From Keyboard Player via Yamaha-UK:
http://www.yamaha-music.co.uk/news/article.asp?id=374

Unfortunately, it sounds better and better. I don't want to buy another Yamaha, but it will bear investigating.
I want to buy a Ketron because of the factory support and attitude, but I suppose I'll have to check out the Tyros first.
I still say we'll be lucky to see one in the US before next year. Hope I'm wrong.
DonM

I'm with you Don. I really want to look closely at Ketron too, but I don't want to end up regretting not giving the Tyros a good look .

AJ

This bothered me a lot folks!!
From Keyboard Player's Review on the Tyros. Martin Harris Global Content Manager for Yamaha Corporation Japan is quoted as saying:

"As far as Yamaha is concerned, this is a keyboard designed primarily for home keyboard players. The focus is on sound quality, authentic voicing and a fantastic style section that sets a new standard. Of course, ease of operation is another key feature, and we have some great features to make life easy for the home player. Another interesting point is we believe this instrument is so good as to appeal to the professional musician as their needs are much the same as the home player - sound quality and ease of operation"

Hmm!! Home Market ey! …What's wrong with this picture folks?:
"this instrument is so good as to appeal to the professional musician as their needs are much the same as the home player"....a professional Musician's needs much the same as the home player's? Wow!
And this guy is the "Global Content Manager for Yamaha Corporation Japan"?
What an incredibly ignorant statement that is! From someone who “obviously” doesn't know the pressures between being in front of a large audience and zero room for error, and being alone in the comfort of your home playing to the walls!
In the last 20 years, this has been my main complaint with the major music companies and Yamaha is no exception here. Damn the performer and instead lets go for the "big bucks".
As a professional player my job should be made easier, so I can concentrate on my performance; during which, I should be able to, not only call up a registration but to create one "on the fly", so next time I need is there, ready to be recalled again and be able to go from one song to another "unnoticed" in a seamless manner. At home, it doesn't matter to me "a bag of beans" if it takes one minute or an hour or to go from one song to another or recall/create a registration, my profession won't be at stake.
Hey!…. you music companies out there! ..start hiring people that are "live" performers(instead of engineers "wishing" they were musicians)to design our Keyboards, and who give a damn about the needs of some of us trying to make a living here!! And fix that "pathetic" file saving system you guys are using on "our" KBs.
Mario

Well, I don't like Yamaha statement either, but Mario, just FYI, there are musicians out there who don't play for the audience but need a keyboard to create music at home studio. What makes you think that arrangers are for those who do live performances only?

What I don't like about this statement from Yamaha is that Tyros is for home and pro musicians... Sounds like another PSR with basic features which is unacceptable in 2002 for the top-end line from Yamaha. They put this stupid phrase "for home and for pro" on almost every PSR. Even for 5XX series! They better look at what Genesys, kn7000 and Solton stuff can do now.

On the other hand, why they should care? They'll get their $$$ for it, so that’s all what matters to the company.

Another thought.

It was a big article. Written good and eloquently spoken. What info I got out of it? Well, not much. It has 700 voices; it weighs less as twice as PSR9000 and that it has awesome sound system. Wow! Please stop! That's too much info!

Geez... Nothing on sequencer, nothing on drum kits, nothing on new possibilities (I hope!) on creating styles with Tyros. Any word on upgrading or card slots for new sounds? Man, just 700 sounds? How many tracks can be recorded? In Genesys, for example, you can record 32 tracks without a headache to set it up (I read the manual, it was awesome) Yamaha? Yeah. Right

You know what I think Tyros is?

- Same as 9000 Pro in terms of features
- Better wav rom
- Better speakers
- weigh less

That's it folks! Nothing else! Everything else is the same as in 9000 Pro. Wow! Keep it a good job, Yamaha!

I disagree on several fronts. First, the things that the 9000 Pro has that the Tyros doesn't (this is the short list): lo-z mic input, sampling and sample playback capability, expansion board capability, external lights, four aux audio outputs (Tyros has 2 I think), SCSI port (Tyros has USB, which may be better functionally), 76 keys, and likely more. These are different beasts so they aren't directly comparable. If you need the capabilities of the 9000 Pro (or a new and improved version), then wait for the Tyros Pro if and when it's made. That's my plan.

Second, to be fair to Yamaha - they have a hard job trying not to alienate anyone. Any sophisticated home instrument can be used by pros also... witness the number of PSR2000 users here like Scott Yee who make a living with their instrument (personally, I think the Tyros is more comparable to the PSR2000 than it is the 9000 Pro). That's all Yamaha is saying about the Tyros... you can gig with it and I have no problem with that. In fact, some of the more advanced home/semi-pro users will give Yamaha the kind of feedback they need to improve/enhance the Tyros and make the Pro version I want. I suspect that this was how they came up with the idea for a Pro version of the PSR9000 in the first place.

I agree there is little hard information in this article, and much puff. We will wait to see exactly what the spec is. I still think the tyros looks promising. The Mega Voice samples appear to be just different samples for different velocity ranges....

I also agree that features that live performers deem important are not necessarily at all what home players are looking for, so this statement that you can satisfy both simultaneously is very strange. For an insight in how well this has been achieved you have only to look at the operating system of the cvp209, since the tyros is based on this rather than the 9000 series.

The market for a live performer orientated boards (if ever all the live performers could ever agree on exactly what they want!) must be very small indeed, so it is not surprising that manufacturers will concentrate on the largest sale market.

You know one of the things that interests me most about the Tyros is the lighted panel buttons. I'm working in a very dark environment right now and must use portable lights to see the buttons.
I also think I could really utilize the versatility of the outboard speaker package.
I love the Yamaha OS and really dread having to learn the Ketron, plus deal with the awkward (to me) placement of the fill, variation and ending buttons.
If it sounds anywhere near the "live" sound of the XD and SD1, they may have a winner.
But we are still being really premature. The thing is not yet finished, so nobody in the world can really give an informed opinion of the finished package. Yamaha is famous for adding great new features but taking away something great that was already there.
Don

Mario, talking about Martin Harris stated as follows:
And this guy is the "Global Content Manager for Yamaha Corporation Japan"?
What an incredibly ignorant statement that is! From someone who “obviously” doesn't know the pressures between being in front of a large audience and zero room for error, and being alone in the comfort of your home playing to the walls!

I feel I must put a word in here on behalf of Marin Harris of Yamaha. He is a brilliant Musician Keyboard player who has many times played to very large audiences. Many of the Styles we use from the PSR9000 & Pro. PSR2000 and the CVP's where in fact programmed by Martin Harris.

Graham UK