Yamaha 9000 Pro

My God I play 5 gigs a week average. Just got done with 40 in one month!
I am a pro musician for 20 years. I have playedwell over a 1500 performances in 5 years .Only 2 lockups that required a re start.
I now have the tyros 2.Though I will miss the 9000, its time to move on.
They may never make one like the 9000 again, damn slant eyes!

Version 2.04 is my OS - the latest update (probably last). This is my second 9000 Pro... I still own my first but it stays on stage or in my car and I really needed a studio keyboard to practice on and to create original music with. Honestly I am so used to work with the 9000 Pro after two years of ownership that I just couldn't imagine buying anything else, and there's no other keyboard like the 9000 Pro really (more on that later). Like others here I am discouraged at Yamaha's lack of support for this powerful instrument but there's no use bitching about it because Yamaha won't listen. This category says "ease of use", and my friends have commented that the 9000 Pro looks like the cockpit of an F-15 fighter jet... and it does! It's intimidating and loaded with buttons/knobs/controls of every kind imaginable (a total of 176 buttons, controls and switches and most of them do multiple functions - egads!). But it's laid out logically - mostly arranger functions on the left and mostly sound control fucntions and settings on the right. Once you focus on what you need it's relatively easy to use but this ain't no beginner's keyboard for sure! I'm not going to rate this keyboard on ease of use because that's a dumb category - if you want something easy to use then look elsewhere. The best term for this instrument is "comprehensive".

This is where the 9000 Pro rules. Built-in polyphony is 128 and it can be expanded (I've added a PLG150-PF and a PLG150-DX so my 9000 Pro's polyphony is 208). BTW: Yamaha has just announced a new triple-strike acoustic piano card called the PLG150-AP and it will work with the 9000 Pro (in fact, it can use two of them if you want a monster 128-note-polyphony grand piano). Effects are very nice and useful. 76-note keyboard action is great for "synth-weighted". It has a powerful built-in sequencer but never use it - I use a computer and Cakewalk Sonar for that.

What you really need to know about the 9000 Pro is this: it's a pro-level "arranger" keyboard, which means it has auto-accompaniment. The buttons for controlling the "styles" are very well laid out and you have a lot more options than the typical arrangerkeyboard for the intros/fills/verses/choruses/endings. A lot of pro players are jaded against arranger keyboards because of their association with home keyboards, but the 9000 Pro is a professional instrument in every respect. It has the sound engine of a Motif so the quality is there for any application you might have. Having an arranger section just means that you can jam with yourself if you want, and with so many studio using "loops" and stuff these days I really don't see much difference between using something like Acid and using an arranger keyboard (except the arranger is easier to use if you actually can play a keyboard). It's pretty handy to have one instrument that can serve as a stage keyboard for band work, studio work, or solo work... in fact, very few instruments can do this.

But we're only scratching the surface. The 9000 Pro has a complete digital mixer and separate effects/settings for a vocal mic input with a decent vocal harmonizer built-in to boot. And you can store song settings right along with vocal settings and mixer settings as named song patches for easy recall. You can even pull up samples with your presets. It would take a lot of outboard gear to duplicate that feat with most keyboards, if it could be done at all. That makes the 9000 Pro the most versatile keyboard around.

One other cool feature is built-in LittLite sockets: a pair of LittLite makes this thing glow on stage and illuminates not only the entire control and keyboard area but the music stand as well. Nice!

Again, the sounds of the 9000 Pro come from the highly-rated Motif so quality is quite evident. Works well for any kind of music. But don't forget that this keyboard is a one-man-band dream instrument so it includes sampling (mono only sadly), drums, bass, etc. all very high quality. Simply great sounds across the board.

Yep, built like a tank. I have used my original 9000 Pro for two years with no backup and no problems, but I got a second one anyway.

Yamaha customer support is great when it is behind an instrument and is pushing it (like the Motifs), but they NEVER supported the 9000 Pro properly even before they discontinued it early in 2004. I wonder if the Yamaha product development manager for the 9000 Pro was disliked by the rest of the company or something. Such a brilliant instrument and such poor support - why? No voice editors exist anywhere shamefully.

I now own two 9000 Pro's - why not when you can get them at bargain prices now that it's discontinued? Not only that but Yamaha seems determined not to produce another instrument like it - there are no pro-level 76-key arranger keyboards made by Yamaha currently or in the foreseeable future. Yet I know of nothing that can compare to it, and that includes thet overpriced competition from Korg (Pa1XPro). You can't expand the Korg PA1XPro beyond 62 notes of polyphony but you could take the 9000 Pro all the way to 256 notes of polyphony if you wanted (that puts it on par with Yamaha's most expensive home keyboards like the CVP-900). And polyphony is very important for an arranger/SMF user that wants to get all of their sound from one instrument. BTW: you can add a hard drive to the 9000 Pro and call up your midi file backings easily on stage. Combine that with the integrated vocal features, sampling, and the ability to store practically EVERYTHING as song patches for easy recall makes the 9000 Pro the best instrument of it's kind ever created. It's really a hybrid of the best features of a home keyboard and a pro keyboard. I don't understand why it got cold-shouldered by many pro players - they probably just never got to see and play one because Yamaha dealers thought the 9000 Pro was a "speciality item" and didn't display or stock it. It was too sophisticated for home users and since it lacks any kind of digital outputs it didn't appeal to pro users that were more apt to go for a Motif. So it fell between the cracks... but that suits me fine because the less people know about the 9000 Pro the cheaper they'll become. I can't imagine anyone not loving this instrument if they tried it.

This is a follow-up to my initial post below. While I still enjoy using the 9000 Pro, in the past eight months of owning it I've gotten to know Yamaha better and I don't like what I've seen. Yamaha is just weird... recently they released a new 2.03 OS for the 9000 Pro then removed it from the web a couple of days later with no explanation. From reading some newsgroups some people installed 2.03 with no problems, but a contributor who works for Yamaha said it would be best not to upgrade past 2.02 for now and no explanation for what happend to the 2.03 upgrade was given ro any word on when a new upgrade would be ready. Yamaha also has been dragging it's heels badly in releasing any kind of voice editing support for the 9000 Pro and probably never will. While they are gung-ho on releasing OPT panels and voice editors for the cheaper and smaller Tyros home keyboard, they haven't done any of that for the so-called "flagship" 9000 Pro. Word is that Yamaha is planning on discontinuing the 9000 Pro as soon as current stocks are sold. Although they've officially denied this, you can tell... they aren't doing much of any promoting or supporting of it. So while the 9000 Pro is still one of the most under-rated and powerful arranger keyboards in the world, Yamaha is treating it and it's user base like an unwanted stepchild.

There's no other keyboard like the 9000 Pro that combines so many features in one instrument. There are some who say that this is the keyboard's main problem - that too many functions were put in for the processor to handle. That could be true though I haven't had any problems with mine. If Yamaha supported the 9000 Pro better, it would be a solid 10 all around. Since they don't, it's hard to decide what to think.

The 9000 PRO Revision 2 is Yamaha's Flagship workstation/arranger keyboard that features over 840 sounds, 126 voice polyphony, a 76 key semi-weighted synth action, built in multitrack sequencer, Mixer, Multi-FX, sampling, two PLG expansion slots, optional internal hard drive, a SCSI 2 port, PC to host port, and its very easy to use. The large 240 x 320 backlit LCD display and illuminated switches facilitate editing and make the learning curve of the 9000 Pro very short. Function buttons (with LED's) pertaining to song selection, style, and accompaniment are located on the left side of the keyboard while buttons for sounds, registrations, vocal harmony, and PLG boards are located on the right side of the keyboard. The editing of sounds, sequences, samples, effects, and mixer functions are done via controls located in the center on opposite sides of the LCD display and via the "Next" and "Back" buttons located just to the bottom right of the display. Increment/decrement buttons and a large Data wheel further simplify editing. A "Direct Access" button allows instant access to many of the 9000 Pro's multi menu functions by pressing "Direct access", and then selecting the function you want to edit i.e. sounds, styles, mixer, etc.. Just to the right of the display are six illuminated buttons dedicated to touch response, voice DSP, harmony/echo, rotor speed slow/fast, sustain, and poly/mono mode.

Keyboard: 76 Keys (E0-G6) Synth-weighted with Touch Response (Initial/After)

Polyphony: 126 Notes, expandable via PLG boards to as many as 254 voices.

Voices: 848 Presets (342 Voices + 480 XG Voices + 24 Drum Kits + 2 SFX Kits), 32 Custom Voices, 10 Preset + 10 User programmable Organ Flutes (9 Footages using Physical Modeling Technology). Sixteen sound categories with dedicated switches makes sound selection very simple and fast.

Plug-In System: 2 Plug in slots for Yamaha's PLG boards. Installing a PLG board into the 9000 Pro adds more polyphony, sounds, and new features. PLG sounds can then be edited via the Plug-in Custom Voice Creator or by hooking the 9000 Pro up to a computer using the supplied editing software.

Sampling: 16 bit, 44.1kHz Mono with file import for AIFF and WAV files. Sampler editing features include: Resampling, Loop Point, Normalize, Volume, and Tune. Sample memory stock is 1MB, expandable up to 65MB using 72 pin SIMMS.

Effects: Reverb (29 Preset + 3 User), Chorus (25 Preset+3 User), DSP for Style and Song (164 Preset), 4 x DSP for Voices (164 Preset + 10 User), DSP for Mic (84 Preset + 10 User), Vocal Harmony (59 Preset + 10 User, 3 notes polyphony), Harmony/Echo (17 Preset ), Master EQ (2 Preset + 2 User 5 Band), 29 x Part EQ (2 Band).

Realtime Controllers: Pitch Bend Wheel, Modulation Wheel, multiple footswitch inputs.

Auto Accompaniment: 125 Preset Styles + 87 factory-set Flash Styles (max. 1.8MB). Disk Direct Play (Style Disk bundled with 66 Disk Styles) 15 sections x 8 parts, Sync Start, Sync Stop
Recording: Realtime Rec., Step Rec., Event Edit, Full Parameter Edit, Pattern Assembly, Groove & Dynamics

One Touch Setting: 4 per Style (fully programmable)

Music Database: 616 memory locations (fully programmable)

Registration Memory: 512 (8 Switches x 64 Banks), Freeze function

Multi Pad: 4 Pads x 60 Banks max. (approx. 12,200 notes total)
Recording: Realtime Rec., Step Rec., Event Edit

Song: Disk Direct Playback with Ultra Quick Start function, Lyrics Display
Recording: Quick Rec., Multi-track Rec., Step Rec., Chord Step Rec., Event Edit
Memory: 16 tracks, approx. 38,000 notes max.

Display: Backlit Graphic LCD 240 x 320 dots with contrast control

Language: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian

Floppy Disk Drive: 3.5" 2HD/2DD with Disk Cache

SCSI Format SCSI 2: Hard Disk, CD-ROM*2, Zip(R), Jaz(R), MO (8GB max. per device)

Video Out: NTSC, PAL

PC Keyboard: PC/AT Standard

Gooseneck Lamp Sockets: 2 Sockets with Dimmer (4 Pin XLR Connector DC 12V/5W max., 12 inches or shorter in length)

Bundled Software: Disk Styles, Factory Data Backup Disk, Plug-in Custom Voice Disk

Optional Accessories: Foot Switch (FC5/FC4), MIDI Foot Controller (MFC-10), Foot Volume (FC7), Headphones (HPE-160), Keyboard Stand (LG-100), Internal Hard Disk (2.5-inch IDE, 8GB max.)

A USB Interface Port is also available for the 9000 Pro from Musitronics (www.Musitronics.de)

While the 9000 Pro isn't difficult to use, you will find yourself referring to the manual often because the features of the workstation are quite extensive. The internal mixer and effects alone will take a while to grasp as they allow very elaborate mixes to be done directly from the 9000 Pro. With stereo outputs plus four individual audio outputs, sounds can be fed to an external mixer should you require it. While in most cases the internal effects are more than ample, a built in effects loop with send and return jacks is implemented on the back of the 9000 Pro should you desire to send the audio of the 9000 Pro to an external FX device for further processing. Two MIDI inputs, two MIDI outputs, multiple foot switch inputs, a to host computer port, PC/AT keyboard port, and SCSI 2 port are all implemented. In addition two XLR sockets for optional gooseneck lamps with an adjustable dimmer switch are also provided allowing lighting for the 9000 Pro in

Most of the sounds in the 9000 Pro are truly wonderful. The Live Piano, Live Strings, Sweet Flute, Sweet Soprano Sax, Cool EP, and Live Drums and Percussion are as good as it gets. The newly sampled sounds are some of the best I've heard on any sampler. Yamaha certainly spent quite a bit of time getting these sounds right and it really shows. With over 840 sounds to choose from there are more than enough to please even the most finicky person. Sounds can be edited using the Custom Voice Creator which allows filtering (two types), envelopes, real time controls, and mapping. Edited sounds can then be stored to Flash RAM or disk. For those users who do require more sounds, the two PLG expansion slots allow you to add more sounds, extra polyphony, and new features by installing PLG boards. My 9000 Pro has the PLG150-AN Analog Physical Modeling board and a PLG150-VL Virtual Acoustic Modeling board installed. The AN board provides many of the classic vintage synthesizer sounds... Oberheim, Prophet, ARP, and Moog sounds were easily conjured up on the 9000 Pro. The apreggiator on the AN board can be MIDI tempo controlled and synched with the sequencer in the 9000 Pro. The VL board adds acoustic modeled sounds such as sax, horns, guitars, and plucked string style instruments. Where the VL board truly shines is on horns and woodwinds. Stack the VL Soprano Sax sound along with the 9000 Pro's Sweet Soprano Sax and you'll instantly be Kenny G or Dave Koz. The sound is truly amazing and very expressive. The VL boards only major limitation is that its monophonic. While a MIDI Wind controller like Yamaha's WX7 can be hooked up to the 9000 Pro to further utilize the VL boards vast capabilities, it would have been nice to see a breath controller input on the 9000 Pro for us more musically challenged wannabe woodwind players.

If you intend to gig with the 9000 Pro you'll certainly be getting a workout because the 9000 Pro is built like a tank and weighs nearly 50 lbs! The Revision 2 software seems very stable and the instrument works like a champ. Since the 9000 Pro's Operating System is stored in Flash RAM its simple and easy to install future updates.

Yamaha's customer support has been quite good. Software updates are readily available for the 9000 Pro via download from Yamaha's website. Whenever I had a question about the 9000 Pro I'd call or e-mail Yamaha and replies were always prompt. I would like to see Yamaha release future software updates that expand the 9000 Pro's PLG board editing features further as well as develop MIDI Timecode for the sequencer which would be very useful.

Overall I would give the 9000 Pro a rating of 9 out of 10. With 126 voice polyphony, great sounds, internal mixing and effects, a sequencer that's easy to use, sampling, and expandability, it certainly met most of my needs. While the 9000 Pro isn't cheap, it certainly offers a lot of bang for your buck. I considered the Motif 7 and 8 before buying the 9000 Pro but with the PLG expansion cards installed, the 9000 Pro has most of the features of the Motif series with the added plus of having 132 voices (more than double that of the Motif Series). In fact, with a PLG Piano board and a PLG-GM board installed, the 9000 Pro's polyphony is a staggering 254 voices! The few complaints I do have with the 9000 Pro are minor and mostly related to software issues that Yamaha could easily implement in future OS upgrades. Anyone looking for a great arranger workstation or writing tool owes it to themselves to check out the 9000 Pro as it's definitely worth serious consideration!

I am using v2.01 OS. I found the Yamaha 9000 Pro (9kPro) very easy to use, in fact much easier than any previous Yamaha synth I've ever used. It's laid out very logically, styles/accompaniment/songfiles on the left and sound chooser on the right. There are a LOT of buttons though ! Fortunately, the optional gooseneck lights help a lot on stage. I highly recommend getting the PLG150-PF GRand Piano expansion card, which has a better acoustic piano sound than the stock 9kPro and adds 64 notes of polyphony. The manual is easy to understand. For a sophisticated instrument, I don't think it could be better designed. NO keyboard this powerful is easy, but the experienced player will have no trouble navigating around at all.

The 9kPro has 128 note polyphony stock... but if you use this keyboard as it's meant to be used, with the accompaniment or song playback while playing it live with layered sounds, that polyphony gets used fast. Remember that great sounds, like the organ on this keyboard, use layered voices which eat up polyphony. Most keyboard companies don't tell you that but Yamaha does in the ads for this unit. For serious solo live performance, I think adding the expansion cards is a must (it can take up to two). If you are just going to play with a band, this keyboard is overkill feature-wise anyway and you can do better buying something else. The 9KPro is meant for wedding singers and pro soloists. You can add a hard drive (recommended), sampling RAM and expansion cards. The keyboard action is synth-weighted, which means no-weight, but at least it isn't mushy or wiggly. The best feature is that you can store wave samples, vocal/harmonizer settings, mixer and much more as performance setups for instant recall. The performance patches provided are very good. No other keyboard can store all that info at one time. Seems to be a great MIDI controller also. I don't use on-board sequencers so I can't tell you much about that except that the 9K Pro has one and it looks impressive. Excellent modern-sounding accompaniment also, especially in the contemporary jazz and latin motif, which is what's happening these days. Features galore... you won't get bored anytime soon.

The 9kPro has some of the best sounds I've ever heard. Particularly good is the drums and percussion, brass and bass sounds. I've heard better pianos and strings (like Kurzweil), but Kurzweil makes nothing like the 9kPro. Now get this: the 9kPro will play back GM files but it's obvious that Yamaha would rather have you switch to XG files because the GM sounds on the 9kPro are bland and very simple. Use a sequencer program to change those sounds to XG equivalents and you have some killer music. It's worth the effort. I know Yamaha competes with Roland but the way they make regular GM sounds as dull as they can and spice up the XG sounds is an obvious tact. I deducted a point for that. The auto-accompaniment has more variety than any other keyboard I know of, so even when you are just twiddling on stage with stock backing styles, you can add lots of variety.

This thing is built very solid. I am now depending on it completely for my gig. Yamaha has more experience building musical instruments than nearly anyone so I trust this keyboard to last for many years with proper care. Common sense says buy the best case for it that you can.

Fortunately I haven't had to use customer support yet, but there sure is a wealth of info on the web about Yamaha products.

The Yamaha 9000 Pro has no peers except for some of the more expensive and non-portable home keyboards, and they don't sound as good as this does. This is Yamaha's flagship, and it sounds and looks like one. I love how the gooseneck lights give it a glow on stage that is bright enough to light up my sheet music. Since I maxed out the expansion cards, I have 208 note polyphony. The display could be a little better. Good song file management. The Performance features are way over anything on any other keyboard. For the serious solo performer, this is as good as it gets. One button will call up a myriad of sounds/effects/samples/mixer settings/styles and more. For the studio or ensemble performer, you won't use half of this instrument and since this thing is very expensive, it'll only pay for itself if it IS the band. The Yamaha 9000 Pro is a 21st century keyboard like no other.