Diki,

In all fairness, the Ajamsonic upgrade did bring with it some nice extra Reggae styles. Plus, amongst the many thousand of styles I've converted, you'll also find many more than just your named few, but including all of yours, Reggae styles, all of them extremely good quality.

So no my friend, although I don't want to participate in this argument, I have to make you aware that the Audya CERTAINLY does not suffer from a lack of Reggae styles in any way or form... I'm sure we have many more of those than you currently have. I converted EVERYTHING I could find for the Roland to the Audya. So we have everything you have plus many more of those...not to even mention the audio versions of those!

We are not behind in any way or form.

All the best my friend,

Henni

One good comparison:

CLICK HERE!

and HERE

CLICK HERE!

Dynamix Samples for KORG and YAMAHA Arrangers

I've said it before, I'll say it again... IF those audio styles are so good, who would want to play a regular MIDI style right next to one?

You can't have it both ways. Either audio styles really ARE that good (I must confess, many of them are) and MIDI styles compare poorly to them, or they aren't, and a whole load of BS has to be put up with in the way of ineditablity for them.

But you can't mix and match the two without some poor comparison...

While my MIDI based arrangers can't quite match the best of the audio styles, they get the job done. And ALL my styles sound comparable. Not a few really great audio ones and a whole heap of poorer sounding MIDI styles. ALL my styles are similar quality.

I do undertand where your coming from Diki. Fortunately Ketrons Midi Drums Styles have always been very good for live use and you can get away with using some Midi styles in the absence of a suitable Audio style, that is why the Audya is backward compatible. Quite often its possible to cut the Midi Drums of a style and replace it with Audio drums and because the Audio Drums are generic they can be used with many many different styles. (Currently there are around 450 Audio drum Loops to choose from on board)

But Audya doesn't have every groove for every piece music, which is why when there is a demand Ketron will release new styles...not so much for the patterns but for the Audio drums. Like the last UK USB Update. The idea was to have new loops and grooves that could cover many different styles. 5 patterns - but with the possibilty to convert tons of new styles to Audio. I know there are still some missing and if there is demand we will add those too. (One suggestion was the groove for 'Walking On Sunshine' which is currently missing from the instrument.

If your happy to use Midi styles (Like Henni) you really do have the best of both worlds. For me though, I will always cut the Midi drums and replace with an Audio Drum. In fact we are working on a project at the moment which requires just that. So far I have converted around 50 legacy styles to Audio styles. These will be available soon too for those who do not want to do it for themselves.

Eventually we will be able to cover anything anyone can throw at us with Audio drums...but for now, yes, sometimes you have to compromise and the Keyboard sounds more like the a standard arranger, but most times we can drop the Midi drums from a style.

I guess I'm just too big a drum lover... Other than generic elevator stuff, each and every hit tune has something in the drums that makes it unique, makes it stand out. That's why, if you have a style that nails a certain tune's groove, replacing it with a DIFFERENT groove just to have audio drums in the style don't cut it for me. Likewise, that moved snare drum hit, or specific kick pattern is what makes a certain song. You cannot do that to an audio drum groove,

It's either the right one, or the WRONG one, for me. Generic patterns don't cut it for most music.

And we still haven't addressed SMF playback. Once again, if your act is a mix of style and SMF, how do you get around the change in sound when you have to go to MIDI drums for the SMF's? And please don't go on about replacing the drum track with an audio track from the factory patterns. That's even MORE difficult to do, when an SMF's drum parts can be much closer to a song's groove...

I also know where you are coming from, Tone. At what the Ketron does best, it is head and shoulders above other arrangers. But if your needs go beyond that, you are back to having a mere MIDI arranger, and TBH, the Ketron isn't necessarily the best at that... I still believe the future of arrangers isn't audio. That will always have limitations and not be as versatile as MIDI. And as sample ROM sizes get bigger and bigger, it gets harder and harder to tell the difference between audio and VSTi quality MIDI tracks. Soon, you won't be able to at all.

In the meantime, my ROM styles, my legacy styles and my SMF's ALL sound exactly the same. I'd rather have that than some killer audio styles and the rest not as good.