Hi,

I wanted to use an arranger keyboard for easy composing purposes, not stage work, cause I am a guitarist. Currently I am owning a midjay and a motif es. As my job gets more demanding I want to strip things down to the basics and make it easier for me to do some recordings (soul, latin, jazz, dance). I wanted the all in one box, not to big , bulky and heavy - and less computer sequencing also intended:

Would the psr 3000 be my bill? Some motif sounds, a sequencer and more variation in sounds than the midjay?
How do drums, bass and brass sound as they are very important to me? Are they a big drawback to thje motif es?
Korg PA-50/80 are told to have a better overall sound output, but I wanted more fills (4) than only two so my music is less repetitive.

Whats your advice?

Beste regards

Heinrich

Heinrich. I can't fully answer your question, but as I have both PSR3000 & KORG PA50 I thought I would throw these comments in.
The 3K is an excellent board with a poor keybed, is about the best value Yamaha arranger.
The Korg PA50 is half the price and although does not contain sweet type voices the package is more professional providing on the fly adjustments like an assignable slider. Pads that are assignable. The keybed is far better quality than the 3K. You already have the Motif & Midjay, so the Korg PA50 would fit your needs with very little outlay.

Oh, I should clear this up:

1. I was thinking of selling the motif es (hard to operate. Can be easy when enough time to spend) and the midjay (sound!) and get the psr 3000 instead: Less stuff to fiddle around with means more time for music.
2. Keybed is not an issue as it is wasted on me. I am playing the difficult parts with a midiguitar
3. I love the motif sounds, the midjay is soso to my ears: When you edit the patterns and change sounds apart from drums and bass you find, many sounds do sound quite the same in the mix. Means: Some single voices sound good but tend to loose a lot in the style-mix - maybe due to the efx section. Not much variety in the drum section either though in your face sounding (but never the motif quality!). And the acclaimed ketron drumgrooves are sliced wavebits and lack punch and clarity. All subjective, my 2 c. So I can see getting tired soon of the sound variety.

Well, you can´t have it all. Will a psr 3000 be an easy to use and carry replacement for midjay and motif, combining the best of both worlds for less money, less space and sure enough some drawbacks? I do not tweak sounds at all, only need very good styles (R&B, latin, jazz and some old stuff from the 50s and 60s like twist, r&r - but no waltz, polka, country) with realistic (1) fills that are not overdone and can be used for songwriting. Drum, bass (acoustic), organ and brass sounds are important. Synths not so much.

What do you think? Best regards,

Heinrich

Why not wait for the psr3100 coming soon?

Hi Heinrich,
Go with the PSR-3000.The replacement won't be out till next year.
The 3k is a great keyboard and is the best buy for the money of all the arrangers.


Ian

Since you prefer the Yamaha sounds..get the PSR3000,,,I think most of the sounds , other than the acoustic piano will sound close to the Motif..
And since you like the drums on the Motif[over the Midjay]...you will like the drums on the PSR3000..[you will get use to the hand clap instead of a snare drum]...

Arggggggg!

You know, its difficult for me to demo the psr 3000 as they are sold in the shops I went to. So I listened last night to a demo on a psr user website where they placed a review of the psr 3000 - other than on the yammie site (the very long and polished demosong) they had single styles and a few voice-riffs to listen to, which were unfortunately quite distorted but more revealing of what this keyboard can do.

The difference to a motif es is very noticeable but was expected: 64 compressed MB wave rom (psr 3000) vs. 96 MB (motif es). Some state the drums of the psr 3000 have a more solid sound than even the tyros 1.
From comparing the psr-demo on the website with my midjay at home I had the impression that some drumparts of the psr (cymbals, hihat, ride) were inferior to the midjays. The psr-toms and snare were more defined like you could hear the skin of the drum, but in the overall mix just no punch. I read posts of people trying to reinforce bass and drums like using alternate outputs and another rompler attached to it of the psr 3000 which makes me think again...

Tough choice really: I think the midjay has some very good single sounds and punch in the drum and bass department, just no variety of sounds, and in the mix I am missing something, can´t describe it. Sure it´s not made for my purposes and I think it is very good sounding for live omb jobs. By the way, I realised some serious hickups when firing off the groove loops and changing between sections. Strange.

So, well, after all this blabla from my side: Anybody out there who went the route from a motif es (which sounds, arpeggio and button concept I adore but get lost in) to a psr board for composing music? I am unsecure if an arranger board keeps your creative juices flowing for songwriting - to form something which is not at once detected as yammie style soandso. Arpeggios seem to give you more freedom but it takes ages until I finish a song - thats frustrating for a hobbie musician like I am. Or is it better to go the pa-50 route for songwriting?

Thanks for reading my stuff and helping me with some experience from your side.

Best regards

Heinrich

heinrich,
i am in the same position, trying to figure out what would be the best instrument, setup, way to do to imrpouve the workflow.
as i used to have a pa50, i can assure you it is a great instrument, and if you use it as a stand alone, the sounds are very good and you'll be happy with it.
if you\re trying to do more than just play, the pa50 is a little bit hard to understand. some would say that this is not a problem. it was for me, as i tried to do my work and discovered it took me too much time to achieve simple results.
so, anyway, i was also thinking about a psr3000 for a change, but it really bothers me the keybed of this instrument. as i stated long time ago, is just a shame they didn t design better keys for it, would've been a no-brainer choice.
a good option is a good controller and a sound module(arranger module).
or, if work in the studio mostly, just a good computer with good software.

definitely, you can not ahve everything in one pack! just decide what are ready to give up on.

Anyone else who can give me his piece of mind on this?

Thank you in advance!

Heinrich