I noticed in the data list that some of my favorite T3 styles were not included on the 910 - namely Ethereal Movie, Movie Soundtrack, Blockbuster, Romantic Ballet, Green Fantasia, Classical Menuet, and Classical Serenade. These are all superb.

The good news is that the 910 can play the T3 styles, so I should be able to get these eventually and load them up...that is after I get my 910!

Interesting. Have you noticed whether the new guitar NTT's improve older, T2 and S900 styles, or are they compatible at all? I always worry, when an entire file format gets changed, about legacy 'favorite' styles and older ones I haven't even played, yet.

I guess how you respond to newer 'guitar modes' depends a LOT on whether you can actually recognize when the arranger is playing guitar parts 'wrong' in the first place... For me, Ketron's idea of ADDING a MIDI note to a basic chord for an extension (say the A to a C chord for a C6) sends a crawl down my spine, as all of a sudden you get a seven string guitar part where you used to have a six string!

I've said for a long time that the BEHAVIOR of arranger parts goes a LOT more towards realism than the accuracy of the sound. An average guitar voice playing EXACTLY what a guitarist would play fools the listener more than an accurate guitar voice playing something no guitar player would ever play, IMO...

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 09-16-2009).]

I'm hoping the S-910 will be able to faithfully reproduce some of the third-party styles I depend upon for a relatively large number of songs. Hopefully, it will read the .sty and other types of style files. With luck, I'll get my grubby hands on one in the next several weeks when they show up at the local GC.

Cheers,

Gary

I look forward to the reviews...

I have been considering a Yamaha for my home studio (always looking for something that does great guitars), and might even be tempted to use it for cocktail gigs. The SA2 voices and the new guitar mode might finally persuade me to get one.

Gary and Tim,

I'm pretty sure the S910 will be compatible with the older styles, and I believe there shouldn't be any issue with styles like Ethereal Ballad, etc...although you may need to re-voice, if the T3's style contains sounds that aren't on the S910.

The biggest change was the Guitar Mode, which made the T3's styles impossible to even load into the earlier models, unless they were convertied them using Jorgen's converter....I imagine the S910's styles will be unload-able in the T2/S900/PSR-3000 unless they are converted.

Third party styles, and styles from your older arrangers should give no trouble in the S910 or the Tyros3....styles are generally upwardly compatible.



[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 09-16-2009).]

Actually Diki, I have a list of the voices on the S910, and there are no SA2 voices.

There are new SA (first generation) sounds...not an vast amount, but the ones added are very useful...if the Rock Rotary, and Jazz Rotary are the same as those on the Tyros2/3, then I'll be very pleased.

There are more Mega Voices too, and more Cool! and Live! voices as well.

I'm really glad the S910 panel layout is the same as the S900...I really prefer having the registration buttons in the middle.

OK... Just out of curiosity, what does SA add to an organ voice? Is it how they deal with the 2nd/3rd Percussion?

The SA Organs are beefier than the preset organs, and the ones made with the drawbars.

The SA Jazz Rotary, for example, has the distinctive Hammond chorus vibrato nailed, as well as having a richer tone (and 2nd harmonic perc)....mod wheel changes Leslie speeds.

SA Rock Rotary is warm, rich, and overdriven, sounds like 888754200 setting...just the perfect amount of grit...mod wheel changes speeds.

The preset and drawbar organs on the S-series are beautifully clean and have a decent rotary speaker effect (and you can add harmonic perc to the drawbar organs), but the SA Organs are less polite and prissy...they are my "go to" organ sounds on the T2 and T3.

Previous Yamaha organ sounds were more reminiscent of the Electone organs (probably not an accident ), although some managed to get close to a B-3.

You already have great organ sounds (and a fine rotary sim) in the G-70, so these may not matter to you, but having these Tyros2/3 sounds on the less expensive and more portable S-910 is a real treat.

I rarely adjust drawbars when playing, so the fact that the SA Organs are preset doesn't matter to me...but, they are sure inspirational.

Ian



[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 09-16-2009).]

It's just that, I was always under the impression that SA voices meant 'Super Articulation', and just wondered WHAT got 'articulated'.

Sounds rather like simply a better sampled regular voice, from your description, Ian... I hope Yamaha aren't using SA to describe voices that are better suited to the 'Live!' or 'Cool!' categories to pump up their stats.

BTW, quick rant... What's with all this Live! Cool! and Sweet! BS? Wouldn't a more accurate description (say 'stereo' or Vel-Xed) be more informative?

Marketing jargon...plain and simple....all companies use it...consider some of the patch names on your G-70.

The area that the Tyros1 lacked was authentic Hammond organ sounds...they were good, and some were very close, but they didn't fool anyone.

Roland has always done a better job, and I was actually looking at a VK-8, an XK-1, or a Nord C1 for those kind of sounds, but I didn't use them often enough to warrant buying another instrument...and these guys weren't cheap.

The Tyros2/3 came to the rescue, and with the improved Hammond style voices, there was no need for another keyboard...but, I like the MOTL S-series better for gigging...I can have two (one for backup) for the price of one Tyros2 or 3...so, if these new SA organ voices are the "real deal" (I hesitate to use that phrase around here ), I will end up with two PSR-S910 for the new year.