Regarding the Stylophone, I had one since Rolf Harris demostrated it on a TV show looooooong time ago.
Still works, had much fun with it.

Nice you quoted my post, I deleted it by a mistake, copy and paste not always work as intended. Had
to rewrite, not quite same words used, but hopefully the same meaning.

Cheers
GJ

Seems to me the Audya scenario is following this path, as predicted by the FWKC of A (Fully Working Keyboard Confederation of America)...

Introduction year: 75% right.
Year two: 85% right
Year three: 95% right.
Year four: Discontinued.


It's too bad, because the Audya sounds pretty darn good...not quite as good as a Tyros2 or Tyros3, or even a PSR-S910, but it knocks spots off the current Korg arrangers.

That's why, at least here on SZ, it's most likely that Korg users will be interested in this controversial, but great sounding instrument...thankfully, not all of them have fallen for Ketron's ingenious method of introduction (see below).

So far, seems to be that at least one Audya user has a reasonably functioning instrument....Bravo! Light the signal fires! Open the gates!

It also appears that Ketron is cleverly doling out improvements over time, as it not only keeps their development costs down, but also keeps interest in each successive revision high, and, therefore, keeps SZ members talking about it....this is probably based on the premise that there is no such thing as bad publicity.

And Tony, I think you're right...it looks like OS4 will be introduced accompanied by the strains (literally) of the Unfinished Symphony....maybe they'll include it as a factory demo.

Or, perhaps an appropriate theme song based on Irving Berlin's Blue Skies...[sings]

Blue screen,
Smiling at me.
Nothing but blue screen,
Do I see.


Ian



[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 11-21-2009).]

Not bad, 4 years before discontinued, others change models every 2 years and forget about the
past ones

Yeah, Yamaha sounds good in your and many others ears, sometimes even in mine, but what I don't
fancy at all regarding Yamaha, is when go from one to another style, it sounds like a totally
different keyboard. Maybe different producers for each style?
When swap style (play as is) it sounds like it's a new band entering the scene, or it's a new
CD put into the player. Ketron at least sounds as it is the same band playing and also it is
much more live sounding than Yammaha.
Also I feel Yamaha is a kind of cold and hard sounding, not as warm and soft as i.e. Ketron and
Korg.

Anyway, it's good we have different taste and needs, or else it would have been quite boring
in many ways.

Cheers
GJ

Think your right about this lot Ian and the song, the blue screen of death, I think like you Ketron don't see the comments here has bad, it keeps the thing moving for them, badly or not.

Of course, GJ, my post was mainly tongue in cheek, although some bits about the Audya have an unfortunately familiar ring to them.

I feel Yamaha's approach to having each style sounding like a new band entering the scene, is actually one of the many reasons the Tyros, and it's brethren, are so successful...a whole evening of listening to same instrumentation (or band) doing different genres would be a tad monotonous to most listeners...otherwise all CDs would be done by the same group of musicians.

Yamaha sounds pretty darn "live" to me, although, I must admit, the sound is even and compressed....a good quality in my opinion, especially when you want consistency in your "live" playing and/or recording projects.

It's strange, but I find Korg a tad hard sounding as well, although, like the Yamaha, one can delve into the instrument and change the sounds to taste.

Korg's extensive sound editing is perfect for the synthesist/home player hybrid, although the question is whether this person is a bit of a Yeti in arranger land.

The concept of the Audya is brilliant, and we may eventually see the Big Three use a similar system...after Ketron is eventually sold to one of them.

Edsel and Audya....mmmm....

All keyboard manufacturers have a skeleton in the closet...one they wish everyone would forget about...the Audya just might become one for Ketron.

With a small(er) company like Ketron, all it takes is one Edsel to topple the entire empire.

Ian

Hi Tony




That's fine by me because I had expected to get flamed for it.
Guess I will just have to try harder next time OK here goes. ….

It's actually quite interesting to see that each forum has it's own habits, and one I have been on the receiving end of a few times here is the suppression of information from existing owners of problematic keyboards.

If you don't own one, then your right to comment is taken away from you by existing owners. If you do own one, you still can't express your opinion on it because ….. well I haven't figured that one out yet, but it's very clear to me it's happening here in a big way.

It's almost like people don't want to admit they bought into something they feel caught out on.

Personally, in my opinion that's the one time when you should open fire and blow both barrels straight into the face of the company who built it. If you bend over and take it, then they will just do what they want. If you stand and let rip, you can be sure that will effect $ales and get their attention. It will also get the problems fixed.



That does happen when the company starts to realise it can't get away with the usual crap it pumps out. So the delay is likely to be a good thing.

I sincerely do hope for their sake this is true.



I'm surprised you thought it was. I thought it was obvious it was only meant as a joke.

Lets hope this time around nobody sees the real thing.

Cheers
James

Ketron introduced live audio loops.

How any one can say that sonically, a computer generated midi loop can sound better than a real drummer or guitar loop totally baffles me.

Ketron was the first in many things that other brands borrow.

Depends on who played on the audio loop. Just because it's played live doesn't mean it's automatically good. Besides, for this kind of application, don't they have to play to a 'click' track? I would think that that alone would automatically take away from some of the 'free flow' and spontaneity. Just speculation on my part. I don't really know that for a fact.

chas

You're so right, mc...they have been the leader in several areas, including this audio/accompaniment stuff on arrangers.

Still, one must remember that Technics was once a leader in arrangers, and they went belly-up...I think a lot of people were shocked and/or disappointed.

Let's hope that the Audya's incredibly shaky introduction is not indicative of the direction of Ketron...it's a fairly small company compared to the Big Three, and it may not be able to survive if this product is not corrected in full in the near future.

Come to think of it, Technics was a division of the giant...make that really giant, Matsushita Electric, and it went under, so I guess no one is really immune from failure...but, a smaller company will have much less chance of bouncing back.

It would be horrible to see the present Ketron/Audya owner base stuck with instruments that no longer have factory support.

Ian