Older keyboard models are still great!

[Toril S]

Hello friends!
There has not been much new from Yamaha for a while, and we keyboardplayers are a little disappointed. And we speculate about when new models will come forward, and how they will be. This is great fun, and I guess if you choose to play a complicated instrument like a keyboard, you also have some interest in techy stuff, you have to love gadgets We are looking ahead, we want improvements, new features, and that is as it should be.

But there are very fine musicians on this forum playing older keyboards and sounding great, for instance Gary and Drake with their S950's. In my town we have a pro musician that have made many records, and he is gigging almost every day with his TYROS 3! I asked him recently if he had considered buying a Genos, but no, he is satisfied whit the T3! Yes, newer models have more voices, more memory, more expansion and so on, but the fact is that all arrangers made in the two last decades sound good, and can be used both for home entertainment and for gigs. They are reliable workhorses. Happy playing on new and old keyboards

[EileenL]

Yes Toril some people are quite happy with what they have and have spent time setting them up as they want them. Others like to move on to new technology and better styles and sounds. As long as you enjoy what you do that is the main thing.

[RobertM]

Hi Toril,
Couldn't agree more!  My first "real" keyboard was a PSR 3000 and the recordings I made on it still stack up against the SX900. I used the 3K for 10 years, and loved it's relative simplicity.
I'll still buy the next model though............😊
Best wishes,
Robert.

[Oldden]

Still got and now and then play my psr3000. Was a great keyboard when it came out, and still has a place.

[Gunnar Jonny]

"Older keyboard models are still great!"

Yes they are, no doubt about it.👍
But at the other hand, if everybody stick to those 'older' models and stay happy with that, why should the manufacturer bother to develop and create new models?
I'm pretty sure I could do most of what I want to do within my abilities and limitations if I kept my old Technics KN's, but I always look forward to the new models with exitement.
If anything tempt me enough, I'll buy it. That way it will be someone that can be a happy owner of what I sell. 
Anyway, if I deside to buy a Korg PA?X-76, I will keep my Genos until Yamaha manage to convince me to buy something else... i.e. Genos 2. 
Just now it looks like Korg is ahead of Yamaha to present news, it's sceduled to June 30 ....

Found at Korg forum:

https://www.facebook.com/Sudclaviers/
Google translate
Quote:
We invite you to discover in preview on June 30 THE long-awaited novelty.
A new generation of powerful arranger keyboard with new functions and limitless possibilities.
This live presentation will allow you to discover the instrument in detail, we hope many of you.
https://youtu.be/gDiDUF0kNQw

[Oldden]

I think old musical instruments sometimes seem to have a life or their own. I still remember my Hammond t400 going back to god knows when, and would still like to have a play if I still had it. I have not long given away a psr520 hanging about in my loft to someone who would like to learn the basic but haven't got the cash. I gave away my Yamaha D65 some years ago to an old folks home who had a player but no money. So a keyboard might be old but they might still have a use and a life.
My Genos is my love at the moment , but in the future who knows.

[andyg]

I wouldn't class my S970 as 'old', but it still does everything I need. I've been mulling over the SX900 but surprisingly some of the voices I regularly use on the 970 don't appear on the SX900, not even in Legacy! So I'd have to have both! And in the loft is an E443 - no point in changing for an E473, even though the step up is a good one.

One of my students has just restarted lessons after a 'pandemic break' and has an old E403. It still does the business!

Prior to getting my current Roland AT900P organ I had a 1989 Kawai SR6 organ and a 1970 Leslie speaker. That made a great sound (I'm biased, of course, as I helped design that organ!) And before that a 1970 Hammond T400.

Nothing wrong with the oldies, including me! 

[DrakeM]

I am still waiting on 2023, when my S950 will be 10 years old. I won't sell it, but plan to use it as a backup keyboard. Hopefully a new SX-x00 will be coming out before then with the newer sounding PEDAL STEEL GUITAR in it and the toggle lever. I would then have something new to learn and master playing.

The newer styles on the board would be nice but wouldn't cause me to make an upgrade purchase. Electronic sounds aren't my thing to use and the guitar sounds are just perfectly fine that are on the S950.

One Happy Yammi Camper here.  

I have started using my Yamaha 510 to teach my young grandson on it this past week. Hope he gets hooked. 

[Oldden]

Looking at remembering very old keyboards, I was once given a Phillips Phillicordia single manual keyboard to play with. It was way out of tune and was valve driven with a valve for every note and tuning pots. I remember trying to get it in tune using a "borrowed" plastic knitting needle filed to a screwdriver end. Did it in the end but it wandered off whenever it wanted to. Happy Days.

[mikf]

They add features, tweak voices, give us new styles, change the "look", but the fundamental technology in arrangers hasn't really changed much in almost 20 years. The technology has essentially plateaued, so improvements are small. Many of us like to have the latest, or like some new features, but to most listeners, what we play on a 15 year old model would sound pretty much the same as on one we bought last week.
Mike

[SciNote]

Count me in here, as well!  I'm still using my PSR-E433 that's almost 9 years old.  I've spent years tweaking my settings and have gotten some really lush orchestral sounds, as well as some new wave type synth sounds, out of it.  And the key feel of that keyboard is still better than any of its successors, and that includes the E473, though the E473 is pretty good.

Yamaha has still not added some basic features that I would have wanted on an updated version of my keyboard, such as the sustain pedal being able to sustain both sides of a split keyboard, additional registration slots, and portamento (which they have on the similar PSR-I500, but did not include on the new E473).  Plus, Yamaha made a mistake -- in my opinion -- of moving the live control knobs farther away from the keyboard, so that a player cannot just hold down notes with his left hand while tweaking the knobs with other fingers of his left hand, like it's possible to do on my E433.

Yamaha has certainly added a nice complement of effects to the newest model, but I also have a Roland Gaia SH-01 synth that helps satisfy my need for portamento and effects -- and while I've only had that keyboard for about 2 years, it is a model first introduced way back in 2010!

I may consider the E473, but I'm in no hurry.

[mixermixer]

In the SEA region, I see Tyros 2,3,4 and old PSR S series are still kicking around. Although really dated in terms of the sound quality, I guess they just don't die lol.

[Keyboard Master]

I totally agree. I bought a psr s770 back in 2015 and still use it.

[aprilla]

I'll never get to do all my S900 offers me, and if someone offered me a PSR-5700 I'd take it in a heartbeat!

[ekurburski]

I have a psr 3000 I use as my main kb.  Not even close to figuring out  how to use everything I have on it,  I also still have a PSR 740 in my bedroom to practice on.  I suffer from gear envy but over $5000 for the new Korg isn't even close to a possibility.  Saw a comment on another forom "Young users may find it better to buy 10 $500 kbs than 1 $5000 one"  PI'm thinking of adding tha Korg E50.  a bunch of vst's as well.

Edit: Removed whitespace from post.

[Oldden]

Before this COVID started we were on holiday in Jamaica and a local entertainment group had a PSR 1500. They played reggae and sounded great. Old keyboards live forever, if you are lucky.

[Oldden]

When you think about it, we spend a fortune buying a Genos and then try to get it sound as good as a Hammond organ from the fifties or sixties. Hmmmm.

[Ryszard Bieszczad]

Francesco 
After all, the Yamaha psr 740 has been the best arranger in the world for years.
And it's still a great instrument.
Regards.

[Keyboardist]

Some of us don't have the latest keyboards yes ;but we tweak are older Keyboards to get the most we think we can out of them.
I push my keyboard and self over and over practicing tweaking etc until I think I get it right for me and the sounds I want.
With the new keyboards 'guess its the thrill of getting something a little different and experiment with when you can afford them.
I would venture to guess that a lot of people do not really use all of what their past keyboards can do before moving on to a new one and then the next one comes out and so forth.
Just don't get all caught up in all the fancy bells and whistles and practice with what your happy with as the instrument isnt always going to make you a better player; but constant practice will  !

Craig "Keyboardist"