Why this is absolutely stunning I tell ya'!
Yamaha broke their normal "3" year cycle and will have a Tyros 4 (or whatever they decide to call it) out for the holidays! Or at least that is what I'm hoping anyway.
You must realize that Yamaha has "in the past" occasionally broken from their normal 3 year cycle as evidenced by the "2" year transition from Motif to Motif ES. It can and does happen.
Yamaha is wanting to "capitalize" on the strength of their market share by continuing to "stay on top" of the competition by bringing new and exciting technology keyboard products to the forefront of the public's attention. Roland is 'frothing at the mouth' lagging behind considerably in the arranger market arena whilst the whole world waits (so far in vain) for a G70 replacement. Korg, on the other hand, has a fairly decent and relatively current product in their Pa2XPRO but it's over 2 years old now and growing somewhat long in the tooth as well.
Enter Yamaha! A brilliant move by Yamaha if indeed they can release a stunningly new technology based SUPER arranger (new random variable style play function) by years end. By doing so (especially if we see a version with 76 keys) the arranger world will suddenly be beholden anew to Yamaha's breathtakingly new product released at a competitive price point and making the holidays a truly exciting time to look forward to.
Hey! The reason I'm so excited is because I
need a high end arranger and so far Roland and Korg have let me down and Ketron is too expensive (for what you get).
Roland is dilly dallying and Korg's Pa2Xpro has less polyphony than my 9 year old PSR 2000 had, plus some other shortcomings. Plus the fact I really like Yamaha's OS navigation and generally their overall sound quality over the arranger competition as well.
This is really GOOD NEWS if it's true.
Let's hope it is and for my sake let's hope it also comes in a 76 key flavor too huh?
And that it also comes in at around 35-40 lbs too.
I would say 30 lbs or under but I doubt Yamaha would use the ultra light composites necessary to achieve that weight constraint limit. I can deal with 35-40 lbs though. The only thing that will be the real deal breaker would be if there's no 76 key version.
We'll see...
All the best,
Mike