Hi Guys, The title of the topic was originally My First Impression of the audya so I just thought I would do just that after having my first live gig with the "Beast" last night. I have it over a month now, Audya 4, 41b
Firstly, I have to point out that I am not a keyboard player and I don't have an Audya keyboard , but what I do have is next best thing in the form of The Audya 4--arranger expander- Module--whatever you want to call it! I trigger the sounds with a 13 note roland PK 5 floor midi pedalboard and it works in the same way as the left hand of the A5. I can get all the minors and 7ths with the roland. but would need extra switches and pedals if i used the available ketron pedalboard so this makes more sense. I then can play my instruments live at the gigs --Guitars, Banjo , Mandolin, Blues harp and flute. My daughter also plays guitar and sings and we play as a duo mostly.
Style we play is everything from Rockabilly to Pop , Irish to American Country and also Irish trad music.

So to my first experience with the A4 .

The first thing I discovered last night is that I need a better monitor !! WE use a little Tc electronics Active at the moment. http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/pa_detail.asp?stock=07120416121838
Great for vocals but Not enough bottom end for our new set up with Ketron. Never had that problem with my previous backing system --the Ketron X4--same as X1. But thats because the sounds are much fuller and warmer
on the A4 and probably do not cut through in the same way as the "more of a MIDI sound" I was getting before. So thats a good thing in one way but its gonna mean extra expense for me gear wise.

So , lets get the annoying features of the A 4 out of the way first, and by the way some of these MAY be "user error" on my side , so please feel free to comment guys and correct me if theres things I could to correct this.

Some of the FILLS on some patterns/styles on the Audya are just the worst I have come across and remind me a cheap Casio keyboard from 20 yrs ago. They do not trigger immediately the button is pressed and the gap means that a proper drum roll is not achieved in most cases. What are they thinking in Italy or do they actually have programmers who can play music at all? Theres a DOUBLE roll when changing from ARRANGEMENT ABCD on some styles that would not work in ANY style of music in my opinion. I have heard that AJ has figured a way to eliminate this problem ? I certainly hope so !!
Also the Live drums are not balanced !!

Next negative: Why do the midis start immediately after I select one--instead of me being able to Select and then press START?
If theres a way to do this then I'm sorry ketron but would someone please tell me.

Next one: I happened to have the main transposer up by 1 for the previous song and forgot to change it back. When I started the next one it too was transposed up and i had to quickly take it down a notch but --you have to remember for a keyboard player that would not be such a big deal and could quite easily be cover by playing accordingly -but for someone who like myself has both hands full playing a lead part on a guitar it IS a problem. I always save my transpose arrangement but for some reason I needed to push the previous song up a notch and this would not be a problem on the X4 /X1 as it always reverted back. I need to check that out or perhaps someone could enlighten me/

Next negitive: Endings!! Awful on some styles/patterns. Ok on others. Lucky for me I have loaded some of my old Patterns from the X1 and i am familiar with the endings--most of which are much better in my opinion.

After trying unsuccessfully to assign my outputs in the same way as i did with the X4 I simply used Left output 1 last night
One cable to my mixing desk! Worked well.

Now , its time to mention some positives here. I'm sure theres people on here who have noticed some of my posts regarding problems I am having with Sliders and assigning outputs and perceived bugs and faults I had or at least thought I was having. And I still have not resolved all of them but i am beginning to understand the shortcomings a little better and will find a way to work around them. I barely remember back in the day when I purchased my first MS 3. then on to Ms4 . then Ms40, and X4 and granted while each one had its pluses and minuses I find the A4 to be much more complex but I also know it has great potential.-AFTER we get it up and running the way it should be. And, I do blame Ketron for sending out what could be considered a prototype and using us as guinea pigs and forcing us to pay BIG bucks for the privilege.
But, on the positive side --they have improved sounds, drums, guitars etc, and when all of this technology is finally TWEAKED to the satisfaction of discerning musicians I think they will be on a winner here.

I did not sit down here this morning in Ireland to run down you guys in Italy--although I believe you never read this anyway- but this about as balanced as I can be after a bit of a hair raising debut last night with your product. Its not all bad news by any means and this is only MY opinion on the Audya-others will have different opinion I am sure. And to those who feel let down by Ketron all I can say is to persevere and dont lose the faith and you will find a solution in some way or other to the problems you are experiencing right now. I felt the same since I purchased the A4 but I'm not giving up on this and hopefully in 6 months I can look back with some amusement at what I went through to tweak and optimize this piece of Kit
Best of Luck to all and Thanks a million for all the help received here from all of you.
Rusty

Wow! Scratch the Audya 4 off my list as a possible module consideration. Ketron should be ashamed of themselves. >> Slap a product together, inferior to anything else on the market, and then have the audacity to charge an arm and leg for it to boot? Have you no shame Ketron? Have you no conscience Ian, er, Ketron? Have you no self respect, let alone respect for your 'valuable' customers?? Unbelievable...

BTW, regarding AJ's situation. Listen, if Ketron hadn't "messed up" in the first place selling a shoddy product to begin with i.e. the Audya (a beta at best it appears and a shoddy beta at that apparently too) AJ wouldn't have needed to provide a "side job" fixing Ketron's original mistakes, right? AJ is putting in "extra" time and effort to fix Audya's shortcomings and: "the laborer is worthy of his hire" and you shouldn't "muzzle the ox that treads out the corn". In other words, AJ is providing a 'valuable' service to Audya owners even though I agree that Ketron themselves should be held liable and responsible for selling less than suitable totl arrangers to an otherwise innocent and trusting public - who buy their enormously expensive arrangers and some would even say useless paper weights when it comes to products like the original Audya and apparently now the Audya 4 as well.

AJ is doing an honorable service in that he is trying to give Audya owners something specific i.e. an optimized (workable) keyboard that eliminates many of the problem(s) that Ketron wasn't able to deliver from the factory apparently. Kudos to AJ and of course he should be justly compensated for his noble efforts in my opinion. Even though he works for Ketron and is on their payroll. Overtime is overtime, only instead of Ketron footing his bill (his work) the people who actually get a workable an optimized keyboard happily do. So what's the big deal? The only unfortunate thing is Ketron should be competent enough to deliver "workable/optimized" keyboards from the factory which would eliminate AJ's having to do "double duty" to fix them afterward; and which apparently Ketron is unable to do from the factory it looks like. At least concerning the Audya, and as far as modules go, the Audya 4 apparently too. Ketron needs to get their act together or we may soon see a "belly up" sign on their door i.e. out of business. Straighten up and fly right or become a statistic... your choice Ketron. I, for one, would like to see them stick around but only if their products begin to 'pass muster' and stay 'up to snuff' with the competition. You know, so they don't freeze every other boot up and/or cause endless glitches when they do happen to work. [img]http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/wink.gif[/img] Ketron seems to be going down hill at a rapid pace and the brakes may be heating up too much (lack of money, resources, etc.) to keep this apparent train wreck from occurring. Sad, very sad. We'll see, but it doesn't look good... obviously.

All the best,
Mike

It certainly is a shame that the Audya 4 seems to be causing problems for, at least, some customers. I suppose the newer 76's may have some problems, but it doesn't seem nearly as bad.

I don't pretend to say what Ketron has not done correctly, except perhaps releasing units before thoroughly testing them.

The real shame,IMO, is the fact that a bug free Audya is one great keyboard that I enjoy immensely.

Mike, I don't think you have to worry about Ketron, folding tent...Sure their advertising budget and operating cost are not on par with Yamaha.....but I would venture a guess that their return on investment is higher than Yamaha....Larger companies have more waste and lining of CEO pockets (efficiency is the name of the game)...I posted an article several months ago that showed a Roland return (profit) greater than the profit ..Yamaha returned...Yamaha's divisions are 10 fold of Roland ..Yet Roland's profits were higher...Of course no one commented on this independent report.....

No one here knows what these companies are working with (capital) or their reasons for limiting production or releasing new models....We have so many experts on SZ..but no one is RICH!!!!

Except Russ..