A few PSR-SX900 questions

[GregB]

Hi all,

Every now and then I take a closer look at the latest arranger, and I had a few questions about the SX900:

1 - I see the mic setup now has talk/vocal/guitar, and the jack on the back has a mic/guitar switch (formerly mic/line).  Are those linked or independent?  E.g. can you have the switch set to guitar but the mic setup set to vocal, when using an external mic preamp (which I do for frequency response reasons on the S950)?

2 - The master EQ looks nice, and the instructions imply that the frequency center of the bands can be adjusted, but the picture of the screen doesn't show a control for adjusting the band frequency center - just a label instead.  Can the frequency centers be adjusted and by how much?  On my S950, sometimes I do house EQ via the keyboard's master EQ, since my portable PA system (Yamaha StagePas 400i) doesn't have much of a master EQ, thus I need to be able to notch out resonant frequencies for example which requires moving the band centers around.

3 - The arpeggiator is a nice touch, and I would probably use it for some songs, but can you create new arpeggio patterns, or are you stuck with what the keyboard provides?  I know a multipad or style can be used as a rough arpeggiator (and for some situations does a better job), as I've done so on my S950, but I'm curious what the SX900's arpeggiator can do.

4 - I see there is a Drum Setup option in Style Creator to customize the sound of each drum note.  Is this feature only available when editing a style, or is there a way to use this feature when manually playing a drum kit?  If not through the UI can this be done, say by exporting such a style and extracting its drum setup MIDI data and putting that into a registration?

5 - How has the SX900's touch screen been working out for people?  Any reliability issues?

Overall the SX900 looks nice but has some changes that would be minor annoyances, like the absence of a dedicated metronome button and the swapping of the OTS and multi pad button locations.

At some point I need to go audition an SX900, but I think the closest store that has one is an hour's drive away... (that's where I got my S950).

- Greg

[Live Musician Newbie]

Sorry do not have an Sx900 but owned s975.

The User manual / Reference Manual of Sx900 should give you a fairly good idea on some of your questions.
E.g.
3. New Arpeggio.
and
4. Editting Drums / kits notes.
Yes this is only available within the Style creator from the keyboard.
Or
Via Yamaha Expansion Manager > Creating a new Kit.

[vadesriux]

Hi Greg.

I can help you over two points, for I have had a GENOS and now have and work with a SX900.

The touch screen has exactly the same tecnology as in GENOS with exactly the same image definition and touch responsiveness, although 7" instead of 9", which in practical terms does not make much difference since the Font size is the same. Only the icons are a little bit smaller. No issues at all here.

Metronome: you can easily assign one of the 6 buttons that sit below the touchscreen, to the metronome. When you press the button, it switches the metronome on and off. In fact, my SX900 already came with one of the six assignable buttons dedicated to the metronome.

Hope this helps. Eduardo.