What is happening at Ketron, surely the US Market is huge, as far as price concerned I still believe that the price will be set as to what each individual market can get, so I do not have the Aus price on the Audya yet, and neither does the dealer here at Gospel in Sydney, still may be a sweet surprise, I will remain positive on that one. Now there used to be a music expo in Melb Aust once, but for some reason it all stopped, please start them again, users need to be able to get thier hands on gear to assess the suitability for use etc.

As far as I am concered in the US...Wersi and Ketron are in the same boat ( by choice) They say forget the US...I say Fine, stay in Europe.

It's obvious they don't need us, they are making plenty of $$ in non-US soil, so we don't need them.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

It's a shane, because there is a few folks that do support them here..but not the MFG.
If that ever changes...new ball game.

Lee

Digging into the manual from a Mac user is quite the feat!!! I'm KIDDING....


Got to agree here though. No one from our store is going this year. I went to Summer NAMM in Nashville. I actually enjoyed it more then Anaheim being smaller and not in LA and less "Hip Hop Industry" oriented.

But NAMM is not a not exactly a great place for hands on demos especially on new gear. The Manufacturer Rooms are always crowded with few Reps and in Nashville they only had one of every keyboard. I actually enjoyed seeing the unusual stuff more and there is some way out there stuff like a plastic thingy one can put on their hand and press down on a guitar so the blind can play a guitar chord. The "Amp on a Strap" was interesting. The fold up stool/guitar stand. (Sold a ton of them for the holidays)



Better off waiting for the reviews from real users and reviewers. We aren't not seeing enough new on the horizon to make the trip.

I dont think the US is a good market to sell european products with the current vallue of the dollar...


Ketron knows their Audia will be to expensive in the US to make any money...

Sop they solely concentrate on teh huge european arranger market... thats where most arranger money is anyway

Even when the US $ was fine...Wersi and Ketron were no shows here.

Meaning the MFG did not really care or support the products very well.

That's OK, there are plenty of other choices.

Lee

I guess the question is, what CAN be done to encourage the acceptance and spread of arranger use in North America to the scale that obviously exists in Europe? Just WHY is North America lagging behind?

I'm doing my part!

I demo the PSR900 to everyone who even hints at buying recording gear, or a workstation.

I can say without doubt PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW they even exist with regard to the realiam and POWER of them . EVERY single person I demoed was blown away by the abilities, voices and feature set I have converted some workstation users or at least am doing my part to killing the "toy" myth on these small speaker filled keyboards.

Haven't broken the local OMB musicians though. They still prefer 88 key WS or pianos with CDs or sequencers. The older folks who play part time in more non conventional venues like Lodges and Retirement communities are buying them. A handful of them already have CVP Clavinovas at home.

Keep up the good work then, Kingfrog! My own take on this is that North America seems to be hung up on guitars. Any place that has a solo performer usually seems to have a guy with a guitar and a lsptop. I have no explanation for this, but it's what I see all the time.

Other than legacy music, oldies, all that stuff, arranger manufacturers have mostly ignored contemporary US music. This is OK in Europe, which has a VERY strong tradition of sing-along music, schlager and traditional favorites. But in America, other than clubs that cater to the, let's just say more 'mature' crowd , the music is very contemporary, whether urban - hiphop, rap & modern R&B, or contemporary rock - emo, alternative, that kind of thing.

This is, IMO, why the arranger is not pre-eminent over here. The manufacturers, with their sales base already well established in Europe, seem unwilling to invest the considerable amount of money and time it would take to develop these modern styles (and the nature of modern music is that it changes MUCH faster than legacy styles).

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with the technology, simply that the content has not been 'Americanized' except for older styles - classic R&B, country and western, classic rock, jazz, Motown, that sort of thing.

It's a Catch-22... They won't make the content until there are enough sales to warrant it, and there won't be much in the way of sales until the content is created...

What's a boy to do..?

Then it would seem that the arranger market in the U.S. already has one foot in the grave. Sad.