TYROS 2
Super Articulation Technology
Yamaha introduces a completely new level of sonic realism and musical expressiveness with a brand new technology: Super Articulation. Just play as normal and Super Articulation delivers MegaVoice authenticity to the melody that you play, adding unique performance characteristics of each instrument - for example, the expressive finger-slides on guitar, or the breathy, legato phrasing of a saxophone. Never before have stringed, wind and brass instruments–played live with a keyboard–sounded so convincing or so real! And these voices can be played right away without any special technique. However, to help you get the most out of them, Tyros2 has an online Information window that provides performance details on each voice–that pops up at the touch of a button.

Audio Rendering
One of the most impressive new features of the Tyros2 is the Hard Disk Recorder. It allows you to directly record the sound of the instrument to an optional installed hard disk drive as digital audio data–for pristine, absolutely noise-free audio quality. Naturally, you can record your voice, guitar or other acoustic and electric instruments as well, and mix them with the Tyros2 sound. The recording is a simple stereo file, but you can freely overdub additional parts as desired–with little to no loss of sound quality. Moreover, if you have a computer and audio editing software, you can also edit the sound file as needed, and then re-import it to Tyros2.

FSX Keyboard
Tyros2 has a professional FSX keyboard action that is smooth, fast and responsive and is the only Arranger Workstation from Yamaha that is equipped with both initial touch and after touch, so that you can dynamically and expressively control the level of the voices with your playing strength, just as on an acoustic instrument.

Custom Voice Creating (Sample/Playback)
Tyros2 has two enormously powerful features that let you craft your own Voices: Voice Creator and Voice Set. Voice Creator allows you to import your own audio samples and waveforms, and assign them to the keys as desired–letting you build completely new Voices with completely new sounds. Voice Set provides tools for editing a Voice–changing its filter, envelope and vibrato settings, as well as making modulation assignments and adjusting the EQ and effects. The end result is a Custom Voice that can be selected and played just like all the other Tyros2 Voices. For added convenience, you can auto-load an entire library of voices when you turn the keyboard on. Tyros2 ships with 4 MB of sample RAM which you can easily expand to 1 GB using standard computer RAM, giving you plenty of capacity for samples. You can even store the samples on the optional hard disk. With Voice Creator sample playback capability, you can load sample in WAV and AIFF format, offering an almost unlimited range of sounds that you can buy off the shelf.

Connect to a Computer and USB Storage Devices
You'll find that Tyros2 is extremely computer friendly. The USB connections built into the instrument let you freely exchange and save your important data, and use your computer to take full control over the comprehensive Tyros2 features. With just a single USB connection, you can access both MIDI ports, giving you up to 32 channels of MIDI recording. Two separate USB to DEVICE terminals are included–one conveniently on the front panel–letting you easily connect storage devices such as USB memory sticks.

Other Voices and Voice Effects
Tyros2 has over 500 dynamic, realistic Voices, covering virtually every instrument category in the real world–as well as other-world-like sounds! In the Organ Flutes section, there's a wealth of preset organ sounds from Theatre to Jazz, Classical to Rock–including a set of on-screen virtual tone bars that let you adjust the individual flute footages, just as on an actual organ. The special Live! Cool! and Sweet! Voice categories give you a huge palette of acoustic and electronic instrument sounds, using a mixture of stereo and multilayered samples to fully capture the natural presence, resonance, expression and vibrato of the real instruments. What's more, Tyros2 has a comprehensive set of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) tools–effects that let you enhance the sound in a variety of ways (for example, with reverb, chorus or EQ), or completely transform it.

Accompaniment Styles and Multi Pads
If you're looking for a pro backing band to support your performance, Tyros2 has everything you could ask for–and more. The 400 built-in Styles, each with 15 different sections on-call at a button press, and the wealth of versatile real-time controls give you the power to perform fully arranged songs–instantly, intuitively and interactively. If you need to spice up your performance, the Multi Pads give you a wide selection of one-shot phrases and special loops you can easily trigger while you play.

Vocal Harmony
Connect a microphone and let Tyros2 automatically add backup singers to your voice! The added vocal harmony parts instantly follow the chords you play or pre-programmed parts in MIDI files and you can even select different harmony styles to match the music.

Song Creating
Thanks to the comprehensive features of the built-in 16-track MIDI sequencer, Tyros2 is truly a songwriter's delight. It allows you to easily record your keyboard performance in real time or use the Step Record feature to enter each note individually. There's even an Easy Record function that lets you instantly record fully arranged songs, including accompaniment styles–just press REC and START/STOP like on a cassette recorder! For finer control, you can separately enter chord progressions and pattern variations using Step Record, and automatically clean up the timing of your recorded parts with the Quantize features. Repairing mistakes and replacing certain sections in a song is exceptionally easy, too–using Punch In/Out recording and the precision editing functions of the Event List.

Interactive Learning Functions
Tyros2 has a wealth of features that enhance your music studies, making it both fun and easy to learn new songs. The Follow Lights and Any Key keyboard practice functions pause song playback and wait for you to play the correct notes. Follow Lights even has a bouncing orange ball in the display to show you in real time what melody notes to play. Karao-Key and Vocal CueTime are two features designed for sing-a-longs. With Karao-Key, you can control the song and accompaniment playback with just one finger, while you sing along. Simply play a key on the keyboard in time with the music (any key is fine) and the accompaniment parts of the song follow your playing. Vocal CueTime helps you learn how to sing, monitoring your voice and pausing playback until you sing the notes correctly.

Keyboard 61 Keys (C1 ~ C6) with Touch Response (Initial Touch / After Touch)
Polyphony 128 notes max.
Display 640x480 color LCD. Contrast and angle are adjustable. Music Score, Lyrics, Text, Wallpaper customize
Languages English, French, German, Italian, Spanish (Demo & Help User Selectable)
Voices + Drumkits 504 Voices (486 Normal Voices + 18 Mega) + 10 Organ Flutes + 480 XG Voices + 256 GM2 Voices + 23 Drum Kits + 6 SFX Kits (And GS voices for GS song playback)
Voice Expandability Voice setting Editor / Voice Creator with Wave Assign; 4 MB pre-installed. Maximum memory size 1024 MB (optional)
Orchestration Upper: Right 1 - 3 (You can layer up to 3 voices at a time); Lower: Left (with hold function); Split: Left (default F#2) , Style (default F#2), Right 3 (default G2)
Reverb, Chorus, DSP Reverb: 34 Presets + 3 Users; Chorus: 30 Presets + 3 Users; DSP Effect for Style: 189 Presets + 3 Users; DSP Effect for R1/R2/R3/Left: 189 Presets + 10 Users; DSP Effect for Mic: 189 Presets + 10 Users
Mic Effects Noise Gate x 1, Compressor x 1, 3 Band EQ x 1
Master EQ (5 band) 5 Presets + 2 Users
Master Compressor 5 Presets + 5 Users
Part EQ (2 band) 29 Parts (R1, R2, R3, Left, Multi Pad, Style x 8, Song x 16)
Vocal Harmony 60 Presets + 10 Users
Harmony Echo 17 Presets
Real-time Controllers Pitch Bend wheel, Modulation wheel
Touch Response 5 Presets + Off Level adjustable
Tempo 5 ~ 500
Auto Accompaniment 400 Preset Styles in 11 categories (357 Pro Styles, 43 Session)
Preset Songs 5
Internal Flash Memory 3.2 MB
USB to HOST YES
USB to DEVICE YES (2 terminals: Front / Back)
MIDI MIDI A In/Out, MIDI B In/Out
Control Foot Pedal 1(Sustain) / 2 (Super Articulation) / 3 (Volume) Function Assignable
Display Output Video Out (NTSC / PAL Composite), RGB Out
Audio Phones, Line Out Main (L/L+R, R), Sub Output 1/2; Loop Send (L/L+R, R), Aux Out (Level Fixed): Selectable; Loop Return (L/L+R, R), Aux In MIC/Line In (Stereo); To Satellite Speaker (L/R), To Sub Woofer (L/R)
Power Supply AC (Inlet)
Dimensions 44.8" x 17.7" x 5.4" W x D x H (1,140 x 450 x 137 mm) Without Music Rest and Speakers
Weight 32 lbs (14.5 kg)

Does anyone know how much audio a 40GB hard drive would store in hours and minutes roughly? 40GB Samsung that Yamaha recommends can be picked up for about £50 so it's cheap enough.
Also, if you were to transfer a WAV file onto the hard drive as a backing track, how many times can you play over it or bounce it down until you get the finished result?
Any advice appreciated, cheers.

Recording my KN7000 to hard drive uses 10 Mg per minute of recording. You can do the math from there.
Bebop