Way to go Donny! "I Feel a Song Comin' On"....just sayin'!!!

I will continue my impressions during this thread on my experiences with the SX900 as not to creat multiple posts on the same subject,...so far I unboxed it with disappointment as for some unknown reason there was NO CANDY treats, Mary Janes, Tootsie rolls etc, from SW ..

That said I put it on my X-Stand,...now for all who care YES there is a WALL WART!!......I then fired it up and played the first factory setup style upon power-up Sky Pop just to get a overall sense of what I am dealing with,......then the keybed curiosity was finally realized and I am being very honest as a player of Yamaha Tyros, Psr
& every S model previously....I would say the keybed has a VERY slight resistance improvement compared to previous models but nothing earth shattering or even close to Tyros or Genos but is comfortable to play for sure... But as I personally like a light touch I am ok with it. It was shipped with v1.01 so I am updating to 1.03 as we speak.Also while installing the display menu FONT is very tiny.Live control knobs are tight and firm to turn. Joystick has a nice rubber feel and tension also.. All buttons have a nice tacky rubber feel.The side of the unit has a Molded LIP making it very easy to grab with your fingers to lift, move, or put on the stand or in a gig bag.
That's it for now ..
To be continued as I set it up in the next few hours..

Congrats Donny. 👍
Hope you'll have lots of fun while explore and use the new baby.
🎵🎵 🎵🎵

Hi all...

so far I find these EQ & Comp setting a GREAT starting point for new SX900 players..check them out..

after using the EQ settings above...
thank you to robbinez on the Psr tutorial site.
I loaded all my S970 Registrations and User styles with out a problem via USB of which there are two on the back....
Fired up a few songs and they played perfectly only now with a more clearer, crisp sound. There is a slight learning curve to getting familiarized to a new touch display menu but nothing for someone with Yamaha arranger experience to figure out in 15 minutes,....things are just in different places but work pretty much the same as previous models. The black menu background kind of enhances the TINY Font white lettering ....if I'm being honest after 1 hour since unboxing and setup as described above I could easily take this SX900 on stage with no reservations right now as is! ....but now the fun part in the next days will be to DIG IN Deep and really set it up for MY needs utilizing all the nice features this unit has to offer.

Sounds good! Pun intended!

Most arranger keyboards have wall warts and were designed this way for economic reasons. The same keyboard can be sold in many countries and the only difference is the wall wart input voltage. Consequently, if the country runs on DC voltage, 220 AC or 120 AC the manufacturer just has to ship the keyboard with the appropriate wall wart and not have to endure a major expense with a different, internal power supply.

Donny, I think that once you get some time on this board, you will really have a lot of fun with it. I'm looking forward to hearing that first song with you performing on the SX-900.

Good luck,

Gary

ok here is my first real concern and that is with the FILLs unlike I ever heard on previous S series....

when playing a style and you hit break
IT IS ONLY A 2 BEAT BREAK COUNT and the goes back into the style in the middle which is not good and interrupts your playing flow a lot!!!! it should be a 4 count BREAK...I am at this moment testing other styles to see if it happens all the time with other styles fingers crossed...this is not a good sign...it's reminding me of the quirky KORG Fills scenario....
if you don't hit it at the exact perfect time your screwed I have tried this on many styles it should be a 4 count BREAK....please make me be WRONG and not a deal killer...
FEDEX is still open till 7:30pm

did not find that to be the case on mine. There are a few hidden behavioral changes available - maybe there's a 1/2 bar fill selection.

see if you can find it Dave 1/2 bar break is on every style so far ....try it again this is a very big problem...
keep trying many styles something is very wrong here.. :

https://app.box.com/s/9gi3aplrp3kmst7rf3tii2olacfvd9q1

Another thing that hasn't changed is the 499 file LIMIT on folders....USB or USER internal
you can only keep 99 songs, lyrics, smf, etc in a folder or else the sx900 doesn't read the files......a real pain if you want to search for songs while playing and have to go into multiple folders, etc when you have hundreds of songs ..
thank goodness always carry my lap top or tablet..

Nice impressions Donny, shame it's marred by the fill in issue for you. I must admit I hadn't noticed it myself but I will check later on certain styles.

I did notice though and I think I mentioned it to Rikki that the fill ins are slightly different on certain styles that I am very familiar with, especially those taken and filtered down from the T4 such as StadiumRock, that definitely has a different fill in and when I tested the T4 version of it, it played exactly as intended so any reworked styles may have differences that might not always be good.

Maybe as a test, try the same styles you have the problem with if they exist on the previous keyboards, use them on the SX900 and see if the fills have the same problem for you.

If you push the button on beat 1, you'll get the remaining beats in the measure as a fill, if you wait till after beat 2, you get the least 1/2 of the bar. That seems like the way it should work.

Donny, do the fill behave same way wherever in the beat you press the button?
If you ie press as close to end at current variation as you can, and then try just after beat1 started, is it same result?
Also try press var/fill button before press start and see if it play full fill before continue.
I remember similiar issues was discussed long time ago, but don't rememer if it was at Yamaha arranger.


Wops, UD was 5 second before me to post about the same.....

Ok everyone I have thankfully found the solution......
of course it was human error Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr
what ever the reason when I first began to play my curiosity led me to touch the #1 assignable buttons under the display....and of course that was the half bar Fill ON & OFF assignment...not knowing I never retouch it to turn it off leaving me with the BREAK problems I kept having and shown in the example.....

Now I hit it again and shut off Break fill and all is well again...


now to work on the Playlist song problems..?

here's another quirky thing I am noticing when you are playing organ with a slow leslie like Whiter Shade, etc, and hit the assignable button to turn leslie on fast it goes INSTANT ON fast and its very abrupt also....not a nice slow increase.....this also needs major attention....here are some examples.....honestly the Roland EA7 kills this sx900 in the organ leslie department..

https://app.box.com/s/kzanmzeasy963ybewxit04pislnucs5x

Honestly after 3 hours I can say that I am not that happy
and at this point I am at a 50/50 standing,.......
I had high hopes for this sx900 .....
but, I will persevere a few more hours to try to make it work
for my needs ....

Donny,
Thanks for all of the great feedback on this keyboard . . .

Really like the way you have broken things down from the get go!

Thank you Jill much appreciated nothing but the truth

👍👍👍👍 Thanks Donny this is exactly the sort of info I was after!

Hi all - the same 'issue' is there for Tyros and Genos - some of the Organ sounds, such as WhiterShade, are *not* "Organ Flutes" type voices, that is, they don't use the Drawbars and don't have one of the "Rotary" FX as a DSP effect. The "leslie" (rotary speaker) effect is built-in to the sound samples. If you use an "Organ Flutes' type of organ voice, you will have proper "Leslie" speed-up and slow-down. This has been the case since at least Tyros3. I'd say it's a "known situation" and not a bug. . . it would be nice of those other Organ voices had better "Leslie" speed transition, but I think due to the design or how the voice was created, and the fact that it does not use the "Rotary" FX stuff, it doesn't have the gradual slow-down or speed up, on the non-Organ-Flute organ voices. . . .

Jim

MacAllcock,.....Thank you sir...
why pull punches? say it like it is and let the
chips fall where they may Pro or Con..
Those were my thought and I now feel better
and stand by MY decision.

Jim's right - the organ flutes behave the way they should. Good find.
For those struggling to buddy up to VH2 ... download the ref manual, and go to page 96. Turn off almost EVERYTHING that they do to the harmonies, ESPECIALLY VIBRATO. That makes it sound so artificial. If I could find a way to have the harmonies stay ON while the drums are stopped, I'd be more comfortable with it. Ther might be a way if you leave all the stopped sounds on with the style, but I turn them off. The actual tone of the harmonies is not unusable, but the navigation is still light years away from even 25 years ago Digitech. Looks like my go-to rig may consist of the guitar going direct, and the min thru a TC Perform VK.
That's my best option at the moment for harmonies. I stated before this kb is slated for use at the winery, and quick in/out jobs where lots of vocals are not the priority, so just as it is - I can already see myself using this on my next one nighter.
Still digging ...

Hi Dave,
Sounds like you’re quite enjoying.
How is the new song list function working out.
I was watching a comparison tyros vs Genos from Bonners. He seemed fairly impressed. The SX is very similar if not actually the same.

Dave why not just take the PA4X to the winery?

I believe that your impression of SX900 is honest, but I’d say that it’s sort of “express review”.

Also, since you already had PSR-S970 and didn’t like it much, I wouldn’t expect SX900 to be very different; although you had some luck with PSR-S670 but not for long.

In general, I believe that SX900 is a package of tons of Yamaha’s achievements over the years. It surely had taken them a huge amount of time to develop that number of sophisticated sounds and styles, so I doubt that it can be covered within a short period of time.

It requires to have a certain mood to evaluate a certain aspect. And everyone of us, I think, has periods when (s)he’s that tired of music altogether, that every sound will just irritate.

And when it comes to styles, it’s even easier to get irritated, as usually they are very dynamic and busy. It’s a certain state of spirit when it’s possible to enjoy it to the fullest.

You liked E-A7 a lot, I’m not sure that you should let it go even if you decide to get something else, but it’s surely your business.

As for SX900, as I stated, I consider your comments as impressions of it, but I just can’t see SX900 as something simple enough in order to be evaluated within one day.

Strictly speaking, I would give it at least a month, but even that might not be enough. Why that long? Because one day you may feel like playing bossanova styles, and the next day you don’t feel like that. One day you want to play piano stuff, and the next day you are into guitars. One day you may try to play something like a soundtrack, another day you want to play dance music. And how many hours a day it is possible to have a fresh mind (ears)? I guess, 2-3 max. And how many days there will be when you will have to take care of other business? Plenty.

To add that there are ways to adjust tons of things, but you have to know how, not to mention expansion packs.

So with this list of things-to-do, with need to do other stuff as well (different activities will help to keep perception correct), with the fact that it usually takes few hours of playing each day for fingers to get in shape… I conclude that an accurate review will take months.

But impressions are surely more emotional, and for that they are priceless.

Still, I wouldn’t simplify it that much. SX900 is a collection of different things; to browse through them doesn’t mean to get familiar with them.

Very well put.
Thank you
Eric

Hi Kabinopus,
Can get a bit frustrating too when a function has changed or there’s one you haven’t used before, and you can’t quite get it to work . Tend to blame the keyboard . Haha.
I’m having a bit of a problem at moment with a new function, decided to take a break, have a cup of coffee ( something you don’t recommend haha) get out the manual and find out what I’m doing wrong.
Something I always did many years ago, for people that I helped (with keyboards workstations , etc, )was, work out during the session what they needed help with, then put stickers on the relavent pages of their manuals.
That way at least if they forgot something, they just had to refresh their memory from the manual.

Rikki, I understand that if you load a song from playlist to the Sx 900, it loads 8 regs with it, giving you a lot of freedom to change the feel. Now that’s a biggie, 8 regs instead of 4. I'm excited.

John C.

Hi John ,
yes up to 8. Still getting my head around this function, I’ve never used the registrations on the psr. For my S950 the bit of playing that I did, used to just pick a style and use piano voice.

The song list function looks great too. Very similar to the Genos one.
There’s a couple of utube videos on one of the post from Donny.

Is anyone concerned about the tiny size menu Fonts on the sx900 display?
Or how get the songs out of the registration folders
to use in the Playlist singularly?

Rikki.... Putting the folders in the Playlist is easy....
Extracting single songs from those folders
to make a playlist is what I am talking about...

I am pretty sure that the concept of playlist are single entries.

Why would the very nature of a playlist use folders..

Roland's use of playlist you load the songs singular and after you complete the list,, you name and save.

Fran read my post again and let somebody try to do this on the sx900 I know you haven't touched on as of yet......
And see what happens..
Genos yes....
Sx900 Not sure at this point...
Anyone wanna try taking a stab at it in a step by step instruction?

Not quite sure I understand the question, but on the Genos I have several folders with registrations. When I want to create a playlist I navigate to Folder A, take the registrations for the songs I want to add to the playlist. Then I navigate to Folder B take the songs I want to add to that playlist. From there just repeat the above until the playlist is complete. As far as I know you cannot add all the folders at the same time but not sure why you'd need to do that anyway? At least the way I work with folders/registrations.

Fran is on the right path with his explanation.

Registrations probably have nothing to do with playlist.. That is how the G70 works, You use the user programs to select your performance or use the playlist that organizes the order of single songs and does not include the same detail set ups within the user programs..

Most likely registrations in the Yamaha are system exclusive, and you can not use a PC to extract.

Someone try to make a play list by added single entries... see if it works.

And so we wait till someone with a SX900 tries and explains it...

Page 90 in the manual, gives simple easy directions.

Must have been human error

How was your steak?

It doesn't work right on my sx900.as a single song list..
Filet was delicious..

Silent slab. Too bulky with the PAAS.

... and you're still trying to wrap your head around the item you decided in 1 hour wasn't good enough for you? What up, dog?

Hi Donny,
basically quite simple.
I started with a new playlist. ( Could have used an existing one instead)
Then pressed the Add Record , LIST icon
Then opened up my folder with the registrations ( registrations named after the songs)
Hi lighted the one/ones I wanted to add, pressed add to playlist, it goes back to playlist scree, then saved it.
If I wanted to add more at a later stage , just went thru same process ,
except for the first step of course, which was starting a new playlist.

Simple yes , in hindsight, but it was a bit confusing at first, I did have to read the manual mainly because , I ‘ve never done registrations before, and playlist function is new, as you are aware.

One other thing the Playlist is just a collection of registrations stored in one central location. You can have multiple playlists with a mix and match of the same or different registrations.

?????? common get your facts right it was 3 1/2 hrs dude...
more then ample time to make a decision after all these years...
it just wasn't my cup of tea period.
Too may cons vs pros for MY needs.
Did mention personally I liked the NON Touch screen
much better then the Sx900 especially for live play using buttons .
btw have you figured out how to extract single songs
from the reg folders and create a playlist out of them on the SX900?

You see Dave, Donny has evolved to a higher level than the average player. He used to buy a keyboard and take one to two months to go from unequivocal love to disgust and rejection. He can now do that whole process in 3 and 1/2 hours.

As a seasoned Pro with years and years and years of live stage experience playing keyboards of all kinds,.....
If you can't determine what is good for you in a very short time frame then I don't know what to say.
We are all different there is no general equation.
Some people need a year to find out how to turn on the unit etc,....
as for me 3 1/2 hrs is more then enough plain and simple.
If something doesn't work out it's gone...
I am not a hoarder by any stretch of the imagination
like many others that's just not how I roll.
To each his own.
Don't judge me just worry about what needs you have to cover.
That said I hope everyone enjoys what they
are playing and creating music with....
Have fun I know I will as soon as I find the right gear...


All The Best

As a seasoned Pro with years and years and years of live stage experience playing keyboards of all kinds,.....
If you can't determine what is good for you in a very short time frame then I don't know what to say.
We are all different there is no general equation.
Some people need a year to find out how to turn on the unit etc,....
as for me 3 1/2 hrs is more then enough plain and simple.
If something doesn't work out it's gone...
I am not a hoarder by any stretch of the imagination
like many others that's just not how I roll.
To each his own.
Don't judge me just worry about what needs you have to cover.
That said I hope everyone enjoys what they
are playing and creating music with....
Have fun I know I will as soon as I find the right gear...

I have yet to ever use the playlist function on any keyboard I've ever had. Never felt the need to use it.

That's fine and dandy Dave...
I also never used the MFD on any of my Yamaha units
especially when I use a laptop..
but that does not answer my question does it?
or for anyone else who has a sx900..

Making a playlist is not one of my priorities. I use a full bank of registrations for each song, therefore my Playlist is always instantly available, fully alphabetized. In other words I prefer to keep my entire list of registrations in front of me at a moment's touch, rather than use short ones.
I do keep the Christmas styles in a separate folder.

Hi Don and Donny:

Makes me glad I don't have to keep track of a playlist (or playlists) but I do keep track of every song I've ever written and recorded. That series of tasks also includes the Lyric Sheet and Keyboard setup, whether or not I registered it with ASCAP or even filed for copyright... and the list of trackable data goes on and on.

I use a database called, "Filemaker Unlimited" and it's fairly straightforward to set up and manage. Years ago, when DOS was the predominant Operating System for PC's... I used a little gem of a database called "Nutshell." Easiest DB to set-up and use I've ever encountered. Unfortunately, it died a fairly swift demise after ever-changing "Windows" arrived on-scene.

Yep, they call him "Quick-Draw Mason!" LOL!

Have a great day, guys.

I really don't call it a data base but more of an easy song list to QUICKLY on stage jump from one song to another
by just scrolling up and down the list to
eliminate dead time between songs ..

You can copy every registration into a giant playlist, it’s just another method to do so. I have one called complete. When you copy and paste from a folder they go into playlist alphabetically. One caveat is if you add a new registration it will go to the bottom of the list Actually with playlist you can also choose any numbered button 1 thru 8 to start the style.

I used a combination of Music Finder Directory and registrations to completely eliminate dead time between songs. I posted a video of this on this forum several years ago. The only time I had dead time between songs is when I needed to make announcements, which was rare.

Good luck,

Gary

Hi Donny , you can add single songs.

Ok Rikki good news in away...
I was talking with Fran before and he made a good point....
try to follow me...

When I got the sx900 I loaded up my USb drive stick with all my reg & styles from my S970..
Then I loaded them Reg & Styles into User memory on the SX900..
The after numerous attempts to extract SINGLE songs from the Folders that I was able to load into the playlist ONLY ....I could not find a way to do this, file & menu tabs didn't light up to use to add to playlist....
Sooooooooooo I waa wondering as was Fran that you may have to create the reg from scratch within the new SX900 for it to be allowed to be used to extract SINGLE songs from the REG folders already in the playlist ??? make sense?... hope I was wrong

did YOU use songs created on SX900 or songs taken from another keyboard first?

You can always just learn to the the thing as it was built, and not try to turn it into an out-dated model. Loading old registrations is convenient sometimes, but the improvements to sounds and styles are not always compatible. You have to be reasonable, and expect a learning curve to adapt to a new instrument. Now, where's that darn 8-track player manual .... I can't seem to fit this cartridge into my DVD player. Hmmmmm

Hi Donny,
I tested mine with the playlist that is downloadable on the Yamaha site.

Old styles definitely load, but I don’t have old registrations , so really can’t tell you if they work or not. I never created any on my S950.

Eileen was sharing a set of registrations on the psr forum, could have been from Genos, couldn’t imagine she would have had enough time to create them from scratch on the sx. since the post dates back nearly 2 weeks ago.

I know the old tyros version of the new playlist function can be converted to work on sx, details on how to do it are in the downloadable reference manual, not in the owners manual supplied with the keyboard.

I’ll have a look and see if it mentions registrations, there may be a specific way of doing it.

"Maybe Donny forgot that when you select a folder on playlist you then have to press Play list again to open it."


Could this be the answer?

Thanks for all the registration / playlist talk, interesting and informative, but can you, or anyone give us your overall opinion on how the dang thing sounds? (Especially compared to previously owned arranger keyboards)

Thanks

45 day return comes to mind Larry.... Enjoy

Larry, I talked with Don Mason about the SX-900 and he said it is an outstanding keyboard and sounds much better than the S-950 and S-975. Most of the other reports I've read thus far on the PSR Tutorial site pretty much say the same thing.

I would purchase one in a heartbeat, however, that's just one more thing my children would have to sell upon my death - I don't want to leave them or my wife with any burdens upon my passing.

Good luck,

Gary 8)

Gary thanks for sharing that. I’ve got one on order buy my favorite dealer Mr. Frankieve is awaiting arrival of more units. This board certainly looked like a winner to me, nice that Don Mason confirmed that!

That about sums it up. The SX-900 is just not for "you", and I get that.

See ya at breakfast someday soon

Hi Larry,
All the reports I’ve read from owners (exception Donny), have been positive.

A couple of niggles on psr forum about some function being dropped in lieu of songlist function.

I had my psrs 950 and Sx 900 side by side for over a week, listened to them thru headphones and studio monitor speakers ( albeit very ancient ones) the sx to me sounded better.

Thanks for that info Gary. If Don Mason likes it, it must be decent. And I think Dave likes it too. Donny...not so much
I get the family "burden" thing. Hang in there my friend

Uncle Dave is singing it's praises too

Keep in mind... he hasn't used a Roland arranger since his E-70 days..

So what does he really know

Thanks Rikki, I value your opinion, although "niggles" is a new term to me LOL

Larry breakfast is always ready...
Let us know..

Thanks Fran, guess that rules him out as a seller. I'm so close by too...:)

Good feedback from both pros. Thanks

Grumbles? Ie not happy.

Maybe “ niggles “ is one of our weird Aussie slang terms. We do have some strange ones. Haha

I would Value Don M. and Gary D. and others opinions for sure... It looks 99% positive at this point...1% going to My friend Donny...Sorry brother!

Goodness gracious Gary, If you can afford ito do it,,and your health is still up to it, why not go for it. There’s probably lots of things your family will have to sell that may not be of any use to them. What is one more item. If it sparks you up, wouldn’t it be worth it.

Sitting here at the moment crying my eyes out, lost my little 16 year old parrot yesterday, my little music buddy, my captive audience, Got me thru some tough times over the years with his crazy antics, always made me laugh.
Going thru a bit of a dilemma, do I replace him, ( if my husband offers) knowing full well a new one may well outlive me, therefore placing a burden on my family should that happen.

Gary, I'm with Rikki. If I go and I get any kind of advance notice, I will be at the wheel of my 2020 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 on the way to the biggest yacht I can scrape up a downpayment for.

Rikki, sorry about your parrot. My cat died, but then he slept 22 hours a day so it was like 2 more hours. I knew he was dead though 'cause he let me hold him. For a second there I thought he'd grown to like me. Oh well. Enjoy that SX900.



chas

Rikki, unfortunately,because of my lung disease, I can no longer sing, which was one of my strong points when I was an entertainer. I always prided myself with my singing ability since I sang my first country song (Old Mountain Dew) at about age 12 while strumming a really ancient guitar. I tried to sing a couple songs last week, and could barely croak them out, let along sing with any degree of quality. I was devastated, to say the very least. Just speaking on the telephone is quite difficult without the aid of supplemental oxygen.

As you know, I recently sold my sailing yacht because I could no longer safely operate it by myself. Single handed sailing requires a lot of difficult, physical tasks, such as hauling an 80-pound mainsail up the mast with a halyard, then furling the jib sail with a furling line and sheeting those sails in. Yes, at some point I had to use hand winches to put the final trim on the sails, but the preliminary trim was all arm strength. Bad lungs don't allow you to do this, or access the foredeck without gasping for every breath. Consequently, I had to sell the boat and ended up selling for $26,000 under the appraised price. That too, was devastating for I truly loved sailing as much or more than I loved playing music and being a professional entertainer.

If I were to purchase an SX-900, which I seriously considered, I talked with my children about playing the keyboard. Neither my daughter or son is interested in playing a keyboard. I gave my son one of my PSR-3000s and he uses it mainly for a drum machine while playing his electric guitar. I still enjoy playing my PSR-S950, and dearly wish I could still sing some of the songs I played, but unless the docs come through with some sort of miracle drug, that just ain't gonna happen.

Three years ago, the docs gave me one to two years to live, so I guess I'm beating the odds, but I know I'm on borrowed time at this stage of the disease. I've already sold and given away nearly all of my equipment that I used on stage, and the only thing remaining is the S-950, one of my custom consoles, a two-tier Quick-Loc X-stand and a Quick-Loc seat with backrest, plus a Bose L1 Compact. One of my musician buddies says he wants the Bose.

Rikki, I was thinking about you last week, thinking about the fun time I had when I worked in Oz, Woomera, SA to be exact, way back in 1960. Thought I would try to do a rendition of Waltzing Matilda on the S-950, but I was having a bad time with my breathing difficulties then so I put the project off until things improved a bit. Still working on the improvement, but if the steroids provide me with a bit of a reprieve, I promise you I will give it a try.

Thanks for your friendship over the years,

Gary

Thank you Chas I will enjoy sx.

I know what you mean about cats, aloof little creatures, don’t see them till they want something. Only ever owned the one, prefer dogs and birds.

Hi Gary,

I'm really sorry to hear of your illness, I didn't realise you had a lung problem, it's fantastic that you've beaten the odds and long may it continue.

I know you say you couldn't justify purchasing an SX900, but is that because you'd have it in addition to the S950 as you could always put that towards the SX900, you'd still only have the 1 keyboard whether it's an S950 or SX900, the situation will be the same, unless you were thinking of eventually owning no keyboards at all.

I think you should go for the SX900, you deserve to experience this keyboard as it's really that good. I'm sure you'd get a decent trade in price for an S950?

All the best to you,
Danny

Hi Gary,
Yes , am aware about having to sell the boat, but for your own safety, and maybe for others, what other choice could you make, no matter how much it hurt.

Truly awful that singing is no longer an option, but you still have hands and a good brain, remember you mentioning about reading the manual if you had an sx.

Never give up , doctors aren’t always right. When my husband broke his back , age 28, doctors told us expected life span of a parapalegic was 50 to 55 years of age. The old B**ger is still around going on for 72. So there.

As for the kids, gave my granddaughter psr 1500, don’t know how much she played it.
Gave her the PA800, handed it back with a broken key ( which I replaced , with a bit of help from the other half). She plays a bit of guitar, keyboards don’t really interest her, so sold the rest of mine on eBay. Sheer laziness , or the hassle of it, I never got round to it till a few weeks back.

Been to SA, but not Woomera, would have been an interesting place back then.

Look forward to hearing your rendition of Waltzing Matilda when your voice improves enough for you to record it.

Thank You too Gary,
This place has been a hoot, over many years.

Hi,
Well, I decided to get another little parrot. My husband realised how distraught I was over the little guys passing away. Woke me up at 2am and stated, we should replace little Charlie, even he misses the welcoming hello the little guy used to give us when we came home.

So what if he outlives me, came up with a plan, I’ll include him in the WILL, haha, a cashed up bird shouldn’t have too much problem finding a home. Haha. Kidding?

Now that's a great plan, and your husband sounds like a cool dude.

He is Larry.

Rikki, my name is Charles so clearly you named Charley after me, probably in honor of my cheery disposition. You should name the new guy Gary, although, given your history with Synthzone, I'd lean towards 'Nigel' .

chas

OR.....you could have a 'Name That Bird' contest right here on SZ. I'm sure you'd get some clever submissions.

Hi Rikki, let me guess, was it an African lovebird???? (peachface).
I used to breed them extensively for many years, and if tame, they make a great pet.

Ray

Hi Chas
Obviously, no if’s, no but’s. haha.

It’s going to be Charlie again, King Charles 3rd. Haha, surname being King, and he’s my 3rd little parrot. Charlie for short.

Sorry Gary and Nigel. Haha

darn!

Hi Ray, nothing as exotic as that. Just a little grey and white Cockatiel. Found some hand reared youngsters on Gum Tree this morning, 4 hour road trip tomorrow , found one that looks a lot like him.
Not as exotic looking as a lot of our parrots, but they sure do have personality.
He had perfect timing too, better than mine actually. He’d bob his head up and down when he or someone else whistled a tune .He loved bashing spoons, especially on glass table tops, the more noise the better. Frustrated drummer, I think. Haha

He’s going to be a hard act to follow.

Hey, that was an obvious I named him after you, or were you hoping for a bird naming competition?

Problem is ,if I went for a different name, I’m that scatterbrained nowadays, I probably end up calling him Charlie by mistake, imagine this poor confused bird. Haha