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#507806 - 03/03/23 02:07 PM One week with the SX900
guitpic1 Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 04/16/14
Posts: 1950
Loc: Missouri
I’ve been playing my SX900 for about a week now.

I bought it primarily because of its compactness and for living room play etc. When we moved here to MO three years ago, I quit gigging and wasn’t sure what was next.

For me, the SX900 is very compact, has built in speakers, and I love the assignable buttons/knobs…they work great.

I’ve been playing my SX900 through its built in speakers, and my Bose L1 Pro8. I played my Genos through the Pro 8 as well.

Sound wise, I’ve found my SX900 ok in styles and pianos…(it’s early times) but perhaps lacking in other voices.

But then my Genos has 256 polyphony dedicated to sound….whereas the SX900 has 128.

I find this especially strange when my DGX670 ($800 keyboard) has 256 note polyphony sounds great and cost 1/3 of my SX900.

And sounds on my DGX are impressive.

Guess I’ll never understand Yamaha’s marketing and thats after owning several Yamaha keyboards


Edited by guitpic1 (03/03/23 11:41 PM)
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#507810 - 03/03/23 11:35 PM Re: One week with the SX900 [Re: guitpic1]
Diki Offline


Registered: 04/25/05
Posts: 14182
Loc: NW Florida
I see the SX900 as very much a fresh start for Yamaha, but there’s a lot of unfulfilled promise as you’d expect with the first in a series. I definitely feel that it needs a lot (all, to be honest!) of the styles reworked to get those Revo kits on them, in fact, it needs some kind of macro that can convert old drum tracks to use all the extra Revo sounds without much hard work remapping the sounds.

Either that or a TON of new styles using the best kits and sounds.

There’s a few interface changes that would improve life immensely. Touch screen is too much eye candy, not enough control. A good screen design can present a LOT of information and control, but Yammie have squandered much of that huge display on pictures of pianos, whatever. This board is too complex for those dumb enough to need all their sounds presented with big pictures just wasting screen area…

Hopefully there’s much coming if Yammie continue messing with it seriously…
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An arranger is just a tool. What matters is what you build with it..!

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#507930 - 03/12/23 11:52 AM Re: One week with the SX900 [Re: Diki]
Bill in Dayton Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 08/23/04
Posts: 2202
Loc: Dayton, OH USA
Spot on as far as the display goes. For a gigging musician who's playing 10 gigs on average per week and a 62 year old with 62 year old eyes, I want lean and mean and high readability.
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#507934 - 03/12/23 08:35 PM Re: One week with the SX900 [Re: guitpic1]
Nick G Online   content
Senior Member

Registered: 11/16/05
Posts: 1107
Loc: Sydney, NSW, Australia
Regarding the screen being "eye candy"... it really only is the main home page that has the instrument pictures. It doesn't exist anywhere else.

@DIki you mentioned revo drums - FYI there are no revo drums on the PSR SX 700 and 900... funny though - it seems revo drums are included on the PSR A5000 - refer to specs below:
https://europe.yamaha.com/en/products/mu...5000/specs.html

The standard Concert Grand Piano voice is a massive let down - it just doesn't really have any "bite" or wide dynamic range. also - the sample itself simply decays wayy too early. I have tried to fix this with voice settings but nothing really makes a noticeable difference. however as I mentioned in another thread - I purchased the "power Piano" from Dynamix Audio which is a much better more usable piano in my opinion.

I Still wish it had a better keybed. Its noticeably better than the previous PSRs but still not really that great...

Overall though - I am very happy with it and I must admit of all the 6 keybpoards I currently have in my studio - I play it the most. I can sit there and nit pick alot of issues with it but at the end of the day some of the best fun I have ever had playing arranger keyboards has come from my PSR SX900.
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Yamaha PSR SX900 / Roland G70 / Roland BK9 / Korg PA700 / Roland GW-8L / Roland Fantom O6

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#507935 - 03/13/23 01:27 AM Re: One week with the SX900 [Re: guitpic1]
Bernie9 Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 09/21/02
Posts: 5507
Loc: Port Charlotte,FL,USA
What Nick said
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pa4X 76 ,SX900, Audya 76,Yamaha S970 , vArranger, Hammond SK1, Ketron SD40, Centerpoint Space Station, Bose compact

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#507937 - 03/13/23 08:48 AM Re: One week with the SX900 [Re: guitpic1]
Diki Offline


Registered: 04/25/05
Posts: 14182
Loc: NW Florida
Something else that a redesign of the touchscreen I have mentioned before is using the large area of the Chord Sequence display for a user title for the sequence (Intro/verse/chorus/solo etc.) rather than the current three of four chords and the segment name in tiny type at the top of the segment.

I think it was mentioned around the SX900’s release that there were a few Revo kits ported from the Genos, but it was just samples, they didn’t have the round robin feature from the Genos. I took a look at the data lists, and although unfamiliar with the S950 lists, I could see a few kits (not labeled Revo, though, understandably, because no ‘revolving’ samples!) that had a bunch of extra hi hat samples down in the low notes. I think these are the kits derived from the Genos. I could be wrong, maybe someone could check against the S950 lists…

But something got punchier between the S950 and the SX900, and I think those new kits had something to do with it!

Like I said in an earlier post, if my BK9’s died, I think the SX900 is possibly my best choice at the moment. If only they made a 76! 😂🎹
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An arranger is just a tool. What matters is what you build with it..!

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#507947 - 03/13/23 01:41 PM Re: One week with the SX900 [Re: guitpic1]
rikkisbears Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 12/22/02
Posts: 6020
Loc: NSW,Australia
Hi , there are more sounds available that don’t appear to show up on the normal list.
https://youtu.be/dpo8X89Ix4k


Edited by rikkisbears (03/13/23 01:54 PM)
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Rikki 🧸

Korg PA5X 88 note
SX900
Band in a Box 2022

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#507949 - 03/13/23 02:39 PM Re: One week with the SX900 [Re: guitpic1]
Diki Offline


Registered: 04/25/05
Posts: 14182
Loc: NW Florida
I think this mostly refers to hidden sounds for legacy gear. Roland used to do the same… certain codes would open up kits from things like the CM32 and computer gaming cards.

I guess I am just going to have to crack the Genos’ detailed list and take a look at the names of the samples to compare to the SX 900..!
_________________________
An arranger is just a tool. What matters is what you build with it..!

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#507952 - 03/13/23 03:58 PM Re: One week with the SX900 [Re: guitpic1]
Nick G Online   content
Senior Member

Registered: 11/16/05
Posts: 1107
Loc: Sydney, NSW, Australia
Diki my biggest niggling issue with the PSR SX900 (and possibly the Genos shares the same problem) is that no matter how "new" or a step punchier the new drum samples are - they are still 10+ years behind the quality / clarity of the samples in the Yamaha Synth line (Motif / Montage etc).

There is something going on in the background that they (yamaha) are keeping from us and all I can conclude is that it simply boils down to Yamaha stripping the quality or "Compressing" the quality of the raw samples into the arranger line.

I have compared some of the exact same samples from a Motif or a MODX literally side by side to the PSR and the SAME sample on the synth sounds way more dynamic / clearer and punchier.. its night and day - and it becomes more and more prominent as you go into the lower note range - the lower note range is really where the PSR drops in quality. And that was routing the synth to the aux in of the PSR so it was going through the PSR Speakers...

drums in the PSR sound "plastic" and shallow compared to the same sample drum kit sounds on the Motif/Montage synth. - it has nothing to do with the "editing" - im talking simply out of the box samples and even after countless attempts at editing the voices on the PSR to match - it simply doesn't meet the standard.
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Yamaha PSR SX900 / Roland G70 / Roland BK9 / Korg PA700 / Roland GW-8L / Roland Fantom O6

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#507953 - 03/13/23 09:41 PM Re: One week with the SX900 [Re: Diki]
rikkisbears Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 12/22/02
Posts: 6020
Loc: NSW,Australia
Originally Posted By Diki
I think this mostly refers to hidden sounds for legacy gear. Roland used to do the same… certain codes would open up kits from things like the CM32 and computer gaming cards.

I guess I am just going to have to crack the Genos’ detailed list and take a look at the names of the samples to compare to the SX 900..!


Hi Diki, basically yes, but the xg sounds can be accessed for melody sounds. Bit of a complicated procedure . I’ve got mine saved as 2 registration banks, as per video, but I also have them saved as user sounds on my usb memory stick.
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best wishes
Rikki 🧸

Korg PA5X 88 note
SX900
Band in a Box 2022

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