Wow, from under 2500 to 8000 entries? It's always a good starting point to get ideas for what songs to play and see what they chose for a style, but, I'll have to admit, I don't use most of their suggestions. Different strokes for different folks.

Scott

I'll agree.....the fun of playing is to improvise your OWN styles arrangements....btw I have NEVER used the MFD

Eddie: Thanks for the link to the video. I too have never used the music finder on my T2 as I prefered my own settings. However, there are two significant things I heard in the video.

1. Music Finder+ will download real names (Yamaha no longer is worrying about hiding the names of songs)

2. Many of the entries will be songs, not just registration settings. These songs will include melody, lyrics, and chord changes. VERY COOL.

Eddie,

That was a very informative presentation by Peter Baartmans showing the benefits of utilizing Music Finder Plus with Yamaha’s Internet Direct Connection Service.

As usual Peter is a captivating presenter and I love his playing style.

I think Yamaha’s plan for placing 8000 songs for download is a brilliant idea. I always felt they should take the Music Finder to the next level. When I got the Tyros2, I immediately replaced all the cryptic song names with the real names in the Music Finder. You could now search the full database for any song and select the one you want. The keyboard automatically sets up the right style, tempo, and four one touch settings.

All you have to do as a performer is to play the lead lines and supply the correct chord changes and hit the fills at the right spot and cycle through the one touch settings as appropriate.

This is all very good. However, for someone who is a beginner or who is not so familiar with the song, they have to learn the melody line and the chord changes from another source.

Why not supply that within the keyboard itself?

Think what a wonderful tool it would be if Yamaha Engineers gave us a 40GB hard drive with all the 2000 settings in the Music Finder Database rendered as complete Standard MIDI Files with the 8 Registration Settings including Intros, Fills, Chord Changes, Styles, Variations, Multipads, Voice Layering, Effect Settings and Endings.

Since the original sound designers invested hours and hours of painstaking labor to create these styles in the first place, why not take the next step and provide us with the complete song as it was meant to be played by the voicing team?

This could become a fantastic teaching tool for a novice while providing a working template for the seasoned professional.

I would even like Yamaha to take one more step and provide the guiding LED lights on their next Tyros similar to what they have on their Clavinovas. You can always shut them off and they do not look obtrusive behind that dark plastic window above the keys.

I welcome Yamaha’s plan for making those 8000 songs available in April 2007. I for one will be a regular visitor to the IDC site. I would even like to have the option of having those 8000 songs in a Hard Drive or a USB Drive for a price.

This is one feature that would put Yamaha Arrangers head and shoulders beyond their competition.

Thanks,

Tapas