Seems like a lot of emphasis on the new S950 are the new Audio Styles, and that in itself is a good thing. Upon further review, the 950 has a bit more to offer.

To make it a little easier, I've made a comparison document to reveal the basic differences.

Did I forget anything important?

Thanks Larry.

Nice job god info Larry......I predict with the release of the S950 & the Economy situation this could be the end of the TYROS line of arrangers for ever.

Donny you may be right, but the T4 seemed to be a pretty good seller. However I believe the all time arranger seller was the Yamaha PSR-3000, a MOTL arranger. (Can this be confirmed)?


Back to the comparison, I noticed:
The 950 has over 100 more voices, 24 S Articulation voices, over 80 more styles and an extra 5 drum kits. This, along with the other new features, make for a potential winner.

For those that own a 910...is it enough to upgrade?... Just askin'

Black is the only thing I'm excited about with the S950...
just not enough navigational & design up grades to make me jump,...sorry it still sounds too much like my last two Yamaha arrangers 900/910....but good luck to all that venture forward.

Definitely an upgrade from a PSR-3000 or S900, but, I'm debating if it is a big enough jump from an S910, as the latter was what the S900 should have been and was a really well conceived and produced arranger (my opinion, of course).

If'n the Vocal Harmonizer 2 isn't a big priority, and 25 Audio Drum styles (and having to buy more) isn't enough to light your fire, the S910 is still an extremely useful arranger (and might be had cheaper now that S950 is out).

I had an S910 for quite some time, and I really liked it a lot...great and totally useful SA Voices (they seemed to have made the best choices), plenty of styles available for it, and easy peasy Audio Recording (Wav) via Flash Drive; plus it plays MP3's, and it has the same keybed as the S950.

It also has less toys than the S950, but, it is up to the user to decide whether or not they would actually miss them at all. I wouldn't. I could gig with it anywhere I would/could use a Tyros3/4.

I think you are correct about the PSR-3000 being the best selling Yamaha MOTL arranger, although I think the S910 was nipping at it's heels, and was only held back by the unavailability of screens due to flood damage at the factory that made them...in spite of that, a lot were sold as it seemed to cover a lot of important arranger bases and was very popular at clinics/demos. I'll probably find out if it did exceed the 3K, if they let the info drift down to an ordinary clinician.

Larry, bottom line for me....if I hadn't bought my Tyros4, I'd have (and be keeping) an S910.

Ian

Ian,

that is a bold final statement coming from someone as dedicated to Yamaha as you are. But I cannot find fault with your arguing. " Au contraire ", I would say that for those owing a PSR910 they could save themselves the expenditure for updating to a PSR950 and use approx. the same amount of money to get a brand new Korg PA600 on top of the PSR910. Not quite probably ( moneywise I mean)but pretty close I would reckon....

regards
John

Hi John,

Believe me, the S950 is a very nice piece of kit, and I was very impressed with Peter Baartmans demo, but if one has no real use for VH2 (if they aren't a singer), and Audio Drums aren't really your thing, then the S910, as it stands, is a very well done arranger.

A lot of "out frontness" in the S910's drums can easily be achieved with EQ and Filtering (as can the regular drums on the S950) and, if I was a home player or didn't mind carrying two arrangers, then your suggestion of getting both an S910 and Korg PA-600 is a good one.

For me, I'm basically a "one arranger guy", so an S910 would have done nicely (I don't use Vocal Harmony very much), but, being able to get a nice new Tyros4 at an attractive price was an offer I couldn't refuse.

Now that I have the Tyros4, I am totally enamored with it...I love the FSX action and having aftertouch (and being able to use SA/SA2 Voices in the styles), although, I must say, the S910's action was quite nice as well...very light, responsive and fast.

But, the Tyros4 is still the Yamaha arranger to have if you want the best, and to enjoy SA2 voices and the other perks...of course, that's why it costs so much more.

An S910 and a PA-600 would be quite a complimentary (and contrasting) combination...especially if you already own one or the other.

Having said all that, I have a feeling the S950 will do very well...I have had many, many emails regarding it.

Best regards,

Ian

Still hearing people talk about loading new audio styles into the S950. It has been told that this cannot be done in realtime. You have to load them (slowly!) into FLASH RAM like doing an OS update. Then you have to reboot. Plus, there's very little additional RAM, so you aren't going to be able to load in more than probably one expansion pak (and that may be only a few styles) at a time.

For live players, this is practically useless.

That is a big no no for me too.Only 64mb.That is like slap in your face.Shame on you Yamaha.

If you’re going for 2 keyboards, add a Korg Krome Workstation to the PSR-S910 rather than the PA 600 (There the same price) as this would really give you an awesome combination. (Never seen the point in having 2 arrangers together)

Bill

Diki are you sure about that?

The reason I ask is because as of this time there are no other audio styles to import into the S950, so there is really no way of telling how long it will take to load an audio style from a USB stick. I find it hard to believe that future audio styles will contain so much data that a keyboard reboot would be necessary.

In fact, who knows, loading future audio styles may be as simple as loading directly from a USB stick. I admit, I don't know, but can't find any evidence one way or another, again, mainly because as of this time, there are no external audio styles available to import. But you may be correct, and we will know for sure...once new audio styles become available.

Now if you're talking expansion packs, a totally different entity, a reboot may be necessary to update the Flash Ram, but I'm not even 100% sure of that, as again, I know of no one who has loaded the 1 or 2 current expansion packs available to validate a slow load time and reboot.

Bill

With all due respect, I could not disagree more.
The Krome workstation will be most interesting to those playing in a band to add whichever sound cannot be produced by the band itself. The PA600 adds the whole range of virtually ALL PA styles of the last 10 years to your arsenal, the sounds are top quality and additional and slightly different from th Yamaha breed. All Korg PA keyboards are widely known for their versatality when it comes to in-depth programming and even in the synth department there are sounds galore. So I still think that someone already owing a PSR910 would be best of with a PA600 addition...
Incidentally, could anyone with a PSR910 tell me ( or George K for that matter) what anyone would have to pay on top of part-exchanging his PSR910 for a PSR950 ? Just to make the comparison with getting a PA600 instead .)

regards,
John

Pretty sure I read it here. Do a search. I believe it is the nature of FLASH RAM. It isn't functionally the same as regular RAM (which would have made more sense if it could be loaded at USB2 speeds). Yes, I'm talking about new audio styles. They are not loaded in like the Multipad Audio Link, which reads direct from the stick. Any new audio styles have to be loaded into the FLASH RAM.

Check the first few S950 posts, I think that's where I read it.

This is something that I surmised because the S950 promotional literature says that you can even play Audio styles from the flash RAM. Why would they say that and not say that about the USB memory? Time will tell.

Found it!

We may be confusing single audio styles with expansion packs.

Therefore I am not conceding that loading yet to be developed future audio styles purchased from Yamaha will need to be loaded into Flash Rom, will be a slow process, and a reboot will be necessary.

Now if Yamaha decides to sell audio styles as a group expansion pack only, rather than on an individual single purchase, then a load into Flash Rom and a reboot may be necessary.

However, I suspect Yamaha will sell future audio styles the same way they currently sell regular styles, either on an individual, or an expansion pack purchase.

Can anyone find the file size of a current factory loaded audio style? Just askin'...