yammie s80

[loozrrtuba]

OK, so this coincides wiht my stage paino thread. I could be looking at a used yammie s80 in the mix as well. I can use the PLG piano expansion card. some question s for those with experiance with this board

 

1) how are the sounds on the expansion board. Are they the same as those in the P series, the motif.. . where do they come from?

 

2) there is no internal sequencer, right? all sequnces can do is be played back off of a SM card, correct?

 

3) how is the feel... better or worse than the S90? I seem to remeber the one time I played one that it had more of a semi-weight feel (read lighter, and even cheaper)... is this also true?

 

Thanks Again

 

Justin

[C. Martin]

 

Originally posted by loozrrtuba OK, so this coincides wiht my stage paino thread. I could be looking at a used yammie s80 in the mix as well. I can use the PLG piano expansion card. some question s for those with experiance with this board 1) how are the sounds on the expansion board. Are they the same as those in the P series, the motif.. . where do they come from? 2) there is no internal sequencer, right? all sequnces can do is be played back off of a SM card, correct? 3) how is the feel... better or worse than the S90? I seem to remeber the one time I played one that it had more of a semi-weight feel (read lighter, and even cheaper)... is this also true? Thanks Again Justin

 

 

Hey Justin, here are some points on the sound and action.

 

* The sounds of the PLG Piano expansion board are ok. They would go well with the s80. Compared to the Yamaha p series, the PLG piano board is not nearly as superb as the Yamaha p series. The motif's piano sounds are probably a LITTLE better than the expansion board.

 

*The action on the s80 is interesting. It feels semi weighted. It definatly is not fully weighted. It is a semi weighted hammer action. It is a little cheap feeling, but is ok.

 

*If you are looking for other sounds, then the s80 would probly be good. The S90 has much better sounds and the acoustic piano sound is improved. The action is also much better.

 

Overall, if you are looking at a synth, the s90 would probly be a better choice.

 

p120dUdE

[Jeff Irok]

I don't diagree with p120dUdE. The S-90 is an improved version of the S-80. That doesn't mean that the S-80's washed up, though!

 

I have an S-80 with the PLG-150PF board. The action of the S-80 feels weighted to me, not semi-weighted. I've heard it said that the S-90 is a bit lighter, but I haven't played an S-90 enough to have an informed opinion. IMHO, I wouldn't have minded a slightly lighter action.

 

You're correct in that there is no internal sequencer on both the S-80 & the S-90. (You need a Motif for that!) Both boards can play back SMF's, however. I use this feature by recording SMF's on my PC, and put them on the SM card, then I use a "performance", and it plays it back. One of the voices of the performance responds to my keyboard playing. It gives the effect of having one of those performance player synths. You can save a "chain" file, which is essentially a song list of up to 99 songs. Generally, I play a dozen or so per set, so the 99-song limitation of the chain file is not a problem.

 

The S-80 pianos are great, and I wouldn't have gotten the PLG-150PF if my SMF's weren't getting so complicated that I was running out of voices, which I was. The S-90 has Yamaha's new "Triple Strike" piano, which most (although not all) people agree that it's a cut above the stock S-80 pianos and the PLG-150PF. The PLG-150PF predates both the S-80 and S-90 pianos. Plugging in the board was easy but using it was a tad confusing to begin with. Out of the box, you get 135 piano and electric piano patches. Then if you run the included SMF containing sysex info (I ran it from the SM card, not from my PC's sequencer), you wind up getting only 64 patches, albeit much better ones. My guess is that the 135 patches are the raw waveforms, or close to it, and the 64 voices are patches that were created from the waveforms to make the board usable. Frankly, the 135 voices couldn't hold a candle to the S-80's stock pianos. But after running the SMF, the patches left behind were good. Their volumes were programmed to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 out of 127 (S-80's stock pianos are around 120), so a side-by-side comparison at first left the plug-in board sounding a little weak. After I realized and corrected this, however, they sounded pretty much just as good as the stock S-80 pianos. I know many people who prefer the plug-in board over the S-80's stock sound. It's really a matter of opinion, however.

 

The other sounds of the S-80 are also quite good. Everybody loves its electric pianos (better than the ones on the plug-in board, IMHO), and I believe some of the electric piano waveforms were ported to the S-90. It has an awesome arpeggiator, and some really nice synth sounds.

 

As for on-line support, the S-90 has the S-80 beat hands down. I'm not even sure the S-80 site is up anymore. But there are free banks and whatnot floating around out there in cyberspace still. The S-90 has a lot of sites and user support.

 

Anyway, that's all I can think of now. Hope this helps!

[C. Martin]

I dont think the s-80 is washed up, jeff. I just think that the s-90 has better sounds. And the action on the s-90 is heavier than the s-80.

 

PS: Check out this S90 forum. It will give you helpful information.

 

http://www.sninety.com/forums/index.php?Cat=1,3

 

p120dUdE

[Jeff Irok]

 

Originally posted by p120dUdE I dont think the s-80 is washed up, jeff. I just think that the s-90 has better sounds....

 

 

I'm sorry. I didn't meant to imply that that's what you were saying. I just wanted to suggest that even though there's a better keyboard out there, the S-80 could still hold its own.

 

I'll defer to you on the subject of action. I know I wouldn't want my S-80 to be any heavier, but I've only played an S-90 a couple of times, and not very long at that, so I really don't have a good perspective. The S-90 action is supposed to be a better grade, and I think most people prefer it.

[Markeyz]

The action on the S80 and S90 are quite different. The S80 has a weighted hammer action. The S90 has a graded hammer action, differing in that it is heavier at the bottom and lighter at the top, like a real piano action. When I think of semi-weighted action I think of the Nord Electro, which is not even close to the S80 or S90 action.

[C. Martin]

 

The S90 has a graded hammer action, differing in that it is heavier at the bottom and lighter at the top, like a real piano action.

 

 

Sorry, but thats wrong. The S90 has a balanced hammer action, not graded. All of the S series with 88 keys and the Motif's with 88 keys have balanced, not graded. The P series Pianos have graded actions.

 

p120dUdE