Yamaha Keyboards (4 Boards) > Yamaha Keyboards - General
why I will NOT buy a Korg (or a non-Yamaha) keyboard
Al Ram:
Hello PSR Tutorial Friends.
Lately, I have been reading a LOT of posts with references to great non-Yamaha keyboards such as Korg, Ketron, etc.
Comparisons have been made where Korg or Ketron are better in some respects. Such as VH, sound, etc. Emphasis has been made on the great features of Korg. Specifically the PA4X model.
I am very surprised to see the number of posts and compliments to Korg PA4X. I am not surprised at the deserving quality of the Korg. I am surprised mostly because this is a forum for owners or Yamaha keyboards.
The Korg (or other brands) posts are usually good, well written, educated, coming from people that you can see they know what they are talking about and I have been learning a LOT from those posts.
If I did not have a Yamaha keyboard already I would probably buy a Korg PA4X. However, owning a Yamaha Tyros 4, Tyros 5 and other smaller Yamaha keyboards I will NOT buy a non-Yamaha keyboard and would like to share my reasons. If I upgrade my Tyros I will select a Genos.
First, I start with the assumption that only TOTL arrangers from TOTL brand names are considered such as Korg, Ketron and Tyros/Genos. (There might be others). That means that any of these keyboards are excellent to begin with.
Granted, one keyboard might be superior in one or two areas but the other keyboard will also be superior in other one or two areas.
When excellent keyboards are considered or compared IMO the main differential is the PLAYER. The keyboards are excellent to begin with. An excellent player will sound excellent on any excellent keyboard regardless of brand. A not-so-excellent (like me) player will also sound not-so-good no matter what brand !
Some 30 years ago, I purchased a Hohner keyboard. The main reason I bought it was because the salesperson was playing it great. Compared to today’s keyboard, that Hohner was extremely limited. However, the guy playing it to sell sounded like a full band. Of course when I got it home, the Hohner keyboard did not sound as great!!!! So, it was the player.
So, for me it is not a question of quality or features, I already know that if I went with Korg it will be a superb keyboard.
The main reason for me is that I already invested a lot of time, money and effort in Yamaha keyboards. At this point, for me, the transition to another brand name will be extremely costly in terms of time and effort.
One example: I use Yamaha Tyros registrations a lot. When I setup a new song, I rehearse it quite a bit and then I set it up using registrations. I use up to 8 registrations buttons per song and register tempo, key, multipads, VH, volume, variations, voices, etc. I commit to the keyboard memory as much as I can so that when I play live, it will be 80-100% of what I already rehearsed. In essence I have become dependent on the registrations.
I respect and appreciate everyone’s way of playing. That is the way I play and it works great for me.
The 1-8 Yamaha Tyros registration buttons works great for me (Genos now has 10).
I understand that Korg PA4X has a similar way of registering to keyboard memory, I believe they call it set lists. However, they are not quite the same I believe.
I also have lots of external styles, multipads, etc. Transitioning all my registrations to Korg is probably not an easy task.
I would also like to mention that it is not a question of loyalty to a brand such as Yamaha. My loyalty is to my playing and to my audiences. If I thought that a different keyboard would make me sound 50% better I would change in a bit regardless of brand name. Audiences do not care about brand names, they just care about having a good time.
It is also not a question of money. I believe that in general and with some exceptions of course, anyone that can spend several thousand dollars on a keyboard, speakers, etc. can probably spent a few hundreds more or less on another brand name.
It is not a question of age either. If you are a great player, you can play old and new tunes as well on any excellent keyboard. Because the keyboard will play any style old or new. In essence, the keyboard will just obey your commands.
So, it is not a question of loyalty, money, age or quality. It is just keeping my investment and minimizing time and effort.
I do not need to upgrade my Tyros right now, but if I do in the foreseeable future, most likely will purchase a Yamaha Genos.
Selling my two Tyros, will probably offset 80-85% of the cost of a new Genos. My understanding is that the transition effort from Tyros to Genos is minimal.
I do understand the advantages and disadvantages but unless convinced otherwise, most likely will stay with Yamaha.
I am not writing this to create a huge controversy, my intention is just to explain that:
1) This is a Yamaha forum where people want to learn mostly about Yamaha keyboards
2) Korg and Ketron (and others) are great keyboards on their own
3) I have invested too much money, time and effort in Yamaha to change at this point
4) I do welcome the interesting comments about Korg/Ketron and other brands and have learned a lot.
I hope everyone has a great day and sorry for the loooong post.
EileenL:
Very well put and I agree with every word.
gerarde:
I totally agree!
To change from Yamaha to another arranger, it takes time,time, time.
When you have 400 - 500 registrations done, one can imagine how long it will take to do the same on another arranger.
Especially, when one has many, many song specific styles that are not available on the other arrangers.
But the bottom line is TIME to do it all.
Gerard
DrakeM:
I blame Gary Diamond!
I stumbled onto an old (now gone) web page of his back in 2004. He posted songs there with his Yamaha keyboard (I think it was a PSR3000). If he had been using a Korg ... I would have purchased one of them. ;D
But I also have too much time invested in custom styles and setups to ever change to another brand .. ever.
Regards
Drake
SciNote:
Very understandable. I wouldn't necessarily rule out a non-Yamaha keyboard for the future, as it would depend on what products become available. But overall, I am quite used to Yamaha -- from the D80 organ I had as a teenager and my early twenties, to the DX7 I essentially replaced it with, and then on to the various PSR-5xx series from the early 1990's (500, 510, and 520), and then now, to my current PSR-E433. My budget runs toward the $250-500 range at this time, which means the main competition is Casio. And while Casio certainly gives you a lot of features for the money, when I did back-to-back comparisons, I just felt that the Yamaha was just warmer and fuller sounding, as well as easier to use.
It wasn't always this way -- when I worked in an electronics store in the late 1980's and early 1990's, in my opinion, the Casios of the era sounded noticeably better than the similarly priced Yamahas, but I feel that started to change with the PSR-47, and then really changed with the PSR-500.
Roland also has their GO:KEYS in this price range, but I have yet to see one in person, so I cannot comment much on it.
I think its fine to bring up the topic of other brands of keyboards occasionally. Sure, if someone comes here just to continually say how great their Casio (or Korg or Roland or whatever) is and keeps asking why we would buy a Yamaha, then yes, maybe they need to be on a forum that is dedicated to their favorite brand. But to occasionally bring up certain features and characteristics of other keyboards can help people make intelligent buying decisions, it can help people figure out ways to accomplish the same tasks on their Yamahas, and it may also eventually get back to Yamaha so that they can implement improvements on future models.
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