Hi Nick,

Thanks for correcting me. I was under the wrong impression that the Yamaha MODX came with the same FSX keybed as the flagship Montage line.

This goes to show how Yamaha cut corners to deliver the MODX line as a cheaper alternative to the Montage.

I wish Yamaha had not compromised on the keybed. The keys are the very first thing a musician interacts with whenever they sit in front of a keyboard. I would gladly settle with lesser features, fewer sounds in favor of a better keybed.

Roland does not cut corners when it comes to hardware. My Roland E-80 Arranger synth action keys still feel so solid and responsive. No complaints after all these years.

David

I totally agree Tapas... I feel the same when I hit the keys on my G70 every day

A lot of us used to make fun of Yamaha’s ‘micro-updates’ until the SX900/700 seriously upped their mid-line and the Genos did the same for the TOTL.

Now they appear to have returned to their original game plan. Keybed issues aside, I don’t think anyone with an SX900 is going to seriously lust after this. It might make sense for an older S900 owner (the IFX and chord sequencer improvements alone make that a serious step up) but it’s looking like we’re back to going two or three models before an upgrade can even be audibly noticed.

Trouble now though is the timeframe between models has lengthened to over five years, so skipping a couple of micro-upgrades is a 15year wait! Skipping just one is ten years! There aren’t many of us with that kind of patience any longer..!

We spent many a thread discussing Donny’s latest acquisition, sometimes two or more a year! Nowadays even if Donny got every new arranger the minute it came out, we’d be having the conversation with a three or more year gap between the fun!

I don’t think the market’s big enough any longer for updates to be as insignificant. That’s not what’s been happening in the synth/workstation world.

And I definitely think the major manufacturers are missing a huge market for arrangers. While EDM and other loop based music is what consumes the younger player market, the tools they have to make it are STILL nowhere near as ‘instant gratification’ as an arranger. Adding modern loop capabilities and arpeggiators to arrangers is a snap and could easily ease the creation process for inexperienced younger players who struggle with things like Maschine or FantomX synths.

We all remember the runaway success of the Casio Rapman… an arranger dedicated SOLELY to (at the time) contemporary hiphop and rap. It had no old sounds, no old styles, it was focused and cheap. Why no one tried to capture that lightning again is one of life’s greatest mysteries!

It’s also interesting to note the change in preference for keybed. There was a time here you would get mocked for even wanting a decent plastic 76 action on a TOTL arranger let alone a PSR! ‘Too heavy, won’t fit in my car!’ ‘Who needs that many keys?!’ we heard them all…

The longest holdout were Yamaha, who stuck stubbornly to a 61 only for virtually the entire range including the TOTL. Now you can’t actually get a TOTL Yamaha with a 61..! Thing is, it’s not like there has been a serious changing of the guard when it comes to arrangers. Same 40 year olds who played them back in the day are the same 70 year olds playing them now! But the landscape has changed in what manufacturers are doing, 76’s are everywhere, and some 88’s have sprung up in the midline market.

What changed? Is it fewer of us still gigging, so weight and size no longer matter so much, or weight and size of 76’s is so much lower (a 25lbs drop from my G70 to the 76 note BK9!) that more of us are willing to gig one? I’m sure the manufacturers didn’t make the change without extensive market research…. But I would have bet 29 years ago, their market research said stick to 61’s.

In the meantime, there’s still some unwritten rule that only Korg defy that states no 88 will have full parity with a TOTL arranger. I guess some things never change! 🎹😂

Martin Harris presents a terrific demo of 23 Factory Styles on the Yamaha PSR-SX920.
He uses many of the Super Articulation 2 Voices.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_xdJTJHnFM


20sUrbanLatin, S.Art KinoStringsViolins

ThrowbackPop, (SongStyle for Blinding Lights)

SkyPop, S.Art StageLeadGuitar, (SongStyle for A Sky Full of Stars)

10sMidTempoPop, S.Art StageLeadGuitar

EtherealMovie, S.Art CFX Concert Grand

ChilliPerformer, S.Art CFX AmbientGrand

BluesRock, S.Art C7 StudioGrand

TradPianoJazz, S.Art U3 Upright

IrishHymn, S.Art2 Celtic Hymn

CoolR&B, S.Art2 FunkTenorSax

AcousticJazz, S.Art2 Clarinet

Samba60s, S.Art2 SoftTrumpet

R&B SoulBallad, S.Art 70sSuitcaseClean

UnpluggedBallad, SArt+ SteelAcousticFinger

MainstreamCowboy, S.Art PedalSteelGuitar1

Skiffle, SArt+ 60sShadowLead

ReggaetonGroove, S.Art FlamencoGuitar

MegaHit

SchlalgerBeat, S.Art ShadowedGuitar

00sBluesyBallad, OrganFlutes

SmokingBigBand, S.Art2 Clarinet

20sDancePop, S.Art FlamencoGuitar

90sDreamHouse, S.Art CFX ConcertGrand


Nothing beats listening to the Designer of the product showcase how to make this instrument come alive.

This is the best demo of the PSR-SX920 to date on YouTube. No talking, just inspirational ideas.

Martin single handedly changed the landscape of the Arranger World with his introduction of the Tyros1 in 2002 followed by the Tyros2 in 2005.

Roland released the E-80 in 2007, but could not quite match up to the sound quality of the Tyros2.

Since the Tyros2, Yamaha has ruled the Arranger scene.

Yamaha owes a lot to Martin Harris and his R&D team for the Tyros, Genos and the PSR family of Arranger Workstations and pushing the boundary of Arranger Technology.

This would actually be an opinion, not a fact..!

Most Roland users at the time (and Korg and Ketron too) considered the overall sound of the Yamaha’s to be very compressed and flat sounding. Something they have emphasized lately by bringing out the Revo drums and room ambience drums with the Genos line, and indeed, a lot of the earlier criticism of how compressed they sounded has gone.

But, in fairness, Roland’s ALWAYS sounded punchy and ‘live’.

What I think gave Yamaha the edge back in the early 21st century was that each model upgrade had very little difference in OS and features from the previous model. Older players could comfortably upgrade and have very little to learn. Sounds got better, but how you played it didn’t (much).

Roland, OTOH, seemed to want to completely reinvent itself every model change. The transition from say a G1000 to a VA7 to an E80 to the BK9 meant almost completely learning a new arranger each time. Features would get mysteriously dropped, then only brought back 20 years later. Data seldom migrated well (except the style format itself, which only got its first major change - multiple style drum tracks- in the BK9) and buttons and sliders were very different each model.

Add to that Roland’s stubborn refusal to embrace multipads (didn’t get those until the last Roland ever, the EA-7) and some other common arranger features (eg samplers), it was a recipe for failure.

But if you wanted a punchy live sound, back during the Tyros years, many tended to go with Korg and Roland, or the recorded live drums of Ketron’s SD series.

This is, of course, an OPINION… 😂