hello everyone, before i start let me greet you all HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

by xmas my folks are going to buy me a new keyboard. im choosing between the Yamaha PSR S500 (on sale: regular price is $888, sale price is around $622 here in the Philippines) and the Roland E-09 (around $600). which is best and which keyboard is better for gigging?

P.S. these 2 only please. my folks won't buy me high end synths cause of their price range.

What kind of music are you playing? Which features are most important to you?

well for now im into reggae music cause that's my band's genre but i also would like to do some metal and other stuff soon.

what i'm really after is the quality of the voices. although the yamaha has a registration and bank system to save your settings and the roland doesn't... this would only be a bonus for me XD but it does help a bit.

another thing would be the durability of the instrument.

thanks for the reply Morodiene

PSR S500

The Roland appears to have more options and more usable effects (like Rotary speaker) and if you plan on playing using the accompaniment, it's arranger section allows for bass inversions and more complex chords.

The PSR-S500 has the edge with the piano voices and the styles are better, in my opinion.

As was asked already, it will depend on what kind of music you play, and if you'll be using accompaniment.

Snazzy

hello. do u own one? is it very durable?

hello snazzy well, i would rarely be using the accompaniment because im in the band. maybe the s500 would be the best for me

I've only owned Yamaha synths and have always been very happy with them, myself. I have only owned Roland digital pianos and have been very happy with them. Personally, I think Yamahas are better synths, but I can't speak to those specific ones you are looking at.

The S500 is the entry level S-series, comprised of it and the PSR-S700, and PSR-S900.

These have been replaced by the PSR-S550, the PSR-S710 and PSR-S910, so that why they are selling at a discount.

The E-09 and S500 are both built well...it will come down to how much the sounds appeal to you.

Playing reggae usually requires a more than passable organ sound(preferably with a Rotary speaker), and the Roland has the better one, in my opinion.

It's been a while since I've played either, so I'm not going to comment on the guitar sounds.

The Yamaha's registration memory is very handy for setting up splits and layers quickly but the E-09 provides a similar system, with 100 user programs (00–99). You can use these to store settings for most of the front panel operations and functions.

You should be able to download the manuals for each.

I'd go on sound first, and then features.

Snazzy

The PSR also has Rotary Speakers, see page 113 in manual, a lot of them, even one chorus rotary + a few rotary voices. And you have about the same inversions on the PSR as you have in the Roland, if you by bass inversions mean inversions of chords, see page 62 in the PSR manual.

It's probably not that important to the original poster as he says it will be used in a band, but the PSR-S500 will not play bass inversion chords.

These are sometimes called "on bass" or "slash chords", for example: C/G, or Fmaj7/E, or D/F#.

The first S-series that allows bass inversions (on bass) is the S700/S710. The fingering is called "Fingered On Bass". The S500 does not have this setting to my knowledge.

The Roland's rotary speaker is far more realistic than the Yamaha's in my opinion.

Again, it involves picking the instrument who's sound appeals the best....they are both good units.

Snazzy

thank you everyone for replying to my problem. i'll be thinking hard about what i should really choose. i didn't know that the roland has a registration memory. its quite shocking because there's no registration label on the keyboard panel. hmmmmmmmm... BTW, is the S500's LCD screen durable? i dont really want to have a keyboard which would be hard to change settings because the screen is broke

You can download the Roland E-09 manual here:

http://www.roland.com/products/en/E-09/

And the PSR-S500 here:

http://www.yamaha.co.jp/manual/english/index.php

I don't about the S500's screen durability.

Snazzy

oh yeah, how can i access the XGlite voices on the S500?:)

hello everyone, im getting an E-09 for Christmas. it would have been the PSR S500 but its already phased out. but still the E-09 is a great keyboard for a beginner like me. thanks everyone for helping me out. happy holidays