Get a cold drink, folks - this one will take a while to read.

I will "soften" my response to playing the PSR9000, so as not to sound fickle. I have been accused in the past of "falling in love" with every new board I play, so this time I will simply make a few general observations about playing out with the 9000.

FIRST) Man, it's reeeealy heavy. Mostly putting it in and out of the car is the worst. Once it's on a dolly - no biggie. In it's defense, I no longer need to bring the rack bag that houses my harmonizer. Somewhat of an even trade.

SECOND) The overall sound quality is excellent at moderate volumes, but with a PA going...it becomes VERY difficult to hear the keyboard from it's own speakers. This is strange, because I hear my vocal just fine. My guess is that the midrange frequency is toned down to make for a smoother sound, and that takes the sound "out of my face," (one of our pet expressions)

THIRD) Yamaha has thought of everything a player might want to do during a performance, and gives us a way to access it. BRAVO Yamaha! I'm serious - tone changes, volume, controllers, transpositions, you name it - it's easy to get to. By FAR - the easiest operating system of any keyboard on the market. At least in a live situation. I understand that setting up patches make life easy on everything else, but this one works right out of the box. I could literally play the whole night with one patch, and not miss much. As it stands now - I think I will only need to write about 10 or 12 to do everything I need to. The rest will be shortcuts for "million sellers" that I ALWAYS play.
(NYNY, Runaround Sue, Brown Eyed Girl, etc...) I don't think a week has gone by in 30 years that I don't get a request for Brown Eyed Girl. So, I guess it should have a registration all it's own, for fast access.

FOURTH) The simplicity of the patterns is a welcome change to the "cluttered up" sound that seems to keep popping up in many newer boards. I would like to start adding my own "spice" to the arrangements after a while, but for now-they are very useable, and easy to dance to. I still believe that the Korg patterns have a slight edge in the swing genre, but Yamaha has C&W down to a science. R&R has been good for years now - not an issue with any of the major offerings, and latins also seem to be great on lots of boards. As a whole - there is not a single style missing in the factory setup that I need at the moment.

FIFTH) Even with it's heavy weight - after the unit is on the stand - I like how solid, and strong it is. Tonight I played an inauguration for a county judge, and there were lots of speeches. They all used MY mic (YUK) and were speaking from the KB stand. It never seemed to wobble or worry me at all when they leaned on it, or bumped it by mistake. Nice solid, case - price of fame, I guess....is weight. Mass = Weight in this case.

SIXTH) Some sounds that bothered me at first are modifiable and better now after tweaking. Growl sax is one. Jazz Clarinet is another. Both had weird playing characteristics out of the box, but after a few adjustments - they sound wonderful.
SEVENTH) Organs - terrific. Leslie sim - also terrific. very believable jazz organ sound. I'm in heaven with Booker T, Jimmy Smith, Joey D, and all the others!

* * * * General impression * * * * *

The polyphony is still major sucky for a sustain freak, like me but the overall package is pretty complete. If the new PSR2000 is anywhere close to this unit - it will be in my car as a backup, and nursing home unit for sure. Glad I made the trade Don .... are you still happy?