So much for 'arranger players don't NEED 76 notes'!

Still, be interesting to see how many jump ship after they get the sticker shock...

It's pretty expected that the audio capabilities of the S950 will migrate upwards... What's more in doubt, though, will be whether they actually turn this into something significant. The main issues with the S950 is that the audio drum styles are a tiny fraction of the total style ROM, it's VERY slow and difficult to add any new ones (and, in the year or more since the S950 debuted, how many new, usable audio drum styles have come out?) and overall, they don't match up sonically with the MIDI instruments and effects.

Add to that that the audio multipads don't loop, and you get the idea that Yamaha let this out without much thought attached.

For this to be anything more than the gimmick it is on the S950, Yamaha need to radically up the percentage of ROM styles that have audio drums, have a pretty good library of extra styles to purchase (and make them not ridiculously expensive - fat chance!) and make loading them in a practical thing you can do at the gig, live, while you play. And throw in some way to easily import your own .WAV drum loops too, if the truth be told.

Then fix the multipad issue...

I have my doubts.

Ketron shouldn't even be raising a sweat..! This feature by Yamaha is a throwback to the SD-1, being ONLY drums. The Audya is still light years ahead of Yamaha with regard to having styles that have more than just drums done by audio tracks.

Be interesting to see if Yamaha join Korg and Roland in adding the Chord Loop (sequencer) feature, LOL