Yamaha emailed me all the new price lists with new and old gear with an effective date of 3/1/2009.
First, you need to know that prices on most current models will be going up! I was told that Yamaha Japan felt the need to go up before the end of the year but have postponed this until March, 2009.

the PSRS900 will be going up to $2299 retail and the MAP will be $1699.

The Tyros3's retail will be $5499.00 with a map of $3999.99

The PSRS700 retail will be going to $1399. but the MAP will remain the same at $999.99.

The YPG635 will be going up to $1299 Retail and the map will go up to $899.

There are two new models in the lower end.
The PSRE223 and the PSRE323. These will replace the current 213 and 313 models and the prices will remain the same as these older models.

In the Motif and MO series, only the prices are going up a bit but no new models are being introduced.

The Yamaha Stagepas series are all going up a few dollars but the Stagepas 150M keyboard amp is coming down $50 in MAP to $399.

The good news is that these price increases will not be in effect until March 1. So, if you are thinking of one of these products, you might want to buy before the price increases.

the

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

Out of all those listed it's wrong that the MO series is going up considering the sound set is from the dated Motif ES..., and there's better options out there now. Yamaha should keep those prices on the MO's exactly where they are so they can keep buyers for this aging line.

The MO6's challengers are the Korg M50 and Roland Juno-G.... The Juno sells for the same price, but does more. The M50 is just about $100 more, but it too has bit of a lead on the MO line.

Sounds like a classic "sales booster" run. Let the public know you're going to jack your prices.., so get your orders in now before it's too late. I wouldn't be surprised if Korg or Roland dropped theirs a few bucks just to give Yammie the middle finger on this one.

George... Are the MotifXS and MO series prices going up at the same percentage that arranger prices are, or are we arranger users getting soaked again, as always?

Get your umbrella Diki

Nah, Yamaha will still sell them. They know their market. There's no rain where there are no clouds.

Actually, the Motifs are up a lot more than the arrangers.
Motif XS8 old map $3199. New Map is $3599
Motif XS7 old map $2799. New Map is $3199
Motif XS6 old map $2199. New Map is $2399
I think the reason for such a big increase is the fact that these models are made in Japan. Most of the Arrangers are made in Indonesia or China and didn't go up as much in MAP prices. The retail on arrangers went up more than the map prices. Most MAPs only went up $100 from last years prices or didn't change at all.
The MO8 price didn't change but the MO6 is up from Map $999 to new Map of $1099.
The MM8 and MM6 did not change at all.


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

I wonder if the the Korg M3's going up. They just had a big price drop not too long ago.., and Yamaha pushing their prices up $200 on the XS6 just might help Korg sell a few more M3's.

So the arranger MAP's didn't go up so much because we were ALREADY getting soaked at the time?

Sorry, couldn't help that one!

I don't about you folks, but from my perspective arrangers are the best buy in town these days--even with a price increase. It wasn't too many years ago when you purchased a top end arranger with 35 styles, a couple dozen voices, limited floppy access, and the price tag was about $2,400. You couldn't do much more than play them unless you had some archaic, complicated software, a maze or midi connections, and the results were marginal at best. Today, the same amount of money will buy one hell of an arranger keyboard, loaded with styles, onboard recording software, incredible storage space, outstanding sounds and in some instances, a hard disk drive. A decade ago, when I purchased my PSR-5700, a package like that would have sold for $10,000 if you were lucky enough to find it.

Thanks for the information George,

Gary

IM wondering if cost went up accordingly or did they give dealers "breathing room". I find out tomorrow, I saw the MAP prices but did not see the nets,

Gary, I think that arrangers are a bargain compared to legacy arrangers, but when you compare them to the WS's produced by the SAME manufacturer, despite FAR better capabilities (multitrack audio recorders, samplers, cool arpeggiators, extensive editing capabilities, chord recognition, lot's of knobs, pads and other physical controllers like Kaos Pads, pitch strips, drum pads, etc.) and construction values at a professional level, you can get a TOTL 88 WS for $500 less than a TOTL 61 arranger.

That's getting soaked, whichever way you look at it...

And a TOTL 61 WS for $1600 LESS than the 61 arranger

That's some SERIOUS jack, IMO...

Yep, I'm inclined to agree with you there, Gary.

Nothing, in my opinion, is so immediately gratifying as an arranger in being able to create music.

I'm comfortably lazy, and being able to do a whole evening of music by just picking a style and playing left hand chords and Right hand melody is one of my most favorite (and lucrative) pastimes.

If being able to create music so easily costs a bit more than a workstation, I'm not going to complain one tiny bit.

No wonder workstations are cheaper...you actually have to "work" to make a song, so you should be at least compensated for your efforts.

I've made oodles of money with Yamaha PSR arranger keyboards and had a wonderful time doing so...it wasn't work at all, except perhaps for moving the equipment, and having a light and powerful arranger like the PSR made even that task a very easy one.

I've never considered playing music "work"...I guess that's why it's called "playing" ...it has been a passionate interest and hobby that became a great source of income and the ticket to an interesting social life.

Ian

It all depends on the music you are trying to make, Ian. We both know how easy it is to make legacy musics on arrangers. It's what the content is designed for...

But try to make something remotely contemporary, and suddenly you find it is the WS that makes making this much easier. No offense, but studio pros are NOT stupid. They use whatever does the job the best. You don't see pro studios with arrangers in them. But they ALL got WS's. OTOH, they don't spend a lot of time making bossas, rhumbas and cocktail jazz music They make the stuff you hear on the radio tomorrow.

Try using an arranger to play any song off the charts from last year... That's a pretty tall order (if you want to get 'close enough'). But a WS? No problem!

No... we both know the reason we get soaked on arranger prices is basically economics. WS's outsell arrangers what? 100 to 1? 500 to 1? You might know these figures. Economy of scale, on the one hand. And then the demographic... You sell arrangers to generally an older, wealthier customer (or cheap ones to his kids and grandkids!)/ And you charge what the market can bear (manufacturers and dealers are not charities! They are in it for the profit ).

On the whole, we arranger users will STILL buy these things, even when we KNOW we are being charged a LOT more than the kids and their WS's. They won't

You are not paying for ease of use. You are paying for the fact that few get sold, comparatively

I understand Diki...actually my comment "No wonder workstations are cheaper...you actually have to "work" to make a song, so you should be at least compensated for your efforts" was extremely tongue-in-cheek.

I find arrangers are perfect for studio work when I want a quick demo, or to lay down a rough accompaniment to a song.

You probably use them the same way.

A friend of mine and I do work for a song writer who does "filler tunes" for Nashville artists...we mostly use "country" styles that I have modified/assembled and mainly keep them pretty simple, as these tunes, when submitted, have to be uncluttered enough to showcase the meat of the tune.

If we were using a workstation, it would would take longer, and the results would be no better....the mega voices in the S900 save a lot of time and all I need is the basic chord progression to lay down a quick track of bass, drums and some simple chord strumming parts...my friend is an awesome guitarist and adds some simple but effective candy and I might add a string or organ pad, but the arranger lets us work quickly and painlessly.

Having the registration memory is wicked for doing time signature changes, and even transpositions...plus, I know the instrument very well.

We can do quite a few tunes in an afternoon, and the guy we work with is a prolific writer, so it lets us keep the cost of studio time to a minimum and production and profit to a maximum.

It just happens to be the perfect tool for the job...and, the lazy part of me just loves it.

Ian

[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 01-10-2009).]

I'm completely with you on that, Ian... Only problem starts when I get clients that do music less 'boilerplate' than country or legacy rock styles. Then it's a bloody nightmare, watching them roll their eyes when I try different arranger styles on the tune!

That's when I reach for the Triton, and the StylusRMX loops, and the BFD.

The day they make an arranger that sounds like THOSE will be the day the arranger industry revives