Back On The Yamaha Train

[hammer]

Just ordered a PSR S975 from Frank.  Will look forward to getting it and taking it out
on it's first gig.  I like the Yamaha sounds and styles for special events such as Patriotic and Christmas gigs.  No other keyboard comes close to matching Yamaha styles for these types of songs. 

Deane

[RoyceM]

Hi Deane,

Because of your experience with some of the top Yamaha keyboards, I hope you will give us your analysis of the S975.

Hopefully other members who have similar experience will share their thoughts.

- Royce

[travlin-easy]

Deane, having owned nearly every brand of arranger keyboard on the market, I have always felt that Yamaha is unsurpassed when it comes to sound quality and style selection. Additionally, they have an excellent customer support team, plus this wonderful forum that has helped Yamaha owners for decades. You can't go wrong with Yamaha, IMO.

Good luck with that new S975 - you're gonna have lots of fun with it,

Gary

[Toril S]

Yamaha forever

[hammer]

Well, my S975 has been in the house for 2 days now and I must say I think Yamaha might have missed the boat on this one.  There are several issues which have been posted about on both this forum and the UK forum which so far Yamaha has not addressed with an OS update. 

1.  Volume levels are very inconsistent between styles
2.  Volume balance between the style and RH voices is very inconsistent.

This is a big issue which has not been present on any of my previous Yamaha keyboards including PSR3000, T3, T4, T5, Genos, and S950.  Mostly you could take them out of the box and go play a gig if you wanted.  Not true of the S975.

Also, not much change to styles from these other keyboards and frankly, not many new styles that fit older music.   On the positive side most all of my PSR3000, and T3 styles play nicely.  T4, T5, Genos styles all need re-voicing for for all four variations to work well.  S970 styles work for the most part but not all.

Anyway, this is my findings for now.  I'll add more later.

Deane

[EileenL]

Hi Deane,
  I stuck with my 970 which is a great little keyboard all round. I have lots of styles for golden oldie tunes and they all play well in my 970. I sometimes have to drop the volume a wee bit but that is easily done. Still can't understand why they bought this one out. Would rather wait for the Genos little brother.

[hammer]

Yes Eileen that would have been the best thing to do.  However, we don't know when that will be and I really like playing our Patriotic and Christmas music with yamaha styles.  So, I went for the S975.

By the way, Yamaha's response to all of this is the user can adjust all these sound levels and save the changed style as a user style.  Wow!  How many people do we know that will take the time to do all of that for hundreds of styles?

Deane

[EileenL]

Hi Deane,
  You can also save volume changes to styles in registration banks. Saves you having lots of user styles.

[pjd]

By the way, Yamaha's response to all of this is the user can adjust all these sound levels and save the changed style as a user style.  Wow!  How many people do we know that will take the time to do all of that for hundreds of styles?

Hi Deane --

Gosh, I agree, this kind of change is grueling. I have customized styles for most of my songs, mainly to select alternative instruments via OTS. Moving from S950 to Genos, updating the registrations was a (relative) breeze. Updating the styles? That's low on my list due to the effort involved.

Thanks for sharing your experience -- pj

[Pino]

Hi Deane

If followed your posts for many years
Just want to ask you,

Which is your go-to keyboard now, you did speak very highly of the Ketron,
Has that changed since you got the Genos?

Regards
Pino

[Pino]

Yamaha May be right
They give us the paint, we are the artists and have to mix the paint to make a nice painting

I am an OTS player, I have one Registration per song with midi out to SongBook
8 songs per Registration bank

There isn't one OTS User style in my gig playlist that I haven't changed from intro thro to the ending
So the volume would just take a few seconds more.
I probably use no more than 25 styles for all my songs.

Pino

[Jan-Eve]

Hal-lo everyone! When do you think that Genos littlebrother will come out?
I think that it will be perfect in size and weight, for me...like my 950...
All the best from Jan - Eve.

[hammer]

Pinto,
I sold my Genos.  My Ketron SD7 is still my "go-to" keyboard for all my gigs.
I will use the S975 only for Christmas and Patriotic gigs and some at home
playing.

Deane

[travlin-easy]

Deane,I played the S-970 and own the S-950, and while there were subtle differences between the two keyboards, it was not enough difference for me to update to the S-970. Also, I did not experience the problems you have with the S-975. Now sure why this is happening to you, but if I were in your shoes, I would send it back and pick up an S-950, which served me very, very well for years.

Gary

[Jan-Eve]

Halloo Gary! How many years do you think that 950 will be allright to play with?

I have had mine since it came out on the market. And no trouble so far.


Just wondered... Have a nice day from Jan - Eve.

[travlin-easy]

Jan - Eve, the keyboard, if cared for properly, will likely outlive the owner. Keep in mind that I performed more than 400 jobs a year with mine for many, many years.

Good luck,

Gary

[Toril S]

I am mostly a home player, but gig from time to time. My first PSR is soon 30 years old and still works perfectly.

[Eric, B]

Halloo Gary! How many years do you think that 950 will be allright to play with?

I have had mine since it came out on the market. And no trouble so far.


Just wondered... Have a nice day from Jan - Eve.

A friend of mine still gigs with his PSR-3000 almost every day.
Even though a bit dated, he still gets the crowds going
Eric

[Jan-Eve]

Nice to hear from you all. And I am shure that there will be spareparts to put into it.
The worst anamy is dust that can cause trouble inside, so I am vacumcleaning it every week...
All the best from Jan - Eve.

[Toril S]

Hello Jan-Eve! Get a dust cover and put it on the keyboard when it is not in use. It is elastic, and can be fitted smugly around the keyboard. You don't have to disconnect cables, it protects the overside, where dust is most likely to collect.

[travlin-easy]

I just spent the past 4 hours working with a friend to get his S-970 up to speed. It was easy-peasy, all of my PSR-S950 registrations worked flawlessly, the MFD from the 950 only needed a few style file changes to get it up to speed and the hardest part was teaching my new friend the difference between the MFD and Registrations and the difference between both of them and style files. I think he finally figured it out, though.

As for Deane's problems, well, this, obviously, was not the S-975, but it is difficult for me to believe that there is that much difference between the S-970 and the S-975. I did not encounter any of the problems Deane described in his post, though I did have to lower the style volume in order to provide a better ratio between the right hand voices and the styles, which were a bit overpowering with some style variations. Overall, it's a fantastic sounding keyboard, and he absolutely loves the sound of it compared to his Korg PA600 that he traded in on the S970. He said "There is just no comparison - the styles and voices are so much better sounding in the Yamaha." I fully agree.

Deane, I'll be around the rest of the evening if you wish to give me a call.

Gary

[motekmusic]

Hi Deanne,,

Please check out this link as has same issues re.   balances etc.

http://www.psrtutorial.com/forum/index.php/topic,45397.msg360074/topicseen.html#msg360074

Have been reducing the style volume to  85 level,, which also compels the multipads to be lowered as well.
To keep the reduced volume on the pads , just push the Freeze button and the pads stay the same.

Maybe can be of some help... completely understand you.

cheers
elaine

[hammer]

Just an update to my posts in this thread.  I have now personalized about 300 styles on my S975 and have used the keyboard on a dozen or so gigs with great success and enjoyment.   It has taken hours and hours to do this but it looks like the result will be worth the effort.  I am finding most of the Genos styles work best on the S975 after some changes are made -mostly to volume levels and/or OTS changes. 
I will post these styles after I am finished with them on this forum. 

Deane

[Lofty(dave)]

Hi my good friend Dean you certainly seem to go through different keyboards what was wrong with the Genos didn't it meet up with what you wanted I am using the S970 traded my ty4 in a straight exchange and loving it .will be going to skeggy in 3 weeks time we miss you I was watching the video from 2011 when you were playing my twinset brought back memories hope you and Glenda are keeping well take care your good friend Lofty -- Christine sends her love

[hammer]

Hi Lofty,
The past three years I have used a Ketron SD7 and just love it.  I bought the Genos - had the first one in the USA.  I thought it was a good keyboard but just did not think it was worth the price so I got rid of it.   I recently bought a S975 and have spent dozens of hours getting it ready for live gigs.  It looks like it will work out for me to use on gigs at a few places - but my Ketron will still be my main keyboard.

Glenda and I have wanted to return to Skeggy again but our very busy schedule just did not allow us to make the trip.  Then we found out Eileen has decided not to have more of her events - really sad about that.   Lofty, almost daily we talk about the good times we had at the events in Skeggy and the wonderful friends we made there.  Perhaps next year we can make Neville's event in Skeggy.

Really good to hear from you.

Deane

[Lofty(dave)]

Hi again Dean that would be nice yes me and Christine have been going to skeggy twice a year since 2010 but sadly age is takeing its toll im 81 next month and the trip across is getting harder rvery year I also now have type2 diabetes which is a bit of as bind . but keeping as active as I can mostly going to our local heritage railway two or three days a week doing carpentry ,which I enjoy . anyway we intend carrying on going to skeggy for as long as we are able to we have an important wedding of my youngest son next year a themed wedding getting dressed up in era of king Arthurs period which should be fun . they are going top south Africa early next month representing Wales doing field archery they went to Austria a couple of years ago and his wife to be came back world champion of which we are very proud. Well hope to see you soon Lofty and Christine