Dear Forum members and others,
It's been quit a while now that we've been anticipating the new revolutionary keyboard AUDYA from Ketron and for those interested in this product; we'd like to extend a special "Thank you" for your patience and endurance during this long research and development process.
A lot of design and development has been put into AUDYA to make it truly a one-of-it's-kind Arranger Keyboard for it's time and we believe we've been able to finally achieve this goal.
This product (full production model functioning at 100% of the current features) should officially be released in the United States around March 15th, 2009, where users will be able to get a up-close-and-personal view and experience of this great Arranger 'Work-horse'. Being built on an Open Architecture platform, of course we will add new functions and features as requested by our customers through OS updates.
What are some of the features we believe will put AUDYA in a 'class' of its own? What makes the KETRON AUDYA unique to existing Arrangers?
Just to list a few features (you should find out the rest in person once it's released ...)...
1. Best Natural Sounds:- Living up to its reputation, Ketron built the AUDYA around its best natural & original sounds. A lot of time and development was taken to create lengthy, accurate samples created from the 'ground up'. For most instruments, the 'character' of the instrument was also captured in real time giving the user the possibility to play the instrument the way the original instrument was meant to be played ...e.g. play the MUTED or SWING TRUMPET and listen to how the 'player' blows into the instrument ... and also hold the key down long enough and you hear the player 'run out of breath' while the sound 'decays' to an end... after all a trumpet player cannot hold his breath endlessly now, can they? Such a feature eliminates the use of 'loops' in many of our sounds so the 'artificial' effect of simply sampling is for the most part eliminated.
We at Ketron have always prided ourselves in creating the Best Natural sounds and as such we've never found the need to advertize a special category of Sounds - they should all sound good.
To add to the existing selection of ROM sounds in AUDYA's memory, we have included a bonus section in the Hard Drive in the folder called "SUPERSOLO". These are voices which (in many instances) work on both samples and modulation. Loading a 10,120 KB voice takes no more than 5 seconds with our new CPU and can be done while the keyboard is being played (multi-tasking). These voices bring out the best of AUDYA with rich characteristics and great authenticity ... you've not heard the best of AUDYA until you hear the SUPERSOLO voices.
2. 'LIVE' ARRANGER:- This is not the first time KETRON has incorporated AUDIO into their arrangers. In the mid 90's, Ketron used AUDIO grooves with their MS-series keyboards. This was then carried into the X, SD and XD series with better, longer audio grooves to really give that LIVE DRUM feel. We've decided to go up a level where no Arranger Workstation has gone by now, by incorporating Audio Drums, Audio Bass and an Audio chord part with the Arranger too. The capability to control such Audio (bass and chord parts) in real time has of course posed it's problems, but we believe we have found a compromise such that the AUDIO parts complement (and not replace) the midi Arranger parts. So, a style (depending on which style is selected) will have Audio drums (recorded by real, live, professional musicians), and/or Audio bass and/or one audio chord (chord 5 - which can be toggled between audio and midi). For the chords that are not recognized by the chord 5 track, complex algorithms either 'stretch' the chord or midi parts are played to 'represent' that chord - however, due to the rich nature of the new sound library, you will hardly notice the difference ... it's like driving a Toyota Prius Hybrid - hard to tell when the gas engine switches off and the electric engine switches on. This characteristic enables AUDYA to recognize and play ALL chord types when the Arranger is played in full. Of course if you 'solo' chord 5, there will be scenarios where this chord will not be heard ~ if you plan to play an entire performance with ONLY chord 5 active, we'd suggest you select another style that will have the midi equivalent to this one.
3. INTERACTIVE GUITAR:- This new feature from Ketron allows you to determine 'when' you want to hear live guitar strum/notes. Depending on the setting, you can play a chord and the Arranger will automatically insert a guitar strum/chord/part based on how hard you play. This allows one to 'interact' with the machine and again eliminate redundancy and boredom.
4. INTELLIGENT ARRANGER:- Now here is where things begin to 'pick up' even more. With the way Arrangers are 'programmed' one of the characteristics it's been hard to navigate away from has been ... REDUNDANCY. Regardless of the quality of styles and sounds, the Arranger (because it's playing a loop - 4, 8,16 or even 32 measures long in some cases) at some point becomes 'boring' as you already begin to 'know what is coming'. Using AI (Artificial Intelligence) in AUDYA, we've been able to practically eliminate this effect. When you play a style on AUDYA, for the first couple of measures, AUDYA 'learns' what you are playing. When redundant chord progressions are played, AUDUA will start playing random 'bass', 'drum' and in some cases 'chord' parts. These parts are 'thrown into your performance' to enhance what you are playing. In order not to 'compete' with what you are playing, AUDYA automatically 'mutes' these parts once you start to play (e.g. a solo part) so as to avoid 'noise' (which tends to occur when too many parts/tracks are playing at the same time). This feature alone is quite innovative in the fact that AUDYA tends to remain 'new' to you the end user, always inspiring you to play. The sad thing about this feature is it might (just might) eliminate the need for another keyboard after this!
AUDYA also responds to velocity, After-touch, run up/down scales ... etc to trigger different notes and parts when playing a style.
5. POWERFUL REMIX FEATURES:- With the integration of AUDIO into Styles and MIDIFILES, we decided to give you the end user the capability to create your own Enhanced Midi-audio, Wave or MP3 files instantly from your existing MIDI library. Simply by selecting a Midi file and playing, you can use the REMIX feature to remove the 'midi drums' of existing Midi files and replace them using the AUDIO drums from AUDYA. he midi files DRUM, BASS, ORCHESTRAL and LEAD parts can be individually controlled with the dedicated sliders. With this feature, you can use the Arranger and Fill ins to change the drum tracks live as you play and sing to your midi files. What's best? Simply press RECORD to record this entire performance as a WAVE file that will automatically be named after the Midi file (with a *.wav) extension(if you plugged in a microphone into AUDYA, your vocal tracks will also be recorded). To take this feature even further, you can also activate the AUDIO chord part (guitars) and while playing the midi file, play the chords on the left and the AUDIO guitars will follow you - and yes, you can once more record these at the same time - basically reading and writing to the built in Hard Drive at once!! With the capability to record your own Wave and MP3 files, AUDYAs' recording possibilities are open and flexible.
6. KEY TUNES:- Did we mention the fact that AUDYA also comes with a POWERFUL multi player? You can play (simultaneously) 2 wave, 2 mp3 or 2 midi files and the keyboard at the same time. Not that you'll be doing this very often, but you know the capability is there ... especially for those who depend on playing existing files with effects ...etc. Thanks to this new player, we've created KEYTUNES. This feature allows you to assign Wave, MP3 or midi files to keys on the keyboard. You may assign an audio/midi file either to a key or a range of keys. Once these keys are pressed, you have the option to play the loop only when the key is depressed (Hold=ON) or play and keep playing the file until the next key is pressed. With this function, the possibilities are endless for a gigging musician on stage having all their songs at their finger-tips ... literally!
7. POWERFUL MULTIPLAYER:- AUDYA can play (as mentioned above) multiple Wave, MP3 and Midi files at once. Each file can be controlled by dedicated independent sliders or automatically with the CROSSFADE feature, the user can fade out of one file into the next (with adjustable CROSSFADE curves). With over 200 EFFECTS on board, you can add and enhance your music or take a break and ... let AUDYA entertain with the PLAYLIST feature or ... endless possibilities.
8. VOICETRON - KETRON's Vocalizer:- We've decided to 'build our own' vocalizer and implore our notion of Best Natural Sounds to the vocaliser as well. So our harmonies stand out and sound ... 'REAL'. With harmony modes like AUTOTUNE, we've shaped up the human voice and why not enhance the world's best instrument - your voice? AUDYA offers 2 mic inputs with independent GAIN control. This allows 2 people to be able to sing into AUDYA at the same time and apply effects to both voices and ... yes record both voices as well as a Wave or Mp3 file. Harmonies can be created and controlled using your LEFT, RIGHT or both hands or via MIDI from an external source like a Sequencer for an example. You can even play 'single notes' and manually create your own harmonies too.
9. (6)INDEPENDENT OUTPUTS:- For the live musician who's sound man needs to have control of each instrument and sound coming out of the keyboard OR for the studio artist who wants to record 12 audio tracks at once (yes, 12 when panned) using software such as PROTOOLS, this is a must. The outputs allow the user to assign different instruments to different outputs and as such, one has individual control over all tracks/channel. For an example, you can assign the Kick drum out of OUT1(L) and high hat out of OUT1(R), then Congas out of OUT2(L) and Timbales out of OUT2(R) ...etc. Now you can (outside the keyboard) apply compression to the KICK DRUM alone, maybe add some other effects to the other tracks ... etc. You can also assign the MICS and audio (Wave and MP3) to different outputs.
10. VOICE LAYERING & CONTROL:- You can layer up to 3 voices on the right or entire keyboard and play them at once or play them across the keyboard with up to 3 different SPLIT points or using velocity control, program each voice to be heard only when the key(s) are played at a particular velocity range or both. Each of these voices can be assigned different EFFECTS, volumes, and pitch, sustain (y/n), expression ...etc.
11. CUSTOMIZATION:- You can pretty much customize AUDYA to your needs. You can customize start up features (what should be active or not when the unit is turned on), USER buttons 1-5 below the screen and one slider (PFL) ). We understand not everyone is the same and so we wanted to allow AUDYA meet your needs.
There are many other features not described above simply because words alone cannot tell the whole stories. Even videos (in their own way) are limited. You'll have to try one and find out if it's for you FIRST. Different Arranger manufacturers hold and target different markets - no Arranger has it all, but we believe with AUDYA, we have taken a great step forward. Of course we will continue listening to our customers for future updates on our products. Again we like to thank you for your patience as we try to release a product we believe you will like and enjoy for years to come.
Thanks,
AJ.
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