I have four GC stores near me and yesterday I went into one of them further from my home. Unbelieveably, they had a pretty good selection of arrangers, including a PA800, s900 and s700 stacked on one stand. I've never seen or played any of these (bought my s900 sight unseen). So I sat down to the 800 and played a couple tunes. First impression - keys are short and light - yuk! Next, the few styles I sampled sounded very good; liked the drums a lot. I would put the style composition somewhere between the Roland and Yamaha, maybe a bit more similar to Roland. I had a problem switching out of the EPiano so I never heard the Kord Grand, but I did play the s900 grand piano above it and my friend next to me said - WOW!

So, in the brief 15 minutes I spent with the PA800 I can't say that I didn't like it, but I sure am happy I saved the money and went with the s900... for now.

ps- I'm still having problems adjusting the s900 vocal harmony. It still sounds terrible to me. I'm either going to use my Harmony M or just go straight into the Compact with no harmonies (my voice is so beautiful, I don't need harmony - ahem, ahem,

15 minutes to test an arranger is very short time !!!
But at the end, is a matter of personal taste.
One reason that I don't like the S900 or the S910 is for the keys. I will say the same "keys are short and light - yuk!".
I like the keys in the Tyros line, but no in the PSR S line.

Remember, Cass, the wife ALWAYS sings lead at home, no matter what keyboard you play.

Taike

------------------
Bo pen nyang.

Cass heres a tip when using the s900 VH..

you have to keep the trim pod in the back at 12 O'clock...and the master vol at 9-10 o'clock.....then adjust your overall volume from your mixer channel & mains....secondly sing DIRECTLY INTO THE MIC square on. Any higher vol settings will garble the VH.

True, 15 minutes is not enough time to evaluate a keyboard like the PA800 properly, but that's all the time I had. Since I feel first impressions are important, the short time I had to play the PA800 certainly has not dissuaded me from considering it, but for the present I find comfort in knowing the s900 is a good choice for me both musically and financially. JMO.

Being a die-hard Yammie fan, whenever I had a chance in the past to play a Korg Pa, I hated it. Always thought it was difficult to navigate the menus and find the sounds I wanted. (they have no rhyme or reason in categorizing within the voice categories. You'll find a premium voice, followed by a GM voice next on the list, followed by another version of a premium voice)

Going from a Yamaha OS to Korg is like night and day. You really need to spend time - a good deal of time - with a Korg to learn to appreciate it's depth and versatility. Now that I own a Korg (because I spent hours playing a couple Pa's before buying one) I must say I really, really like what Korg does. However, I really, really like Yamaha too.

Fact is, IMO, Yamaha boards have a much easier learning curve - maybe because most of the line is geared toward home players.
Korg is an acquired taste, but worth the trouble learning (again, IMO). And Korg only produces a few arranger models. - geared toward pro use.

Now that I own both (Pa500 and S910) it's quite an interesting combination of OS's, styles, and voices.

Now all I need to do is add a Roland to the mix!

Tim