I played my 3rd gig today with the S950. I decided to try out the two
Audio Styles in the Jazz section and during the gig if there was a song that
fit the styles I used the two of them.

I have not been impressed with the Audio Styles in my small studio but today in a larger room with the Bose going there was an entirely different feel and sound to them. But what really got my attention was how my audience reacted to them. Each time I used one of the two Audio Jazz styles I got nearly twice the applause and vocal approval from the audience. Now I wish there were more of them on the keyboard.

But, I still would not buy the S950 just for the Audio styles because there are just to few of them in the presets.

Deane

I agree - those 2 swing styles are SO very usable, and sound fantastic. They progress logically too, from one to the next. The Bossa is great too.

Uncle Dave,
One has to wonder what Yamaha is thinking in the way they implemented the Audio styles. If you have to use a thumb drive for storage and you wish to create playlists to store on the thumb drive you can't use the audio styles because they can't be copied to a device external to the keyboard. I have not messed with the songbook or registrations yet but I am not comfortable not being able to save setups of any kind on an external device if for no other reason but to have a reliable backup.

Deane

Deane, you can store registrations on USB drive. All they do is point to the style.
DonM

I guess, if you actually like the audio style concept, why are you wasting your time with Yamaha? Just go get an Audya... Or I think Fran and Nedim might have a spare MS lying around propping a door open!

Hi Don,
I'll give that a try today. I have never used registrations in the past but am certainly open to the idea. Have you tried backing up the keyboard yet? I wonder if the audio styles get backup up???

Deane

The audio styles go to a protected sort of FlashROM section (like where your OS is) so don't get backed up.

From what we have heard so far, each new Audio Style Pak will have to be loaded up similar to doing an OS update... loaded slowly into the FlashROM, and then the arranger needs a reboot. This seems to indicate that mixing and matching, or calling new ones up on the fly will be impossible.

Essentially, you will have a certain amount of the FlashROM available for the audio styles (it's currently full with the styles in it now) and you will have to erase some styles to make room for new ones. Let's just hope Yamaha haven't forgotten to let us decide which we keep and which we erase, but given how rushed out the door these features are, don't bet against it being an all or nothing approach!

Yes Diki,
A convoluted and messed up system in my opinion and I doubt I will be a buyer for
any future overpriced audio styles Yamaha tries to sell. A real shame because the S950 is actually a neat little keyboard.

Deane

There are about three audio styles I use. They sound good. They sound a little better than most of the midi styles, but not so much different that they sound out of place.
I'm pretty happy with the midi styles anyway, and they can be extensively edited. Many of them come to life if you change to the Real Drum kit.
Deane, if you set up a Registration Bank for each song, and name it accordingly, they automatically sort alphabetically and you can instantly call up the list, and have your song loaded in a second or so.
I put all the settings for the song I want on Memory 1. On the other memories, if not needed for the song, I put seven of my favorite sounds. I set the Registration Freeze to only allow the memories to change Sound when it's on. I load a Bank, press one, press Freeze and I'm ready to go with all the settings for the song I want to play, including text file, plus instant access to seven more sounds, plus the OTS settings.
In some ways, I even prefer this to Songbook on Korg. It's the first time I ever took the time to do it this way.
You can even use an external Registration Editor to make set up easier if you want.
DonM

It just seems a shame that Yamaha wasted all this time and money on a pitiful few new audio styles, when a few new drum KITS could have achieved exactly the same thing and so much more... at a fraction of the cost.