Well, they seem to be more of an add-on to the midi drums, while Ketron's have many totally audio drum patterns. Also Ketron has WAY more of them.
DonM

Actually Don, most of the audio drum patterns are all audio drums. Only on a few of them Yamaha has maybe just a bass drum and a closed hi-hat added to the audio track. However, this use of an additional sound or two is not common on most of the 25 audio styles. Yes there are more are the Ketron keyboards but Yamaha promises more to come.

I've been searching for a listing of the 25 audio drum styles with no luck. Can somebody help me out?

More to come, if they take a reboot of the PSR to load, doesn't seem like that good a deal.

We have maybe one or two more generations of this feature before it becomes useful, at least on the MOTL. Hopefully, when the T5 comes out with it, fast and easy loading will have been solved.

The really disappointing part is, no ability at all to make these yourself. There are some truly fabulous real drum loops in song format (various different grooves and fills, with intro and ending pickups too) available, and not being able to make your OWN real audio drumset styles (or add hip grooves to existing styles other than the 25 it comes with) is a distinct drawback.

Let's face it, how many styles do most of us use? Hundreds, probably. But an S950 will only ever have 25 at a time available (give or take).

However, it is genius marketing on Yamaha's part. Rather than bring the feature out on the Tyros, and us KNOW it will trickle down to the PSR in one or two year's time, bring the feature out, albeit crippled, on the MOTL... THEN bring it out, fixed and perfected finally, on the TOTL, and watch all those that love the idea but HATE how impractical it is on the PSR trade UP, for once!

Brilliant!

Is it me or the S950 audio drums in the demo sound a bit "DISCONNECTED" to the overall sound of the style itself?..sought of in a different "sonic family" then what the rest of the style is showing....these were my Audya concerns also when I demoed it...I would assume these so called "Audio Drums" styles will take some real Taming to get the appropriate "overall sound" BALANCE that is in sync with the rest of the style so they don't "stick out" like a sore thumb IMO...could this be the reason there are no demos yet?...that they are trying to work out a way to advertise the 950/750 in a way that is acceptable to the masses? We'll see soon enough.

One of the issues with audio drums is... it's a stereo track... you can't add reverb to it without the kick and lo toms getting muddy.

Most studios will track drums in a drum room, some nice ambiance around the drums to give them a bit of space, but then, at the board, a plate or bigger reverb will probably get added to the snare, and maybe the toms a bit to bed it in with a bigger soundfield.

But the audio drums will be fixed... can't add or subtract reverb. So, they either work with the track or they don't. In all likelihood, what is going to have to be done is dial BACK the reverb a bit on the arranger tracks so it sits a bit better with the smaller space. Whether you like that or not.

Simply one more reason why I think audio tracks are a dead end. Why can't they spend the energy and time sampling a REALLY good MIDI drumkit, with lots of velocity levels, in a nice drum room, and do away with all these problems? You still get a great drummer to PLAY the parts... but he uses a MIDI drumkit instead of the real one. Listen to any BFD or EZDrummer demos if you don't think these can sound JUST as good as a real drummer on a real drumkit!

I can't believe I'm agreeing with Diki on something..

I was wondering this myself. Just put the drumkits of the Motif in their arrangers and they sound great.

25 styles would cover a LOT of songs, but only IF they were the 25 styles of my choice!
I'm looking forward to trying the 950 though. Haven't had a new keyboard in nearly a YEAR and I'm down to only two in my arsenal.
DonM

I'm not totally convinced Yamaha implemented audio styles in a MOTL arranger in order to perfect them in a future TOTL arranger. Everything evolves one way or another. But as Diki explained, it sure seems like that COULD be the case. However you need to start somewhere, and why not in a MOTL arranger that was due for a new model anyway. When, and if the new T5 arrives, it will be interesting to see if Yamaha audio styles will be interchangeable between a T5 and a S950.

In any case I give Yamaha credit for venturing into audio styles, and while it's true, they could have put more effort in improving the current midi drum tracks, they have included many more midi drum kits in the 950...kits we have not heard yet, so hard to judge. So it sure seems like Audio styles are here to stay, and I would guess it won't take long for someone to develop software that will allow editing of the audio drums. Cakewalk?


PS...Just wondering...Would it really take a reboot to load any new future audio styles? I would think they could be stored on a USB stick or in User Styles for almost instant call up. I also heard audio styles take only slightly longer to load than midi files. True?