Here's my first report of this years NAAMM Show.
I went to Roland first and met Mauro Gola, Product Manager from Roland Italy. He's the VA7 and VA76 authority. He was showing me the new Discover 5 keyboard. This keyboard is very impressive for playing midi files and singing with them. The ability to create a vocal harmony track to songs that don't already have them is very cool. The sound engine inside this board is the VA7 but with 64 voice polyphony instead of 128. This keyboard does not have an internal sequencer, but if you love to entertain and sing, it's a great addition. The retail price is $2195.00 so expect a price of around $1895.00 as a MAP price. Mauro knew who I was from the Synthzone Arranger Discussion Forum and assures me that Roland is not out of the Arranger market for too much longer. I would expect to see a new product at the Summer NAMM show in July. He gave me his card and told me to contact him with any questions on how to use and demonstrate the Discover 5 keyboard. I think this will be a difficult keyboard for big chain stores to sell because it will take a great demonstration to show it's features well. The only arranger showed at the Roland Contemporary Keyboard booth was the VA7 because they still have some left. However, once gone............no more!
Next it was off to Generalmusic Booth. I gave a big hug to Chris Anthony and Michael Chin and thanked Daniele Galanti for the trip of a lifetime my wife and I got to share at the Generalmusic facilities in San Giovanni, Italy this past June. There, the new Genesys Professional was staring me right in the face. A 61 key, no speaker model with pop up screen. It seemed to weigh between 35-40lbs. It will easily fit into a normal case or gig bag and will be available in March. The price will be around $2995.00 in my store. All the features of the Genesys with speakers are in this model. Next to this model was the new ProMega2 and although it is a Piano and not an arranger, anyone interested in the best sounding digital piano made might be interested in this new, more modern looking version of the highly acclaimed ProMega3. The Promega2 is lighter, grey in color and still has the same operating system but with smaller knobs, no automated moving faders, 4 band EQ instead of 8 bands on the 3, 160 note polyphony instead of 360, one less catagory of sounds and no aftertouch. The price will be $2195.00 list compared to $2995.00 for the ProMega3. There was also an 88 key weighted version of the Genesys but in a black polished cabinet Piano type cabinet. I didn't get the price on this one. There will also be a slab version of this model in the future.
Next on to Ketron and I got to visit with my friends Lou, Aldo and AJ. There I met many Synthzone friends. AJ showed me the version 4.0 for the SD1 and although I'm buying these from the NAMM show, I was told to not give the 4.0 software out to anyone yet because this is still a beta version and the final version should be available soon. AJ and the Italian team has done a great job of cleaning up the electric piano voices, improved the guitar voices and have added so many asked for features. Nothing else was new at the Ketron booth. I actually sold an XD3 module while there and the customer lives in California and I will ship him his module next week. We went into Lou's makeshift office and did our business. He paid me in cash and I gave him a receipt on my business card. This was a first for me!
I then walked through Korg and found that they have no new models this year. Still the PA60, PA80, SP500.
Yamaha had many new keyboards, but the Tyros got most of the attention. I was so pleased to meet the new Product Specialist for Southern California, Heratch Touresian, who comes with a middle eastern music background and I'm excited to know that he will be assisting me in providing middle eastern styles and sounds for Yamaha arranger keyboards and the Motif. The new low end Yamaha Kareoke keyboard was really cool. It comes with mic, lyrics on the screen and a new feature which allows you to play along with a midi file and while doing this, you can't play a wrong note. It plays to the tune even if you don't know the notes. It doesn't give you the melody but rather allows you to improvise to the song. This keybaord will replace the PSR350 and will sell for $399.00
The PSR1100 and PSR2100 both looked exactly the same as the current models including the color. The difference is twice the Rom size for the voices, twice the Flash Ram for the user storage, the PSR1100 will now have the notation screen function like the PSR2000 and the PSR2100, there will be USB for connecting to a computer (but still not for updating software like the TYROS0) and the PSR2100 now has the sounds of the 9000PRO plus more....and there are many Tyros styles in the PSR2100. Mark Anderson of Yamaha gave me a grand tour of these products. There are also now EZ keyboards with the lights under the keys like the Casios rather than the lights above the keys as the current EZ models are designed. There were demonstrations by product specialists on the Tyros and you had to be impressed by their playing and the magnificant sound of TYROS. I think I got the award from the Yamaha staff for selling the most Tyros keyboards in the past month here in the USA!
I will be going to work Friday and will return to NAMM on Saturday and Sunday. It was a great day!
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

Thank u George for your first day report
What about Technichs?

George,

What is your opinion on the SD1 new patterns upgrade. They were suppose to have added new styles and re-work the older X1 styles in the keyboard.

Nothing new from Roland (except the Discover)and Korg. That's disappointing. Considering that the VA7 was never sold in large chain stores (samash / guitar center) and the VA76 is not as popular as the G1000, when that was released.

Thank for your report

AJ did a good thing with the styles. First, you now know which styles are in flash and which are in rom by his useing upper case vs lower case letters. If they are upper case they are flash and lower case are rom. He also reworked the X1 styles to use newer voices from the SD1. AJ did show me some of the new styles which were quite good, although I didn't spend much time listening to the styles. He also showed me how much easier it is now to access styles from the hard drive. If you push single style button, now if you push the style catagory buttons, the styles in the hard drive show up on the screen just like the stock styles and this makes it much easier for selection. Also, now there are more options for having your styles from the hard drive be available in many different types of order. Alphabetical, numerical, etc. rather than only the one choice of Ketron's original designers. If you prefer finding styles you have copied onto the hard drive in order they were added or rather than by alpebetical order, these are now your options.
For the Yamaha DGX202 and DGX300 users, Yamaha has come out with a wooden stand that looks like the DGX500 stand for these shorter 76 key models.
I didn't make it over to technics because I didn't expect to see anything new and I already no about the 7000.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

George,
Thanks for the prompt report on NAMM! We really appreciate you taking time to fill us in and look forward to hearing more after your weekend visits.

Congratulations on the Tyros sales award.

Lanny

Thanks George. I wouldn't miss your NAMM reports for the world (better than the music magazines hy miles!).

Steve

George, just one more thing . . .

If you see the guys at the Yamaha booth again, please suggest that they rework the OS and styles for the 9000PRO. Since its still their top of the line, they ought to provide a REAL upgrade for it (like Ketron did for the SD-1). I'd be willing to pay for such an upgrade and so would most 9000PRO users.

Thanks again,
Steve

George,
Did yamaha say anything about replacing the PSR-550 anytime soon? If this new model they have is replacing the 350, one could only assume something replacing the 550...

Squeak

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 01-17-2003).]

Did you pick up what george said about the PSR1100 and PSR2100? "The difference is twice the Rom size for the voices, twice the Flash Ram for the user storage," Either they have added more voices or the quality has improved substantially. Thoughts?
Starkeeper

Yup saw is post.. I think it's good that they now have twice the memory.. Never hurts to have more memory.. Would love to hear them. I'd still like to know what Yamaha has in store for the 550 though.. Maybe they'll release one with an internal sequencer (35,000), at least 12 mbs of sound, and an improved speaker system... The current one really is pretty lame.

Squeak

A big thankyou to George. I am in the united kingdom and didnt get chance to go to Naam maybe Frankfurt instead. Its good to have someone in the real world thats not hypnotised by certain manufacturers. Thanks again George. Perhaps one day when i visit ill come to your shop.

Darren

Anything interesting from Casio?
Starkeeper

GK, if you visit Roland find out if this means anything of interest to arranger folks:

"The V-Synth is not only a powerful sound sculpting tool, but also a killer performance synthesizer. To start, you get a programmable arpeggiator that can instantly create backing chords ..."

I asked Mark Anderson what would replace the PSR550 and his answer was that the PSR550 isn't going away this year. It will stay in the line for at least a while longer. On the sign above the PSR2100 it actually read "twice the wave rom + 50% more". I also looked at the PSR1100 and didn't see the blue face that the picture at Harmony Central put on their website. I don't know what's up there!
I saw the Casio booth but I also saw absolutely no activity around and walked right past it. I check it out this weekend.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, california