choice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCmkBSJLIxo


BTW, this is the keyboard that had beaten Korg I3 in early 90's in OR arranger world.Was the the primary choice until g1000.It was also he first arranger that has direct disk play (while I3 struggled to load).It was the KB (like PSr3000 was mid 2000's )in terms of popularity (plus better keys and hardware).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFvicYiMwwY&feature=related



[This message has been edited by jamman (edited 02-22-2008).]

Jamman makes some good points. However, the Ketron SX3000 Turkish and the Vega are both over $2000.00 and the new Korg PA500 doesn't have the ability to have all the great sampled sounds that were found in the old PA80 (turkish /arabic sample card) or the new PA800 and PA2XPRO, also both over $2600.00.
In my store, and I do sell the Ketrons and the Korgs, the Yamaha PSRS700oriental is doing quite well. Many of my customers that own the Korgs and the Ketrons still buy the new Yamaha for it's style content, sound quality, both as Western and Middle Eastern and for it's ease of use. Also, this new keyboard sell for $1299 which is a lot less than the others you mention.


------------------
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

Yes,Yammy is trying to steal the bigger market(ME),with new sounds(mega voiced styles) an ease of use OS ,it'll not take too long.Also note instant OR scale change buttons above the pitch and mod wheel buttons. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPCGp6sRKio&feature=related


Again,drum /perc sounds(not the styles) still need serious improvement.No SA voices in that model either.PA 500 is better in that department(yes no sampling option ,but the internal sounds are still sufficient).




[This message has been edited by jamman (edited 02-22-2008).]

i wanna play international pop rock and piano parts on my keyboard. but i wanna play oriantal parts at the same time. im from turkey. Really isnt there any way to play oriental rhtyms and sounds on s900? i hear that some styles and sounds can be load to the keyboards? (afraid my technical background is very bad about keyboards) or cant i build that rhtyms on the s900.

as your opinion what will i loose if i buy or700 instead of s900?



[This message has been edited by aramis (edited 02-23-2008).]

The "problem" with oriental music is that it use specific instruments and in order to be able to reproduce it You need keyboard with these instruments (voices), or ability to add the missing voices. Yamaha PSR S900 doesn't have these instruments voices installed, and You can't install new voices. All You can do is changing installed voices, but there is no possibility to add new waveforms (needed for accurately reproducing new instruments). For something like that You would need arranger keyboard with sampler (like Tyros, Pa-800, etc).

Second "problem" are styles. Although You can copy oriental style to non-oriental keyboard (from OS700 to S700 or S900) it will not sound the same because OR700 have additional drum kits not available on S700 and S900. I am not sure, but it seems that it's not possible to have user defined drum kits on S700 and S900.

Bottom line is, if You buy arranger with sampler (much expensive than standard arrangers) and user drum kit available, You can play any kind of music You like. But if You want to spend less money, buy oriental arranger, it's a bit more expensive then equal non-oriental version, but cheaper then arranger-samplers.

PA 500 looks like a better choice if yu want both functions.it has oriental kits/sounds you can map your own kit with internal sounds(yes I know no sampling board -but sound pretty decent for OR music,better than Yamaha or Roland in that price range).

If you buy or700 instead of 900 you'll lose mic input with vocal EFX and harmony,SA voices, etc.




[This message has been edited by jamman (edited 02-23-2008).]

Thanks all of you for your informative answers.