Shall I go psr I 423 or psr I 455

SeaGtGruff

I meant to play that note!
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I'm assuming you meant the PSR-I425 and not the PSR-E423. :)

The short answer is that the PSR-I455 is better than the PSR-I425 (and, for that matter, better than the PSR-E423).

A longer answer is that the PSR-I425 is essentially a modified PSR-E403, whereas the PSR-I455 is essentially a modified PSR-E433.

The PSR-E433/PSR-I455 were released about six years after the PSR-E403/PSR-I455 and consequently have more voices, drum kits, styles, and arpeggios, since Yamaha typically adds a few more of those each time they replace a particular keyboard model with a newer version.

But more importantly, beginning with the PSR-E433 Yamaha added the following improvements to the PSR-E4xx and PSR-I4xx models:
- twice as many registrations and Registration buttons;
- the ability to register four more auto-accompaniment style files;
- the addition of auto-accompaniment patterns;
- the ability to record twice as many songs;
- the addition of a USB-to-Device port; and
- the ability to save and recall User files.

A registration (or registration memory) is a snapshot of nearly all of the keyboard's settings-- there are a few settings which aren't stored in a registration, but most of them are. Thus, you can set up the keyboard the way you like it, choosing and tweaking the voice(s) you want to use, the auto-accompaniment style, the tempo, etc., and then save that setup for later recall. The total number of registrations available is equal to the number of Registration buttons times the number of registration banks. Furthermore, the number of Registration buttons determines how many registrations you can recall by pressing a single button. The PSR-E403/413/423, PSR-I425, and YPT-400/410/420 have two Registration buttons and eight registration banks, making a total of 16 registrations that can be saved and recalled, letting you quickly switch between two of them at a time (determined by which registration bank is selected). On the other hand, the PSR-E433/443 and PSR-I455 have four Registration buttons and eight registration banks, making a total of 32 registrations, letting you quickly switch between four of them at a time. You can still switch between more than two or four setups while playing a song, but you'll need to switch registration banks to accomplish that, which requires pausing your performance for a few seconds to press several buttons in sequence.

The PSR-E, PSR-I, and YPT models include numerous built-in or internal auto-accompaniment styles, but you can obtain additional or external styles in the form of style files. You can transfer many such style files into the keyboard's internal memory by connecting the keyboard to a computer and using the Yamaha MusicSoft Downloader, but in order to play an external style you must register the style. I'm not sure whether the keyboard has a hard drive per se, but this is the equivalent of downloading and saving files onto a computer's hard drive versus actually loading a file into a computer's RAM memory-- registering a style file essentially loads it from the keyboard's equivalent of a hard drive so it can be executed or played. The PSR-E403/413/423, PSR-I425, and YPT-400/410/420 let you register only one style file at a time, whereas the PSR-E433/443 and PSR-I455 let you register up to five style files at a time.

All of the PSR-E, PSR-I, and YPT models have auto-accompaniment styles, but the PSR-E433/443 and PSR-I455 also have auto-accompaniment patterns. Patterns are sort of like styles, but there are differences between them. A style can have different parts known as an intro, main loop, fill-in, and ending, and each style on the PSR-E, PSR-I, and YPT models usually has one or two variations of these parts. On the other hand, a pattern is just a loop-- it has no intro, fill-in, or ending parts-- but each pattern has five variations. On the PSR-E433/443 these are called DJ patterns, whereas on the PSR-I455 they are called tabla/tanpura patterns. So the PSR-I425 doesn't have any of these tabla/tanpura patterns like the PSR-I455 does.

The PSR-E403/413/423, PSR-I425, and YPT-400/410/420 have a built-in song recorder that lets you record up to five songs-- although this depends on the number of tracks in each song, as well as the length of each track, so you can record from one to five songs. On the other hand, the PSR-E433/443 and PSR-I455 let you record up to ten songs. Note that you can convert a song recording into a MIDI song file afterwards, and you can have more than five or ten MIDI song files saved in the keyboard's memory, so this difference of five versus ten is referring to song recordings that haven't been converted into MIDI song files yet.

The PSR-E403/413/423, PSR-I425, and YPT-400/410/420 don't have a USB-to-Device port for plugging in a USB flash drive, whereas the PSR-E433/443 and PSR-I455 do. That means the only way to load and play an external style file or song file on a PSR-E403/413/423, PSR-I425, or YPT-400/410/420 is to connect the keyboard to a computer and transfer the file(s) into the keyboard's memory. On the other hand, you can load style files or song files from a USB flash drive into a PSR-E433/443 or PSR-I455 without needing to have the keyboard connected to a computer.

Finally, nearly all PSR-E, PSR-I, and YPT models (except for the 200-level models) let you save a backup file of the keyboard's RAM memory and restore that backup file at a later time if needed. This backup file contains any songs you've recorded on the keyboard, any registrations you've saved, any external styles you've registered, and a few other settings which are automatically preserved when the keyboard is turned off but which aren't saved in the registrations. In order to save or restore this backup file you must connect the keyboard to a computer and use the Yamaha MusicSoft Downloader to transfer the backup file. But since the PSR-E433/443 and PSR-I455 have a port for plugging in a USB flash drive, this makes it possible to save and restore backups to and from the USB flash drive. Such backups are called User files and contain everything that a backup file does except for those few backup settings which don't get saved in the registrations. One advantage of User files is that you can save or load them without having to connect the keyboard to a computer. The other advantage is that you can save up to 100 different User files on any given USB flash drive, meaning you can load any of 100 different backups depending on which song recordings, registrations, and external styles you want to use.
 

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