Hi everyone I'm Don from Southern Ontario Canada. I've been playing and singing with instrumental accompaniment for many years. Guitar used to be my main instrument until I taught myself how to play keyboard and discovered what a good arranger keyboard could do for a guy who likes to sing. Started with a Yamaha PSR 500 (ancient)then progressed to a Korg IX300 and have been playing and singing with my Korg PA80 for years now. Recently started looking into modern equivalents of my Korg PA 80 and rented a PA800. I liked it but not for the price and also to my ear, I get better vocal harmonies from my dedicated floor pedal Digitech Vocalist 4. I've looked at the PA600 and was pretty impressed. Actually liked it better than the big brother PA800 and found it worked with the preamp in my harmonizer so I could continue to perform in the same manner as I'm accustomed to with my PA80.

My music store brought in a Yamaha PSR S950 and I tried it today and was impressed by the sound quality and excellent guitar sounds. Not so impressed with the keyboard action. Pretty chintzy for a $2000 instrument. Does anyone have feedback on the vocal harmonizer onboard the PSR S950? I plan to go back to the store with my headset mike and check for myself but would appreciate hearing from any of you who use this keyboard THANKS!

God Bless,
Don

Psr s950's VH 2 is not as good as Helicon is PA 800.
If you don't need , audio styles,mp3 playback, extra SA sounds and Built in VH (since you already have digitech) , S750 ( S910 in a box minus VH and Mp 3 playback) can be a good value.All styles upto 910 will be compatible).

Styles wise especially if you play US/UK (western music ),you can find thousands of styles and afew good hundreds.

Limitation of Korg will appear afew weeks after you purchased the KB especially for a arranger player.great drums/pad/seq/song book etc. but like most Korg arranger owners (non Balkan or middle eastern, style playing players, not Smf / sequencing / home studio musicians) style hunting will end in disappointment (just check Korg forums and talk to owners) . Chord triggering is also smoother in Yamaha and slash chords/voicing sound more natural without in your face issues. Simple bass lines are the key and sometimes Korg doesn't get it.


Yamaha has the more styles avail than other manufactures combined.(the whole Pa 80 style sets in freely avail , they even have for ix300 (I loved x3 the compact
size and keys with after touch ) if I'm not mistaken.

In other words , ( if you want to invest in an arranger for long term use) ,there are converted styles from ALL manufacturers that are workable for Yamaha. Not the other way around (mainly for mega voice mappings).
Yamaha do suck in keys( bad for inspiration),hardware and drums.it compensate in good usable sounds and more importantly vast styles avalibility for solo players for fast song creation ( if you don't want to rely only on SMFs).

To the original Q, if you can't afford a tyros, get a 750 , use your digitech and wait for the next big thing with more money in the pocket while making music and create songs faster.



Hope this helps .



I see this as IOS(Yamaha ) vs Android(korg and others). More edit/functionality in Android but lack of apps and third party support compared to IOS.

Your Vocalist will blow away any arranger built-in harmonizer. Maybe Korg comes close, but you've already nixed the TOTL arrangers. You've already got the Vocalist, stick with it!

Pay careful attention to the drums in the PA600 vs. the Yamaha's. Depending on whether you like a good live sound or want a more polished, CD-like sound, this may make a difference to your choice.

And, as budget seems to be an issue, take a good listen to a Roland BK-5 as well. Very punchy drums, loads of styles (probably more than the Korg) and a decent action... and nearly half the price of a PSR S950.

As folks overhere know by now I have the Korg PA800 in combination with the PSR750. A great combination but as you seem to prefer the (cheaper) new PA600, count your blessings, add a PSR750 to it ( as Diki says you already have a very good harmoniser) and be happy. Perhaps it I had not already had the PA800 I would have gone for the same solution. Price wise I think nothing beats a combination Korg PA600 + Yamaha PSR750.

regards,
John

I'm not a piano player so I love the Light FAST key action on Yamaha arrangers. It took a while but the S950 after 50 gigs is really starting to come to the front of the pack and impress me every time I play it. There is something Sonically different in a very "good way" vs all the other PSR/S arrangers Ive owned including my old Tyros also thru the years....can't put my finger on it yet but all I can say I'm enjoying performing with it so far.

I can, nothing new has been released yet

As a Korg owner there are plenty of styles available for the PA series. Be real how many styles does a person need. And to me the styles from Korg are so much better then the cheesy Yamaha styles.

Hi everyone...having been a korg and yamaha user for many years...I have found that using the 2 together does indeed present ample opportunites regarding performance options...currently i use a pa50sd with a psr s910 on gigs and find it's a great solution...together they make for almost unlimited options when blending and finding a style that works for almost any song type.


Steve
mox8, psr s910, microarranger, pa50sd, psr 2000 and cx3

Yes, it doesn't really matter anyway as many of you strip the styles down to bare minimum anyway as stated in other posts .....that said,....in the hands of a pro the new, and with some hours put in to do your homework as with ANY KB, S950 sounds terrific, nuff said. Brand loyal I'm not,.....
what concerns me is what works for MY NEEDS...enjoy whatever you have chosen to make music with.

I agree that, at least to me, the 950 sounds better than previous PSRs. Not talking Tyros 4 here though, because I have limited time on one of those.
I'm not going to carry two arrangers around, as any of the modern middle or top arrangers can do the job very well.
If I were younger, or had a roadie, now that's a different story!
I would have an Audya and a Tyros 4 with me at all times. Sometimes I might even USE the Tyros 4.
DonM

I'd still be interested in having Yamaha owners try to figure out WHY they think the S950 is a sonic step up from the S910.

Has anyone compared the stock Mastering presets? Has something got altered there? Has anyone picked apart a style that is on both, and tried to find out whether Part balances, or EQ per Part have been altered. 90% or more of the sounds in a 950 are exactly the same as in the 910... why the apparent improvement..?

Of course, you need to be monitoring through regular speakers. The change to the on-board's will no doubt make a difference, but it isn't a difference your audience is going to hear (unless that's all you use!). But, as little difference as Yamaha make to the soundset in each incremental model change, it would be interesting to find out WHY owners say it sounds better.

Perhaps there's something that 910 owners could do to THEIR mastering presets or style EQ's to get this improvement on their older gear? I personally know, from having dissected some BK-7m styles, that some part EQ's (and per drum EQ's) from the newer styles have translated well to my older G70...

It might be of benefit to older Yamaha owners if you could get together with someone with a 950 and try to pick apart the reason they say it sounds better...

Or is it just the tendency to self-justify an expensive purchase?

Most S950 owners just know one thing ....The S950 sounds sonically better..... and personally that's all that matters to me. Why & How vs others? I don't have time or care to know or start dissecting anything,...my ears tell me all I need to know.
If not it would be gone fast. I buy it, play it, I like the sound, nuff said. I want to play music not be a scientist.
Now if you'll excuse me I have a nice dinner nightclub gig tonight gonna use TWO complete HK Audio Nano 300 PA systems tonight should be a fun gig with the S950.

cheers

So, your point is, 'I don't care'... thanks for playing. Next contestant.

What you might have missed (or apparently, have no care for) is that, it MIGHT be possible for S910 owners to get a large degree of this improvement. Not that I suppose this matters to you. But it MIGHT to an S910 owner.

You are excused...

This applies to most sound and video equipment, (Something new sounds better) however when they are blind tested in most cases no differences are heard, (Unless it is something totally new) and so it just comes down to the Placebo effect.

Bill

The speakers are much better, and that can't be upgraded.

Fully agree to member Jamman's post. Spot on when he says that PSR 750 will fulfill the bare needs till enough coins are in the pocket for a Tyros. BTW, looking at the trend of Yamaha with the PSR 750 / 950 combination; and taking a cue from the Roland Jupiter 80/50; can we now get to see a "Mini-Tyros" - something like the Jupiter 50 is to the Jupiter 80?

950 already is a mini tyros with not so great hardware .

Most of the Korg arranger players are one or more of the following.


Must choose a Kb that does all for budget reasons( a kb with good sequencer ,good sound editing,good sound competability ( Pa50 can load Triton programs-of course minus EFX),a kb that is good enough for live band play, good hardware

Their gigs are mainly SMF playback and occasional arranger work/ they use arranger mainly as a drum machine with live left hand bass and right had chording

They play east euro or mid east music


Until Pa3x us/uk/Asia maket is ruled by psr/tyros.(more 4/4 styles than 9/8s- see below).rememer 2 fills with problematic fills in some styles?

EU/ Balkan and mid east (they even have their Country specific models as you know since distributors in those countries can prebuy or order in significant numbers (kb and expensive accessories such as Roms) are dominated by korg and Roland (was).they don't even know TOTL/MOTL Yamaha arrangers .yamaha did unsuccessful attempts to break in to the maket with A series yet sound wise and support wise couldn't match Korg.


Like I previously said the game changed in the west after affortable Psr 2000 and upward. It's great that Korg is doing with 600. Western 3rd party support will grow eventually due to fact that many home players can afford the very capable KB with pro features and on board deep sound editing / style creation to seperate individual drum sound mix (level and efx send)even in arranger mode( people with more time to make styles/conversions , etc the same mentality happened to Psr since early 2000 in Us/uk).

I love both KBs.each of them have unique strengths and weaknesses.bur for US/UK mainly 4/4 singer songwriter gigger gtr player musicians - for now Yamaha is the way for the reasons (especially your set is mainly arranger mode ).

Typing from my phone. Sorry for my spelling , gentlemen.