Hi Marilyn and Bebop. I'm reading your posts with great interest as my next move is to update my Roland G800 to the VA Series or the Yamaha 9000. I'll be looking forward to hearing what you think of your new keyboards when you get them.Twenty four hours in the day isn't long enough is it? I am going to hear Tony Fenelon play at our club night in a few weeks and he will no doubt have a Roland keyboard midied to an Atelier organ so I'll get a bit of a feel for it. Cheers. Jean.

[This message has been edited by Jean Olivia (edited 06-04-2002).]

BEBOP,
Thanks for both of the Emails. I appreciate the information very much. When is the big event due (new keyboard!)?
Lanny

Hello,
I just bought a yamaha psr9000 pro as a second instrument and I like it a lot.
Good rythms and also good sounds...but for the sounds not so good as the technics kn6500. I also have the technics kn6500 with the ew01 and ew02 board and these sound very good. A personal opinion maybe.
Good luck with your second keyboard....when you can afford it take a good second keyboard.....that's not the same with women....if you have a good woman you have to stick with it...it is not permitted to have a second woman to add to your first woman.....

Greetings from Belgium,
Just played 2 - 2 against Japan.....sad.

Alain

Hi, Jean, I think the subject of keyboards and which is best is a VERY subjective one. We all have different things we want to do with them and we all have different preferences in sounds and rhythms.

I like the sounds best on the KN6000, but I think I might like the Roland rhythms better. I have never heard a PSR 9000, so only know what I've heard on that. Bebop sent me some brochures on it also. I needed a lighter weight second keyboard and that 9000 is anything but light weight! I think I'm gonna like the VA3 fine, but it's going to take some getting used to. I love the touch screen.....but I wish Roland would give you more on board buttons.

Marilyn

In my opinion the quality of sounds is more important than that of rhythms because there are so many rhythms available on the net, both free and commercial. Also, many of the free available rhythms have been converted from other brands or models. Many thanks to Bud Whipple for all the work he has done in this area.

Mike

Having played both I feel that Technics definitely has better sounds, though the 9000 has a couple of nice ones in there too. I definitely disliked the Yamaha piano though.

I'd definitely pick the KN7000 over the Yamaha, since it's much newer.

Then again, having switched to samplers for my sounds I'm not buying any keyboard ever again myself.

Thanks to all Respondents on this POST.
The primary reasong for adding a Yamaha 9000 PRO to my other 10 keyboards in the recording studio is to get a 76 key PROFESSIONAL KEYBOARD, and a WORKING HARD DRIVE both inside and outside the keyboard. I have a sampler but it will be nice to have a sampler inside the PRO and then I can maybe sell the samplerKeyboard I have. Ensoniq 16 plus turbo with hard drive and three pedals if anyone is interested.
I wrote Musician's Friends and advised them I would drive up to their Medford, Oregon warehouse/store next week and pick up the board as it is only 4 or 500 miles, just a nice drive in the motorhome. They just advised me they have closed that store and now ship from a central warehouse in Kansas City, MO
Well Darn, back to the drawing board again.
Best to all and thanks for all the advice. It is appreciated.
PS Vol 7 of the 20 for 1 zip is now on load for downloading
Bebop

Well, the built-in sampler was not that good, it has very limited functionality which is why I decided against buying it and bought me a professional Yamaha sampler a year ago (with a 10 gig drive and 128 megs of ram). But that thing is eating dust too now with all the software samplers that are out (and which deliver the same, even better sound quality).

I am still stunned by the quality of violins, guitars, etc. But then again, these (gigasampler) samples start at around 20 megs (have a picking guitar here which is a 100 megs!) each so I don't expect such quality to appear in consumer keyboard anytime soon. Which is why I vow never to buy another home keyboard again, no matter how slick it looks.

I did buy the PSR 9000. see separate post for reasoning
Bebop