i heard that OS4, will probably be the last OS upgrade for AUDYA,

any updates therafter, will be bug fixes only....

Personally, I think that revoicing an arranger's ROM tones is merely an acknowledgment that they simply didn't get it right the first time.

All I'm hearing about OS 1.4 (whoops! meant to say OS 4.0 ) is that it adds a few more audio chords (but zero details - didn't even get ANY details about OS3 either) but STILL doesn't allow the audio part to exist without MIDI guitar substitutions, so it STILL doesn't live up to its' initial published specs... It revoiced some of the tones, adds a few more styles and FINALLY you get some sort of rudimentary style editing.

And you are comparing this to Korg's complete redesign of the synth engine, Guitar Mode and adding the equivalent of SA capabilities?

'Lowered Expectations' seems the mantra for Ketron.

It's all well and good to claim that ANYTHING added to an arranger should have been something added right from the start, but Korg and Roland added very powerful features to an arranger that ALREADY worked well. They weren't bugfix upgrades (even though some were squashed at the same time) but were the equivalent of what Yamaha do, without the onerous task of selling your current arranger and buying a new one

You want new features on a Yamaha, you HAVE to buy another Yamaha. You want them on a Korg or Roland, you wait and see what they are going to give you for free. You want new features on a Ketron, you have to wait until the features it is SUPPOSED to ship with get added first...

No doubt Ian will chime in here with how successful Yamaha are in this market. Which only proves that stiffing your customers IS the way to make lots of money. Greed is good! Yamaha could have easily added SA2 to the T2 or the new Guitar NTT's in an upgrade. Hands up everyone that ENJOYED selling their T2 and paying a LOT more for the T3, knowing that Yamaha COULD have added SA2 and the new NTT's for free?

I'm pretty sure I WON'T be moving to Yamaha in the distant future simply for this one thing. If Roland had followed Yamaha's 'rape your customers' policy, I doubt I would be staying with them, either. But my G70 does a LOT more than when I bought it, and most of the things that got added weren't things it needed to work right OOTB, but entirely new capabilities. Roland saved me a fortune. Kudos to THEM...

Of course, this is more personal opinion (aren't they all personal opinions?) and from another angle but with the introduction of the Tyros2, and the T3 in the wings, Korg needed to seriously upgrade their product, as did Roland, and the only way to do so was try and add content to the existing instruments, because, and this is probably due to poor sales, they couldn't very well afford to make new keyboards.

Korg did this much more successfully than Roland, but this was probably due more to the limitations of the G70, as opposed to the PA's more workable architecture....or maybe it was financial? G70's weren't exactly leaping off the shelves.

Meanwhile we wait for Roland to bring out another TOTL arranger, so the G70/E80 people can have an upgrade.

Yamaha continues to make and sell keyboards...seems like all Roland is selling, for now, is anticipation.

Of course, there's always VIMA.

Audya people have it even worse...they are getting a product that is a heartbreaker...it sounds incredibly good, but it is also incredibly buggy and lacking important features...the owners hope that the OS upgrades will continue long enough to make it completely finished, before the company gives up.

Remember, Diki...you can't rape the willing.

I don't think Ian is right - I know he's right

Regards

From what we have heard, there seems to have been massive disturbance in Roland's arranger line from a failed attempt to move production and development to China from Italy. Things like this have more to do with production interruption than simple product demand. Few have even SEEN a G70/E80/E60/E50 in a store near them. Personally, I blame Roland's marketing and production practices more than the product itself.

We both know full well that this is complete speculation on your part...you don't know if anything could have been added to the Tyros2....and that's okay...you're not young enough to know everything.

Only the engineers/designers know those answers, but certainly not you, my friend...but you are free to guess all you want.

Roland has done all they can with the G70 and it's smaller kin (including the GW-8 and McPrelude and they have nothing substantially new in the works...nothing on their synths and workstations that will eventually make it to an arranger...or maybe you know something the rest of us do not?

So, perhaps you were wise to buy another G70, as the future for TOTL arrangers, at least in Roland's camp, looks very dim.

I sure hope I'm proven wrong.

No doubt this is true, my friend, but they also shot themselves in the foot by making the arranger so heavy.

The biggest complaint about the G70, was it's lack of easy portability...portable arrangers aren't supposed to weigh that much, and even though the instrument is/was a quality piece, and sounded terrific, not a lot of solo performers wanted to have to move it around. I got this info from the salespeople, as well as arranger players who were at my clinics.

I'm not putting down the G-70...I'm only stating a well known fact, and we both know a few people on SZ that stopped using it because of the weight...you are the exception. You want what it does so much, that you're willing to put up with the inconvenience, but it seems, not everyone will do that, especially if there are lighter products available.

We all lugged around B-3's, CP-70's and Rhodes pianos, because there was nothing that could sound like them...that's not the case today...you can get a Nord to do all three that is close enough for even the most discerning player

The ones that seem to keep their G-70 are the ones who aren't gigging, but use it at home, or in a studio.

I have a good friend who sold one because of the weight...it was the one I tried here, as he had left it with me for a few weeks...he bought an S900, for cryin' out loud.

Another friend has a PSR-9000 Pro, that's also heavy...nearly as much as the G-70, and he just bought an S910 for gigging, and the 9K pro will stay at home.

No, the lighter instruments may not have the key feel of the G-70, nor it's piano sound, but they are close enough for those unwilling to be carrying a heavy instrument on their solo gigs.

I really do hope Roland makes a new G-series, and I hope it is far lighter than the old one, but still retains all that is/was good about it...new products, especially great ones, make the other guys get better, and we all benefit.

Confusion:::



Clearing things out:::




I bet you on anything i know about Ketron a lot more then you think i do...

Without even the price taken into consideration it is embarassing and
hurtfull to Ketron to even try to compare.

Hey guys give Ketron a break !!.

I think that they will be the first one confess that they release the Audya too soon.
My feeling is that now they are trying very hard to fix the shortcomings on the keyboard, that for what I can see are related to software.
At the end I think that Ketron will have a nice keyboard, with a set of new features, that will challenge the others vendors to do better.
On the topic of weight of the arrangers most of the people that complaint, are "giging" musicians and I understand why. For home, church users (that I think are the majority) like me, I say give me a nice keyboard, with good sounds, good styles and nice interface. If weight 40 pounds, I really don't care.