Well said Scott

Yamaha,
I vote with my dollars. the PSR450 did not entice me to upgrade from my PSR550. I notice that the PSR450 has that awesome sweet soprano sax, but no sale (too big a downgrade).
Starkeeper

The real drive comes from inside, not what someone gives you, and unless companies keep innovating, even they, as large as they are, may come up against an oncoming juggernaut.

The juggernaut is there if you look for it, and not too far off, wink



[This message has been edited by digitalvision (edited 10-20-2004).]

I take your point Scott but the only fly in the ointment can be that if we don't buy their latest "Flagship Model" in sufficient numbers they can decide that there aint no market any more and do a "Technics". We would then have to go on playing our Tyroses into infinity..
Mmm! yes I think I could cope with that!!!!!

Trevor

I would agree with this but my Yamaha 9000 Pro is the exception - there is no "upgrade" and Yamaha has been almost adamant in not producing a "Tyros Pro" to make up for this... yet. And the funny thing is that since the 9000 Pro accepts PLG expansion cards but the Tyros doesn't we are in a unique situation: I have already pre-ordered one of the new PLG150-AP acoustic piano expansion cards which Yamaha claims has their latest/greatest grand piano samples - so my obsolete 9000 Pro will soon have the top-of-the-line triple-strike piano sounds from Yamaha and the current flagship Tyros won't. So much for built-in obsolescence! This makes a discontinued keyboard model more desireable than the current model for some users like me. I don't know what marketing genius dreamed that scenerio up but the only way Yamaha can counter that blunder is by releasing a Tyros Pro that accepts PLG cards.

Heh heh...

Are the new keyboards today all that they could be?

Hardly .....



Yes, I think so. All Yamaha arrangers will have Megavoices - and the upcoming new topkeyboards might have more megavoices and again lots more sweet!, cool! and such voices.
An increased polyphony and more layering of voices, maybe more outputs etc.
Maybe the XG-voices will slowly be abandoned to make place for the better voices, so the sound of the styles will be better.

There are different techniques in different boards, like the Motif ES and the PSR3000 - both Yamaha, but where PSR3000 has styles, Motif ES has patterns. These patterns could be a replacement for the Multipads on the Yamaha arrangers.
And so we can dream forever.

The ultimate arranger isn't there yet..!

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drdalet

[This message has been edited by drdalet (edited 10-21-2004).]

And it never will be drdalet

If I could suggest just one positive step for the manufacturers it would be to design the instruments with focus on the way that the customers use them.

Some examples:

Multitrack Recording

Eventually, we all out grow facilities such as Yamaha's Quick Record and want to lay down discrete tracks in conjunction with a sequencer. To do this, we need to be able to communicate/control all the important parameters including voices and DSPs seemlessly between the sequencer and the instrument.

It is very difficult to do with todays products. Sometimes the instrument does not send the necessary data and sometimes the sequencers simply remove events that the instrument manufacturer has included. The engineers would quickly realize this problem if they attempted to use the instruments as this class of customer does.

Performers

The one man band and other gigging performers want to be able to organize their Sets on a laptop and specify everything from the midi load, registrations, vocal harmony settings, lyrics, performance notes, etc. While you can control most outboard gear via the PC, the Yamaha synths lack the commands for controlling most of the instrument. If the enginners tried to set up a gig, they would realize this immediately.

I don't believe that the profit motive is a big factor with the design of these instruments. Most of the manufactuers seem focused on outperforming their competition with products which arrive on a regular time schedule. The time schedule is fixed, and the number of issues far outpaces the resources available. We may dilute their program and confuse the priorities by insisting on our own pet features (easy to do when we are not aware of the overall product strategy of the manufacturer).

The solution that I offer is to replace our requests for features with demands for application capabilities.

Regards,

Michael

One thing I think keyboards today should have is the ability to display the screen of the keyboard on a computer. I am not talking about a video display but a software program where you can access functions from the keyboard on the computer.

Similar to how you can connect a cell phone or a PDA to a computer and control some of the parameters from the computer.

But given the way keyboard manufacturers are dragging their feet with being innovative and creative with the products they are putting out it will probably be in 10 years that such a thing would come in to existence.

Only some of the lesser known keyboard manufacturers are trying to integrate computer technology with music and keyboard technology. But because they are not the “big 3”, we as consumers disregard them and their ideas, don’t support them and pretty much blast them out of existence. It is only until the “big 3” take it upon themselves to link computer technology with keyboards will we see the light.

"One thing I think keyboards today should have is the ability to display the screen of the keyboard on a computer."
What a fantastic idea, as long as you can also display the data without a computer. It has been said that, eventually, the TV, stereo, internet, movies, music, will all be integrated. Why not have the keyboard, integrated with this as well? Not enough buttons on the keyboard, no problem, just use the computer keyboard for more input. Hard drive space - no problem. Multi-tasking, the keyboard can be playing a style, while the computer can be accessing a database for the next setup.
When will I play my keyboard, when my wife watches TV?
Starkeeper

[This message has been edited by Starkeeper (edited 10-25-2004).]