You've got to admire 'faith' in the face of overwhelming evidence that making the Audya WORK was a FAR greater task than Ketron realized...
The only thing I am SURE of, is that it will not be everything everyone wants it to be... The nature of audio loops and the complexities involved (only some of which I have outlined) pretty much guarantee that those who think they will be the panacea to conventional arrangers will be disillusioned.
There will be a VERY short, initial gasp of 'this thing sounds AMAZING!', then the feeling of 'is this ALL it can do?' will set in. Trust me, audio loops in realtime for as fluid and complicated an instrument as rhythm guitar are just not practical. Even computers have yet to get it right, and they have FAR fewer practical restrictions (like load time, streaming audio, etc.) than a hardware instrument.
There's a HUGE difference between a loop that does it's own thing, and one that needs to respond INSTANTLY to your input. For instance, we haven't even discussed what happens if you change an extension or chord type DURING a long chord... Play a slow ballad, with a strumming chord. Change half way through a beat from Maj to Sus4... Your conventional arranger can handle this. How does an audio loop manage this?
I'm sorry, but I truly believe that audio is NOT the answer. Sophisticated guitar emulation is already a reality with Mega voicing, the new T3 guitar NTT's, and Korg's Guitar Mode. Tie these to VERY realistic samples, and you have a recipe for guitar strumming and picking that SOUNDS like the real thing, but remains editable and no problems with whatever whacked out chord you want to throw at it.
Audio loops feel like the One Finger approach to guitar parts, IMO. They are going to do what they want to do, and you are going to have little control over them...
We are on the verge of a Golden Age of arranger realism, but it is NOT going to come from primarily loops. Sample sets are getting more and more realistic, and techniques to add in the performance characteristics are getting more authentic, rules based behaviors for lines that don't jump on chord changes are already here, sampled drum sets like EZ Drummer and BFD show that you can get ultimate realism out of drums without audio loops of any kind, guitar strumming emulation is getting VERY close...
Audio loops are a blind alley, IMO, and any company that banks it's future on these has not simply looked at the PRACTICAL aspects of it. If I want to dick around with loops, I can use Garage Band. But if I want something that responds in an instant to what I play, and offers me an infinite variety of styles and sound variations (you can't change an acoustic loop into an electric loop with a simple PC#, that's for sure!), with customizability and editing possibilities, that's going to HAVE to remain a MIDI based arranger. IMHO...
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