First look at PSR-S910

Just some rapid thoughts.

Music Finder now works with USB files.
Styles sound better than S900 because of added megabrass and megastrings. Some with same names reworked.
Screen looks great.
OS feels the same.
New voices like S.A. organs sound very realistic to me.
T3 styles load ok but many voices are missing. Many are probably mega voices and these are a pain in the behind to change if there is no corresponding mega voice in the S910. I would just go with the converted T3 styles that sound better than I thought.
A lot of great OTS's (One touch settings) that take advantage of the additional voices.
Old registrations work fine.

I'm happy I made the upgrade.

Beakybird

Good luck with your new live keyboard - I'm sure you'll make it sound terrific for your audiences

Sounds like you're pleased, Larry...can't wait to get mine.

Good early review.

Ian

[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 09-29-2009).]

Hi Beakybird, whenever you have a chance, could you try loading any Psr-OR700 style to see if it's compatible with the S910??

Will look at OR700 file sometime relatively soon.

Music rack is slightly embellished with rubbery pads on the inserts so that it sticks and stays in the kb rock solid.

Beakybird

Great information, Larry. Hopefully, I'll have my hands on one by Thursday.

Gary

Larry, Congratulations enjoy the S910.

Hi Larry: Wow... very "newsworthy" news and worth me posting again after an extended absence here.

Because I almost exclusively create custom tailored styles (vs unaltered factory ones), the added ability to have the Music Finder call them up from the USB Stick finally solves the 2MB maximum internal user storage limitation of the S900 and Tyros3. The only limitation to the number of styles you can call up from Music Finder now is the storage capacity of the USB stick itself.

I've been asking Yamaha for this feature for a long time so glad they finally came thru. Now if only the Music Finder could store song transpose settings too. S920 perhaps?

Scott

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Scott Yee Entertainment

Hey Scott,

How is it going, what are you using now, is it still the T2?

Hope all is well.

Hey Scott,

It's fantastic to see you post here. Welcome back.

The T2 styles sound fantastic in the S910. I have yet to call up a T2 style that had a voice missing even though I'm sure I'll find one - as the T2 has more S.A. voices and quite a few more Live! voices - even though the S910 has a few voices that the T2 doesn't have.

The T3 is a bit of a stretch. There are some styles that load with all the voices present - about 2/5's of them. On a lot of the swing styles there's a mega jazz guitar that seems to be missing and when I sub the mega solid2 guitar, it's decent. I've been able to rework a few T3 styles that have some voices missing. There's a T3 Dreamy Ballad style that looks like it would sound great in the T3 but neither the original or the conversion sound good.

RE the MFD files: With styles on the USB, you have to start from scratch. If a style on a T2 has a MFD song associated with it, and you save it to USB and load the USB into the S910, the S910 will not find any USB MFD file. You have to create one, and then it will find it from then on.

I think I'll stick with naming my Registrations after a song. I associate Reg 1 with a style + voice + transpose and other stuff and the other Reg buttons I just associate with voices so they're like OTSs.

The T2 styles really sound fantastic and the internal styles sound better than the S900.

The screen is excellent. I'm looking at the screen from afar and almost horizontally, and I can read everything perfectly - with glasses. I could never have read the S900's screen from that angle.

I'm taking measures to protect the keyboard in it's gig bag even better than before - besides the keyboard bag, I I've been putting a keyboard cover over the keyboard and then some foam on top and on the sides. But the corners still got a little scuffed so I'm putting more cushioning on the side of my gig bag (A hardshell case won't fit in my trunk, and they're too heavy).

I am really discovering that the resale value of the keyboard is so much improved by protecting the keyboard from scratches.

Beakybird

Welcome back, however briefly, Scott...

Has anyone still got BOTH keyboards (S900 and S910)?

I'd sure like to hear some objective recording from BOTH doing the same style to be able to believe "the internal styles sound better than the S900" or do you mean STRICTLY the styles that have new Mega voices added to them? Can you hear any overall sound quality difference (maybe better D/A converters) than the S900?

I think that the speakers on the S910 might be a bit punchier.

I think an S900 style will sound the same on an S910, especially in a recording.

However, almost all of the S900 styles already existed as T2 styles. The T2 styles took advantage of some of the additional Mega!Voices and many of the other additional cool voices. Many of the T2 styles that had strings used the 2 Mega string voices that are on the T2 and these strings sound a lot better than the Live! strings that the S900 uses. The styles on the S900 that use brass use either Live! Hyper Brass or Brass Section voices. The S910 and the T2 use a Mega Brass voice that sounds way superior.

There is also the factor of the new style format that improves the guitar sound. The guitars sound excellent within the styles. I'll have to do an A/B for a style that's the same on the S900 and the S910.

By the way, I'm having a better than 50% success with the T3 styles. For some of the T3 styles that have voices that don't exist on the S910, the S910 finds substitute voices that are right - it will use the Mega! Electric bass instead of the bass that the T3 style has, and it will use a regular harp instead of the Live! harp that the T3 has. For some of the T3 styles, however, there is silence on the channel that has the non-existing voice.

The converted T3 styles that I have, whoever converted them just converted the style format so that they would load in a T2 or S900. They didn't correct the missing voices. So I've just been playing around with the original T3 styles to see which ones work. Most of the pop and ballad styles sound just fine in the S910.

Beakybird

Hi Scott

Good to see you're still alive and kicking

USB files load noticeably faster.

Beakybird

Maybe it's because I turned the parameter "Song Auto Voice" on, but almost all the T3 styles are loading and sounding proper in the S910, and the S910 is finding substitutions for the missing T3 voices. You can't see what voice is being substituted. All you see on the mixer is a couple of music notes instead of the symbol for a voice. But I can tell with my ears that the S910 isn't choosing GM voices but the best suitable voice that the keyboard has - often Mega! Voices or the Sweet!, Live!, and Cool! voices. Many of the T3 styles don't call for a voice substitution. The T3 styles sound excellent. I'm sure that overall the T3 can showcase them even better.

Beakybird

[This message has been edited by Beakybird (edited 09-30-2009).]

Larry great keep those updates coming. So far I liking what the s910 has to offer.

One of the only voices from T3 styles that I find doesn’t load at all is the Mega Jazz Guitar. This stays silent in a style. But if you substitute the Mega Solid Guitar2 and eq it with high bass and low treble and turn it down a tad, it sounds great.

Beakybird

I'm getting fantastic reviews from my clients on this board. Yesterday, I gave a business card to this 89 year old, and I got a cell phone message from his daughter before I got back to my car - asking me to perform at his 90th b'day next week.

I can't imagine needing more styles. Having a great time exploring the new accompaniment voices, like S.A. Rock Sax, Sweet Mellow Trumpet, Mellow Brass. The additional organ sounds, especially the S.A. Jazz organ are excellent.

I am grateful to Frank of Frankieve of this forum www.audioworksct.com for an excellent price (which I will not disclose to anyone) on two S910's.

Beakybird

Yep, still playing & enjoying T2.







Thanks guys. It's good to be back.

Scott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIdqteEmnsQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddWljavqyn0&feature=related

Dueling URL's... (Paddle faster!)

Is this what is called a Google-off?

The link Ian provides is pretty old.

Owning the S910, I can attest that what you hear when you press the demo button is pretty impressive regardless of whether a computer sequencer was needed to create it.

Beakybird

I like the new WHITE buttons also vs the Black ones eg: Usb, etc.. which were camouflaged against the black display border making it harder to see.........Looks like Yamaha listened to our pleas and made some nice improvements......
btw, I have one coming also.

Are there any new S910 demos out yet....Michael Voncken, Bartmann...? or?

Probably true, but I think it was the first time it's been put on SZ...hey, I'm not like you regular customers; I have to wait to get my S910, even though I work(?) for the company.

Of course...the price is right.

Hey Donny - Thanks for posting that link - I've been looking for an audio demo for a while. Finally got to hear the new beast (audio is a bit on the loud side)!



I'm leaning.... I'm leaning...!!

Randy


[This message has been edited by saxxman (edited 10-05-2009).]

Ouch my ears.

Randy your very welcome .......btw I love your work

Thanks so much Donny - I just got back from a marathon trip.... played a wedding on the Hilton Head golf course. It was 488 miles each way. Yuck. Long haul. And bugs out there! I took a Bose Compact with me and it worked out very well with my "sax and trax" gig! Then I went to the reception and the DJ guy had the L1 Model 2.

I look forward to seeing and hearing more of the S910. Still waiting to see if the "cocktail piano" style (or is it a voice - only seen it demo'd once on YouTube) is in the S910 bag of tricks. I was thinking that if we can't get the actual cocktail piano voicing (which appears to be an octave piano set with the articulation slightly delayed between them), maybe we can set up an octave on two voices, and then go in and mod one piano voice with the settings to delay the attack (or stage an echo just once) to get the sound I heard on YouTube on the T3.

At any rate, thanks again and have a great week!

Randy

Randy,

I'm lovin' my 910. It was the right decision for me. It's a hoot to be able to play along with mp3 files. This board is sounding better every time I play it - and it's not my playing that's improving!

Tim

Hey Tim, Could you tell us how was loading those Tyros 3 styles like EtherealMovie, Blockbuster, and some others? Did you need to do any tweaking or the S910 itself found the suitable voices to replace those found only on the Tyros 3??

http://www.yamahapkowner.com/?p=1513&album=4&gallery=19

I wrote this earlier in the thread: Maybe it's because I turned the parameter "Song Auto Voice" on, but almost all the T3 styles are loading and sounding proper in the S910, and the S910 is finding substitutions for the missing T3 voices. You can't see what voice is being substituted. All you see on the mixer is a couple of music notes instead of the symbol for a voice. But I can tell with my ears that the S910 isn't choosing GM voices but the best suitable voice that the keyboard has - often Mega! Voices or the Sweet!, Live!, and Cool! voices. Many of the T3 styles don't call for a voice substitution. The T3 styles sound excellent. I'm sure that overall the T3 can showcase them even better."

Ethereal Movie and Blockbuster load fine and sound beautiful. If there is a special voice missing, the S910 finds a substitute in most cases.

Beakybird

How many more styles does the T3 have then the T2? is there a list somewhere?

Larry email me...

onemanband52@yahoo.com

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 10-06-2009).]

http://www.yamahapkowner.com/?p=1519

How does "Dreamy Ballad" sound on the S910, Larry? It is one of my favorite styles on the Tyros3.

Could you answer me this; with SA Jazz Rotary, and SA Rock Rotary, is the speed of the Leslie, or rotary speaker, controlled by the modulation wheel?

I won't get my S910 for another week or so...looking forward to it more and more with all these great comments.

Ian

The T3 has 450 styles, the T2 has 400, the S910 has 322, and the S900 has 305.

Beakybird

will email you soon.

Dreamy Ballad sounds fantastic. It needed some tweaking. At first, the jazz guitar voice is missing - but that channel has a different voice in the intro C and ending C, so I had to go through some hoops to get it to work subbing the mega solid guitar 2 and tweaking the eq so it sounds jazzy.

The other missing mega voices get properly substituted and sound great. I'm sure it sounds better on the T3.

Beakybird

Larry,

What about the SA organ voices and mod wheel activated rotary speed?

Ian

[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 10-06-2009).]

Ok Larry thanx for the info.....

I have a few questions.

The S.A. organs change rotary speed with the modulation wheel. Very cool!

Also, if you press the INTERNET button by accident, you can get right out of there immediately by pressing EXIT. You don't have to wait an interminable 10-15 seconds to do it.

Beakybird.

That's great news, Larry. The Jazz and Rock Rotary are my favorite sounds on the Tyros3; I'm so glad to hear they've been ported over in their entirety.

The Internet thing was a pain as well, especially on the S900 where the button sorta blended into the background.

I'm really looking forward to getting the S910...I'm glad they didn't change too much from the S900, especially the panel layout, which I like better than the T3's...the S-series having the registrations in the center is more ergonomically sound.

Ian

S900 specs...
http://music.yamaha.com/products/specifications.html?productId=574052&hierarchy_id=20021_20023_162

S910 Specs...
http://music.yamaha.com/products/specifications.html?productId=1040741&hierarchy_id=20021_20023_162

Hi Beakybird

I'm wondering if you're still finding all Tyros 2 styles work by chosing correct voices in the style and in the ots. Are you using factory untweaked styles or are they tweaked?

Thanx
Scott

T2 styles are originals. All work, no OTS voices missing.

Beakybird

Thanx Beakybird.

Sounds like the S910 could be feasible for me in that I wouldn't have to redo all my T2 user styles unless I wanted to along the way.

Just looking for backup, Scott?

Can't see any point in getting an S910 if you already HAVE a T2, though, except for that.

Just considering some options. I'd have to hear it and see what the sonic quality is compared to the T2. I have a feeling it's a great keyboard. I just don't know if all the sounds that I use will have the richness of sound on which I am hooked, and very picky.

Tyros 3 interests me for the clarinet and jazz guitar. I'd like to see how the overall sound has changed and see how this new guitar voicing thing effects the overall sound.

Then I'd have to see if any change is worth it when it comes to all the user styles and mfd songs that will have to be set up again. I've got over 1200 songs in the music finder. I've discoverd in the past when I went from T1 to T2 that you will have surprises if you play live without testing a song using a style with the same name. One had changed so much from the intro to the variations it was embarassing to finish the song.

So, as a backup, maybe another T2, or will it be an S910 or T3, or could the S910 become the board I play out with? Only testing them out will tell.