Ian, the use of the VH all depends upon the song itself - and most of the time, but not all, it should be used sparingly, as you stated. There are some songs, however, that require much more vocal harmony than others. Never The Less is one such song - it's all harmony. Cool Water, the bridge and then some is harmony. A number of country songs utilize harmony in the bridge. Consequently, if you are trying to emulate the original songs as closely as possibly, then judicious of the vocal harmony is a must. But even when used judiciously, you want the quality of the harmony to be the best possible. That said, you can get pretty good vocal harmony with the S950 and T4 - no doubt about it. But, because I rely heavily on my vocal talents, I want those harmonies to sound fantastic and real - that's why I continue to use the TC Harmony-M along with the S-950. When using this combination, I get the best of both worlds - great sounding harmonies from TC and great effects from the S-950.

I suspect that as things progress, Yamaha will soon go the TC Helicon route with their vocal processors, but this alone would not warrant an update model release. I would think there would be other software advances, and sound engine advances that would be introduced at the same time. As for editing the Audio drums, keep in mind that most players have absolutely no interest whatsoever in modifying styles or voices - they just want the keyboard to sound great OOTB! Of course, everyone has their OWN definition of sounding great OOTB as well.

Cheers,

Gary