I just arrived home from the Fort Wayne Indiana Ketron product demo. Here is my report.

It was not a jam and Korg and Yamaha were not represented. It was mostly a Ketron product demo. AJ, Leeboy, gps12 and myself were there from the forum. A midi guitar and a midi accordion were demonstrated as well at the Audya. I will only comment on the Audya.

AJ demonstrated and answered questions about the Audya. It is a terrific sounding board. Probably the most live sounding ever. AJ demoed the AI and riff features. I found the AI to be very musical in its implimentation. It kept the music sounding less loopish. I didn't find it adding fills and such at inappropriate sounding times. I have to admit that AJ only showed it on one or two styles though. Riff was interesting but not available on all the styles.

Styles were typical top of the line Ketron, some of the best in arrangers, great sounding drums, bass, and guitars.

Many sounds were also great, saxes, bones, organs, eps. The leslie emulation has also to my ears been improved.

The piano was good but I didn't feel as good as the G70. It might have been better but AJ wasn't using a sustain pedal. The guitars were also greatly improved. With the arranger going, all sounds were very good in the mix as a whole.

I tried an unplugged style for a couple of seconds. I played a diminished chord and indeed the loop voices dropped out and midi voices were inserted. By itself it was noticable, but in a performance only a pro listening for it would be able to tell. Two out of ten thousand would maybe hear the difference without being told to listen for it. To me in a real time performance it is a non issue. The guitar loops have moved the bar a step higher. Not a foot or yard higher but a step in the right direction.

The added midjay features don't mean much to me because I don't DJ and don't use midi files.

I thought the harmonizer was very good, one of the best out there.

Didn't ask about memory capacity, sample loading, or type of USB, because to me these things are also a non issue. The issue to me is how does it sound. I think it is the best sounding arranger on the market, not by leaps and bounds but IMHO the best at the moment.

Which brings us to the issue of cost. I could have purchased it today at a show special price of $4800. List I believe was $5400 and change. I feel that it should list and sell for about the same price as a T3 or pax2pro.

I met leeboy AJ and gps12 and found them all to be very friendly and pleasant. It was a fun day.

Tom