Everybody will have the full skinny on the T3 after Summer NAMM starts, which opens Friday June 20th and runs through Sunday the 22nd. Yamaha will "officially" unveil the T3 at summer NAMM and demos will follow shortly thereafter. Massive excitement and buzz will reverberate throughout the Arranger music world and those who have a Tyros2 and many with Tyros1's will start selling them in droves or trading them in for this new beast from Yammie, which will blow every other arranger product on the market out of the water with the sheer magnitude of its sound realism. Wersi owners will weep in remorse for having bought their overpriced, overrated Wersi product. Korg owners will be left with wide open mouths gaping in astonishment at what Yamaha has acheived on their latest Flagship and then left to ponder how to dump their Pa800 without losing their shirt in the process. Ketron lovers will look on with angst and trepidation as Yamaha bursts on the scene with its new top of the line arranger, grabing the media spotlight, and a wonder to behold, as Ketron Italy fiddles slowly around with Audya in their hopes of attending yet another Musikmesse trade show in Frankfurt, Germany where the frauleins abound and the beer flows freely. Roland arranger users (most notably G-70 owners) will stand back in amazement at what Yamaha has accomplished in a keyboard with only 61 keys with its full complement of cutting edge features (minus the 15 additional keys of course ) and will then look at their G-70's in disdain for its comprehensive 'lack' of cutting edge features for an arranger in the 21st century. But their stubborn pride refuses to acknowledge Yamaha's superiority and the inferiority of their own product. Let me see.. did I miss anyone?

>> I'm trying to puff Yamaha up because eventually the T3 bubble may indeed burst if the T3 is under-whelming in its performance and in the sound department, and the hype proves to be what it is - just hype, with excitement about the T3 quickly fizzling out after the T3's lackadaisical initial release reveals the truth about Yammie's new flagship.

In conclusion: The T3 will either be a smash hit or a poor excuse for a $4,000 keyboard. We will find out which theory holds up in the court of public opinion in less than a month.

Best,
Mike

PS: If anybody thinks too seriously about what I said in regards to their arranger or the company that makes your arranger - needs to get out more; but even more importantly - you need to get a sense of humor.

[This message has been edited by keybplayer (edited 05-21-2008).]

If i was a Yamaha dealer i'd tell everyone that the PSR 9000 is still better then all other Keyboard brands, and the 3 Tyros versions only made it better..

And then i'd tell them how good the new T3 actually is with a new sound engine based on AWM2 , everything got better and better, while still being compatible to the T2...

I'd never trust a dealer above my own hands and ears

I agree. Everyone and his brother can give an opinion on any given keyboard but the ultimate deciding factor and the final judge of any keyboards true worth is the person who plays it firsthand themselves and then he or she can make up their own minds whether a particular keyboard is the bees knees or not.

Although opinions from trusted and or "professional" sources is always welcome and will help to enhance a persons knowledge and overall understanding on the generalities of a keyboards features and sound quality. But a persons personal interaction with the keyboard i.e. to demo it firsthand, should be considered a must on everyone's shopping list before aquiring the product in my opinion. Some people do buy sight unseen and to each his own, but I'm just a hands on kind of guy I guess and I always prefer to "try" before I buy.

Best,
Mike

Interesting: the dealer request form details standard or deluxe speakers???????

Hmmmmm...? maybe they throw in a New BOSE PAS with the T3 ....sorry I meant Two PAS's for stereo

Buy in haste, repent at leisure.

Ian

assignable sliders already exist on the PA1X. Assignable affects to the joystick/Modulation wheel already exist on the PA1X. The Pa1x IS 5 YEARS OLD.

Everything changes and yet everything stays the same......

What are the advantages of Drawbars on an arranger which would make them must-have? You wouldn't want to have to fiddle around during a performance would you in preference to using much more precise and quick registration buttons??

I'm not an organ player (apart from playing simulated ones on Ty2) and I can see why it might be useful perhaps for quickly experimenting with mixtures when looking for new setups, but once saved to registrations is there really such a pressing need for them nowadays?

John

Well, you just answered your own question. "I am not an organ player"....

That's why you don't need them, any more than you need a breath controller (because you are not a horn player, I presume ), or a knee lever (because you are not a pedal steel player)....

But if you WERE an organ player...

How is two keyboards easier to travel with than ONE 76?

Not to mention that, because of the 'dumbing down' of MIDI implementations since the nineties, it is MUCH harder to integrate two different keyboards to control ONE arranger.

You see, the whole point of arranger registrations is the 'one button' call-up of everything you need for a tune. But because arrangers are now designed specifically to NOT work with external gear as easily as it used to be, you are faced with the problem of having to use TWO different sets of controls to integrate the two keyboards.

Let's take the simplest thing you are likely to want to do with an 88... Not only play the arrangers piano sound, but also to trigger the arranger's 'Piano Mode' chord recognition, so the accompaniment actually follows you. This is much harder to program than simply using a MIDI channel to play the voice. Then there is the question of chord 'hold' (so you can play passing chords without the machine going crazy) as well as sustain, sostenuto and soft pedal control.

Doable? Possibly, on your arranger, but hardly simple. Now add in the fact that you would probably like to have 'Piano Mode' enabled for the section you are playing piano on, but want to go back to a LH chords, RH solo sound for another section of the song (you don't want to HAVE to play the entire song on piano, do you? ) you add an altogether more complicated thing to program without a lot of button pushing.

Add to this that you are going to have to physically separate the two keyboards by quite a distance (so you have access to the 88's buttons), and you create a rig that is far more uncomfortable to play than if they were snuggled up close, á la organ style, and far more complicated to make changes to. For those of you that would prefer the inconvenience of hauling at least TWO keyboards around, with all the extra stands, wires, pedals MIDI cables, etc. so you can have the 'purist' approach of playing an 88 for what, two sounds (piano and Rhodes?), I would suggest you start making a LOT more noise to your favorite manufacturer about the dwindling MIDI implementation.