First of all, how nice it is to be able to lift and put the keyboard under my arm. I don’t need 76 keys for the work I’m doing. I think the regular sounds of the S900 are better than the 2000 or 3000, by far. The piano is more realistic and the drawbars sound great – although I haven’t been able to get them on screen yet – lol.

There is such a night and day difference between Yamaha and Roland styles. The Roland were so laid back and live sounding, the Yamaha are fuller but somewhat more processed, yet attractive for styles use. What really impresses me is Yamaha’s use of One Touch Settings; they are far fuller and more appealing that the G70. Even if I choose not to use many of the OTS, they have done a better job of making them useful to a player. And there seems to be a better balance between the arranger section and the sounds.

The S900 seems more of a OMB type of board. Everything is focused on just one person playing everything. The Roland concept now seems more segmented with styles being one concept and sounds being another. I never realized that because I mainly used the piano, epiano, organ, strings and a little flute/trumpet, rarely blending more than two sounds together and never using or getting those ensemble sounds the S900 just puts out there. The G70 (and e60) have it all over the s900 when it comes to keyfeel. The g70 keybed is the best synth action I’ve ever played. But I must say that the s900 is an improvement over the PSR2000 and 3000. Both the keys and the machine feel more capable and professional. I found this one Latin style and just played song after song for about 20 minutes; very inspiring.

The OS of the s900 is very user-friendly. There is very little I need to reference the manual for. The use of a USB drive makes everything so simple. I can load songs, style, registrations, music finder, etc on the same stick and keep them in their separate folders – even have multiple folder for finer organizing. I’m excited to try recoding directly from the keyboard to USB. This could save me plenty of time for my church recordings for cantors. I think I’ll even be able to add vocals thru the keyboard. Only bummer there is the mic input is ¼” instead of XLR. I haven’t used the harmonizer yet, but would like to use it if possible.

Overall, I’m very impressed with the s900. I have some prep work to do before Friday, but nothing as daunting as working with the G70, for me. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the G70 and miss it very much, but at this stage in my life it was time to make some tough decisions and getting a good, lighter-weight arranger was essential. I think I can live happily with the s900 for quite some time – at least 6-9 months – lol. Really, I can’t see going back to a larger, heavier board. Maybe I should have kept the e60 when I had it, but no, the s900 looks to be a very capable board for me. I need to assemble some gig disk-type files; I’ve got plenty of those, and work on registrations; I’m a novice at that.

Good luck Cass you mmade a very wise choice & theres plenty of help right here to get you going.

Have fun Cass - great choice.

Cass, congratulations and good luck with the s900.

Why didn't you keep the Roland G70 for home use. Then at home you can still play a real pro keyboard instead of a toy.

Quoted:
“Why didn't you keep the Roland G70 for home use. Then at home you can still play a real pro keyboard instead of a toy”

Cass, It will be a very short time before you realize that the above remark runs short. I owned a S900 for a while it is far more than a toy. Musicians, paid musicians have and some still are earned many dollars with Psr2100 and Psr3000 keyboards, the S900 is a better keyboard and the use of a memory stick makes everything so easy.

When I think of a keyboard I picture all the possibilities and features it brings to me. If you take away the ability to play styles you don’t have much left. In my opinion the ability to play styles then becomes the first most important feature in a keyboard followed by instrument sound quality, ease of use AND the tutorials/teaching – AND the availability of getting more styles. The over all type of sound of the keyboard is personal opinion and only an opinion and not to thought of as factual although valuable.

With that in mind:
1-It took me 38 minutes to down load 1,400 styles and registration this week.
2-I post a question and I received many answered to my question, I was also guided to related tutorials.
3-The amount of people who own a Psr2100, Psr3000 and now a S900 is most likely more than the rest combined. Yes there are home users and many, many pros using them also.

I came from one great keyboard the KN7000-to a Psr2100—Psr3000-Tyros1-to a Kn7000—to a Tyros2—and then to a S900. I now own a Tyros 3. The main reason for my changing to ty3 was the window, I have a bad neck problem. Quality, instrument sound, available help, ease of use and the available styles and registration and Music Finder list is staggering --- making the S900 a real winner. When you put key feel and the opinion of those who feel it is a toy against the above there is no contest.

Please excuse my passion for the S900, I just think Cass has made a great move – and if he stays with it longer and discovers the value of the keyboard he made keep it for a long while.

Only my humble opinion, John C.

I think you've made a fine choice, Cassp.

You and I have discussed the S900 several times in private, and you know how much I like it...I even prefer it over the Tyros3, especially when it comes to gigging.

Playing any light action keyboard after playing a semi-weighted one is bound to make you think the former is cheap feeling, and will give less than stellar performance.

Nothing could be further than the truth.

Although the light actioned S-900's key travel is a little shorter than a semi-weighted one, it's velocity control is excellent...you can actually press a key very slowly, and get no sound...just like an acoustic piano....the amount of expression it gives is astonishing.

The S900's action is also very durable...I play several hours a day, and have not had a problem since I got it some time ago.

The instrument has been totally reliable, in spite of being gigged frequently, and the buttons have withstood countless hours of being used for programming styles and other uses.

And, at the end of a long night of playing, it is nice to have something so light and easy to carry.

If there's anything you need for it, just ask.

Ian

Cass, congratulations on your new Psr-S900. I also have one, and use it at my church. I also have some Premium Styles which I bought and have many wave files effect types which I use just to give some colors in the beginning of a style. In case you want, I'll be glad to share them with you. Just drop me an e-mail. Good playing with your new arranger, Telmo.

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To answer Frans' question, it really was a matter of not wanting to deal with two operating systems. I really wasn't into doing much creating or editing of anything with the G70. I pretty much used it as stock and just enjoyed what I had. With the s900 I have a decent keyfeel, much better than the 2k or 3k and the entire build design and quality are very good. I may miss the key action, but I have a Kurzweil Mark V at home and two excellent digital pianos at church to fulfill that need/desire.

Bruno's and Ian's comments are most appreciated and, to be frank, are the types of comments that sold me on the s900. I'm sure many of you have read my ramblings regarding buying and selling other keyboards, especially recently. StephenM and Donny have given me some insight into the pros and cons of the PA800, and after considering it all, I decided on the s900.

I was able to sell the G70 at a great price and purchased the s900 at a very good price too. I was able to pay for the s900 and my Compact without having to bankrupt my music account.

I want to comment a little more about the s900 - it's build quality and design footprint are far superior to the PSR 2000 or 3000 series. The key feel is the first of the Yamaha boards that I felt was not toy-ish. The board has a good, solid feel and the feature list is amazing. As all Yamaha owners report, the 3rd party support is second to none - almost anything you need is already available somewhere, probably for the asking.

I too have a Harmony M and am prepared to use it, but I find I only want quiet duet harmony about 20% of the time, so I'm hoping I can get the onboard vocalizer to do a decent enough job for that. Using the Harmony M requires another 2 cables and inputting of the mic separately into the Compact. I like the simplicity of everything coming from one cable going into the amp.

Don't ever discount the quality and overall greatness of the G70. I can't imagine anyone saying anything negative about it. It definitely has the best key feel of any arranger out there... My decision to go with the s900 was a personal one, and I think (hope) I made the right decision.

Cassp....Dan Rymut, who does a fantastic job of taming the Yamaha's Vocal Harmonizer, has put up some more excellent tips on PSR Tutorial, on how to set it up for optimum performance.

Here's the link: http://www.psrtutorial.com/forum/index.php?topic=9770.0

Hopefully it will eliminate needing an external processor, and simplify your setup.

Ian