First of all, how nice it is to be able to lift and put the keyboard under my arm. I don�t need 76 keys for the work I�m doing. I think the regular sounds of the S900 are better than the 2000 or 3000, by far. The piano is more realistic and the drawbars sound great � although I haven�t been able to get them on screen yet � lol.

There is such a night and day difference between Yamaha and Roland styles. The Roland were so laid back and live sounding, the Yamaha are fuller but somewhat more processed, yet attractive for styles use. What really impresses me is Yamaha�s use of One Touch Settings; they are far fuller and more appealing that the G70. Even if I choose not to use many of the OTS, they have done a better job of making them useful to a player. And there seems to be a better balance between the arranger section and the sounds.

The S900 seems more of a OMB type of board. Everything is focused on just one person playing everything. The Roland concept now seems more segmented with styles being one concept and sounds being another. I never realized that because I mainly used the piano, epiano, organ, strings and a little flute/trumpet, rarely blending more than two sounds together and never using or getting those ensemble sounds the S900 just puts out there. The G70 (and e60) have it all over the s900 when it comes to keyfeel. The g70 keybed is the best synth action I�ve ever played. But I must say that the s900 is an improvement over the PSR2000 and 3000. Both the keys and the machine feel more capable and professional. I found this one Latin style and just played song after song for about 20 minutes; very inspiring.

The OS of the s900 is very user-friendly. There is very little I need to reference the manual for. The use of a USB drive makes everything so simple. I can load songs, style, registrations, music finder, etc on the same stick and keep them in their separate folders � even have multiple folder for finer organizing. I�m excited to try recoding directly from the keyboard to USB. This could save me plenty of time for my church recordings for cantors. I think I�ll even be able to add vocals thru the keyboard. Only bummer there is the mic input is �� instead of XLR. I haven�t used the harmonizer yet, but would like to use it if possible.

Overall, I�m very impressed with the s900. I have some prep work to do before Friday, but nothing as daunting as working with the G70, for me. Don�t get me wrong, I loved the G70 and miss it very much, but at this stage in my life it was time to make some tough decisions and getting a good, lighter-weight arranger was essential. I think I can live happily with the s900 for quite some time � at least 6-9 months � lol. Really, I can�t see going back to a larger, heavier board. Maybe I should have kept the e60 when I had it, but no, the s900 looks to be a very capable board for me. I need to assemble some gig disk-type files; I�ve got plenty of those, and work on registrations; I�m a novice at that.