S80

[Goldberg]

I was at Guitar Center yesterday and really enjoyed playing with the S80-I was impressed with the touch and sounds of it, and it seemed to be at a cheap price($1,399?)? Well anyway it's got all the sounds I'll need, I just have a few questions. How heavy is it? And if any of you use it, how "in depth" and easy to use is the sound editing and knobs? I'm not looking for a lot in it but you never know. I plan on using it live and in the studio, so please tell me if you've ever had any complaints or if it's got some problems.

[jazzhead_dup1]

~ 53lbs

[pete psingpy]

I've had my S80 for about 3 months. My opinion was that the weighting was good compared with what was out there and there were many high quality factory preset sounds. (and the price was right) IMO the strings, electric pianos, and guitars are great. The organs and acoustic pianos are ok. I also liked the roland xv-88, but I didn't like it enough to justify the higher price. My s80 sits at home and is used for solo play and multi timbral sequencing. My impression is that it is best suited for live performance, although the multi timbral stuff seems to work pretty well now that I'm used to it. The learning curve has been fairly steep, but I'm a novice with synths...really I've had only one other synth to compare it to. So I'd guess I'd say the interface isn't exactly easy to get around in. It comes with sound editing software that I've fooled with a bit. From reading the notes on yamahas80.com, I'm convinced that there is a lot of editing potential, but I don't know how easy it is to do from the panel board. The manual isn't great, but there are a bunch of excellent docs on yamahas80.com...definitely check out that site for good info on the S80.