I have spent a ton of time "crunching" the numbers, enough to be fairly well versed on most of the main specs of the popular arrangers. An example .. Ok, the PA series uses only 64 notes of ppolyphony, but the thing is, when I play it, I never notice any note dropoff at all. By the same token, I can easily make the notes drop off on my Motif.. also 64 notes of polyphony. All this while the Korg is playing a full style and responding to my real time playing, while the Motif is only responding to what I'm playing in real time, no sequences or anything else running. The difference is in the allocation of the polyphony. I am not sure that even 128 will be enough for the new Motif under the Yamaha note / polyphony allocation scheme. I've lost a few notes here and there on my PSR2k as well.

Specs are what they are.. great for reference. What it all comes down to in the end though is the way the board responds when I play it. For all the knocks I hear on the PA80 and "too many menus or buttons " or other shortcomings, no matter how long I play them, the PA80 is always easier for me to use in a live setting than the PSr2000 will ever be, and for whatever reason, it responds to my playing like no other board I have. The joystick is a big plus for me too.. Just makes a world of difference.

The PA80 was definitely a sharper learning curve for me than the 2000, but I would expect that with it's vast editing power too. The PA layout is just more agreeable for me in general and I find it very easy to use when I'm playing live, maybe in part because the board was setup the way I wanted it to be long before I ever took it out on the road. The PA80 has so many more functions that can be customized.. replace any or all of the internal styles, create REAL user voices from raw samples, sts ( OTS ) settings can be easily changed and customized "on the fly" for any style. These are just a few examples. Anything less for me is a poor tradeoff.

I would say that a majority of the players I know might prefer the Yamaha stuff. That's OK too. They're easy to learn and comfortable, and while the OS's get more sophisticated as time goes on and models get replaced, in many ways they work in similar ways to their predecessors. I just navigate on the PA80 better in real time than I do on any of the Yamaha boards, for whatever reason, no matter what shortcomings others might find with it. Also, I feel the need to be able to customize my board to the limit, so the PA80 type stuff may always be a first choice for me 'til someone makes something I like better.

It's great that there is more than one type of board out there, just as there are more than one type of keyboard / arranger players.

So, all this long winded reply really means is that I'll pass judgement to an exctent 'til I actually get one of the new boards in my hands and can hear and feel how it responds to "me" . Then I'll know for sure. It's great to talk about them now.. but.. the acid test is when it's in my hands.


AJ