Just to touch on rattley's question because I don't think some people understand what we're angry about - yes, technology marches forward and in fact if there was such a thing as a 76-note pro version of the Tyros or even the PSR3000, I'd stop bitching about the demise of the 9000 Pro right here and now. Let me say this clearly and hope it'll go all the way to Japan:

I WILL NEVER OWN A 61-NOTE KEYBOARD !!!

Nothing against you guys who have a Tyros and have managed to make it work for you, but ANY keyboard with less than 76-notes is a non-starter for me. Besides the number of keys I also liked the feel of the 9000 Pro, it's ability to take the PLG expansion cards, the LittlLites, the lo-z mic input, the sampling capability and the internal hard drive. These things are not on the Tyros. So while the technology certainly improved when the Tyros came out, the feature set declined unacceptably for those of us used to the pro-level instruments. And the support for the 9000 Pro never came close to what the cheaper Tyros always had. That's what we're angry about.

Hi Steve, I believe Joe Water's excellent, and ever expanding , PSR Tutorial website: http://psrtutorial.com/
covers most of the topics I would have included in my book. Highy recommended to all. - Scott

Stevizard said, "What we need isn't a full-fledged keyboard. We only need the arranger section but it must be built on a par with a computer. That is, it needs to have a removeable (therefore upgradable) motherboard, hard drive, scsi port, cdrom, slots for high-end memory, pci slots, USB, etc. We then simply midi it to our favorite keyboard. When better OS from any company arrive, we download and install them. Well, that may not sound very likely but its the direction we must go to avoid being taken hostage by the proprietary hardware and software of the keyboard manufacturers.

What do others think?"

Absolutely right on.
The new Roland EXR-5 has 10 watts per channel. Oooooooo.
The PSR2100 has 12 watts per channel. Wow!!
I can buy an 80 watt YSTMS50 powered speakers for $100.00 bucks and it's made by Yamaha!! Obviously, that is not Yamaha's cost. They could install a YSTMS50 in every keyboard as standard equipment. So should I purchase a new keyboard because it has a little more power, a few extra voices, a usb port? NO. I'm not going to play that game.
Starkeeper

I pursued this with my "Gigstation" concept and realized that it would currently cost more to build a non-propriety VSTi-based arranger workstation than it would to buy used 9000 Pro's and just maintain them until somebody builds what we really need. Used 9k Pro's are selling well under $2k currently. But I think you're on the right track and we will see eKo-type instruments and controllers with replaceable CPU's/motherboards coming in the next couple of years. Frankly Yamaha and it's competitors may see this coming too and that may be why they're focusing more on building home-user instruments and servicing their core markets.

You're totally right. You guys play on products designed to please the hobbyist. Also true that arrangers now include lots of advanced features. Guess what? From my experience as a rep, and through surveys, 99.9% of arrangers users don't use so called advanced features such as Style editing, Style programming, Sound Edit. You have your answer.

Also, no mix of the 2 genres (home and pro features) have ever been succesful on the market. EX: years ago Yamaha introduced the DSR series. Was a flop. Technics brought the AX series. Was a flop. Why? You can't please everybody by implementing "partial" features to address either clientele.