I had planned to buy a PSR-S900 but having read plenty of reviews and listened to numerous demos, I'm not sure if it is the machine for me. As well as jamming along with various styles, I am also looking to compose electronic music. From what I've read and heard, Korg have the edge in synth voices and also make better midi controllers if I want to add to my set up in the future.

Ideally I would like a PA-800. Unfortunately, this is about £500 ($1000) dollars more than I really wanted to spend. The PA-500 is about the same price as the PSR-S900. From what I can gather, these are the main differences between the PA-500 and PA-800.

The PA-500 has:

- Less polyphony (How big of difference will this make?)
- 70 less sounds (I'm assuming that the sounds it does have are created with the same technology)
- 80 less styles
- 64 less performances (to be honest, I'm not really sure what these are!?)
- No voice processor or vocoder effects (this is not really important to me as I don't sing)
- No built in sampling

Are there any other differences that I really should know about before making my decision? Do you think that, as a beginner, the PA-500 would meet my needs and then I could add to it, if necessary, in the future?

Thanks

wait a little while. there will be numerous 2nd hand PA800's coming onto the market as people move up to the PA2X. Be patient for just a couple of momnths

Thanks but would prefer to buy new with guarantees, etc.

* Will you miss the variety of extra sounds, or do tou tend to use the same "bread and butter" sounds ( like I do )

* Styles - this area is more specific to your playing style. I like variety, but I can get by with mimimal styles because I use so much live manual bass and chord accmt, so even a rhythm pattern used many times per night will sound fresh because of the backing.

* performances are collections of data, like registrations in the Yamaha world. Mayne people play arrangers without ever using any performances, and some rely on 1 for each specific song style. Performances memorize styles, tempos, sounds etc.

* Voice processor makes it easy to REsell, if you tend to buy and sell alot.

* I have never used a sampler. I let the factory do the hard work.

Ooops - forgot to mention polyphony:

HUGE issuse for players that use the hold pedal alot or layer sounds together. If you play arranger chords and simple melodies, then the PA500 will be fine.

Cheers Uncle Dave. Polyphony may be an issue as I do like to layer voices. I'll also need to check exactly which voices are missing from the PA500. However, I have found the PA500 for £650 ($1300) less than the PA800 which is a big draw and would allow me some cash to purchase external sound modules in the future.

Following some further research, I've noticed that many of the missing sounds are the RX ones. Are these worth the extra pounds?

[This message has been edited by Dionysus (edited 03-29-2008).]

Get the triton TR (get the sampling board and max the RAM).

That'll beat both 500 and 900, and still cheaper.

you'll have aftertouch,on board knobs,APGTR,tons of sounds and 3 rd party support and so on.


or put a little money and get the Triton Extreme.Still around $1600 , pay 100 for full Sample RAM, and you'll have the best in the market for Electronica(yes better than Motif ES and Fantom X -IMO).



[This message has been edited by jamman (edited 03-29-2008).]

Hi,
I think the RX sounds are the better quality ones.

Also be worth checking if the PA500 has Guitar Mode. The styles to ears that use
"Guitar mode" tracks , sound better.

I use the sampler in my PA800 for "Grooves".
( audio drum loops). Can also be used for loading sampled sounds.

Try & do a live comparison. Only you can tell if spending the extra is worth it for you. I haven't seen a PA500 to do a comparison.

best wishes
Rikki

jamman
Triton TR?
That's not an arranger keyboard...
Why would he want that if he wants to use styles etc?

Lee