Is there anyone in this forum who had the chance to test these 2 top arrangers? Which one of these would be more suitable for those who gig at parties, cocktails, wedding cerymony, church congregation playing OMB?

Tyros owners will tell you Yamaha, Roland owners will tell you Roland...

I'm afraid you MIGHT have to check them out for yourself, and see which you prefer personally. Both will do the job you describe, and very well too!

The Roland is a lot heavier (that's the only objective opinion you are likely to get! )...

My take is that, if you ONLY play arranger style, the Yamaha might be the better choice (probably the best selection of styles to choose from), and if you play primarily SMF's, the Roland is probably the way to go. If you do BOTH, you'll probably have to figure out which side is most important... and STILL play both to hear them for yourself.

I am both a Roland and Yamaha Arranger dealer. The Roland E80 has not been a big seller here in my store. First, many people have a very negative opinion of Roland's direction in arranger keyboards throughout the USA right now. Roland made a decision last year to combine the pro and piano/arranger division. Many of the readers here have seen the main problem.........Roland can't find dealers that want to sell the high end arrangers for a number of reasons.
Of course Yamaha has dozens of arrangers in their line and so they are more dealers selling these keyboards. They have all price ranges covered and as many here have seen, even have support available from Yamaha US right here at the synthzone forum.
Steve Deming has been monitoring this site for years now.
As to which is better I would say that if you need more up to date features and some of the newest and most impressive sounds (articulation 2) you might be better served getting the Tyros3.
You get a hard drive and USB flash drive capability compared to the E80 only having an external compact flash card for storage. The Yamaha also has a built in audio hard disk record feature which allows you to record vocals and instruments along with midi files, styles or songs you've recorded in the Tyros3.
I won't get into the user interface on each because they are both very good.
Some will say the Roland piano beats the Yamaha and vice versa, but both are really good in the sounds.
I hope this helps,


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

Go for Korg

Another plus for the Roland's (an 'up-to-date' feature lacking on all these supposedly 'up-to-date' arrangers) is if you are the kind of person that likes to edit and personalize your styles and sequences (and how often do you hear a sequence that you go 'this is already PERFECT!'? ), the Roland's are, by a country mile, FAR easier to get into the style or sequence and edit it, including drum sounds within the kit, tuning, effects, etc..

Nothing even comes close to their lead in this aspect of usage. If you are content to play a less than perfect style you found, or a sequence that the sounds aren't quite right, or the drumkit plays poorly matched drums, you might not need this stuff...

Me, I can't imagine anyone NOT needing this stuff..!

George is right...go for the Tyros 3...newer sounds(especially SA2), plenty of terrific styles(with the distinct advantage of Yamaha's exclusive mega voice technology), excellent storage capability with built in Hard Drive, and audio recording with overdubbing.

Yamaha has, by far, the most extensive third party support system, and there is a vast amount of high quality styles and SMF available.

The E-80 is a very nice instrument, but it is more comparable to the Tyros 1 than the third generation Tyros 3.

If you are moving your equipment by yourself, the Tyros3 is also a lot lighter.

As was already mentioned....nothing beats trying these instruments out for yourself...it's a big expenditure for most of us, and one to be approached with caution and thoroughness.

BTW...I am a Yamaha aficionado...they are so good, I choose to work for the company...therefore, my comments are clearly biased towards the Tyros 3.

Good luck.

Ian



[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 11-21-2008).]

I fully understand that Roland users like the way Roland allows the user to make changes to style and song tracks including individual changing of drum sound parts on their keyboards, but I don't find the Yamaha way any more difficult. With Roland you press a button, move around to the parts, make your changes and press save. On Yamaha, you move around on the mixer panel, make all your changes and select the digital record style function, hit the 2nd tab button and push save and now you have a custom style or song. Both do the job really well.
I think it's which you get used to. I also find that most of my customers would not get into indidvidual drum map changes but rather select a different kit or just use the one associated with the style.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

Your users don't find themselves editing translated styles or adjusting a MIDI file to play it's best on the Tyros, then, are they George?

Heck, there are whole software only solutions out there for the fact that Yamaha's don't even have a standard GM drumkit, so fixing a handclap that comes out as a cowbell, or any of the other myriad things that can go wrong between different kit layouts (including velocity changes to account for different split velocities for drum sounds, etc.) that it is a wonder why anyone thinks you can easily play GM files on a Yamaha...

Truth is, I never found an SMF I couldn't improve... but I always USED to do it in a sequencer. I can do FAR more, far easier inside the Roland's than I could ever do with a sequencer (unless you start editing the notes themselves).

Your customers, George, are usually concentrating on only the ROM styles and soundset when they deal with you, but take an SMF at random off the web, put it in a Tyros3 and a Roland (it don't matter which one, they all have the same tools) and see which is fastest to make it sound good... IMO, the Roland can make it sound good fastest.

Fast, at least for me, means you are more likely to be willing to do it... hence more likely to sound polished, and slow makes you not willing to use the SMF (or translated style, they are about the same in ease) at all, for how much hoops altering it make you jump through...

I agree about the polished sound of the Yamaha's, and all that... but try the 'you've got two minutes to make a web SMF sound great.... GO!' test...

Anyone with hundreds of styles, or hundreds of SMF's to make sound their best would be well advised to at least CONSIDER this aspect as a main feature. Rather than the afterthought most make it.

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 11-22-2008).]

Hi.

As always, the best to judge what to choose for your needs, are yourself.
But, what I would give a tought, is what brand of those two are going to
update OS and continue bugfixing.
Also, if you're using styles not made by yourself, who will supply and are
there any 3rd party companies who carry on compose new ones?
What about dealers and service in your area, what brand do they sell &
support?

Happy Playing.
GJ

If you're gigging, get the Roland. It might be heavier, but that's not just because it has built in speakers - it's far better built. I bought a Tyros at launch and after using nothing but Roland since '88 its fragility terrified me. A Tyros might be fine parked in a corner of your living room, but life on the road needs a Roland. 'Nuff said.