Hi guys,

As I have mentioned before, I am completely out of the way with regards to arrangers, having moved across to the dark side of synths a good few years ago.

But I am ordering a Tyros2 and really looking forward to it. The following question may seem a little daft.....but here goes!!

I had asked on here before about adding extra memory and a hard drive to the Tyros 2. I have also asked about acquiring extra styles.

1) Do I need to have a hard drive (either internal or external) installed before I can add the styles to the Tyros 2?

I presume I do, but is there any free memory to hold a certain amount of additional info, without upgrading?

I will more than likely use an external hard drive because it will be so straight forward....

2) but what benefits would the extra RAM give?

Thanks, again, for any advice?

Stein what were some of the deciding factors in you purchasing a T2 and not a PA800?

Hard to say Stephen. I made my decision somewhat blind, in so much that I haven't tried the PA800 yet. I spoke to the Korg rep a few days ago, and I hope to have one in store early next year.

The demonstrations and user reviews of the Tyros2 were fantastic. I tried it myself, and found it to be a wonderful keyboard. I moved away from arrangers about 10 years ago due to the quality of sound available on the synth workstations, but I now feel that the quality of arrangers has made this fact redundant.

I have never been interested in synthesis, just powerful sounds, and I feel that the Tyros 2 is up there with the best available in the Synth market. And of course it gives me the chance to sit down and just jam, or use it as a pre production tool if I get a new song idea in my head.

The PA800 is supposedly a fantastic keyboard too, and a bit cheaper. But I wanted a new keyboard for Christmas (still a big kid!!), and was able to get a good price for the Tyros 2.

I don't think you will go wrong regardless of what choice you make across the board at the minute (including the E80), but I just think the Tyros 2 has that something special, and it also will look fantastic at home.

Good luck with your choice.

Hi Stein - here are some answers to your questions:
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1) Do I need to have a hard drive (either internal or external) installed before I can add the styles to the Tyros 2?
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Not really - you have internal space available (RAM) although it is limited. You can run all day accessing and saving styles to a USB thumb drive, but they come up quicker when you have them internally or on a hard drive. I installed a drive - it's not too hard to do.

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I will more than likely use an external hard drive because it will be so straight forward....
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Haven't tried that (I use USB thumbs).
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2) but what benefits would the extra RAM give?
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The extra RAM will allow you to store styles, registrations, and sampled sounds if you want to load any of your own custom samples or those from a commercial source. Without extra RAM or a hard drive, you will end up having to store most of your stuff on a thumb drive or other USB device. Not a show stopper, but it is much nicer having the stuff stored internally.
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You won't go wrong if you get either a T2 or the PA800. I have a T2 and I am very happy with it. Lots of great sounds and excellent styles. Also the interface is very user friendly.

Hope that helps - good luck and happy holidays!

Many thanks for the reply, I appreciate it.

As for the T2, I can't wait until Christmas morning!!

Whilst I'm not a T2 owner, I've got a download of the manual.

And the way I read the RAM situation is:

The function of the user-installable RAM is to hold samples uploaded into system memory from storage (be that USB drive or internal hard disc) and used in custom voices.

That's all.

It cannot be used to hold styles, registrations, or anything else that is normally stored in non-volatile internal memory, or a USB stick, or on an internal or external hard drive.

If you don't intend using the sampling capabilities of the Tyros then you could probably get along without either an internal hard disc or installing extra RAM. If you are going to use samples then I would get the biggest amount of RAM and hard disc that is available / compatible / affordable.

If using sampling I would tend to use an internal hard drive rather than an external one as I would expect the performance to be better. If you are loading custom voices that use sampling this could be significant, but hopefully someone out there with a T2 can give a real-world indication of whether this is actually an issue.