Hello again,

After working my back side off teaching and gigging I have finally secured some founds to upgrade my S950. I think it would be a nice upgrade, but I am somewhat because reluctant because the SX900 has been out for awhile now and I would hate to buy something that will be replaced soon.

Thoughts?

I own the SX900 and also owned the S975 and the S950. I do not believe the SX900 is near as good as those two other keyboards were. Just my opinion - but it really depends on how modern our current music has become. For me the SX900 lost a lot of the styles suitable for the Golden Oldies so to speak. I often use styles from the Tyros3 and Tyros4 keyboards. That said, I also have found some really good styles from the Genos collection that play well on the SD900.

Deane

Can’t the SX900 play those 950 oldies styles? Seems a shame to lose out on probably the biggest jump in PSR capability in years just because those styles aren’t in the ROM.

Or are you referring to some of those styles that used drum loops? You might still be able to recreate those using samples of the loops. Has anyone at PSR tutorial posted those?

I know when the BK-9 came out, it didn’t come with many styles (maybe none!) that leveraged the three style MFX (insert effects) and multiple drum Parts that got added to the OS. But some of the EA7’s styles got updated to use them and play well in the BK-9. Perhaps this is why the Genos styles work well?

But your preference for the older models seems to revolve primarily about missing styles, not sounds or OS. Surely you can add those older styles?

I had a psr970 and went to an SX900, playing much of the same music genre. I really like the new OS after getting used to it, and I put my old registrations on a thumb drive, beside my primary. When I feel a particular style from the 970 is better suited to a song, I tweek it with the new machine, and save it in my primary User folders. I do think that it would be a mistake, however, to slide everything over from the prior boards without thoroughly auditioning a comparable native equivalent style.

However you choose to do it, I agree that using an SX900 and supplying legacy styles, as needed, would be a win win situation.

Bernie

The SX900 was released on June 2019, so I expect it to be replaced no sooner than in a year. On the next model there are likely to be features of SX600 which are unison and accent features, audio over USB, some extra bonuses.

I thought that after buying the SX900 I would abandon my Juno DS76 and guitar but I got back to them after a couple of weeks of playing the SX900.

After playing the S950 for many years it was refreshing to play the SX900, besides, my S950 was not in a good shape. But altogether the difference between these models is not that crucial. I believe, switching for the first time from some entry level keyboard to something like Yamaha PSR-SX600 would be much more of an excitement.

I could’ve said “the SX900 is a great keyboard, go for it!” but while I consider this upgrade reasonable, I wouldn’t be overly exited about it; it doesn’t fix everything. Also, I would never pay the official price for the SX900; got mine 25% cheaper.

I tend to think now that PSRs in general are designed to play with styles. In a way it forces you to play with rhythms even if you don’t feel like it. This is the reason why I still rely on my Juno DS.

The SX900 also has a weird thing when you hold a note for a really long time: it stops before it fades out. It’s not noticeable during normal playing, and basically it’s not a problem at all, but it sorts of emphasizes that it’s not a piano.

The JunoDS has a lot of weird things as well, so I can’t say that there is a safe choice at all. Basically, there is no satisfactory as long as you are being a perfectionist.

If my Yamaha Sx900 was destroyed, I would buy another one.

In the Technics days, I would buy a new model every time one came out. I knew they were holding some great options that were not on the new model, I bought without playing one.

The Sx900 fits my needs, it is the closest to the Kn7000, which was my favorite for years. If dollars hold out I will buy the Sx900 replacement.
John C.

I could never go with anything but a touch screen again, and the SX-900 has a fantastic one. I'm so use to it, I recently played a friends S950 and found myself tapping the display.

I also like the chord looper, and I'm still in the "messing around" stage, but I can see the possibilities.

Finally three right hand voices with more DSP'S, and a nice onboard speaker system all make the SX-900 a much nicer keyboard from previous PSR's

With Covid having depressed the global economy, and professional musicians especially, not to mention putting the brakes on component production in China, I wouldn’t put much faith in the schedule of new model release staying consistent from pre-Covid times.

Personally, I’d be quite surprised at a new model being much sooner than a couple of years past its usual release schedule…

Yamaha at least have a revenue stream from copy protected sample packs and new styles, so they aren’t painted into quite the same corner that Korg may have found themselves, with no easy DRM system and a habit of releasing new styles for free (which is excellent if you can still keep your new hardware release schedule to underwrite it, but a problem when that dries up).

Maybe it’s time to reevaluate our gear lust, and try instead to wring as much as is humanly possible from the gear we have? I guarantee, few if any of us have even wrung 50% of it! Get in there, try to master those new features (I bet few are starting to really lean on the new chord sequencers), edit your favorite styles and sequences to use all the new kits and sounds, add those new insert effects to style and sequence Parts, not just your solo sounds, experiment with foot controllers to cut back on your button pushing so you can work more on actually PLAYING…

Now seems like a really good time to do it, before production of new models distracts us again! 😂😎🎹

I was at the same train until the KN7000 came, but the keys placed down between two edges and the new design/place for many buttons was a dealbreaker for me.
Tried it several times, but never got friend with it.
Was about to buy KN6500 when KN7k came, but stoped at KN5k. Too bad, but as we know, sadly no more new KN's.

Regarding Yamaha, I was not much fan when had T4 because of the 'CD'ish, cold and crisp' sound (my very personal opinion).
But something turned me around when Genos showed up, now I simply love it, and regardless of what other T5 or T series users say, it sonuds different, and BETTER!. (Again very personal opinion).
Even if I'm lurking to get hands on a Korg PA4-76, I would not hesitate to go for a Genos 2 if it ever see the light.
As the SX series is the 'little brothers' of the Genos, I guess they are above the PSR series in most, or maybe all ways. 👍

The SX900 is a great keyboard, however, IMO, the touch screen display is much too small for my chubby fingers and the OS has changed quite a bit over the PSR-S950 that I currently own. I guess I'm dating myself, but at age 80, I do not want to learn another operating system.

Larry, tapping the LCD display is an ageing thing. Probably has something to do with owning a smart phone. Ironically, I find myself trying to dial the TV remote to make a telephone call because all these things have similar keypads.

The Genos would be a great upgrade, Paul. The sounds are incredible, and the drums are very realistic, IMO. In addition to having a larger touch screen, you can play all of the older legacy styles and sounds as well. For example, the growl sax in my PSR-3000 was incredible, but the onboard growl say in my S-950 was pale in comparison, therefore I just had to import the sound into the USER area of the 950 and it worked great. Sounded great in the Genos as well when I imported it into my friend's Genos.

Good luck on whatever you decide upon,

Gary

I didn’t sleep well last light (thanks to neighbors above me) so I was rather skeptical about everything in the morning; but my mood is usually better late in the evening and now while I’m playing the SX900 I must admit that it’s indeed quite an excitement. With new drums some serious songs became more emotional and vocals (choir) are quite a joy to play. I notice that know why I need this keyboard when I play it and when I’m away from it I can think anything, good or bad, that why sometimes it’s useful to think less and just to sit down and play.

I was never much a fan of the PSR’s prior to the SX900, primarily because of the drums. I do feel the new Revo drums have upped the game quite a bit, but there’s still work to do. The primary issue seems to be that no tools seem to exist to easily add the new hihat and other articulations to legacy styles.

That’s kind of the double edged sword of changing something in ROM to be very audibly better, things like articulated guitars, new articulations in drum kits, performance sounds in saxes etc.. Few arranger buyers are brand new to the ecosystem, most come to it with considerable legacy data. But make new styles use the new stuff fully, and suddenly your legacy stuff starts to sound dated and stick out badly from the new.

There’s really only two ways around this… either you laboriously hand convert all your legacy data to use the new stuff, something few of us might be up for, particularly as hard as some manufacturers have made it to easily edit style and sequence header information, or the manufacturer to include some sub-routines in the arranger or external software to auto convert the legacy styles.

Especially with drum kits, I think the goal should have been to include wider snare and hihat articulations without spreading out over additional notes, with velocity or round robin routines to bring them in musically. This way, legacy data could still use the new sounds without a complete rewrite.

There’s also an onus on the manufacturer to try and retain sonic levels between kits that is being adhered to as carefully as it was back in the GS/XG days. I noticed when going from my G70 to the BK series I found myself needing to tame hi hat levels a bit on nearly all my data. Sloppy sound design, Roland! There were also a ton of new and much better percussion sounds, better shakers, congas, cowbells, agogos, timbales etc., but there wasn’t a single drum kit that used them! They stuck with the standard kit percussion sounds they’ve been using since the GS days. So you are forced to use two style Parts, one just for the percussion. Lazy!

As WS’s increasingly dominate the young keyboard player market, arranger manufacturers need to face the fact that the vast majority of their customers come from older arrangers, not brand new customers. And we all come with extensive legacy data. Making an arranger with a huge leap forward in sound is all well and good, but making it EASY to use those new sounds with legacy styles is critical, otherwise we end up with a keyboard that, for maybe 75% of what we play, doesn’t sound one iota better than our previous keyboard..!

That’s not how you encourage people to upgrade regularly… 🤔

I actually am quite happy with the 950 but I feel like a chord looper could be a huge game changer for me. Still considering other options.

Thanks for all the thoughtful replies.

This is about me.

I have always believed in buying the new model as soon as It comes out.

1-I get the most dollars for the one I have.
2-I get to enjoy the new model for a longer period.

The loss between what I get for my old keyboard, against what I have to pay for the new one It is what I am willing to spend to have the latest. It is the price for my enjoyment. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke. (smile)
John C.
PS, I buy unseen, (same brand) and I waste no time trying to whatever.

Must be nice... I would assume you have some deep pockets and an understanding wife!

I come from the opposite direction. I like to wring as much as humanly possible from what I have, until a model that comes out is not just a slight improvement, but such an incredible leap forward that it utterly destroys what I’m playing!

That’s pretty rare between adjacent models, it’s more of a 10-15 years thing, IMHO…

My journey so far in arrangers went G1000-G70-BK9. About 10-13 years in between each. Now Roland is out of the game, it might be even longer before something new!