I've raked the Tyros up one end and down the other at times but have also praised the Tyros for the incredible sounds it produces. I think I'm beginning to see the light now that I own one. Yes, the Tyros does have its limitations and shortcomings but I feel I was rather harsh in some of my criticism of it and also of Tyros owners for loving their Board so much and forking over all that dough when it had all of those "limitations and shortcomings", at least in my way of thinking it did. But I have found now that the limitations are not that bad. Even though it doesn't have onboard speakers I do get fantastic sound out of it when I hook it into my Sound System. And besides, when I play with my Band all of the Speakers and Monitors are already provided. I have also found a work around to the Tyros's lack of Auxiliary Outputs. What I did was use my PSR 2000's Midi Out and ran a Midi Cable to the Midi In of the Tyros. I have my Yamaha MSP5's hooked up to the Aux outputs of the PSR 2000 and the PSR 2000's internal speakers give an added boost to the overall sound too. I can play the PSR 2000's Keys and or play Midi songs through the PSR 2000 and because of the Midi connection my playing the PSR 2000's Keys, etc., and the Midi's are played through ALL of my sound System, ie., PSR 2000's internal speakers, MSP5's, and my Main Outs of the Tyros output through my passive HPM-100's (going first through a Mackie 1202 VLZPro Mixer, QSC RMX 850 Power Amp, a Klipsch KSW-12 Subwoofer, and then driven through a pair of Monster Z series Audio Cables to the Pioneer HPM-100's. Well, to make a long story short -Oops! I guess it is already kind of lengthy isn't it , - uh hum (clear throat); I now have the Aux Outputs working 'in conjunction' with my Tyros albeit the Aux's are those on my PSR 2000. But it all works together to produce really marvelous sound output. Talk about rattling some windows! The sound is awesome indeed. Even breathtaking IMO.

The other quibbles I've had about the Tyros such as the lack of "Repeat to Self/Fill ability" when using an ordinary foot pedal will hopefully be addresed in an OS update but since I'm basically a realistic person I won't lose any sleep if Yamaha doesn't see fit to add that feature in an OS update. Although I'm still holding out hope that Yamaha will consider adding that feature in the near future.

The USB transfer rate has been much improved since when the Tyros first started shipping in the USA back in December of last year. Kudos to Yamaha for providing such a quick 'fix' to that sluggish USB transfer rate that dogged the Tyros's image and frustrated its owners.

Lets see; oh yes, no Sampling, no Expansion, the LCD screen can't be used effectively in bright light situations, ie., 'direct sunlight', etc. I could go on with a few other quibbles but for the most part the Tyros does deliver what's most important of all in a professional Keyboard and that is in the Sound department. Truly amazing sounds on the Tyros plus scads of other advanced features too.

I also wanted to mention that after reading Simon Williams (of SVP World)'s comments about how adjusting the Tyros's touch sensitivity to the hardest setting, one could actually play the Mega Voices in a live situation or in realtime effectively. Well I did what Simon said and I have to say there is definitely an improvement in the ability to play the Mega Voices in realtime. With some fine tuning the ability to play them in a live situation may be able to be done without having to worry so much about some unwanted or undesired sound or effect popping its head up when you least expect it. In fact with the adjustment the Tyros Mega Voices are just as easy to play as the Motif ES's Mega Voices are IMO.

I better quit. My eyes are getting heavy and if I don't stop I may fall asleep any minute. Good night all...

Best regards,
Mike

[This message has been edited by Idatrod (edited 09-30-2003).]