After 17 years of using Korg and its Songbook app, I'm considering purchasing a Yamaha PSR SX720.

My PA600 is suffering from intermittent pads, and my 10 year old PA4x76 is having memory problems.

The PA5x is way over my budget. I considered the PA700 but the tech is 11 years old, and the Yamaha is much newer. I haven't played the Yamaha yet, but the videos sound great. The closest guitar center with one on the floor is a 3 hour drive.

I'm used to just entering the songbook number into the touchscreen to load up the next number at a gig. Will the Yamaha registration system be as useful?

Thank you for any sage advice.

Duane

Here is a video that will give you great info regarding the registratins etc.
It's G2, but mostly same steps.




(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM2FkjRt6FA)

Hi Duane,

Yes, the Yamaha can be connected to a tablet to display text, but the appropriate application must be used. Communication is in both directions. Activating Registration on the keyboard starts the text on the tablet (PDF, TXT, DOC, JPG...), but opening the text on the tablet also activates the application.
This is a video showing some of the possibilities, I hope it helps.

How to use external display / monitor and Yamaha arrangers

regards, casper

The PSR-SX720 can display text, but the slightly more expensive PSR-SX920 has a dedicated connector for Display Out.

One thing coming from Korg... if you play left-hand chords and are used to playing a single note to trigger a major chord, you may find a PSR frustrating. Yamaha's only really good chord recognition mode is called "AI Fingered." A single note triggers a unison [1+8], why!? You have to press at least the root and major third to get a major chord. There are ways using third party software to edit a style's CASM section, forcing the arranger to sound a major chord pattern when a unison is recognized. However, this shouldn't be necessary. If Yamaha weren't so bull-headed it would be a user-selectable menu option!

Yamahas also lack a separate button for Bass Inversion. Not all chord/bass combinations are immediately playable in AI fingered. For example if you want Am7/G you might have to play Am briefly first and then G below A to trigger the chord. If you play G,A,C with or without the E it will recognize Am7/A (root bass.) Choosing "Fingered on Bass" permits the seventh in the bass with G-A-C-(E), but this mode requires you to ALWAYS finger chords in the desired inversion. This is inconvenient and leads to frequent and non-typical hand jumps. Some pieces originally written for organ with bass pedals would be very hard to play on tempo.

When arrangers overtook the home organ, Roland was the first to dial in a logical, professional scheme for assisted chord input. Yamaha may have deliberately gone down a different, and in some ways inferior path to avoid patent infringement. I don't think we'll ever know the whole truth! Caveat Emptor.

Have you contacted Korg about the memory issue? That PA4X seems by far the most capable thing you have, and an SX720 is going to set you back about $1200+. If you can repair the PA4X for less than that, you are well ahead of the game...