^ Admirable stuff, TWD, but I couldn't be confident of that kind of service here if I owned one.

The Ketron service I have experienced is WAY WAY better than the way Korg treated me!
Nothing ever went wrong with my Audya, or my SD5, or SD1 or Midjay or X1. However when my Audya was first shipped it was damaged. They shipped another one and told me to send the first one to AJ, at their expense.
Having said this, I always have a backup in place for every piece of gear I use, including arrangers.
DonM

Don, do you have a Ketron service centre near you? I don't know of one up here in Canada, nor even a dealer. The one time in 11 years I called on Korg service, well, I couldn't have asked for better. It's unfortunate that you experienced poor Korg service in your neck of the woods.

No offense, but everything I criticized the Audya for were legitimate, and STILL are not fixed. As you recall my primary objection was that the audio chord selection was only three chords, and then 'extra' MIDI notes were added to the basic chord for some chord types, and some were switched entirely to MIDI only...

I still believe that this is an unacceptable compromise, particularly as modern computers CAN do a much wider chord selection choice and stream it in realtime. I can certainly hear it happening, and as the whole POINT of audio loops is for it to sound realistic, going from a six string guitar to an 8 string guitar for a mere 6/9 chord is hardly insignificant. Particularly as both Yamaha AND Korg have GENUINE guitar chord voicings being used for guitar parts.

Secondly, as far as I know, USER created audio song styles are still not possible to be done, with any degree of ease, if at all. Once again, unacceptable. Audio styles are basically, 'take it or leave it' there's next to nothing you can do to the part (other than substituting something else entirely) if it doesn't fit the song. Nothing has changed in this regard.

I'm sorry if you are frustrated with my criticism of your 'AWESOME!!!' arranger, but for one thing, I certainly don't feel that actually wanting to BUY one is the only reason one could have for pointing these FACTS out. In fact, all I have ever done is point out the reasons I would NOT buy one. They haven't changed!

And please... Ignore all the positive things I have ever said about the Audya all you like. I guess my criticisms are the only thing you remember, but that isn't the truth. I have said, many times, if what the Audya does OOTB is OK for you, there is MUCH that is great about the arranger. Multiple Break/Fills, key-triggered phrases, a genuine arpeggiator... the list goes on and on.

But, for me, the REAL reason to have an Audya would be the audio styles. And until they cover ALL (or at least most of the common ones) chords, until the choice of ROM or 3rd party styles covers MY needs, until the tools to easily use 3rd party audio loop content to create your OWN styles exists, and until service and dealership in the US improves radically, no matter HOW much you love (and capitalize that love!) your Audya, it remains something with great, but unrealized promise.

Now, if you don't ever want to read anything negative about the Audya by non-owners, you are simply going to have to hang out ONLY on Ketron forums (and close your eyes when you see owners actually pointing some of this stuff out)!

Sorry.

No Ketron service center near here. Also no Korg service center near here. I had to take it to Dallas, about 200 miles. The service people there were great. It's Korg who could not or would not get me a joystick module for more than three months.
I finally hired an attorney to pursue a claim against them for loss of income, cost of buying a replacement keyboard and aggravation.
They miraculously got a shipment of parts in the next day and finally apologized. If I had it to do over, I would just use a joystick from one of the Korg synths and forget the warranty. They are exactly the same, but Korg wouldn't authorize using one. It's a $20. part and took ten minutes to replace.
In all fairness, I had a faulty Yamaha PSR S900 a few years ago. I called Steve Deming, and he had a new one shipped that same day!
There is a repair center that does Yamaha and Roland here. He could work on Ketron if they asked.
To be honest, the instances I've mentioned here are the only problems I've ever had using arrangers virtually every night since they were invented. Oh wait, I had a joystick spring break on a Roland G800 about a week after I bought it. We took the spring out, cut off the broken piece and put it back in!
I suppose it is still working somewhere.
DonM

Don, up until that ONE issue, have you ever had inferior service from Korg? I certainly can't remember seeing it as a constant, or even occasional issue.

I'm afraid we can't say that about Ketron. Things may be beginning to look up a bit, but even so, let us not forget the many years where dealing with Ketron often ending up trying to deal with Italy..!

No, but that's the only time I needed them. I had a PA80 some years ago, and briefly had Pa800 but didn't keep either of them long enough for them to break down. As a matter of fact, I haven't had this one long enough either.
As I said elsewhere, I was extremely vocal about how much I like the PA3X, and still do. I will also let people know the negatives, and for me that is service.
Everyone tells me they have had nothing but good service from Korg, so I'll shut up about it and move on. But I know how they ignored me and won't forget it soon.

Hi Diki,

In all fairness, I've posted so many demo songs over here that some would not even download them all, there are just that many. Aggreed, they are not even close to your standard of playing or in a general liked genre, but neither am I only a total novice player also. I could never hear the guitars dropping in & out like you've stated. Not to say it does not happen, only that it's not as noticable as you would indicate.

I remember only a short while ago TWD invited you once again to a duel on this issue which you did not accept. Why not? Lets see if things have improved over time...

As for the audio libraries - these have grown significantly over time. My question, what do you want in those libraries that you ALREADY have on other arrangers? Many, many users have already created their own drum loops and these are just awesome. You should listen to some free styles made available by aliehoe recently - really very nicely done at home. And you should listen to what Sokratis is doing at his studio...

Yes, I'm not aware that anyone other than AJ has ever created new live guitar loops and new arps & licks. But the very fact that AJ could do it in his studio, means that it CAN be done. All that is required is the know how. I don't know if AJ would be willing to share that, but if he does, this issue would also be put to bed!

As for service from Ketron, I cannot say anything & it's really not for me to say. I'll leave that issue to be answered by the big guns themselves.

No, I do not mind negative critisism as long as it's true and valid. Everyone should be made aware of those. But you are going way overboard on the chord issue & I would love for you to take TWD up once again on this challenge and SHOW us all how terrible this sounds when making everyday live music. Let's get a few MP3s out on that so that we all can hear what you are hearing. TWD can post his, and you can post yours. Please, letys post it over here and keep all the facts together in one thread, so that all who are interested in the Audya in feature can evaluate for themselves. I will never promote an issue that is not true. If you prove us wrong, I'll warn all future Audya owners of this drawback & then they can make up their own minds whether this will seriously effect their peformances or not.

Oh yes, and the other thing you initially critisized Ketrion for to no end, was the streaming from HD for the audio parts. Well, in the end it turned out to work a LOT better than other manufacturers method to try & do this from RAM. You were WRONG there my friend & you never apologised for that.

Keep well my friend,

Henni

Stop pratting about, if you don't have a TWD near you you are shot in the head if you have a Ketron, TWD takes on the roll of manufacturer and that is not is job to do this, to my knowledge Ketron have never had a KB back for repair at their factory. Like TWD says in the UK there have not been many KB with hardware faults, locking up faults were software faults, I managed to fix mine. I have said this many times, you are dealing with a company that have no dealers or agents that have TWD, its a fact, if you buy an Audya then you need to be aware if thinks go wrong with hardware you may well struggle to get it put right, 124 you can get a Audya from Thomman in Germany and if it goes wrong you can send it back,they must send faulty KB back to Italy, I have heard there is some direct tie up with Thomman and Ketron not sure what it is. Audya is a great sounding KB but if you are out in Alaska or like Hennie in the middle of South Africa, its the risk you take, 124 if you like the KB buy the bloody thing and get on with playing it. If it goes wrong no doubt you will be the first to tell us, Don how's your Audya going on with its new owner. 124 your nearest man for repairs would be AJ, not sure if AJ is a TWD look a like and performes the same task that Ketron should do, I don't think AJ works for Ketron just like TWD doesn't. If you think about it, if you were a manufacturer and had dedicated people out in the field that love Ketron so much they will help people for nothing why would you want to change things, the problems really begins when something goes wrong with AJ or TWD..IMO this is mine choice in order, Tyros 4, Korg Pa3x, Audya tkaing into, BTW Colin from the UK bought Second Hand Korg Pa2x, it was about 3 years old, when he got it he found it had faulty blue LEDs twas a common fault, he spoke to Korg UK and they said send it back to us and we will repair it FOC, now thats waht I can service its was done in days. Action speaks louder than words.

You make you own mind up 124 I just stated the facts, I would think that Ketron will have ironed out all the problems with the Audya by now, really they should be thinking of Audya Lite Mark 2

Maybe here in is your answer not hidden too deeply in the text, 124 maybe you have talked yourself out of buying one even if you did have a spare $6500

Go on talk yourself back into buying one, BTW 124 have you played an Audya???

BTW all, Hennie has more hits on this thread than any I know for a while, perhaps it is his subject title
"Awesome at last !!!" maybe we should all think about our titles when we post, like " New Awesome G70 LITE !!!" more hits than Gangbang Style, SZ goes into Meltdown, Diki you wouldn't be able to coupe with the pressure so lets not go there!!!

It take two people to operate an Audya heeeeeeee sounds good..