I have found my perfect combo, Pa4x and a Sx900, they cover my every need. Both have a large community for information and sharing the things we know. These two keyboards should not be compared, they are both good. Amen! They cover two different areas, trying make them do the same type of job is a no, no.

This is my third Pa4x, without the Sx900 I would not be satisfied. If I choose to work like an artist who painting a scene, the Sx900 is much better. If I am in the mood of working with a strong sound, a system that I can fly through, it is the Pa4x. Setting up a Sx900 for my needs was a breeze --- far more involved with the Pa4x.

A question about two fingered chords VS full left-hand chords. What is the benefit of each? I can finger a chord just as fast – or add an arp. or add a 9th, Maj7th, or pulsate a rhythm – or just support the right hand. Just trying to understand.
But then again I am still typing with two fingers.

Always learning, John C.

I can only speak from my own experience. I'm not a pro. I'm terrible at two-handed piano. I don't think i have particularly good finger articulation of my left hand, either. So when I play arranger, it's strictly left-hand chords, right hand melody. Playing fewer notes reduces the frequency of having to reposition my whole hand to reach all notes of the chord, which facilitates rapid chord changes. In my case, I think that pressing fewer keys also reduces the number of errors. If I had to play all the notes of every chord, I don't think I would be able to make keyboard music at all!

On Korgs I use the system called "Fingered" with the split active. This allows me to get a major chord with only ONE note left of the split point. Minors, 7ths, Major 7ths, suspended 4ths, augmented, and 6th chords are all achievable with just two notes. 9ths and some other tension chords can be played with 3 notes. The Korg system is great if you don't play a lot of "on bass" chords. If you do, I find that some of its two-finger shortcuts "get in the way." [When you try to play common slash chords like C/G and C/E they are recognized as Gsus4 and Eaug respectively. This COULD be fixed by a menu option, but to my knowledge it has not been.] After testing all the brands, I've found Roland's Chord Intelligence most to my liking, followed by GEM and some recent Casio products. But GEM is defunct and Casio's quality is not up to par. If Roland stops selling arrangers it will be a big loss!

The best systems on the SX900 are "multifinger" and "AI fingered." Neither one is to my liking. For minor and 7th chords, multifinger sometimes requires you to play notes which weren't part of the original chord. [Thus by extension, some progressions might actually be MORE difficult to play! By comparison Roland, Korg, GEM strictly use a SUBSET of the original chord, so it's always easier than the original score.] The AI Fingered mode is Yamaha's attempt to facilitate playing slash chords. Many two-note fingerings are recognized as an "on bass" chord. Unfortunately IMO, for majors and other chords you need to play a minimum of TWO notes, and more often three notes. So not as convenient as Korg, and not nearly as good as Roland, GEM, or Casio.

Ted,
The Korg has a dedicated button for that - it's called bass inversion, and it works with 2 fingers. It's very convenient that you can turn it on just when you need it, instead of selecting it for an entire song.

Oh, I know all about that button :-) I even figured out a way to use a footswitch and MIDI Solutions modules to make this a MOMENTARY function. In other words- while you hold the pedal, it uses the lowest note to drive the bass, and as soon as you release the pedal, the bass inversion light goes out and you can play any inversion. [The default behavior requires you to press the pedal once to turn it on, and again to turn it off. Which I find hard to do quickly while playing a song.] The momentary functionality is great for songs which have one or two slash chords, and the others are minor or 7th. It took a lot of effort, and about $200 worth of hardware for me to figure this out. Roland, Korg, etc., should have menu options to make the bass inversion either "toggle" or "momentary" from the factory!

Even with Bass Inversion "on", Korgs recognize G played below C as Gsus4, and E below C as E#5 (E augmented.) That's why I'm asking for a software adjustment. For example: there could be a series of check-boxes to suppress certain two-finger shortcuts when bass inversion is activated. This would let me keep the ones that I find helpful, and still play many slash chords with just two notes. Of course, if majors can be triggered with a single note, it doesn't matter whether bass inversion is on or off. That's yet another way that one-finger majors add flexibility. Unfortunately Yamaha does not recognize single-note majors in their flagship "AI Fingered" mode.

At a minimum, Yamaha should add a check-box to their AI Fingered mode that says "Acknowledge single note as major chord" (instead of a unison like it is now.) Other people might be used to it the way it is, so I'm suggesting that this would be an optional, added feature. Really, I would like to see Yamaha's chord recognition modes comprehensively re-vamped. Things like Bass Inversion and Rootless should be individually selectable options available in ANY chord recognition mode except "single finger."

On the Ketron, a check box could be added, something like: "Require four notes for a sixth chord." That would allow us to play the more common minor 7ths in any inversion.

IMO all arrangers should have as much flexibility as possible in this uber-important area. Chord recognition is one of the defining features of an arranger. It also has implications for future sales. If the differences are significant enough, the learned "muscle memory" doesn't transfer well, so I might as well pick up a saxophone or guitar!

I agree with that recognition. There's no need to play the 5th of a maj chord in easy mode. Adding the color tone above the tonic makes sense to me.

It's easy for me... play the the correct chord...Learn to play chords.

If we ignore the "EZ-play" books for a second and look at the many professional SATB-type scores I've purchased, augmented chords are still pretty rare. So having a two-note shortcut for them isn't very useful. But C/E (or generically, root with third in the bass) comes up a lot in pop, singer-songwriter type stuff as part of a descending bassline. When you play E below C on a Roland with Bass Inversion activated, it gives my preferred C/E. Unlike Korg, even with Bass Inversion off, Roland doesn't have a two-note shortcut for augmented chords. You just have to play all three notes, or substitute a major chord.

Dave I'm not 100% sure what you mean about the 5th. One thing that CASIO got very right: playing 1+5 gives you an open fifth "power chord," which can be very important to an authentic cover of the song. On Roland and Korg, playing C+G in intelligent mode gives you C major, which is a huge wasted opportunity. (Because you can easily get C major by just playing C by itself!) There's no good or easy way to get an open fifth on Roland or Korg without switching to a much more difficult chord recognition mode.

With the exception of the non-theory based easy (1 finger play) mode, the fifth is already generated when you press the tonic. My point was to endorse the second key pressed. I think it makes more musical sense to use the correct 3rd, or 7th to generate chords, and if a more complex chord is needed, than more fingers do the job. Rikki makes a good point that many theory-limited users just want a quick Magnus Chord organ approach, and that's great. I am a limited player - my left hand has never played complex chords, because it's always been a bass player. Even on an acoustic piano - my left hand is playing root-5th-octave most of the time to fatten up my chord choices.