sa2 voices on next psr

[matthewjames88]

Hi guys do you think Yamaha will include Sa2 voices on their next PSR SX range? I miss them on my S970. I keep my tyros for the Sa2 voices. It would be great to see them on a PSR.

[andyg]

Yamaha like to keep certain sounds or features for specific models or series. I think SA2 will be reserved for Genos series, but if they do appear on the PSR-SX series, I'd guess you'll get just a few of them.

[Fábio]

If Yamaha put SA2 voices in the next SX, I would certainly be one of the first to purchase such an instrument, as I think the genos2 is a bit big to transport!

[Amwilburn]

If Yamaha put SA2 voices in the next SX, I would certainly be one of the first to purchase such an instrument, as I think the genos2 is a bit big to transport!

I'm glad you said big, instead of too heavy; I have a customer who purchased Genos 1 (and 2) on day 1, but about a year after getting G1, he complained it was too heavy, and he was prepared to trade back down to Tyros 5-61 (he had T5-76 before, which was a 35.3lbs). Until I pointed out to him the 61 key T4 and T5 are both *heavier* than the 76 key Genos! (31lbs vs 28.7) which he had no idea until he came back into the store to try to lift them both (the G2 *is* heavier than the G1 though, at 31.3 lbs, but both are still lighter than the Tyros 5-76)

However, since the arrival of S.A2 in Tyros 3 back in 2008, they've kept the S.Art2 voices exclusive to the TOTLA series only; that doesn't mean they'll never put it on PSR, but they'd need something *else* new and exclusive for the TOTLAs. Until that new exclusive thing happens, I suspect S.Art2 will remain Tyros/Genos.

Yes, they could've kept Revo/Ambient drums exclusive to the TOTLA instead and given us S.Art2 in the PSR's, but the PSRA5000 actually does have Revo drums (twice as many as Genos, in fact), so there goes *that* exclusivity. So I'm assuming the SX920/sx720 (or whatever they're called) the sx720 will have the live kit versions of revo kits (in fact, historically, it'll be nearly identical to the current sx900) and the sx920 should give us Revo kits as well (and probably some sort of stripped down version of the new Ambient kits... hopefully). Oh, and I expect the next sx9xx to finally give us Kino Strings as well.

There needs to be a difference between the TOTLA and their mid levels. Korg made the PA4x and PA1000/700 have the *exact same sound library, and the moment the PA1000 hit we weren't able to sell PA4x anymore. At all. Yamaha did the same with the Tyros 1 and the PSR3000, and the same thing happened then, too.

Mark

[pjd]

I agree with Andy and Mark. The premium product (Genos) has to have something special to distinguish it from the rest of the product line.

Yamaha trickles down content from the high to the low. A lot of customers -- and Yamaha -- are driven by style realism, i.e., do the styles sound like a/the recording. Some of the style parts sound as though they are played live -- especially the newer drum parts. I was amazed at the newest Genos2 R&B styles, for example. I'm sure they were played in on a Yamaha electronic kit.

Style parts (playing and programming) operate in tandem with the factory voice set. Think of the styles and voices as a matched pair. That's why CVP/CSP models so strongly resemble their arranger-series counterparts. By keeping the matched pair together, Yamaha minimizes development cost.

When new styles tickle down to PSR, Yamaha must either convert the new styles for old (drum) instruments or add new (drum) instruments to match the existing MIDI data. That's how the almost-Revo Live drums came about. Someday, we'll see the same kind of substitution for Ambient drums.

Ambient drums need more waveform memory, and for now, they make Genos2 shine. The new REVelation reverb makes Genos2 shine. I don't think we'll see these in the new SX. My crystal ball says "720" and "920", and that "20" doesn't signal a major upgrade over 700/900.

These are darned fine instruments and I haven't completely plumbed the depths of Genos1 yet...

All the best -- pj

P.S. I've been sampling Genos instruments with the effects stripped away. Yamaha's effects really make a lot of voices.

Music blog: sandsoftwaresound.net

[Keyboard Master]

As of today the new sx models are out and sa2 voices did make it to the sx920. As we can see the FM sounds and revolution reverb remain only in the Genos2 so that means I assume Yamaha Made the FM exclusive to the psr and kept it only in the TOTLA for now. As Mark mentioned earlier.

[Amwilburn]

As of today the new sx models are out and sa2 voices did make it to the sx920. As we can see the FM sounds and revolution reverb remain only in the Genos2 so that means I assume Yamaha Made the FM exclusive to the psr and kept it only in the TOTLA for now. As Mark mentioned earlier.

Yup! It just needed to be *something* exclusive; in this case all the new drums from G2 (Ambient, orchestral, even new revo drums, none made it to any psr yet), as well as the DX7II sounds, the G2 pianos (but the G1 pianos *did* make it into sx920). One interesting thing is that the first keyboard with S.Art2 was the T3, and they didn't include all those S.Art2 sounds (most notably the Irish Pipes are missing). But they even added something new: S.Art+. Yes, technically G1 and G2 already had a similar feature with *some* voices using S.ARt 1, 2 and 3 switches, but S.Art plus takes a lot of those S.Art sounds from Genos 1, and adds SArt1,2,3 variations to them.

Cheers,
Mark