I have methodically listened to all the demos of the Yamaha Tyros 3, Korg PA2x pro and Roland GW-8. I have done a detailed analysis of all the different models features. I then brought Ketron's (soon to be released) Audya into the comparison. If the Audya is going to be priced at around $5000, then there is no way that the Audya can compete in this current economic market. The competition has got the jump on Ketron during it's long 3 year development period.

I hope Ketron can survive but they have to be very careful with their pricing.

$3,999.99 and i may buy AUDYA,
BUT i have to spend an entire day with it to test it

My major concern (other than the price) with an Audya would be whether the ROM styles cover my musical needs, and if there are any holes in the style selection, or insufficient selection in any particular style category, whether Ketron themselves are introducing new styles (especially those Live Drums styles) at a sufficient rate and variety to convince me that whatever is currently lacking WILL get filled in eventually...

Roland and Yamaha, and to a lesser degree Korg, all have VERY extensive legacy libraries, third party commercial and user created libraries. Your chance of finding good styles in any particular genre seem much greater there.

If the ROM styles have you good to go, the Audya looks amazing (with an amazing price, too!), but if you do a lot of music that it doesn't have, your options might be a bit smaller...

As with all manufactures boards, you buy what suits you, and not what someone else or the manufacture tells you that you should have. (Still no substitute for trying one yourself before making a decision though)

Regards

Bill

I see many people say IF THE ROOM STYLES SUIT ME...what about people like me?
Where we dont even use not a Single style or sound on the machine???
How do we evaluate a synth? Lets take Audya or PA2X for example...CRAP!
As they come from factory they are both CARP!!! Useles piece of metal, nothing
for me in it...and should i value it like that cuz of that???

i just wanna, say that there is NO arranger in the world that has everything everyone needs, all the styles all the sounds

i understand it's almost impossible to satisfy everyone,,,,

with this said, it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that WE have the tools necessary to easily CREATE OUR OWN styles,
the software for both the computer and the keyboard itself

THIS we do not yet have with the AUDYA,
THIS to me is the #1 MISSING piece of the puzzle
THIS should be KETRON's #1 priority at this time.

Nedim,

you have done nothing but praise this great AUDYA keyboard

now you say it's CRAP and a useless piece of metal?

when you get yours, which you should have by now, can i'd gladly take that CRAP off your hands?



[This message has been edited by leezone (edited 03-20-2009).]

Nedim..., sadly these companies who make the boards FOR YOU always seem to make that board from their LOW END. There's Yammie's OR S model, Korg's PA-500-OR, and Roland Had the OR version of the EXR line. The new Roland GW has several models, but again a low end model that's really more a preset machine.

Sadly you can't find a Tyros OR, PA (pro model.., OR) or G-70-OR.

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 03-20-2009).]

Leezone, sadly English is my second language and more sadly most of you who speak English
better then me fail to understand me even when i speak completely correct English, post check
by a friend before posted. Read again why i said crap and you will understand.
Squeak you are right but whats even more sad is that Korg makes its money from communities
like mine, which was oficially said by Korg that the biggest existing market for PA right now is
Turkey by itself and only Turkey...all cuz of people like me, we take the machines and turn
them into something else. I hope now Lee understands my point. And the machine like PA500OR,
PSRA1000, S700OR are actually toys and they dont even sell in oriental countries.

Hi Nedim.

You will NOT see a Pa2X TR simply because the market you believe is the biggest in the world is NOT what you think it is.

There is a very good reason why all TR editions are made from the lower end keyboards and a lot of that has to do with customer feedback, money, and the market it's directed at. If KORG are selling as many as you say, then looks like they got the balance right.

If you want more, then you will have to look elsewhere because your in the minority and you will have a long wait before you see anyone developing flagship arrangers for your market.

Your one of the very few people who can design and create their own styles. You also know the art of sampling very well so really you have all the tools inside yourself to make any flagship arranger into the ultimate “TR”.

So what's stopping you from doing that ?.

Get yourself a Pa2x and a V-Machine and never look back mate. If you don't do something about this yourself you will never be happy.

Regards.
James

I can believe that.

An ex-colleague of mine who works for one of Roland's biggest dealers in Europe always claims that they sell more arrangers to a handful of countries around the Mediterranean than to the whole of the North America.

James, me and you never really conflicted each other and as you say thats what i am doing,
sampling and designing stuff for the flagships. But as far Turkey goes you are wrong,
it is and it was said to me by Korg officials, actually the highest Korg person in USA, Jerry.
They have different reasons of doing the low end but even without Jerry saying anything i
knew where the market is, trust me, you dont know and understand whats going on in there.
On 1 american PA arranger there is probably 40 in Turkey. I wish i recorded the convo with Jerry.
I am not throwing this out for no reason, the point is i always knew that as a fact but
when Jerry said it to me personally it was a relief. And no, in those countries they dont
sell as many workstations.

[This message has been edited by Nedim (edited 03-22-2009).]

Hi Nedim.



We will have to agree to disagree on that one because it's been flogged to death over on KORG Forums and I can see what is and what is not available to you in a TR edition. There is nothing else to evaluate in all this.

My main reason for replying to you in this thread is to simply give you a push in a new direction and to see if I can help you see another option here because as I said, as much as you want to see a Pa2X TR, you simply won't because the market is not what you believe it is.

That said, a Pa2X is entirely reprogrammable. It has no factory preset information and every bank can be entirely overwritten with data. So from an arranger point of view it's the ultimate when it comes to customising. If you take that and the fact that it can read any styles from the current “TR” keyboard, your not left with a lot of work really in building your ultimate keyboard.

All your short are the sounds to go with the styles. You would make short work of a problem like that, and I bet you already have your own personal sample library of sounds.

Stick them into the a V-Machine and you have all you dream of and much more. The V-Machine would even run any of the GB in size Ethnic VSTi libraries available.

Or, get Extreme Sample Converter along with Sample Lord and you can have anything you fancy. There's even a version of Sample Load that runs on the V-Machine.

Hope you see my point. It has nothing to do with the Turkish market because I know your beyond the needs of anything currently supplied to the market your in.

So you have to step above it mate. You have the skills in sampling and style creation to help yourself and build a setup far beyond anything KORG can give you right now, or any time soon in the future.

Regards.
James.

If anyone DID sell an American biased arranger, it would probably sell like hotcakes over here. But all we get are legacy styles and schlager and ballroom stuff that Europe wants.

I would be hard pressed to cover a SINGLE song on the charts right now with an arranger.

It is a disgrace. The American market is the way it is because the manufacturers have MADE it like that... and it will only change when they MAKE it change.

The big3 understand what America needs in a WS. How come they can't figure out how to make an arranger that is popular?

Apathy, IMO...

Hi Diki.

I would love to see that myself.

KORG UK did something a while back called “The Performance Pack” for the UK and Irish market as an after sales set of disks that customised the Pa1X.

People when crazy for that but due to the snail mail method of selling it and the way it was offered, I don't think as many people where able to buy it as wanted to.

If only they had of offered it directly off their website as a pay for download it would have been massive.

Regards.
James.

Amen to that.

James, Nedim (and others from Korg Forums), you obviously have more sway with Korg than the average Joe, so what's stopping you from putting in a word or two with the folks you know over there to see if Korg would indeed put the UK Performance Pack as a downloadble purchase feature on their website?

They surely can't be so blind as not to see the sales potential in North America - with the proviso that there are enough Korg arrangers on this side of the pond.

[This message has been edited by 124 (edited 03-22-2009).]

124,
Great idea....We will see what we can do to educat them into doing that...I for one would buy it.

Actually going to the distributor in each contry (Korg USA for me) works better than directly to Korg in MOST cases.
Jerry at Korg USA is very helpful.

Thanks for the suggestion.....

Lee S.

It’s the chicken and the egg scenario: which one comes first?

Do you need the modern arranger market first then make styles for it? Or do you go through the expense of making the modern styles first then put in the expense of getting the market for them?

Hi,
I think it would be great if Korg found a way of protecting commercial 3rd party styles.
If there was a way of preventing users from sharing, it might encourage proffessional style writers to create styles.

Also styles & sounds would have to be downloadable. Nobody wants to waste money on postage & have to wait days or weeks to receive them.

If I'm not mistaken, the Musikant USB stick had some sort of protection in place , to stop the copying of sounds??

best wishes
Rikki

There is a lot of other stuff going on at KORG's...to some even more important issues.

Style copy protection has been something I've posted about several times in the past...

Without it, essentially you are pretty much limited to HAVING to buy each new model to get any significant number of new styles, as the manufacturers use the newer sounds and OS features as a kind of dongle.

I'm sure that the style developers themselves that make the ROM styles would LOVE to be able to make these things on a more than a three or four year cycle, but if they can't copy protect their work, it is pointless. There is a culture of trading styles around like bubblegum cards that ensure they would only make a tiny fraction of the revenue they deserve, hence, no new styles.

I guess the problem is, if the manufacturers DO implement a secure style system, they might lose sales as many here start to realize that they are probably buying a new arranger more for the new styles than out of any REAL need for it's sounds and OS features.

What's a poor multinational to do...?