Steve has always been very helpful, and fairly accessible as well.
Even he couldn't help with a glaring bug on the PSR2000, which they never corrected.
In the vocal harmony section, the Karaoke Girl setting was wrong. It worked correctly on all the predecessors, but on the 2000 it wouldn't take out the lead voice, and it took extensive workaround editing to get it even close tow orking right. Steve did come up with a workaround, but Yamaha refused to acknowledge that it wasn't right, even though it was right on everything before it everything after it. It just wasn't important enough to them to fix it. I believe at the time, even though the 2000 was advertised as having the OS in software, it actually required a hardware fix to upgrade the OS.
Just remembering that there were always glitches from every manufacturer.
DonM

Yamaha's do have very sscolid OS's, that's for sure. I think that in the 1500 performances that I did with the S900, I only had to turn the keyboard off and on three times.

If you recall, the S900 had some quality control issues, and dozens of them had to be exchanged. I had two screwed up ones. Of the two replacements, one needed a new screen after 20 months. This cost me $125. One of the a/c adapters needed repair which cost me $20.

I completely resonate with the frustrations people have with the vocalizer, which is sometimes serviceable. The S910 has a couple of new parameters on the vocalizer to adjust it to the singer's vocal range.

I wish the S900/910 had a dedicated TALK button. I do a little bit of humorous patter with my show, and it's annoying having to press two buttons to turn TALK on and off. Sometimes I forget to turn it off, and I play half the song with a lower volume and no reverb.

I think the drums have improved in the last ten years, but Yamaha is probably behind the others for a really live feel. The drums sound somewhat processed. I have never had a complaint at a live gig, but I have heard comments - not among arranger players - that the recordings that I have made of my own songs could benefit from a more live drum feel.

I am surprised that of the T3 expansion packs that Yamaha came out with, that none included a drum pack, even though it makes sense because I believe that in the T3's OS just like with the PSRs, you can't use a USER voice in a style.

I think the Yamaha's have a great layout with few glitches. I have never thought that I had the perfect keyboard. But I do think I have a fantastic keyboard.

One thing that I think Yamaha should do is make it so that if a voice/style/multipad file is missing from a registration, instead of loading the registration without it, instead, like Windows, the keyboard should give a message that it can't find that file and to ask if you want to locate it or cancel. Just think, if I want to change the name of a folder that my styles are in, none of my registrations will find that style.

Another great thing about the PSR line is how light the keyboard is.

Whenever the seniors I perform for ask how much the keyboard cost, I tell them the retail value - $1700 or $1750, and these folks who lived through times when a candybar cost 3 cents, are shocked that a board that sounds like a symphony orchestra can be so cheap. I have to agree.

Beakybird

Great post Larry & so true!