Korg Pa50Sd vs Yamaha Psr-s710

[pradeep.sikdar]

Hi all.
I am a complete visually challenged keyboard from India.
I know this is a boring question for you. but I still have to ask which 1 is the best, Psr-s710 or Pa50Sd? I don't want to compair with Psr-s910, because
the price is too high! moreover, I cannot even find the approximate price of Korg Pa50Sd, Yamaha Psr-s710 or Psr-s910 in Indian rupees. I found somewhere
the Pa50Sd--rs 47000, psr-s710--rs 48000, psr-s910--rs 69000. again I found somewhere the price of Pa50Sd is rs37000. so I'm in a great confusion!
if somebody tell me the price in Indian rupees, it'll be very very helpful. I have heard from a group of people that the korg Pa50Sd sounds much better
than Psr series, but I have heard some demos of Pa50Sd and the piano sound is not up to the mark. if anyone have that model and kindly send me a solo grand
piano sound without anything played with it, it will be very helpfull to me. though, I know the sound of Korg Pa500 is better than Pa50Sd, moreover, I have fall in love with "korg Pa500-ort", but being a
visually challenged I cannot able to use the touch screen.
being a leading company of keyboard, Korg authority should look after this accessibility issue. there should be some buttons to perform the same action which is only can be done with the touch screen.
please please comment on this post as I really in a great need of some valuable response from experienced person like you all.
kind regards
Pradeep
e-mail ID
(e-mail address removed)

 

[goz211]

Hello Pradeep

Just wanted to say welcome to the forum. Hopefully someone who is familiar with those keyboards will respond soon.

 

[pradeep.sikdar]

this might be too boring for everyone to answer.

 

[goz211]

Hi Pradeep

It is quite a specialised thing you're asking about - I don't know how many visually impaired keyboard players we have on here.

Also you've asked about prices in India - other than the web which you must have already checked, anyone on here from the rest of the world is unlikely to be able to give you any additional help.

Colin

 

[pradeep.sikdar]

Actually, I have read the manuals of both of the keyboards (Pa50Sd & Psr-s710). I have found boath are accessible for me. I am just asking to compare those keyboards on the basis of their sounds, quality etc. I got the price of Pa50Sd (rs37500). so, if anyone has a personal suggestion bassed on their personal view points,about which 1 I should choose, I will be grateful to them.

 

[SSPSR740Pa500]

YAMAHA PSR S710 or KORG Pa500?

I was having the same dilemma with three competing keyboards: Yamaha psr s710, Korg pa500 and Roland GW-8 last year. I need to state right at the begining that I had owned only Yamaha keyboards previously and at that point of time had no experience with korg or roland. I used to have a PSR 500 then a PSR 730 and still have a PSR 740 which is a good 13 years old.

On paper the Roland GW-8 seems to give a lot for its price of Rs. 47,000 (approx.), However, having bought it initially I had to return it the same day and get a Korg PA500 instead. The GW-8 in person sounded horrible. Its styles were muddy and the sounds thin and totally unusable. Moreover you could not split and layer at the same time.

Sounds: Now I have a PA500 but it has all the pa50 sounds, so i can comment on it. You need to understand that while the PA50 has the famous triton sound engine (so its sounds identical to the korg triton classic and AR Rahman used it extensively)But it fall short by todays standards; it is a mere 32 mb of waverom and sounds is about 10 years old. The PSR S710's sound is much more upto date. However, the piano on the PA50 is not all that bad. Its better than my PSR740 piano any day. Main thing is that it is not a multi velocity sampled piano. (I'm not sure if the PA50 piano is a stereo sample or not, the PA500's is I know and so is the PSR s710's). Note that the pa50 allows upto 3 sounds on the right hand (upper 1,2 and 3) while the psr allows only 2. But with only 62 notes of polyphony I dont know how useful three right hand voices would be when using styles.

My personal opinion of the sounds on a scale of 1 to 5. 5 being best and 1 being worst:

Acoustic Pianos: Pa - 2; psr - 4
Electric pianos: Pa - 1; psr - 5
Accordions/Harmonica: Pa - 3; Psr - 4
Pipe Organs - pa - 3, psr -2
Rock/Jazz Organs - pa - 5, psr - 4 (however the psr has drawbar prgan feature which is absent in the pa)
Acoustic Guitars - Pa -2; PSR -5
Electric Guitars - Pa - 4; PSR -5
Bass Pa -4; psr -3
Trumpet/Trombone pa -3; psr -5
Brass pa - 4, psr -4
Solo strings pa -4, psr - -2
Ensemble strings pa - 4, psr -4
Synth leads pa - 4, psr -2
Synth pads pa - 5, psr -3
Sax - pa -4; psr -4
Woodwind pa -1, psr -5

Controls: PA50 has a more comprehensive set of realtime controllers: Assignable slider, Assignable switch and X/Y Joystick (PItch bend and two modulation sources), while with the psr you only have pitch bend and modulation wheels and no assignable slider or switch.

However, the sequences on the pa is more comprehensive,but who uses an on board sequencer anyway.

 

[SSPSR740Pa500]

P.S.

Although my experience with the Roland GW-8 was short lived and unhappy, still you should demo it. Since it did not heve on board speakers I was monitoring it through my music system and the connections may not have been good, which may have made it sound thin. But I also used very high quality headphones and it still sort of sounded crappy. Still you should check it out for yourself.

Bottomline: The GW-8 and PA50 both have its positives and negatives, The psr s710 does'nt blow your mind but it really doesn't have any major downsides either.

Hope the review will help.

 

[SSPSR740Pa500]

By the way Iam from Kolkata (India). Last year YAMAHA Music Square in Cmac Street quoted THe PSR s710 at Rs. 47,000 (should be lower now), While Tolly Guitar Centre quoted the KORG PA50 (though not the sd version) at Rs. 54,000 and Roland GW-8 (version 2) with Asian Collection (or GW-8A) for Rs. 47,000.

 

[pradeep.sikdar]

Dear brother,
thank you very much for your reply! I was wandering how can a person write a compact review in such a nice and brief way!
in last 2 weeks, I have downloaded all the demos (both audio and video) from youtube and where ever I got. and also came to your points that, "PSR S710's sound is much more upto date". though, pa50's sounds are not bad, specially synth sounds are nice, but as you pointed its sounds is about 10 years old. the guitar sounds of psr really atracted me very much, where the drums are quite nice in pa50!
and I really value your realistic ability to score in a scale of those keyboards which is really preferable!
if I compare those keyboards according to your scale, psr-s710 comes first!
about roland:
I never like the sounds of roland very much! though, I have a very little experience in roland. I have played roland E16 and roland Juno-D when I was in my school (Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission, Blind Boys' Academy). I have also download some demos of Juno-G. but it never attracts me!
moreover, I like tobuy Psr-s710. though, I have a little urge to buy psr-s910, but I think, the money will not support me!
by the way, I am also from Kolkata (Agar Para) and studying in "Asutosh College".
thank you again for your kind reply!