I actually did own most of these and they all had their great points. However, there were reasons for moving on. I'll be the devil's advocate.
The PSR8000 was WAY ahead of its time. Other than adding two more variations and the new sounds, not much has changed. The vocal processing and harmonizer were BETTER than subsequent models. It even had ability to save things to factory memories.
The Technics were cutting edge at the time. Downfall of the later models was the really bad vocal processing and harmony. Not much else to fault. I didn't have a 7000 so it may have improved by then.
PA 80 had only two variations. It has ZERO country styles. Had to make most of my own. Vocal harmonizer was strictly a vocoder.
No experience with the GEMs.
The PSR9000 was really heavy for a 61-note arranger, but other than that and having those some old Yamaha drums it was good for its time.
Roland G70 was really the king of the road. Great sounds and styles, pretty archaic OS and extremely heavy to carry around.
Also, as with all Roland's, no break/fill and no one-button intros and endings. One of the most complete arrangers ever built.
The X1 was truly amazing as far as sounds and styles. OS was terrible and the learning curve immense. Support non-existent. Also the buttons for the variations, fills, endings, etc, were on the wrong side of the keyboard.
As I said, they all had their great points, but bear in mind that they all had their faults, some quite prominent!

Hi Don, I hope you're feeling better, it's great to see you posting again

Great mini experience of each of the boards you owned. I must ask though, I thought the PA80 had 4 variations as I owned one also and I am pretty sure it had 4, as did the i30 before it.

I agree about the X1 but my one kept breaking down all the time, I think there wasn't a part of it that wasn't at fault. I actually swapped the X1 for a PA80 that's why I remember the Korg having 4 variations. My dad still has the PA60 (which is pretty much identical to the PA80 apart from it being a darker grey and also having to install a bracket for the HD) and that has 4 variations also. I know when Korg discontinued the PA60 they released the PA50 which I've never seen, that may be the model with only 2 variations? I've never owned Korg's prior to the i30 but I always remember them ones I had and tried always having 4.

I agree with your take on the PSR8000 as well, I really miss the Virtual Arranger feature which actually compensated for it only have two variations, that feature really made the styles sound alive. Why they took it out in subsequent models I will never know!

I've had a few GEMs too, WX2, WK6 & WK8se, again not the best in reliability but sure sounded pretty good, especially the Latin styles as I thought they were some of the best styles around. Drums were very good on the GEM's as well.

I guess my memory failed on the number of variations. Maybe I was thinking of intros and endings.

The Solton Ms60 is an old keyboard which still sounds great.

I can't seem to find a decent quality demo of the MS series but I can sense there were great sounding too.

KN920



How good does this still sound? My goodness these Technics boards are really great sounding even now.

Where do you previous Technics owners migrate over to now, I am guess Korg as to me they are the closest comparison to Technics, they both sound fairly similar.

Danny ... I am one 'techie' who has gone over to KORG ... while the learning curve was tough at first, after a while I started drawing comparisons to the technics OS and things fell into place better ...
Still, there are things I can do on the KORG that actually were easier on my kn6000 ...

Hi from another "ex-Technics player" ... I had, let's see, the KN-1000, 3000, 6000 then 7000. I really liked those. The KN-7000 is at a local friend's place, so I get to play it now and then. I was sad when Technics announced that they would no longer make keyboards. I used to wish they'd make a still-portable version of the KN with a 2nd keyboard, or even with a second smaller 3-octave keyboard; a portable, mini-organ. But no arranger maker seems to have done that.

Someone asked what us Technics players moved on to - for me, it was a move from KN-7000, which I had it ~5-6 years, over to the Tyros 3 (then recently from T3 to Tyros 5).

Jim

I played a long list of Technics stuff starting with organs about 35 years ago. I still have KN7000's but have gone back to organs with the Roland AT350C as my primary keyboard at home. I use the AT350C for the most part as an arranger.

I tried a Korg PA3X for about 6 months then sold it. Tried a Roland BK-5 and although I still have it I don't use it at all except for occasional style editing. I don't like it at all for live playing. I still depend on the KN7000's for stuff outside the house. If I lost access to a KN7000 I would probably opt for the Korg PA3X or PA900.