Naaaa...If you can afford to spend $4,000...you can afford $5,000

Fran,

i think i disagree

$5,000 is WAY more than any of the other BIG 3 arrangers,

and the AUDYA is NOT WAY better than the other 3...

yes, it's better (as far as authentic styles sounding LIVE) but $5,000 ?
maybe if it had the Roland Fantom build and a beautiful color screen, and 1 TB harddrive and 1GB RAM

and with that way of thinking , then why not $6,000?

if you could afford $5 why not $6

it's all about competition and staying competitive

people do look at sound, but they also look at build quality AND price

just my $.02

[This message has been edited by leezone (edited 06-29-2009).]

MANY musicians i talk to , say ye it sounds good but say " I would never pay that much for an arranger"

that's just what people are thinking

and yes, if it was $3,999 they would probably double sales

With competitive pricing.....you can look at the TOTL arrangers and cross reference all their features to make a comparable decision to what is more beneficial to YOU needs in an arranger....but when a unit is way over the rest with nothing to substantiate the price ...I'm sorry that's just plain greedy and their sales in a year from now will let them know that in this economy for sure....but by then other TOTL units will be available and the cycle repeats leaving Audya begins when they had the chance now to make their mark.

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 06-29-2009).]

There were a lot of organ companies that thought 'If they'll pay $4000 for an organ, they'll pay $6000'. They are now out of business.

It is just Ketron's poor luck (or judgment ) to decide to go VERY upscale, just as the recession hit. Perhaps with the freewheeling economy we used to have, and credit being extended for any frivolous purchases, they might have done better. We'll probably never know. And, in all fairness, if the Audya did everything they claimed it was going to do when announced, and they bothered to finish it before shipping, and they included TOTL editing capabilities, not just TOTL styles, and had a full manual, yada yada yada, I think even I would pony up the $5000...

But it doesn't. It's a VERY expensive ROM style player. Period. Close... but that only works for horseshoes and hand grenades

BTW, did anyone notice the demonstrator using any of the 'unsupported' chord types during real audio guitar demos?

Stick to what is provided, all seems well. I just wish, JUST ONCE, they would have the cojones to ask some more complex chords of the Audya, so that we can see how well they blend. Sorry if I missed one that does this. I listened to about 15 of them, but, as you say, download delivery is glacial. Maj7th's seemed pretty decent, but that's just adding the maj7 note to an audio Maj. Where are the Diminished? Where are the Aug's? Where are the Sus4's?

the Audya as good as as it sounds is simply a play back arranger so for me no matter what the price i couldnt buy it because after a year i would be bored with styles and guitar licks if i couldnt edit them . I know there are many users that dont get under the hood of their arranger but for $5000 you could by a pa2X and a tyros 2 and have a ball just using the preset sounds and styles.

The audya demos are nice but listen to this Tyros 3 demo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkEQfEzNw9E and tell me if it doesnt inspire you

Strangely, spalding, no, not really... Big wash pads with a slow solo over them aren't really my bag. I am not sure why, but it seems to me that a large percentage of what I've heard demoed on the T3 tends to be these kinds of things rather than more uptempo dance things that the T2 demos emphasized.

I wish there were more T3 stuff out there that showed off the great Mega guitar stuff in the styles (might make some of the audio loop fanboys sit up and realize how close you can get without all the limitations that audio guitars impose) and the new drumkits. I guess that perhaps Yamaha simply thought everybody would remember these from the T2 and simply take it for granted. But memories are pretty short around here. There are still some VERY good style demos from the T2 (FAR more than has been released by Yamaha for the T3 - odd decision, IMO) that display its' impressive guitar capabilities in style mode (and the T3 has an even better guitar NTT, so why they don't feature this beats me).

But this demo, while very nice, doesn't really impress the same way that the Audya ones do, as simply a great machine for general pop and dance music. But much of the blame lies in Yamaha not spending as much time and effort as they did on the T2 showing off it's capabilities in a practical setting.... I mean, this T3 stuff is all well and good, but I wouldn't really be playing much of this at a gig! There is probably ten times as many official T2 demos up at Yamaha's Tyros sites than there is T3. And most of it is stuff (like the Audya demos) that we are likely to need and want to play.

Personally, I think the Audya would have FAR less gushing over it, were the T3 styles demoed as effectively. To be honest, if Yamaha or some third party produced a kick ass multi velocity real drum kit with decent punch, that played Yamaha styles without much tweaking necessary, as a TVN sample load for the sampler, it would give the MUCH more expensive Audya a real run for its' money...

DIki,

it's not only a KICK @ss drum kit that the TYROS needs, it needs VERY good , well programmed styles (like AUDYA) programmed by REAL musicians that know the music

i mean for the most part the sounds are there, it's just GREAT styles that these keyboards need, and being able to program your own styles (which is what the AUDYA desperately needs)

I think you are primarily referring to Latin styles, aren't you, Lee? Most of what I heard on the T3 sounds pretty good, but I'm no expert in current Latin styles.

Thing is, on a T3, if you find another arranger other than Ketron with a well programmed Latin style section, you can translate it, no problem. But if you want those audio drums and guitars, you are stuck with what Ketron provide, period. They can't be translated (until something else plays audio loops, anyway!), and you can't translate a third party style for the Ketron and still have the audio loops (which, given how good they are, you won't want to take a big step back and use regular MIDI drumkits).

This has always been one of my primary worries about the Audya... when the audio loop styles are SO good, but the ROM library does NOT address your primary performing genre very well, you will have to do a lot of swapping around between 'live loop' styles and FAR lesser MIDI kit styles. You appear to have hit the jackpot when it comes to Latin styles, but for others who don't play primarily that kind of music (mine tends to be reggae and New Orleans type stuff) we are going to have to rely on styles NOT so well programmed.

The trouble will occur as you play some songs with audio loops, and you sound killer, and then some songs with MIDI styles that DON'T. And nobody (I would imagine) wants to play something that inconsistent. When the ROM styles work out well for you, you are OK, but when they don't (or you only have a tiny selection of audio styles to perform your whole show in) you are faced with having payed $5000 for an arranger that you seldom get to play its' strongest stuff.

So before you make blanket statements like "it needs VERY good , well programmed styles (like AUDYA) programmed by REAL musicians that know the music", you really need to qualify that by mentioning the specific genre you are talking about. Because to my ears, and many many others here, an awful lot of the T3 styles are GREAT, and ARE programmed by musicians that 'know the music'.

I just wish they had punchier drums, that's all...