Last night I had a visit from Ted Krauss of CMC, the distributors of Ketron products here in the USA.
Ted explained that without anything new to show at NAMM as of this weekend, there was no reason for the company to show old models.
He has one Audya in New York, but it is still a prototype and therefore not complete with all the new styles and sounds.
AJ, however, just returned back from Italy and he has been given a finished version which hopefully will make the Don Mason Jam next week.
Ted expects finished products to be delivered here in the USA sometime in February.
We spoke about price and although it has not been finialized, I think it will come in at about the same retail price as the Yamaha Tyros3. However, only when it arrives here will we really know the final price.
Ted has assured me that I would receive my store's sample as soon as they arrive and that we would be able to schedule a "ketron day" with AJ here in Southern California soon after.
Ted left me with some brochures and again pointed out to me that besides all the new functions with styles including live Drums, basses and guitars, the other main exciting features of the Audya is a full Ketron Midjay inside, with all it's faders and buttons as a complete midjay section and a large sampler, allowing for the developement of sounds and styles for all ethnic musicians requiring middle eastern, Indian, Latin, etc. sounds. Ted has already lined up musicians well known for their abilities in these markets to develop new "sets" for the Auyda. This will be a project developed for our market here in the USA.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

It's so funny.......I just got a phone call from a synthzone member who got into NAMM and called me to ask "where is the Ketron booth". I told him about my visit with Ted last night and he was not very happy. He said the only reason he came out to NAMM was to get a chance to see and try the Audya. He asked if this meant the Audya really won't be out for at least another year and I said "have patience". It should be soon. I hope I gave him good information!!


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

All he had to do was read the posts we knew the Audya was not at going to be at Namm? So basicly we have a Midjay with a KB attached?

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 01-15-2009).]

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 01-15-2009).]

Now that's a little silly.........That's over simplifying the Auyda. Of course there is a slew of new styles utilizing naturally played instruments and newly sampled voices. But the inclusion of the Midjay also allows the Audya to have a means to play live loops, MP3's, Wave Files, etc.
Also, if we really do end up with a street price close to the Tyros3, this should be a very good seller with all the features, extra polyphony (197) and a 76 semiweighted keyboard.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

geoirge it was just a basic reply..as I always said when I had my Sd1+ & Midjay that it would be nice to have the features of the midjay in the sd1+.....just the fact that you can use & play all the features & modes of play SEPERATLY & Simultaneously is worth its weight in gold alone.

i LOVE, the idea of new styles/sounds project,

making the AUDYA expandable/upgradable, especially w/ developing new styles, will be HUGE,

i just hope the price is NOT HUGE, and is in line with all other top arrangers...

George/Ted

i just hope they get real musicians who know how to play the music,
ie. latin players who play salsa, merengue, cumbia, bachata, bolero, etc, for a living,

not Japanese/American musicians with No clue, no feeling when it comes to true ethnic styles, rhythms...

we don't need someone site reading and playing like a robot :-)


my birthday is in February, and supposedly the AUDYA will come out in February... hhhhmmmmm :-)

One huge advantage that Ketron have is that their styles, particularly the audio loop using ones, are NOT translatable to other formats. So, if you like them, you HAVE to get a Ketron to use them, not wait until someone runs them through Styleworks and everyone gets them...

As to whether they will be able to generate enough of a revenue stream to fund making these VERY expensive to produce audio styles (this ain't one guy in a bedroom, it takes studio time and talented players) it's going to rely on firstly, whether the Audya users are smart enough to realize that trading these styles around will pretty much ensure that no more get made (until the Audya2), or whether Ketron were smart enough to use copy protection on the styles...

My guess is it is going to rely on the honesty of the arranger owners. So you are screwed

Diki,

It is starting to get a little tiring of your negative attitude toward Ketron. You've been saying all along that the Audya won't work, and now the owners are going to be screwed. I really don't think so. I've owned two different Ketrons and I'm betting the Audya will be a killer board. Ketron has always been on the leading edge of arranger technology.

Have you ever even played a Ketron? It seems odd that you think they are such a terrible company when I'm betting you've never played one.

I also have a G70 just like you and I like it, but it is not THE ultimate arranger. It is a TOTL arranger of which there are many. I'm willing to bet that the folks attending the Jam in Shreveport will leave raving about the Audya.

Before you post anymore of this NEGATIVE speculation (because all it is, IS speculation), walk a mile in the shoes of a Ketron first.

Tom

Trust me, Tom, the G70 is no more the perfect arranger than the Audya. And I'm sorry if you think that keeping your eyes wide open during the blizzard of hype and bated breath speculation that accompanies every new TOTL arranger's launch, and discussing some of the OBVIOUS shortcomings of any new technology is 'putting it down'....

Do you berate those that simply gush enthusiastically about every unheard feature as if it is a panacea to every playing woe they ever had as 'building it up'? No... you do not. My questions about the value of audio loops on melodic parts (rather than just drum loops) is still a valid one.

And the day you get your Audya, and ask it to play a Min(maj7) chord and it (or at least the live loop part - what you payed a fortune for ) plays a Min(no extension), you will have the opportunity to 'put it down' yourself. That is, if you even CARE whether it can play chords like that (my shitty G70 has no problem with those types of chords)...

Or the day you decide to use it's sampler, and find out that 64MB is not enough to load in what you want (if you even use samples at all) and you wonder why they couldn't allow the 1GB or so that Yamaha allow, or the 256MB that Korg do.

Or the day that you remember that virtually no new 'live loop' styles (that used NEW live loops) were ever released for the SD-1 after it's release (or a fraction of the new styles that Yamaha, Korg and Roland released). Ketron's commitment to producing LOTS of new styles, in a large variety of formats (no two people perform exactly the same kind of music and need exactly the same type of styles for it) at an affordable price is, IMO, essential to the Audya's success.

As has been noted (by someone else, if you want to berate HIM, too!), styles without the audio loops don't sound that different from any other arranger. But the loop styles make a HUGE difference. However, let's say I do a show of primarily New Orleans and Cajun music. What are my odds of getting Ketron to provide live loop styles in those genres? Pretty slim, I'd say. But they are easy enough to find for a MIDI based arranger. Or to make, even.

But Ketron is going to need a studio full of REAL players (and not slackers with a mouse) to produce these. And where is the return on their investment? Shoot the messenger all you want, but it is a fact of life that we trade styles around like bubblegum cards. As expensive to produce as these live loop styles are going to be, what is Ketron's reason to produce additional ones? Yep.... MONEY! How many would they have to sell (remember, there's only ONE product in their entire line that is capable of playing them) to even break even, yet alone make a decent profit. When ONE dishonest owner could 'share' them with all his other Audya friends and nix that idea?

I REALLY like Yamaha's IDG (?) system, with copy protection. You know at least that Yamaha will make enough off the styles to warrant making MORE... And more is what we all want. To be honest, how many or us would even bother changing arrangers if the factory released as many NEW, fresh, as-good-as-the-ROM styles every year as when we bought it..?

But because we trade styles around (little or no copy protection) few are ever made until those that come out with the NEXT generation of arranger. So we all buy the new arranger, mostly for the new styles and sounds.

Ketron are TALKING about changing that, but without copy protection, how long do you think they will keep making a loss? The SD-1 certainly showed the depth of their commitment to a constant supply of fresh 'live loop' styles

But, like I said, shoot the messenger... or buy an Audya, and THEN start talking about these issues. But they are not going to go away if we all close our eyes. And you MIGHT at least acknowledge that I have been one of the most enthusiastic endorsers of the demos. They sound GREAT! I am NOT 'putting the Audya down''. Far from it.

But I AM staying awake, and not letting the hype and excitement blind me to obvious (well, obvious to me, anyway!) shortcomings of this system...

But cross your fingers, if that helps for you...