Should I use the 275 ? and leave the 463 ?

[antonio45]

Hi Roger
Thanks for the reply with all the links.

I have a question that I post here, as I can not figure out the right place on this forum.

I have now a PSR-275. I used it for " fun ".
I have a PSR-E463. I hardly touched it but it's 100% OK

If I want to start over, what is your honest opinion.

Should I use the 275 ?  and leave the 463  ?
Should I use the 463 ?  And leave/drop/give away the 275  ?
Should I use both ( alternate )  ?

Note: Read before answer
I have no/little problem learning chords, BUT....BUT>>>
I have a physical problem with left hand ( only ).
Due to injuries in the past, I can not control my ring finger and middle finger.
Pinkie, point and thumb are OK
( Surgeon says he can "try" but no guarantees )
I can do a chord, but after 2 counts, both above mententioned fingers do as they want, not as I want.
This is for any chord, any time.
So, I will have to go for < one/two finger chords >

OK? Your opinion?
Thanks

Move post if you like.

Edit by Roger Brenizer: This post was split from Antonio's topic in the "Hello Everyone!" board and moved to this board.

[johan]

I don't know the 275 but I had a E463 for a while and was very satisfied with it. Chord setting in the E463 is always multi-fingered so most basic chords can be played with 1 or 2 fingers (Minor-Seventh require 3 fingers however). The E463 has 4 registration buttons which can be of great help. The sound quality is quite good for an E-series so it could be useful to compare the sound of some voices with the sound of your 275.

[DerekA]

From what I can see, the E463 is an updated version of the 275. The E463 will do everything that the 275 does, plus it adds a few features, for example (but not limited to)

+ Live control knobs
+ Additional Function value, e.g. voice cutoff/resonance
+ 5 accompaniment tracks

Personally I would recommend the E463 over the 275 if you have both. You're not losing anything, and you are gaining some things.

[antonio45]

Many thanks for the responses and advice.
I will carry on with the E463 and start studying all the functions available.
Thanks a lot

[SciNote]

I concur with what was written above.  The PSR-E463 is LIGHTYEARS ahead of the PSR-275, based on what I see in the manual for the 275.  The 275 might be a fine, basic keyboard to learn on, but the E463 has tons more features.  The registrations were mentioned above, and to me, that is an extremely important function for live playing.  On the 275, you can set up a pretty complex sound using the main voice, dual voice, split voice, as well as chorus, reverb, and harmony settings.  But then once you set up a sound you like, there is no way to store all of those settings so that you can easily recall them.  But on the E463, you have a total of 32 different registration memories that you can use to store and immediately recall these settings.

It is important to note that some other Yamaha keyboards of the late 1990's and into the 2000's had registrations, but only had two registration buttons immediately available (additional registrations were accessed by using another button to select different banks of registrations).  Only having one-touch access to two registrations was, in my opinion, also pretty limiting, as you might want to quickly change among several sound set-ups while playing a song.  But about a decade ago, Yamaha finally went back to supplying 4 direct registration buttons in this type of keyboard, and this includes the E463.

Beyond all of this, the E463 includes synthesizer-like features like filter cutoff, resonance, envelope generator, digital signal processing (for a variety of additional effects like phase shifter and rotary speaker) and sampling.  The E463 also includes a 6-track sequencer and the ability to save your sounds and settings on a USB flash drive.

As for the EZ-play "single finger" chords, as far as I can tell by looking at the manual to the PSR-275, this feature is nearly identical on both keyboards.

So, yeah, given a choice, I would definitely keep the E463 over the 275.  Or, if you really want to have fun, you can set both of them up like an organ, with the E463 as the top keyboard, and the 275 as you lower keyboard.  Doing this would allow you to really orchestrate your sounds during a song by not only being able to switch between different registrations on the E463, but to also have another sound set up to use at the same time on your 275.

[antonio45]

@SciNote
Thanks for the reply.
It's really helpful in making a decison. Thanks

Your last remark:

Or, if you really want to have fun, you can set both of them up like an organ, with the E463 as the top keyboard, and the 275 as you lower keyboard

Thanks for that.
I have a problem with space. One keyboard is downstairs and the other is upstairs.
Merging them into one stand would solve that and ( hopefully) multiply my choices .

Thanks, It will be my " project of the day " to consider this.
Note: I often wondered about this when I was watching many, many videos on youtube. But the wondering always stopped at the end of the video 

[antonio45]

@SciNote
Thanks for the tip.
Have done so already. Took me the best part of the day.
It doesn't look very 'professional' , but it certainly (can) function as such.

Again, thanks.

[SciNote]

Great!  Glad I could offer the suggestion.  Now, you can do things like play strings with the left hand on your 275 while playing something else, like a synth lead, on the 463!  Or, you can set up the rhythm and single-finger chords for a background on the left side of the 275, and then have a melody voice, like piano or brass on the 463.  And at the same time, you can set up a split voice on the 463, such as strings, and then even have another voice split on the 275, like a guitar.  Or, if you prefer a style on the 463, you can even use the left side of the 463 for the rhythm and chords, while using the right side of the 463, as well as both sides (split and main/dual voices) of the 275, for different melody sounds!

With a set up like this, you can play a song and have direct access to four distinct sound set-ups -- the style/drums/chords on one keyboard, the main/dual voices on that keyboard, the main/dual voices of the other keyboard, and the split voice of that keyboard -- allowing you to easily change the instrumentation of the song you're playing for different verses, choruses, bridge, or solos, without having to press any buttons during the song after you initially set up your sounds before playing the song!

And what if you want to record your performances?  Well, you can mic it to a recording device, but it would be hard to get full sound quality that way.  The other option would be to run the outputs of the 463 and the 275 through a small mixer, which could then go to an amp and speakers.  At that point, depending on the mixer or amp, you would just run the output through an analog-to-digital converter, which could the go to a DAW (digital audio workstation) or computer running DAW software to digitally record your playing.  Some mixers and amps even have the analog-to-digital converter built in to them.  I think the 463 has a digital output built in to it, but you would only be able to record the 463 with it, not the 275.

[antonio45]

@SciNote

Thanks a lot for all the suggestions, which are also guidelines to me.
It will take some time before I am there.
I have been reading many posts here on PST Tutorial and Forum, and realize I should have come here years ago.
But it's never to late, they say

Again, thanks a lot