Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Yamaha PSR-S670 vs PSR-S975...is the PSR-S975 worth it?

Hey everyone, so I've been wanting to invest in a new keyboard for a while now and I have been looking at both the PSR-S670 and the PSR-S975.

What I'm wanting to do is compose as many tracks as possible with sounds like the piano, bass, guitar, strings, drums, electronic sounds, etc but do it without the stress of a software DAW. I've been using an MIDI keyboard and software DAW for a long time now with EastWest sounds but I find it slow and it just takes too long to setup. Plus, I always deal with technical issues with my software DAW.

Which keyboard would you recommend? The PSR-S670 or the PSR-S975? And is there really a big difference between the two besides the huge price gap?

Are there any other keyboards or options I should be considering beyond these PSR keyboards, like the MODX series? I've looked at the MODX series but I guess it doesn't allow me to record songs as easily as the PSR and may require a software DAW from what I've heard. Is this correct?

Thanks again for the help.

There's the Genos, of course, but it's a lot more expensive!

Do you need a synth or an arranger? If you are looking for a synth, Genos is absolutely the winner. If yoju want an arranger, PSR series is a very good choice.

The Genos is also an arranger workstation, of course, and has 76 keys vs the 61 of the PSR range, but the PSR975 is a very, very good choice at about half the price. Unless you specifically need the additional synth capabilities of the Genos I think the PSR975 is excellent.

I've become a fan of the Yamaha PSRs are using an older S970 during my amateur weekend gig; they are well-designed for live music, and of course quick arrangements.

The S770/S970 series is designed to work with a live singer/guitarist. It has the audio inputs and f/x processors to really fill out the 1-2 wo/man band (in addition to extra sounds). My bandmate who owns the S970 does an incredible weekly gig with a singer that makes it sound like they have a full band behind them.

If you go for the S600 series, you lose the live input/processors, but you can process audio from a USB stick. It looks like almost all the other electronic arranger/dj/sequencer features are basically the same (just less voices).

Oh I wrote Genos instead of Montage... it was my mistake, sorry. Yes Genos has synth capabilities too, but real Yamaha flagship synth is Montage. It has no arranger section, but you can record multitrack performances with very advanced features. Instead, if you need arranger section PSR series is a very good choice as we just said.

Yes, the Montage is a pure synth; the Genos is a "let's throw everything including the kitchen sink into a single instrument" device . If you can afford the Genos, I'd say go for it - there's virtually nothing it can't do - but for those of more modest means, the PSR975 is a wonderful instrument. Particularly, as you rightly say, for live performance.

Thanks everyone for the help, definitely helps a lot. So I looked up the Genos and Montage and, wow, those keyboards are amazing. Watched some demos on YouTube and the sounds blew me away but the price is just way too high. Over $5,000? Yikes.

Btw, how does the sounds of the PSR-S670 compare to the Genos and Montage? Is there a big sound difference with the samples?

If you possibly can, I’d go at least for the 770, which has Yamaha’s “super articulation” voices. These are far higher quality than the voices on the 670.