I'm thinking about PSR9000 and currently have Roland EM2000, which is extremely good instrument, but I would simply like to have more fun.

1. On EM2000 all my settings (including the style name which is saved on ZIP disk), are saved in performance memories. Retreiving such memory and loading of corespondent style from the disk is instant with the press of a button without any waiting.
2. Memory of the keyboard is not important because thousands of styles are saved on disk with instant loading.
3. You can move from performance to performance with simply pressing the Previous/Next performance button in the middle of play, so for one song I can use more performances.

Will I have the same or similar functionality on Yamaha? When testing PRS9000 in the shop I was confused about the organizaton and finding of the right performance memory.

Best regards,
Marko

Marko...I can give some input to your question because apart from owning an EM2000 myself I am fortunate to have local friends with PSR9000, KN6000, PR902 & VA7 which I play each week. With your EM as you state the zip is like having a small hard drive and is immediate at retrieving up to 1000 plus styles it can hold. Firstly the PSR9000 is easy to use,has some nice XG Voices but you will be disappointed with the styles against the Roland ones you are familiar with. You can download converted styles Roland to Yamaha to help overcome this. The Style Flash ROM can hold a limited number of styles with the possibility of loading styles Direct from HDD floppy.The PSR 9000 new OS version 3 has just been released which adds a third keyboard split to the right hand which is a facility Roland have had for a number of years. The Yamaha sequencer is Floppy Disk based and will only read from disk, so does not have a sequencer as such to load Midi file into like most top end arrangers. I suggest you think about keeping your EM2000 (which you like) and if you wish to go in the Yamaha direction adding the new Yamaha PSR2000 to it which very good value and even has a few things not on the 9000.
This way you will not lose what you already like. or If you wish to part with the EM and like what Roland produce you would be better going for a VA7 or VA76. No answers here just inputs for you to think about because we all hear things differently and also have different preferences.
The PSR9000 does have a large Performance reigistration bank to which you can save your settings and then save to disk.

Best wishes Graham UK

[This message has been edited by Graham UK (edited 10-24-2001).]

Thanks for the input. As I said I love EM, but maybe would like to expand the possibilies. What I like on PSR9000 are the Break Fills for each style, simple style editing features and vocalizer. But I'm little sceptical about the performance bank management as I stated in my first mail.

I wish all the best to everybody!
Marko

I don't think the other guy who posted knows much about the psr9000...because I can record songs to my 8 gig hard drive and don't have to have any floppy in drive to do it!!!! Maybe he is talking about lower psr models, but you were asking about psr9000 I thought.
Yes I can pick any performance and not change style. In addition if I am using any of the 500 registrations, I can hit the freeze button and set it up so it only changes what I want... for example... change only performances and not style or mic settings, or tempo,ect... I have complete command over what I want to change or keep the same. The performances can be changed at will without effecting the style... by performances you mean part select and voice selection right?
I have the psr9000 and at first I too thought the styles were simple but there are 16 beat styles on it too, but default is simple one when you turn it on ... but as others say you can go to psr sytles yahoo board and download thousands of free ones converted to 9000.
The thing that I love about the 9000 is the PADS!!! 60 banks of them that can play solo's or back up stuff, drum stuff, guitar riffs, paino stuff,ect... and it is chord sensitive. I downloaded PADS that others have made and WOW!!! I push a PAD and Harmonica solo, another and SAX backup... in addition to all the breaks ect... so it breaks up the song in so many ways.
126 poly compared to 64 poly of other instruments.
The registrations are cool too... you can NAME them and it sets up Song,and all other settings with one button.
Sampler is fun too and with added 65 meg for 12 minutes of sampling, download any WAV file and add to song or make your own. In fact when I played with guitar player and singer I sampled her whole song and played it backed and others couldn't tell if she was singing the song again, because it sounded exactly the same.
Video out to TV set allows others to see the chords you are playing, so they can play with you....or display lyrics, or psr9000 displays chords of any midi song.
Vocializer is alot of fun, 7 pages of all different types... women,mickey mouse,country types,ect...
Also the DATA base is cool with 600 songs you can arrange by Type or tempo.
I played the psr9000 in store and at first I didn't like it ... because it had so many buttons ect... I think a prs9000 owner can advise you better than someone who plays it a few minutes or an hour or so. I kept returning to the store because the psr9000 haunted me ... and the more I played it, the more I liked it. And it continues to grow on me the more I play it, with all it's possiblities, unlike other keyboards I played and owned in the past.
Mars had clearance sale so I picked up the floor model for 1600. Good luck in your choice.



[This message has been edited by rgtaa (edited 10-26-2001).]

It sounds good. But I'm still not sure about the flexibility. By performance I mean the whole setting of the keyboard for playing particular song (style, part select, voices, effects, pads etc.) Can I choose NEXT memory with one press of a button or do I have to memorize the number of the memory to choose it?
Regards,
Marko

rgtaa. The standard PSR9000 does not come with an Hard Drive, but is an option. As standard the Sequencer is Floppy Disk based only as I stated.

Graham UK

[This message has been edited by Graham UK (edited 10-26-2001).]

Yes! It's called REGISTRATIONS on the psr9000! 500 of them!!!! One button calls up everything! I mean everything! Styles,mic settings,4 performance settings,ect!!!!
And with new os it will even save styles that are on your hard drive with the registration setting and you can name each registration like "01:Shades of Pale"or "02:Blues fast",ect... and see all 500 of them 8 at a time or by Bank name... Rock, 50's,...then open it up and see each 8 song set!

There is a RED Record Button for Registrations that you can push and then pick any place you want to put new registration to or do ONE TOUCH SETTING... simple and easy...since you see EVERYTHING...place in BANK you want,ect!

In addition to 180 flash styles you can load up when you turn on the psr9000... you have I think 270 Direct disk styles that you can get from hard drive or floppy disk... that load in less then a second.

Also, 5 banks of 250 midi songs in each bank (1250 mids)that load up when you start the psr9000... that load up from hard drive (with lyrics if you want). And all named in groups of 10 each page! One button starts the midi and plays instantly!

With the PADS I was talking about ...each Bank hold 4 pads... and when you do instant record, it can play the pads at same time if you want in addition to styles and right hand stuff.
For example, guitar riffs repeating chord senitive on 1st pad, harmonica solo on 2nd pad, paino chords on 3rd pad, drums on 4th pad, this is just an example of course, in addition to the regular styles you are playing... and you can record your own solos and assign it to PAD and it will change with your chord changes so it sounds GOOD and different!
Can you see the possibilities!
P.S. If you have any questions about the psr9000 download the manual from here!:
http://www.yamahapkclub.com/english/download/top_dwn.htm


Hi Graham!
You wrote: "The Yamaha sequencer is Floppy Disk based and will only read from disk, so does not have a sequencer as such to load Midi file into like most top end arrangers."

I don't understand what he is saying? PSR9000 holds 38,000 notes on unit and when you save the song, you can save to floppy or SCSI (external zip,Jazz, or hard-drive) or internal Hard Drive(optional) ... the PSR9000 is TOP of line arranger... He has me baffled?

I can't see getting the psr9000 if you are not gonna put a hard drive in it! It's cheap and easy to install as is the 64meg Sim's for Sampling! 50-150 dollars for hard drive. 70 bucks for the 2 32sims. GEE, if someone is gonna spend anywhere from 1600-3000 dollars for the unit... they have the money to put a 2Gig or 8GIG HARD DRIVE in! I hardly ever use the floppy disk, just like on my PC!




[This message has been edited by rgtaa (edited 10-26-2001).]

rgtaa...The PSR9000 whether it has an hard drive or not does not contain a separate 16 channel sequence to which you can load a song \ Midi file into as do other top end arrangers from Roland, Technics, Ketron, Korg... Just forget your Hard Drive for the minute for this test to prove my point.
Now load a Midi file or anything your have recorded on the 9000 from floppy to sequencer. Now take out your floppy and no longer can you make any changes to the sequencer because being disk based it is wanting to automatically save to disk the changes you have just made. Without a disk Floppy or Hard Disk you have no sequencer.

I have complained to Yamaha about this and they agree with my statement. Interestingly the all new PSR2000 now contains a separate dedicated sequence which the PSR9000 does not have.

This is my last message a this subject.

Graham UK

Hi Graham!
You WROTE: "because being disk (or HARD DRIVE) based it is wanting to automatically save to disk (or HARD DRIVE)the changes you have just made. Without a disk Floppy or Hard Disk you have no sequencer."

My PC Computer without a Hard drive is not much use to me... same as with the psr9000! Everything is saved to Hard drive and I consider it part of the instrument just like it is for my COMPUTER! Cubase,cakewalk all save to hard drive what I produce... same as psr9000! Once any of these machines are turned off without saving ...it's GONE!!!! Everyone is always tells us to save,save,save, or it could be gone! I can't tell you how many times I lost songs on my roland and korg gear because it locked up and I didn't save! So what you see as a BAD THING, I SEE as a GOOD thing!!!!

From what I understand the psr2000 has no HARD DRIVE (8gig) option! only 560k of storage ...so it saves to that area (probably automactically).


[This message has been edited by rgtaa (edited 10-28-2001).]