I drove up to Franks shop at Audioworks, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Frank and his Audya for about 4 hours. He showed me the entire board and we also had a Yamaha s910 and the Korg Pa2x to compare.

Layout: Good layout, everything seems to be in it right location, easy to find everything, fills, sounds, styles, mic, menu, etc. The 5 buttons on left and right of the screen are placed a little odd, but one can get use to it. Pages are easy to navigate, but pressing the each voice catg. it will scroll through each page, as the same with the styles. The left and right arrows also controls scrolling.

Voices: The voices are very good, but there are similar to what Ketron voicing style in the past. The guitars are a big improvement from the SD1/X1. Saxes, brass, strings, etc are also good. If you�re a past ketron user these are great bread and butter sounds. The pianos and electric pianos are great. If you�re a accordion player you won�t find better accordion/mussette than ketron.

Styles: The styles are just simply amazing! Hands down, KO punch! The realism is unbelievable. The lain, ballads, folk, country, ballroom & dance sound fantastic. Funk, R& B, Disco, Club are ok. The drums with the audio guitars and bass, etc just give it a raw band feel. Like to have 5 piece stage band just jamming away. Latin is the best I heard to date, super high quality, like a professional salsa or merengue band. Hard to describe unless you sit down and play it. It has that intelligent arranger feature, that the style does not become repetitive and it changes up every so often.

Additional features: Midjay package is a huge plus, mix midi, wav, mp3 with mp3. It�s a great feature. I did not try the Voicetron, but Ketron�s vocalizer was never bad to begin with.

Stability: First in foremost, to think that the Audya 3.0 is unstable is a crock of sh*t. Audya is just as stable as any other keyboard. I pressed every button to see if would lock up and nothing! Not once did it lock up! (sorry Frank for all the button pushing). For it to crash/LOCK UP as some state/say its because 9 times out of 10 it is user error. Frank also explained that all of time that he used it on gigs there was also no lock ups or crashes. As far as bugs, there are some, it does NOT make the keyboard unplayable. From what I understand, creating styles on the audya, it is not available yet, coming in 4.0. But I doubt I would be able to create anything was well programmed as they do, so it does not matter to me. But you have editing capabilities on user and factory styles.

Comparisons: Like I said above, we had the PA2x and S910 on hand. Korg & Yamaha are very polished sounding keyboards, but jumping back in forth, between the three of them. Korg & Yamaha started to sound boring. I found that the club, dance, funk, R&B styles have more of an edge than the Audya. The ballads in Korg & Yamaha sound great but very similar, very CD like. I have to say that Yamaha single SA guitars are still a winner.

Size: The audya looked about 2 inches more on each side sitting below the Yamaha, the PA2X just about the same but not as deep. Audya is a little heavy, 38-39lbs +/-.

Conclusion: If I had the choice and if my wife would have let me purchase a keyboard before Christmas, I would have been the Audya. The overall live sounding styles just outshine the other two. As far as cost comparisons it is a fairly expensive board but when you add vocalizer, mp3 and wav DJ player/mixer. The cost are not that far off if you were to purchase each piece separately.

Additions: If read in the past, that some do not like voices of Ketron understandably. If your looking for different voices I would suggest a synth of your choice along with the audya. It will be a great combo.

Once Again, thank you Frank for your time.

PS. Leezone if your waiting for Audya 2 there won't be for a long while, Ketron has big plans for the this Audya and I don't see it becoming obsolete anytime soon. So give it up, start saving some Euros and meet me at Franks!

edited: darn spelling errors, I'm sure I missed a few!

There, I corrected the left out words (in CAPS)since I was typing too fast.

[This message has been edited by mc (edited 12-05-2009).]



[This message has been edited by mc (edited 12-05-2009).]

I can only add that the Vocal processing and harmonizer are very good as well. No gadget voices in the harmonizer, but various harmonies ranging from 2 to 4 parts.
Both vocal and harmony voice can be fully e.q.'d, and have compressor, limiter, reverb and delay available.
There are two XLR inputs for mics, and the volumes of both main and harmony voice have dedicated sliders.
The Audya also easily reads USB drives and all media, including songs, styles, mp3s, midi files and text files can be directly accessed.
An interesting feature is that if you set up a registration using, say, a user style and and/or a text file from the USB drive, the keyboard stores both the style and the text in the registration, so that it will be recalled even though the drive has been removed. Haven't tried that with a midi file.
DonM

The Latin styles are most impressive! Is there a mid priced version of this keyboard? I don't need all the extras (mp3, vocal harmony,DJ mixer ....) I just want those Latin styles!

One Subject I've haven't seen broached is:

Does the Audya have good modern Techno sounds?

Specifically -

808 drumkit and the like.
Good sounding "Dance Sampled" Drums.
Good Modern Synth/Rave-like sounds?

I realise not a lot of us here on the boards need this, but all I hear about the Audya is how great the live sounding drums are (which is good - I'll sure use 'em!) but I need more.

Let's face it, for better or for worse, all of us at some point (unless you are doing ONLY Jazz/Acoustic/Traditional songs) will need at least SOME sort of modern Drum/Synth sounds.

How does the Audya fare with these kind of Genres (styles or sounds - specifically sounds)??

I also has listen to the Audya in the music store and can tell you that this keyboard isn't for dance, trance and techno music. If you like that kind of music just as I do buy a Korg PA500, 800 or PA2x. You really need good editing possibilities to create good techno or trance music.

Really ?
Lets see what else you say then so.



It's not a Car your driving, it's a keyboard. You cannot crash a keyboard by user error. If it crashes which we know it does, then it bugs that cause the crash, not the operator.

Still you saved the best for last....



Bugs that make the keyboard unplayable you say. So I guess that crock of sh*t you referred to is in fact the truth then.

As for everything else you said, I enjoyed reading your thought, feelings and comments. It's all your personal opinion and I totally respect that. I have no beef with how it sounds, but you can't start your post saying that what people say is a crock of sh*t and in the same post you confirm that it contains bugs that make it unplayable.

Regards
James

mc

It was nice to read about the Audya...I wish that more people would do this....

------------------
createsongstyles.com
fakesheets.com

I prefer reading about Korg or something new from Roland.

What I meant to say that the bugs does NOT make the keyboard unplayable. I did a lot of button pressing going from one menu to another, you can be playing a style and call up a mp3 or wav or midi at the same time. IT DID NOT LOCK UP!

BTW, you know exactly what I meant to say. I missed typed.



[This message has been edited by mc (edited 12-05-2009).]

Well look, which or whether I don't mind, I'm just happy somebody found the time to Review (and just as importantly compare with other similar keyboards).

I would've liked more impressions, and yes, a little less self contradiction (maybe a typo or two in the post?) but I'm curious about the Audya, like everyone is.

My main problem with the Audya is Price.
In Australia it's listed as $10,000!

I could get a PA-2x for around $7000.00 I believe - maybe better...?

Even if I talk the shop down from RRP (something I could no doubt do) the RRP for the Korg is Thousands cheaper.

This is not a shot at the Audya's capabilities as a machine, or whether it's good for live or studio work, or if it crashes or...whatever!

It's just so DAMN EXPENSIVE! - Honestly.

The dance, techno, hip hop are not that bad in the audya. But I would say that the Yamaha & Korg probably sound more modern in these genre.

No and not sure when or if there will be. If your looking for latin in a mid-price the Ketron SD5 is your best choice.

MC,

User actions are the things that cause the Audya to lock up, yes you are correct on that one, stop there, I mean by pressing buttons or button in a manner along with others cause the lock up, if a human didn't press the button then it would not lock up, if a human didn't press the buttons you would be playing the Audya with the default style and voice(boring) if a human had programmed the KB correctly it would not lock up, and the fact that the Audya did not lock up on you or Frank is you did not get the right button sequence, just like I didn't get the right 6 number lottery sequence last night! I play a Wurlitzer now and then it has 20 ranks of pipes, it has around 400 tabs, now you work out the permutations of those tabs and if play the organ for the next 20 years I will not get the same set up twice, any good at math�s, MC. And I can tell you 4 hrs in Franks is not as good as taking it home. I never said OS3.0A was unstable, it�s still got bugs from OS1.0 that never got fixed, there is much more to do that I have already paid for and I sit in waiting for Ketron, they are full of s***t and talk, talk is cheap and KB is expensive. MC you wait until it�s fixed properly like me and others and it has all the bells and whistles. The dollar Euro might swing. I�m not holding my breath, MC did Frank tell you when OS4.0 is out. Glad you liked it, I have put my PA2x back on the stand, I�m sick of waiting for OS4.0.
BTW the last Audya I saw lock up I wasn�t playing it so don�t blame me, the dealer said that OS3.0 had not been loaded on correctly, apparently the guy had held the side of his mouth wrong as it was loading, so his wife loaded the second time, apparently singing 14 verses of �Is this the way to hammer Audya�Doh!!! This appeared to work, since it hasn�t locked up since, albeit he sold the KB on so he wouldn�t know anyway, does this help!
Cheers


[This message has been edited by Tony Hughes (edited 12-05-2009).]

It is expensive, but I think that its worth every penny though. I know that PA2x is less money but I don't see it any where near the sound quality of the audya (just my opinion)but also it depends on your style of playing, type of genre, studio or live playing.

I was a little unsure about how good it sounded,but hearing in videos and short demo does not do it any justice. You have to sit and play it to appreciate it quality.

I think on of the biggest problems that causes user errors is in fact not properly loading the OS, which I not saying that your case. Your problem may just be a defective chip, board, whatever I'm not there to see what it does. But the same problem happened with the SD1 some years ago, when Ketron issued new OS upgrade for new sounds and styles and many of the OS were not properly installed, which caused keyboards to act funny or crash.

[This message has been edited by mc (edited 12-05-2009).]

Wow! Hellboy! That's indeed damn expensive. Not only the Audya and the PA2xPro but -I assume- every other keyboard sold Down Under.

Wouldn't it be better to just order one from abroad. I know that you'll lose the guarantee but even then. The PA2xPro sells for roughly 3672 USD (4011 AUD) here in Taiwan. If you donate a koala you might even get one for free.If you donate Hellgirl you'll get two for sure.

Regards

Taike

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Bo pen nyang.

Hi,hellboy44,
I was quoted a casual $8000, whilst discussing other keyboards last Monday,in Sydney.
Where are you in Oz?
Ray

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Ray The Saint

Here it's listed at US $10523 at the moment, but you can buy at $8591 (Super price they call it)
Well, compared to Tyros and Korg high end, it sure is, but the big question are:
Is Audya really worth almost the twice as much money as Tyros or Korg? I doubt it, not at the
"unfinished" stage it seem to be when read the different posts here.

Prices slooooowly on the way down now, I think they have to if they want to sell any. I've said
it before, and repeat it again: I would love to buy it, but I refuse to pay twice as much as the
other top ends cost, and then feel like robbed.
I regret I sold the SD1, and the fact there is no SD1 at the second hand market also tell me the
Audya don't sell much around here.

Another thing, if you look deeper into the hardware, what is it that make Audya to be the future
keyboard without have to release a new model?

Cheers
GJ


Btw,
do we really have to quote all of the posts several times and in bold letters all the time?
No wonder Tony's tread are on the way to page 9.......

I will say it was a pleasure to meet up with MC again, I had the pleasure of splitting a wedding gig with him, he played the Portuguese stuff and we did the Italian/American stuff.

He used a PSR-S900 and with his personal tweaking really made that thing shine. He can make some good money re-working some of those styles for other Latin psr players.

MC played the Audya for awhile and I could see him enjoying it and moving around it with ease, like he has owned one before.

We did discuss the cost and with the state of more and more of DJs taking jobs there are less paying arranger jobs available.

As for the Audya lock ups, I have had a few customers who have loaded OS3 and has had problems, but I found on each that it was a loading error, don't know how that is a possiblity but I guess loading the OS on a Audya is a very precarious thing. But once the OS was loaded probably, they have performed without a hiccup.

Also after MC button pressed and played for hours, I took the same Audya (which I have been using since last April) to a gig that same night, and it played perfectly without a problem.

The Korg has the better Pop Ballads and new age type styles.

Yamaha had the best dance stuff like disco, rap, modern pop.

The Audya had the best Latin, and country.

I think the Rock sections was a tie with the Audya winning on the guitar heavy stuff and the Yamaha winning on the authentic style ex "Jailhouse Rock" style.

My perfect arranger would be a Korg PA2xpro, with Audya type styles with their type of drums/bass. with a touch of Yamaha's polished sounds and style .

But it will never happen



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www.AudioworksCT.com

Frank,

I am sure you are right about loading OS3.0 it needs a few times loading, not what you would expect, but it's not windows.

Tony

I would love a MAC based arranger keyboard!!!!

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www.AudioworksCT.com

So, If you have $3300 (Street price on a PA2XPRO in the USA) to spend AND that's still a lot of $$$....Which one would you buy?

No decision....I ain't putting out $5,000 for an arranger, and I bet I'm not alone.

Gosh, I could add a Yamaha S910 to a PA2 for about the same $$$. It would be nice and portable too.

Lee S.

Ray I'm in Brisneyland, and the price I found (after a quick search online) was not $10,000 - My bad - it's $9999 lol (I kid you not!) from Austral Piano World, based in Victoria I believe.

@ Taike - yes, I wouldn't mind that price for a PA2, but I really WOULD miss the guarantee, because it's the only board I would gig with - I have no backup!

@ GJ - sorry about the Bold....at least I edited the quote....

Im in Victoria Aus quoted re the $10k prob down to $8 discounted dollar is good, but it needs to be around $6k Aus to do damage to the major players

http://www.adoos.com.au/post/8268176/for_sale_korg_pa2xpro_76key_professional_arranger

Yeah, right! And I am Bill Gates.

Taike

------------------
Bo pen nyang.

No, there is nothing like that nor there wont be cuz Audya's engine is more Acoutic
and has VERY little basic editing capabilities to actually create sounds like that.
I know few in here will tell you yes, maybe even AJ himself but trust me, no, there i
nothing like that on Audya.

Taike, that link has got to be a scam....

(they probably send you the box!)

And charged me $3700 on top of that!

A scam? Are you sure? In fact I bought a Lamborghini at a very cheap price. Granted that it looks a bit like a VW beetle but appearances can be deceiving.

Taike

------------------
Bo pen nyang.

Thanks for the review. It sounds like an incredible keyboard. That's kind of in a Wersi price range which is beyond what a lot of folks can pay.

If they could create a $2000 model, that would interest some folks like me.

I had a lot of build problems when I briefly owned a Solton X1. They kept sending me replacements that were just as defective. The third replacement worked perfectly but had a big gash on it. I sold it at a loss and vowed to never deal with those guys again.

That was close to ten years ago.

Now, we're still hearing stuff about defective chipsets and stuff. We're also hearing great reports like this, however.

I'm sure that for someone with big bucks, this is just the right keyboard.

Beakybird