For those of you who'd like to know what the new Tyros 3 is all about: One of the visitors to my forum posted that he found that all manuals for the Tyros 3 are available for download at the Yamaha website.
http://www.yamaha.co.jp/manual/english/result.php?div_code=&model=Tyros+3&cat_code=

------------------
- THE DUTCH KEYBOARD FORUM
http://www.keyboardforum.nl

Unbelievably lame.

Just went through everything. There are 4 new SA2 voices (with variations to make 11), and a smattering of other new sounds; hardly enough to justify spending $3-4G though. That would make it more expensive than some of the best sampled VSTi collections out there.

I'm extremely upset that the USER Rom has remained at 3.2MB (compared with Korg's 20MB). This is extremely insufficient, and using the HD is slow... too bad. And Style File ROM size remains at 120kb - which stifles some of the creative ideas I had planned...

The T3 is much less than I would have expected even from an incremental upgrade...

So sad

My prediction is that most of us who upgraded from T1 to T2, will not upgrade to the T3.

[This message has been edited by chony (edited 09-01-2008).]

Chony: I'm with you. Looked over the new docs. Missed opportunites abound. New clarinets are nice, but no new piano, bass, or drums which are real weaknesses on the T2. Sliders? Big deal and not real helpful when not automated to match settings. I don't get why they did that. I don't see a compelling reason to upgrade from a T2 other than it's shiny and new.

I'm sure the new things will sound nice but it's just not enough new to justify an upgrade.

They do have new pianos and some new drums. I'm not holding my hopes up for them though based on the demos we've heard so far...

Double post.. sorry.

[This message has been edited by keybplayer (edited 09-01-2008).]

I just went over everything also. I noticed the Style size limit hasn't changed and it's amazing in this day and age of "cheap" costing Flash RAM that Yamaha decided to keep the paltry 3.2 MB of internal RAM for the T3. My Tyros 1 had 3."3" MB of internal memory so in reality Yamaha is taking a micro step backwards on the T3 as far as the internal memory goes. My Roland Fantom G7 has "50" MB of internal flash RAM memory by comparison.

Yamaha is giving the T3 "11" more SA voices plus 11 of the new SA2. 50 more Styles is at least something plus more Organ Flutes and Mega Voices too over the T2 if I'm not mistaken. I suppose in the end the most important thing will be the improvement in sound quality. If the T3 is just a slight improvement in sound quality on basically half or so of the total amount sounds on the T3 then probably you'll get a few T2 owners who will upgrade to the T3. OTOH, if the overall sound improvement is quite substantial in nearly every category, then you'll probably see a substantial amount of T2 owners upgrade to the T3. But if the Drums turn out to be just incrementally better than the T2's then that will be a show stopper for many T2 owners on getting a T3 in my opinion.

When looking through the Manual I really couldn't see a lot of improvements or added features that the T2 doesn't already have. There are a few more buttons and those 9 short throw sliders though.

OTOH, if Yamaha did indeed make a Tyros 3 version with 76 keys Yamaha would have made out like a bandit in my opinion. Not only would they have sold a lot of the 61 key T3's but the real buzz and excitement would have been over the 76 key T3 which Yamaha would have sold a boat load if you ask me. Plus there would be even more buzz surrounding the T3 release if there was a 76 key T3 in the mix plus Yamaha would have sold more of the 61 key too because of the greater public awareness if Yamaha did indeed release a 76 key T3 along with the 61 key.

Best,
Mike

[This message has been edited by keybplayer (edited 09-01-2008).]

No Mp3 player,no Spdif out and HD screen ??

Impuls

Here is a quick comparison list T3 vs T2:

SA2 voices: 11 vs 0
Sa voices: 53 vs 42
Mega voices: 23 vs 18
Sweet voices: 26 vs 23
Cool voices: 58 vs 39
Live voices: 70 vs 58
Live drums: 12 vs 9
Total: 232 vs 189
Total voices:749 vs 504
Styles: 450 vs 400

Eric

What do you expect for $4,000? As if Yamaha was going to give you the features you actually wanted and lots of new sounds too. Nope, not a chance! For die hard Yamaha fans owning the newest Yamaha arranger will make them very happy. For others like me who expect a lot of bang for our buck and professional features, we'll pass on the Tyros 3.

I just wanted to add that if money is really not an object it may be wise to go ahead and sell your T2 and try to get a good price for it. That way, you would probably recoup at least half the purchase price for a new T3. Along with it you get a brand new keyboard that has a 1 year factory warranty (For what it's worth Korg gives you two years) and you would also have all the new stuff that the T3 brings to the table like USB 2.0, better sounds (theoretically), more Styles, more Multipads, more Organ Flutes, etc., etc.

If you're completely happy with your T2 then it makes sense that you would want to hold on to it though.

Best,
Mike