The keyboard arrived Monday evening, and I didn't take it out of the box until yesterday afternoon when I got home from work.

I purchased the keyboard from a friend who knew took care of it and it would be in pristine condition - which was absolutely the case. The display cover sheet had never been removed, there was not a single scratch or spec of dust and it was packed in the original box and sealed when it arrived via UPS. As for UPS, they'll never see another package from me. The box looked as if it had been dragged behind the delivery truck, had a couple holes punched in it, was mashed in on one side and dirty. When it was shipped to me from Alabama the box was like new. No wonder Fedex is top of the independent delivery list for most corporations.

OK, now that I've had a few hours to experiment with the S950, I can honestly say it has some really neat features, the guitars, for the most part, are pretty fantastic, the piano sucks - but I expected that, the drums are hot, the growl sax sucks, but some of the others more than make up for this. Some of the strings are just awesome, especially when layered with other string voices.

I haven't had time to plug a mic into the keyboard yet, but that will come later this afternoon when I get back home from today's job.

From the exploration I've done thus far I've discovered some great styles have been added, but right out of the box, the S-950 didn't sound nearly as good as the PSR-3000. When it comes to out of the box, the 3000 is still above and beyond anything Yamaha has produced, IMO, including the T4. And, that includes both styles and voices.

I was able to transfer my 3000's Music Finder Directly directly to the S-950 without a glitch. Of course, some of the new styles don't match up with the songs, so there were be a week or more of editing the 700 plus songs I have in my current MFD. Not a big deal though.

I'm still working with the EQs, and tonight, I'll connect the keyboard to the Bose L1 Compact and work with them some more. For me, the EQs are critical, both for the keyboard and the vocals - I need to sound better than Don Mason, DNJ and Diki when I'm singing and playing - and that's not an easy task.

The display is easy to read, but the tabs at the top of multiple page screens can be difficult to see if you're not sitting on a stool or standing. Sitting in a low chair I have to bend over the display to see what the tab says. The main screen is bright, crisp and has a very high resolution - far better than any other arranger keyboard display I've seen lately.

The key-feel is about the same, or maybe a bit firmer than the 3000, but this has never been an issue for me. I love those soft keys, especially when performing jobs that take more than a couple hours.

The button layout is a bit different than the 3000, but I anticipated that and it only took a few minutes to find most everything I needed. As for the button color, all of the ones that are used the most are white and easy to read. The others are light gray and all of the information needed is written in white above the buttons, so again, there's not a problem.

I have not taken the keyboard outdoors to look at the display in high light conditions, but I suspect it will be the same as most displays - unreadable unless in deep shade. And the button lights are still those darned, dim, LED lights that cannot be seen outdoors at all. Of course, if they were super bright LEDs indoor entertainers would be bitching that they were too bright, so I guess that's a no win situation unless the manufacturers were to put a dimmer control on the lights.

The onboard sound system is awesome - maybe too bassey if anything, but when I'm performing the onboard sound system is disabled because I want to hear what the audience hears so it's not a problem. However, I'm confident that the onboard amp is powerful enough to play living room parties and small NH jobs without any need to haul in another amp - it's that good.

One of the things I noticed right away was the right hand voices are an octave higher than on the 3000 and other Yamaha PSR models. Don't know what they did that, but it's easily overcome with the touch of a button. Also, the balance between the right hand voices and the accompaniment is definitely not anywhere near 50/50 in terms of volume. Again, this is easily overcome using the electronic slider and lowering the style volume a bit.

Overall, the keyboard sounds pretty darned good. But, I'm not sure it sounds better than the PSR-3000, at least not at this stage of the game. I'll know more in the next few weeks. If by that time I don't like it as much as the 3000, then it will go up for sale and still be in pristine condition, but with a lot of neat stuff loaded onboard.

More to come,

Gary

Gary ... may you make many hours of beautiful music with it ...

I'm still very happy with mine.

Joe

Gary great choice with the S950 I love mine!! ...if you need help give me a call.....but I know your gonna sound AWESOME with it on stage for sure!!!!

Congrats and Good Luck!!

Good luck Gary I hope the s950 works out for you!

The 3000 keyboard has been and probably will be your choice! It is just like an old pair of house shoes and they are great because they feel just right! I am sure this new 950 will be o k in the touch of the master, which you are! best of luck as you really get into this board, you make good music with anything you use!

When you say the growl sax and pianos sucked, do you mean compared to your older Yamaha, or just in general?

Thanks for the honest appraisal, Gary. I have a 910 and compared to the PSR-2000, it is an improvement. I agree with your assessment of the guitars. Much better. Many of the styles on the 910 are only revamped versions of original styles from way back when but they do have a few new ones. In general, I'm very satisfied and especially appreciate the many rubberized buttons that must be pressed during a recording session. That certainly helps eliminate some of the unplanned sounds I would create with my clumsy fingers on the 2000.

Best of luck with the 950 and I hope you bring Mason to his knees with your superb singing style. He is a tough act to follow, isn't he?

All the best,

Dave Rice

Congratualtions, Gary...give yourself some time to get very familiar with it...and, I agree, the PSR-3000 is a tough act to follow.

Personally, I preferred the PSR-S910 as the S-950 only still has SA voices (like the former), the SA2 being exclusive to the Tyros line, but that's a personal and subjective choice.

I'm not sure if the S-950 has the SA Rock Sax, but I found it more useful than the Sweet!Growl Sax (although I do also like the ones on the Tyros4/S910) as you can add grit using the Mod wheel. Also, when I did use Sweet!Growl Sax, I had it set to monophonic mode.

I usually take at least a few days (or weeks, if possible) to get the arranger balanced and EQ'd for my style of playing, and since I started using an expression pedal (RH volume) for all my playing, it has made life much easier.

I'll be interested in how the instrument feels/sounds once you have had some time to set it up.

On another note (pun intended) I find the "Live!Grand Piano" superior to all the SA Grands, but again, it's a personal and subjective choice. I'm able to get just the right tone and punch using the Filter and Brightness controls in the Mixer.

Have fun!

Ian

Thanks guys. I figure it will be a month or so before this thing hits the road with the old man, but I will post some songs using this keyboard and it's vocal processor.

Diki, the growl sax, IMO, is not nearly as good as the one on the 3000, and I loaded my own, custom piano voice in the keyboard and mine actually sounds better than it does on the 3000. Hard to explain, but I'll post some demos when I get back from my next sailing trip and let you decide which sounds best.

Gary

The old Growl Sax is still there. It's in Legacy Folder.
DonM

Thanks Don.

Gary

Gary,
I'm sure you're just very used to the piano sound of the 3k - I believe the new sounds are much improved over the 3k. Give it time ... you need to UNlearn what you know as truth.
Listen to Yoda.

Gary and crew, I've pretty much hacked my way from the 1100 all the way to s910 and I must say the s910 has been the best of the lot for me. Now, I too will be moving on to the 950 and appreciate everything you have to say about it. So please give us a few more updates. I'm hoping the s950 is a worthy step up; not all updates have been improvements.

The S950 is miles ahead of the Psr 3k in so many ways sonicly,....style & sound wise,
but it needs to be tamed in so many ways also...all editing must be done through your "Performance PA" at full performance volume also, or you will be in big trouble on stage with this unit, but still a good bang for the buck..after you get it right it will serve you VERY well! ....good luck.

PS,.. the VH2 is still NOT up to par IMHO vs helicon or digitech units, the audio styles are pretty much useless an need lots of work if ever to be playable on stage.. ....but, the Mic processor does a good job with vocals, speakers are a big improvement also,. Love the black color...

Here's some of the voices I created for the PSR-3000 that I just loaded into the S950. If you have an S-950 you will hear a huge difference in the overall sound quality and fullness of the piano voices V/S those that are onboard in the 950.

Grand Piano1

Grand Piano2

Grand Piano3

Grand Piano SD2

Solid Chord guitar - (lots of effects)

Nylon Guitar

Sweet Tenor Sax

Give them a try and let me know what you think.

Gary

I totally disagree - I use the audio styles every night and I love the smoothness they have. The cymbals, especially sound great.
I use the 1st two swing patterns and the bossa all the time.

I agree, Dave. They really sound great to me. I love the Bossa style and that swing style is just awesome.

Gary

Hey Gar ... My PA900 will be here on Saturday, so I just "might" have your new 950 backup unit available! Maybe we can make a trade of one of your 3000's for my school kids?

Let me know when it comes in...maybe I can check it out...I will know in 10 seconds if it makes my interest list..

If it is a repackaged PA800..I would not be interested at all...

Hi Gary. I too use the audio styles, especially the bossa and 2 jazz styles. It's still an amazing kb for me. I just got back from a week in Sedona, AZ and playing a job today was just magic. I was doing a luau and I swear the Hawaiian band on the board was Don Ho's hack up band. It put me right there. I love playing arrangers. On Sunday I have a church gig on a 9 foot concert Yamaha grand that actually has ivory keys. What a pleasure to play this piano. Life is not only good, it is awesome!

Joe

I'm fully expecting a similar repackaging, just as Yamaha did with T-4 to s-950. I think this is a baby PA3x.
I'll be home all day Saturday and FedEx is usually here before 2.

Gary ... are those sounds only playable on a yammie?

To me the so called "Audio styles" sound very "DISJOINTED" sonically as if the style & the RH sounds are coming from TWO Totally different sources.....very weird to my ear......

So... how long has the S950 been out now? How many NEW Audio styles have been programmed for it and made available to load up in the RAM?

These kinds of ideas are all well and good, but if Yamaha don't keep a pretty steady supply of new ones coming, in a VERY wide selection of styles, what use is the feature? Reading these last few posts, of the 25 few audio styles available in the first place, we are using what, two or three of them? That's about right. Probably we use about the same percentage of ROM MIDI styles as we do of audio ones (say about 10%, if that). Thing is, we get SO many MIDI styles, the ones we use are still a decent number, with a good variety.

But the audio ones..?

One of the problems is, I doubt Yamaha have opened up the ability for 3rd party style makers to use the feature and create good audio drum styles themselves. Yamaha have created a proprietary bottleneck for this feature. Having done that, it is their responsibility to feed the beast! Doesn't look like this is happening.

I still believe that Yamaha, instead of pursuing this boondoggle, should have merely concentrated on putting in enough well recorded, punchy, live-SOUNDING drum kits, and this whole silly idea wouldn't have needed all the R&D time being wasted on it. You would STILL have great live drums to play along with, but anybody and their uncle could make styles using them, and you could have converted your older styles over to using them.

That seems a LOT more practical, TBH...

... what's a "boondoggle?"

from Merriam _ Webster on-line:
: a wasteful or impractical project or activity often involving graft
— boondoggle intransitive verb
— boon·dog·gler noun

You see that term usually applied to government cock-ups of one kind or another.

True, what Diki says. A hybrid beast of a Yamaha with Korg drums would be a pleaser for many.

...what's a "cock-up?"

British colloquialism for U.S. term 'foul-up', FUBAR, (whatever that is), etc.

I used to know

Uncle dave

Love your sense of humor....it put a smile on my face

Ron

Some of us have to wait until Tuesday for the Pa900 to travel south!

Please post a report, Dave, as soon as you get a moment.

Aw ... mine should be here before lunch tomorrow!(actually TODAY- it's after midnight in Philly!)

diobaith

???

Just having a bit of fun with ya, Dave.:) Just enjoying your humour. Diobaith is Welsh, roughly translating as 'incorrigible'. Well, you seemed to be struggling a bit earlier with my English.:)

So, is the new baby in your hands yet?

The 900 sits happily atop my mobile rig stand as we speak! (type)
I like so many things, but I have a few concerns too ... I'm not posting too much till I play/edit a bit more. The sounds are wonderful, the key touch is wonderful, the touch screen seems improved and some editing shortcuts are most welcome, but if I HAD to venture an early guess - I'd say that the harmonizer is not the exact unit from the 3x (small wonder - it's much less expensive), and to try to enhance it - Korg pumps it through more mastering effects to try to mask it's differences. Casual users will be blown away with the ease of operation and beauty of the instrument, but experienced singers will notice something "a bit off" right away. Not giving up yet - I'll post more tomorrow after I hook it up to my Bose.

Dave sorry to hear your not to happy with the new Korg..I was hoping to hear great things, I can understand that KORG had to make cuts somewhere vs the Flagship PA3x some of the the VH features were just one of them,........I hope you kept your Yamaha S950 rig to fall back on just in case?..

To the best of my knowledge the Vocaliser on the PA900 is fully identical to the one in the PA800, which should explain things really...........

regards,
John

I'm getting adjusted to the Harmonizer, but it's definitely a step backwards from the 3x.I think I may be able to make it work with more tweaks, but it's O ultra sensitive to gain, feedback and tone anomalies. I'm sure I'll figure out a working plan, but it is so not what I hoped for. Not giving up yet - I LOVE the rest of it ... I need more time - I'll jump into the water with it tomorrow night and you can BET that I'll learn to swim. Under pressure is the only way I can really get adjusted to a unit. I need real room conditions and peoples reactions to determine how to set it up.
I'm optimist, but don't really expect it to be the last step in my journey - I may still need an outboard unit - maybe the VoiveLive Touch - that will give me back the routing options for guitar and iPad INTO the speakers. Sigh .... I wanted EASY!

Wow! Just got home from three days of sailing, poured some Rum Chata over ice and looked at the Synthzone - Whoa! Guess I should have stayed out a couple more days. Now I have to learn all this new terminology, colloquialism from the UK (which I have not visited for more than 50 years, and new terms for bashing keyboards. I just noticed at the bottom of some poster's pages that they seem to list every piece of equipment they purchased during the last 5 decades. Must be some sort of status symbol that I wasn't aware of. Sure glad I have lots of rum on hand - at least enough for me to catch up on all the other posts.

Bottom's Up!

Gary