Yamaha PSR-9000

Using the final & unfortunate offering of Version 3.06

Presets sound about 85% decent..IF more than 32 lousy custom voices were allowed i would be in high heaven!what a d*m shame, over 900voices and 32 ittsy bittsy spaces availavle to escape the rather dull voices. Wrote yammy about increasing to 64, with a "nope, not interested in that thx"
I give it a 9/10 because the custom voice is to long a process with the dumb buttons that were changed from the PSR8000's scroll type..
B-I-G MASSIVE mistake of a upgrade,some1 somking crack on that "upgrade"

Poly is 126 and very superb! i am always in the vicinity of +100's,so don't go getting a childs 64poly machine!
Effects= 10/10 BUT my dream keyboard would HAVE 2 separate DSP's
the accmp section..OH and yamaha listen the h*ll up:all those unchecked box's at the rear of the manual stating what the 9000 can/can't 'save' SHAME! i should be able to save ANY Accmp-type DSP's(tempodelay/wah etc), in the 64registration banks..also what gives with NOT being able to "REDO" say the brightness/reverb, after i do a Midi song..i would need a CP to go throught all those events!

80% or so of the voices are sooo very dull which is why i SO desperatly was after yammz azz about giving me room to actually do something about the retarded 32 available spots out of the
offered 900+voices..

I used to have monthly issues of the dreaded "assertion failure" lock up..i seem to have found a loophole in a fix..make sure the "Chorus-DSP" has a max of +44FB-level, if set to "flanger"..took me years to comes accross this,and it has been about 2yrs since the failures.

customer support= 7/10,because at least there were a few OS upgrades, though my yamaha dealer i bought it from gets a 1/10 for acting like there were to be many years of new updates! :(
Overall= 6/10

Though i probable got ripped off at intial purchase of $3500, back in July/2002, I would definatly buy it again (used pricing of course)

I refuse to ever part with this PSR9000! Though i write as though i hate this KB, quite the opposite, i actuall have a great passion for it,besides if i wanted the 9000PRO, it would never had fit into my little room, with it's 76keybed!

I have owned it about 6 months and I love it! I put a hard drive in it and 64 megs for the sampling feature. So I loaded thousands of styles in it and put online Registrations in it so ONE touch sets up everything. The DATABASE feature is COOL too! Lots of song styles loaded ONE touch! I have owned xp80 and other boards in the past but this ONE Sounds GREAT!

128 polyphony!
Speakers good for small affair. Love the vocal harmoniser feature ... 40 or more different harmony types, 4 part country men, 2 girl harmony,ect,ect,ect.. so it sounds like backup vocal group!
With THE PADS I have 4 extra intruments I can add to any style... for example I can press PAD 1 and it will play SAX solo so it matchs my chord changes, pad 2 can be Guitar STRUMBS, pad 3 can be Piano ruffs... all chord sensitive! And online I downloaded many BANKS of PADS so with One touch I can add ALL types of extra sounds ect to Really Break of the Song!
3 intros, 3 endings,4 breaks,4 variations for every Style!
I have thousands of midi's loaded on it and 1250 midi's can be loaded in the Banks 250 midi's per Bank (5 banks)...
i have 1000 songs that are karakoe... and i can plug any TV or monitor in it so it shows the Words on the monitor!
The PRS 9000 also breaks down the Chords of any midi or any style so it shows anyone I play with the Chords I'm playing (Em7,D9, ect) ...nice feature if playing with Guitar player!

Cool Sounds and Sweet Sounds GREAT!
Love the Rock, Classical, Dance,ect styles!
I guess it depends on how Good a Musician you are! I've been playing since I was 5 years old ... and with anything ... if you suck as a Musician you will suck if you play the psr9000!:) GRIN!

i bought it from MARS music on Clearance for 1699!

The weight is 50 pounds so it's on the heavy side ... but it has pretty solid speakers (wood encased)!
I can make any music I can dream up ...so great for song writer ...ect!

I have owned the PSR8000 for a few years, and have been anticipating the PSR9000. At a music store I checked out the PSR9000, only noticing that it is very similar to the PSR8000. This keyboard is very easy to use, probably the easiest to use in the market, and it is way more heavier than the 8000 due to the wooden enclosed speakers(which means louder, more powerful speakers). The PSR9000 is a beauty, since the sound banks are similar, and have been updated from the 8000.

The polyphony increase (64 to 126) is a great improvement since the PSR8000. Great stuff, 128 should be standard in all synths I rekon. For the action, I don't understand why Yamaha would put such a shocking keys on suck a high end keyboard. Yamaha could put the DX-7 style actioned keys (same as the triton) on this machine but they don't. Why? I don't know. The 9000 pro has this, why not the PSR9000?
No expansion boards possible, but there is sampling. One beautiful thing about this PSR9000 and PSR8000 is the fact that you can install a hard disk inside the unit. Beautiful! You won't ever need discs ever again! (unless for backup). One thing I've noticed in the PSR9000 is that when you press any button, its responses are much slower than the 8000. Stuffy, when you want to work quickly through the menus (or is it the software version?) The tempo dial is a great improvement, but Yamaha has made a tragedy on the individual volume controls (just below the screen). The PSR8000 had scrolling wheels (just like your PC mouse scrolls) But now it's been replaced by sqaure buttons! Uhh! how are we supposed to control volume levels of patches and accompniment now? press them about 50 times to get our desired volume level?
The drums are a great improvement too. The AB style drum banks have been extended to 4 drum styles and fills. Good stuff. Very easy to use and control live. I love the styles Yammy has too.

I have over the years been taking the PSR8000's sound for granted, but having a fresh listen to the 9000, the sounds are fabulous! Nobody does EP's better than Yamaha, period. And all the sounds are great. I love the brass patch. The piano's are just there, but don't ever use them! they are shocking. I would recommend using Roland modules for that job. Well, the sounds are hard to edit, but features heaps of good registration memories. Nobody else does such a good job with user registeries than Yamaha. They're good!

I'd like to say that this synth weighs 20Kg. It's a block. Even a 88 note Yamaha P-80 weighs less.

Overall, the PSR9000 is a great purchase, but it didn't win my heart to replace the PSR8000. Many functions in the 8000 are still great. And after seeing the 9000pro in action, that's such a level above the PSR series. That's a professional instrument there. I'd like to get that if I can.
I own a Roland XP-80 with 2 expansions. The Roland really gets me going because it's a great professional synth. The PSR9000 is not to me a so called 'professional' instrument. But who cares, at the end of the day, sound is the most important thing isn't it? I also have a PSR8000 I've had for few years. It's broken down and is gone for repairs. Having both Yamaha and Roland, I have the best in all sound department covered. But for me, the PSR9000 is a no-no.

I have version 2.1, the manual is excellent.

Not as versatile as I would like - see notes below.

The improvement in sounds, and the new sounds are definitely amazing.
Changing the 'tempo' from buttons on the psr8000 to a dial on the 9000 is a real winner. Expressiveness, sounds, are all fantastic.

In the physical sense, the machine always goes well, there are heaps of improvement in how much it can handle at once over the psr8000.
However, (I have written more notes below to support this)mostly no, I don't feel I can depend on it in a gig except if you want to use it in the true 'keyboard' style of just playing a chord in the left hand and a melody in the right. Unless one does a lot of preprogramming beforehand!

I haven't had to get the 9000 repaired, but with both the 8000 and 9000, I have had lots of support whenever I need more help in understanding the machine.

I had a PSR8000 for 2 yrs and then it was stolen. Our Insurance company replaced it with a psr9000, which I have not enjoyed anywhere as much as the 8000. The 'full keyboard' option on the 8000 allowed me to play classical pieces and the programming picked up what I was playing from anywhere on the keyboard, whether it was single or multiple notes being played at once, and played rich appropriate chords in support. It was wonderful. However, this option on the 9000 has been changed in that three notes of the chord have to be played at once for it to pick up the chord which has totally ruined it for me. Also, I find the keyboard too heavy to carry around frequently for school production practices, etc. I am seriously considering selling it and buying a PSR8000 again.

Software V2

Fairly easy to navigate, but not as easy as some. Poly 126 is good - but 8 elements per tone can bring this down very bad. Buttons platic and fidly. Its not as easy to use as some would think

I wanted a keyboard that you can use as a keyboard, so harmoniser, sampler (useless)are two of many things unwanted on this board. To many gimmicks I'm afraid.

Sonuds? - well, thereare what is called sweet & live sounds, but its a good job they are there because the rest of the sounds are very very very bland indeed. I AM NOT IMPRESSED WITH THE SOUNDS ON THIS BOARD.

only had it 2 months before selling it, but didn't go wrong on me in that time

didn't need customer support, because Ihad it a short while only. But yamaha being yamaha.....

It really had to go, and i part exchaned it for a KN6500. I had a KN5000 before this, and that was better than this. The KN6500 absolutley BLOWS it away in all departments. Vocal sounds, Strings, Solo sounds, and PIANO - brilliant

Never want to see a PSR again - and having tried the Pro 9000 the same applies to that too. It is to cheesy full stop. you can't create modern "Dance" music to save your life on this, but with the Technics KN6500 - it puts many synths to shame

Realy Good

Exerlante....

Very nice BUT THE PSR9000 Pro IS BETTER

Good But heavy

When i asked about the stand and speakers

Very nice keyboard But the PSR9000 Pro is realy nice a must have, As for my Technics KN6000 Its the bin after listening and playing with the YAMAHA Pro and 9000 norm

I have the V2 version and the sounds are fantastic. The Manual takes a little bit to grasp and understand, but once you get to understand it, you can fly through it with ease. The pads are close to within quick reach for quick change ups. It has been designed with the Music Artist in mind.

I have created a Double CD with the 9000 and I can say I pushed the Polyphony to it's limit with the amount of Instruments and other whistles and never had it truncated or became distorted. Like I said, I created a Double CD Album without adding or expanding. The coolest feature is the second foot switch to switch Registration to the next section without ever taking your hands off the keys.

The SweetInstruments are the best. They are withiot Comparison.The Symphony in Ober and Live are just fantastic. I feel as a New Age Recording Artist with 9 CD Albums out, that the Repsonse in constant change ups as in New Age music is is awesome. I lovethe depth that it allows in the sounds and SFX. The Response time is within milliseconds and that is a welcome from me. The Aftiouch is okay, but the Velocity just keeps coming. High Rating in the New Age Music category.

I had used the PSR9000 in some Big gigs and the Flash Memory is so cool in remembering all those registrations and pad controls.
I still use a Double Stacker with the PSR9000 and the PSR8000.. Back up? Whats that? Unless it falls out of a plane at 30,000 feet, I need no back up to this Keyboard. As for the other brands I have used?I wouldnt walk out the door without two keyboards in the cases.

They werent very helpful when I asked them about a Keyboard case for the 9000. Other than that, I have never used the Customer Support.

I have been playing for over 10 years and have 9 CD Albums out. The latest Double CD is on the PSR9000 Solely. All my other Albums have been exclusively on the other Yamaha Keyboards.
Maybe the other Keybaords are great with a Band. But as a New Age Artist and needing tons of room within a Melody and depth, the Yamaha 9000 is without comparison. I have performed live to thousands if people alone on stage with Yamaha. I have had Top Pros coming up to me and cant believe that I did a two hour Show with Yamaha and the sounds that came out of it. You can put it down or shove it to the side if you want. I have made Roland, Korg and the other Keyboard Player turn their heads to see what I am using.
You want to create Serious music on a CD? Then focus and learn the PSR9000. Because it is for serious Artists. Yamaha and I are one. My CD Albums are Testimony to it!

Software verion in use: ver 2.11 (latest as of this writing)
Presets:

Editing: You can edit every voice and style on the PSR-9000 with ease. Everything is customizable and easily accessable. No going from screen to screen to screen to screen (like Korg).

Manual: The Owner's Manual is good at explaining the basic functions and "how to" kind of stuff. It does contain some reference material but it's short in explaining how to sequence stuff or combine a midi/live performance effectively. Just a few things that I'd like to understand better.

POLYPHONY: 126 notes (Korg I30, Solton X1, Technics KN6000 only have 64)

INITIAL-TOUCH/AFTER-TOUCH: Yes, pressure sensitive keys help make your music expressive and alive. Any voice can be triggered using touch (very nice).

EFFECTS: Tons of effects that are editable and easy to use. Reverb, chorus, flange, etc.

EXPANSION: In addition to the built-in floppy drive, you can add a hard drive, a Zip drive to the built-in SCSI port, and up to 65 megabytes of RAM to the sampler.

MIDI: It has full midi capabilities (IN/OUT/THRU) and even a TO HOST port for directly connecting the PSR-9000 to your computer.

SEQUENCER: Here's where I have a bit of trouble. It does have a sequence recorder called "Song Creator" with real-time, multi-track, and step recording. I haven't used this feature, and here's where the manual could be better in my opinion. Maybe if I used it a couple of times I'd understand it better.

SOUNDS/VOICES: Yamaha does a great job creating realistic instrument sounds, yet the new SWEET voices and new LIVE! voices are truly exceptional. The Sweet Sax sounds like Kenny G is playing your music. Sweet Flute and Sweet Pan are just sensational.

STYLES: This is an ARRANGER keyboard that includes a large collection of built-in styles (loops with drums, bass, guitar, etc.) that provide accompaniment to your playing. This enables almost any decent keyboard player to become a "one man band." The styles are excellent and very realistic.

RELIABILITY: This is one reliable instrument. I haven't had a single problem with it since I bought it. I've updated the operating system each time a new one was released but so far, so good.

NO BACKUP? Would I use the PSR-9000 on a gig without a backup? Yes, without any doubt in my mind. I've logged hundreds of hours on this keyboard and have NEVER had even a minor glitch.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT: I never had a problem, so I can't answer how Yamaha's customer support is.

OVERALL RATING: Yes, I'd definitely buy it again. I've got 20+ years in music and rarely have I had an instrument I've liked so well.

THINGS I LIKE: The keyboard layout is excellent. Lots of buttons located where they should be (easy to find) and color coded - great. Large LCD screen displays information in a useful and easily understand manner (not cryptic at all). Keys have a good feel, not like cheap plastic. Speakers are excellent quality - never buzz or distort even at maximum volume.

COMPARISIONS: Before buying I compared the PSR-9000 with the Technics KN6000, the GEM WK8, GEM SK760 & SK880, Roland G-600, and the Roland G-1000. As far as a price/feature comparision goes, nobody even got close to Yamaha's PSR-9000.

I have the latest software (at the moment it`s 2.1 I think?)

It`s very easy to use. PSR-9000 even tells you on the display how to use most the features.

The polyphony is enough for me (126 I think?). The keyboard is ok,
actually I was very pleased with it, until I tried out PSR-9000 Pro,
and now I want that!

The sequencer is very easy to use since the instrument tells you what to do as you go along with your recording...

The vocal harmony is a really cool function, I can get really good sounding harmony parts for my vocals straight away.

The effects are excellent (Yamaha has always been good at FX)...

I love the sounds. Strings, Organ (with drawbars) and E-piano sounds are excellent and the acoustic (nylon string) guitar sounds are by far the best I have come across! The analogue sounds are pretty good too...Come to think of it, all the sounds are great! Maybe the choir sounds could be a little different, but I never use them anyway.

It has never let me down. Though I have to admit I`ve not used it on gigs yet, but at home it has never causen any difficulties.
(I noticed some of you have had some problems with it, which I find hard to believe. Get the upgrades from Yamaha`s Japanese website!)

The continuing upgrades are a big plus, they make the PSR-9000 even a better instrument. But as I said I haven`t had a reason to get in touch with Yamaha since bought the intrument because it has worked so well!

I've been playing it for about ten months now. It's by far the best workstation keyboard I have come across. I think it's worth its' (rather high) price.

The PSR 9000 is VERY easy to use. Before buying the PSR 9000 I tried
all high-end keyboards and the PSR 9000 turned out as the most user
friendly keyboard on the market. Especially for live playing:
the accompaniment control buttons (Fill-Ins/Break, Intro/Ending, Synchro
buttons, ...)
are just over the left hand part (some of them can be even
touched while holding down the keys
with the left hand), Multi Pads (short musical phrases) are also quite
near to the left hand; instruments select (and One Touch Settings) are
on the right side. The
other buttons are very intuitively described and for a newcomer the
learning curve is very short.

There is a
"Direct Access" button which facilitates access (one touch)
to many functions hidden deep in menu (after short time 90% of all
accesses to some keyboard functions I make with "Direct Access" button).
The other functions (voice edit, style edit, multi pad edit, ...)
I use very seldom and therefore they are (for me) not so important
as the layout of the control buttons for playing.

The manual is written quite good, there are very few unclear described
features, all other keyboard features can be learned easily from the
manual.

The PSR 9000 has the best features from the high-end keyboards. There
is no place here to write about every function (just go to
http://www.yamaha.co.jp/english/product/pk/nonflash/products/psr9000/psr9000.htm
to see them).

Some of them: 126 polyphony, 32 multitimbral, 331 voices, 210 factory
styles, 4 One touch settings per style
(= 840 settings), over 600 registrations in Music Database (over 200
songs), memory for 512 own registrations, over 160 effects (10 user),
9 independent
DSP, 16 track sequencer, 8 drawbars (9 in OS 2) for Organ flutes (10 predefined organs),
Disk direct function (for direct access to disk drive), SCSI support,
port for PC keyboard, ....

The quality of the sound is perfect!! The live!, sweet and cool! voices are
incredible, the best I have ever heard (except for Roland's VA-7 and
new Wersi organs, which were not available, when I bought the PSR 9000).
All the panel voices (not XG) are extremely realistic.

I am only not quite satisfied with Clarinet. The piano sounds quite
well, but the lower octaves could be sampled a little bit better. All the
other voices are as good, that it is not necessary to comment them
(go and hear them :-) ).

Every part (the PSR 9000 has R1,R2,R3,Left concept) can be processed
by one DSP (i.e. together 4 DSP) and for all four parts two another
independent DSPs (Chorus and Reverbation) can be applied.
The PSR 9000 contains Harmonic Content and Brigtness filters,
which can alter the voices as well (together with the 6 DSPs).

The PSR 9000 has quite well styles, but here I cannot insist, that they
are the best because I heard better styles. But till now I have
always been able
to find to every song, which I wanted to play, an appropriate
well sounding style.

The sensitivity (velocity) of the keys is soft (too soft for piano
players), aftertouch works very poor till now (should be improved
in operating system 2.0).

I had not any problems till now.

I am VERY disappointed with YAMAHA support. Six months after
introducing the PSR 9000 they were not able to implement an
operating system which would use all the hardware features of this
great keyboard (in the current OS there are some flaws and
errors).

If the keyboard were stolen, I would definitely buy another one. I
have never regreted, that I bought this keyboard and it is really
pleasure to play it.

Overall, the keyboard is very easy to use. There are a lot of submenus and submenus below those submenus if you want to get to some advanced features, but a majority of the options are one or two keypresses away.

With 126 voices, how could you want more? The keyboard has a weak aftertouch, but overall responds very well. You can expand the RAM to 65Mb, put an internal 8Gb hard drive, and up to 15 SCSI peripherals externally! The sequencer works well, and the vocal harmonizer is a technical wonder!

The Live and Sweet sounds are incredible. The other sounds are very good, but possibly not as good as other high-end keyboards. The effects are excellent, with many layerable DSP channels to work with.

I've had no problems whatsoever with my PSR-9000. I don't feel the need for having a backup keyboard. As on computers, I'm a bit wary of the reliability of the floppy disks themselves, so I copied the information to the internal hard drive.

I've never had to deal with Yamaha directly. Their American web site is weak; their Japanese web site works well and has upgrades and information easily accessible.

I would definitely buy another if this one was stolen. It's a little pricey, but the incredible features make it worth every penny. There are no other synthesizers on the market that do everything the PSR-9000 does. I will be posting a PSR-9000 site (http://homepage.mac.com/aarond12) shortly if you have questions.

The manual is easy to read and sounds are OK,,,live sounds are excellent!! Organ sounds are not very good.

It has pressure sensitive keys with very poor aftertouch and extra memory and hard drive can be added although extra added memory is just for sampling. Mic input for sampling is nice,all SCSI capabilities but no CDROM.

NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS~~~VERY UNRELIABLE!! And PLEASE MAKE sure this is what you want because IT HAS MANY PROBLEMS and known B-U-G-S!! Beginning with assertion failures,notes hanging on, instrument going of key, non use of custom voices, and reduced style and voice allocation other than specified(flash memory too small and gives "out of memory" errors).

Unfortunately I bought one of these(big sucker!!) because I wanted the newest keyboard available with all the bells and whistles and I also figured because it was priced higher(3495.00) than all the other ones it was better.....WRONG!!. It was a total nightmare with all the bugs and then after trying to get help from Yamaha after I called over 5 times and they never bothered to even call back was like a holocaust!! After finally reading all the other peoples complaints,same as mine, on the Unofficial PSR 9000 website I was convinced I bought a lemon keyboard. I finally took the keyboard back to the dealer and traded it for a KORG i30 which was cheaper and has better sounds and is as easy to use with touchscreen. TO make matters even worse while waiting for Yamaha to try and resolve my problem, I had the keyboard longer than the dealer return policy so because I paid in cash I had to take a $900. loss on the 9000 just to trade it back in for the Korg. Thanks YAMAHA!!!

If you still want to buy one of these then.. Good Luck!!! YOU'LL DEFINITELY BE NEEDING IT!! Try comparing it to a Korg i30 and you will definitely see the Korg is a much better keyboard for the money. Korg has better and more sounds,touchscreen and is easier to use. 9000 has mic sampling which the Korg doesnt....I wish I would have comparitive shopped before buying the Yamaha, as I would have saved $900 and a lot of headaches.