Hi Everyone,

Has anyone heard of any news/teasers about new mid range Yamaha arrangers ?
I am looking to replace my S500 which no doubt is a great instrument... but then hey.. we never stop wanting more

I have read about the PSR S650 and the PSR A2000. So my guess is that we could well see S750 and S950 (or whatever Yamaha decides to call it) in the winter NAMM. But one thing is for sure that Yamaha would give us yet another super sounding keyboard.

Looking at whats offered for S650 and the A2000, my guess for the additional features on the S950(possible replacement for the S910)
* All features same as S910 plus :
- Black in colour(may be two options available silver and black)
- Additional voices with some SA2 voices such that the number of panel voices reach up to 700. Including some choir sounds from the T4(that would be absolutely awesome !)
- Additional styles such that the number of preset styles reach up to around 400
- Space for Expansion Packs(say 64 MB or 128 MB)
In my opinion, expansion packs are a great idea to keep the instrument updated with great variety i.e to keep the "World" category busy

- Vocal Harmony 2... Am I dreaming ?

- Perhaps an internal hard disk... Come on now thats possible.. hard disks are so damn cheap

- And of course, as usual, a lot of the intangible benefits of owning a Yamaha arranger.

Well , the above is just my opinion. Hope Yamaha betters the above.

And I am willing to wait rather than jump on to the S650.

Do let us know of any teasers/news you might have heard ?

Jez,

BMW are bringing out a hydrogen powered car this year, it will do 200 mph, hydrogen will be 10p litre, the car will cost half that of a petrol car, and pigs will learn to fly. I don't know that Yamaha have any new products coming on the market , they might be working on a T5 but I think not, what will be will be with KBs, good luck in your search for perfection and your wish list, not sure if anyone listens to us all.

Regards

Tony

Tony, Hydrogen powered cars doing 200 mph. Pigs learning to fly.. Good one....
And keyboardists are left with old technology, forced to think that its the best ever
Big three .. Take note !!!

By the way, talking of technology, I gave a listen to some of the you tube videos on EWQL virtual instruments. Some of the samples played back with articulation seem quite close to what Yamaha offer as Superarticulation.

Have a good day ahead !

Hi Jez

You are correct the Yamaha SA2 voices are similar to the articulations that were available in VST instruments about 7 or 8 years ago, (Modern VST can have articulations in double figures) however as they take up a lot of memory (They are effectively switch layer multi-samples) hardware boards have only recently had enough processing power and memory to do simple articulation. (SA2 added an additional sample layer over SA)

Most instruments now though are moving towards sound modelling, where the basics are a virtual representation of the instrument (Piano Strings, Hammers etc.) and then mathematical algorithms are used to process the sound produced exactly like a real instrument. (A sample by its very nature is just a single snippet in time, thus you need a lot of samples to fool the ear into thinking it is hearing a real instrument hence most VST sample pianos are 2,3 or even 4GB in size)

Hybrids are also available which sample the basics of the instrument and then use mathematical algorithms to modify the samples to make them sound real.

The above is why I would never buy an arranger/organ that could not use VST on-board.

Here are 3 comparisons

Tyros 4

Sampled

Sample Modelling

Modelled

BTW Tyros 4 came out a year earlier than the usual cycle, so theoretically the S710/910 replacements should be out about this time next year. (Personally I prefer to get new features and sounds by upgrading via software, as it is much cheaper than having to trade in your old board for a new one)

Bill

Something stale...

T4 is not known for his awesome piano sounds... good sampled piano's have huge l;ibraries...


Ut would be more fitting to do a sax, trumpet or guitars comparrison... Thats where SA2 really shines...


Tough i sill firmly beleive that VST's is the way to go for the future, the first major brand Hardware workstation that supports VST's (on top of a build in soundset) will be the next thing to own...

Tough i highly doubt that that machine will have arranger functions.


Sad to see that the wersi wing has left VST support behind, and that the Lionstracs Groove-XR no longer supports arranger styles.... I personally beleive thats a huge setback for the arranger market...in terms of technollogy

Thanks Bill.
You have given a very good explanation of the technologies used here. For an amateur ear, I found the pianoteq sound the best.
I agree that most vst instruments are still better sounding than say a keyboard workstation /arranger keyboard. They take advantage of the computer`s processing power and the sample libraries these days are specified in Gigabytes(so more samples).

For live use, I think, the all in 1 package in a keyboard(without the need for a laptop) would be handy.

But then for someone who plays at home, there is more flexibility and we could enjoy the awesome Yamaha styles played using (MIDI mapped) a "EWQL" library or SampleTank or NI etc. I assume its possible.

Nevertheless, I hope Yamaha ticks a lot of those check boxes users are looking out for. I too prefer software updates rather than buying the whole thing again.
Thanks again Bill.

Yes indeed.The acoustic guitars, saxes, trumpets etc. are very well done on the Yamaha keyboards. But then as time goes by, we should be able to expand the keyboard with more SA2 voices even on say the mid range keyboards where most users fit in. Arranger market is looking for new technologies, more sample memory for preset voices and ofcourse the great styles. Yamaha T4 is quite close there but technology wise if Wersi could have had the vst support .. why not bigger companies like Yamaha/Roland/Korg ? Perhaps its their business strategy..
Meanwhile, looking forward to a great replacement model of the S910

Looking at the release dates of the previous models.. will we have to wait till mid 2012 ?

Looking at the press release dates of previous models quoted on psrtutorial.com => http://psrtutorial.com/sty/yamaha/index.html

Tyros 2 Press Release Date: Nov, 2005
PSR S500 Press Release Date: Oct, 2006
PSR S900 Press Release Date: Jul, 2007

So going by the above timing we would have:

Tyros 4 Press Release Date: Oct, 2010
PSR S650 Press Release Date: Around Aug, 2011
Mid Range Model : July 2012 ? or Jan 2012 ?... not far away