Should Ketron and Yamaha include touch screens on their new generation keyboards?

After all, touch screens are becoming (if not already) prevalent on consumer products.
Is that the next logical step for Ketron and Yamaha?



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TTG

Yes, but only if they're able to offer a touch screen similar to the Apple iPad, of which bright clear visibility & easy touch navigation outdoors in sunlight. I'm finding the Apple iPad terrific for viewing leadsheets & lyrics outdoors. I use & highly recommend the $.99 GoodReader App for this.

I only wish a company would come out with an iPad stand similar to what Freehand offers for the MusicPad:



of which features a swivel mount allowing you to quickly rotate the MusicPad to portrait and landscape positions. The above pic shows the MusicPad stand in Portrait Mode, but I prefer rotating it to landscape position to maintain better audience visibility.

Scott Yee Entertainment

Yes! And if not quite a big as the one Scott shows here,
at least 4 times as big as the one at G-70.

Cheers
GJ

I think Yamaha decision not to use them is likely based on their target audience. Older gentlemen tend not to like Touch Screens.

Ketron on the other hand are heavily dependent on buttons and to move away from that, a new interface would be needed.

A new interface = Ketron users turn into fish out of water. They would have to get used to a new way of working.

My 2 cents only though.

James.

Touch screens are only as good as the UI written for them. My G70's screen is utterly reliable when pressing areas large enough to BE reliable.

However, there are a couple of functions that suffer from either being in the wrong place (octave transpose up and down areas are in the middle of several other things, a little harder to hit precisely when you are in a rush), or too small (the button for Fill/Rit is a bit small, despite being in a large blank area all by itself).

But none of these are the fault of the touch screen itself. It's is dependable, easy to read (MUCH better than MoXS screens - tiny fonts in many areas, there) and well laid out with a couple of exceptions. Despite the rush you are in when playing pretty busy with both hands, I rarely EVER get anything other than what I want from it.

Given that a touch screen can present FAR more needed functions on one screen than a non-touch surrounded by just a few buttons, and that issue means that much needed functions are often on different pages rather than all in one place, I think the touch screen is the better solution.

They have MUCH improved since the early days (think original Triton!) and I think it's time they were universally adopted...

Just make sure any problems you have with them aren't more to do with the User Interface layout, rather than the underlying technology...

Not sure if I could live without a touch screen. If an alternative to do the same thing with button pushing is available, it's the best of 2 worlds. The 800 touch is magical and a dream for live play. I hate trying to "line up" things.

I like the touch screens.
The one on my PA2XPRO works fine.

It is especially nice when keying in names for saving ect. I never liked that terrible system Yamaha uses for entering text. In 2010 you should not have to use buttins to do text...either a kbd port or touch screen.

I do think all the operations should also have a button..especially for all of the blind players out there.

Lee S.

I think you have made some very interesting points.
I could see the next generation of Yamaha workstations possibly using touch screens. How ever, for arrangers it would be difficult for Yamaha to include touch screens on their arranger and still keep their audience. Yamaha’s arranger market are those who are not very interested with the latest technology. So trying to introduce them to a whole new way of doing things would tern them off. Touch screen on a Yamaha arranger would present more problems that the 61 vs 76 dilemma.

Ketron on the other hand, may be able to get away with including a touch screen but as you said they would have to change their interface. A new generation would have to do that any way. But I think as cell phones, e-book readers and computers use touch screens, it is the next logical progression for keyboard manufacturers.


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TTG

That is a very good point.
Would touch screen prevent some persons (like the visually impaired) from using the keyboards? Should it matter for the manufacturer? After all they are probably a very small segment of the keyboard community.

What about touch screens for live gigs would buttons not be better because you don’t have to look at the screens?



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TTG

Curiously, those technophobes apparently buying TOTL arrangers are buying the LATEST, greatest technology to make sounds, control sounds and play sounds...

Why do you think, after grappling with SA2 technology, revoiceing styles, a folder based computer hook up, Ethernet content delivery, sampler loading and using, Registration programming and audio recording and mixing, that a touch screen is going to be the one thing that will make them go screaming into the hills, looking for something simpler?