I agree, Nigel, and I doubt if anything used making these demos isn't available, in one form or another, to most users wanting similar quality recordings.

It goes without saying that a manufacturer will strive for the highest possible recording quality for showcasing its product, but wouldn't any user who is looking for the best reproduction of his recorded music?

Most high-end (and some mid-range) Arrangers, like my Yamaha Tyros4, have on-board high quality audio recorders, plus these instruments (as do similar products from the competition) also have extensive EQ'ing/Compressing and effects processing (the T4 also has an exciter/enhancer) and detailed editing capability that allows even the average user to achieve some excellent results without any outboard devices.

In fact, if you listen to some on-line demos that were recorded in a more casual environment such as a music store, it's often quite possible to hear recordings at the same level of quality as the manufacturer specific demos.

And of course, we have to include the uploads by some of our own SZ'ers (i.e. Telmo) that exude similar quality and attention to detail.

Ian

Absolutely agree. Any manufacturer or service provider, which is basically what we OMB's are, is going to promote themselves in the most positive light. To do otherwise is putting yourself at a disadvantage, and why would anyone do that? It defeats the purpose of putting your product out there in the first place.

If I were going to make a video of ME playing the S-950, a video that I would use for sales promotion of my OMB product(s), I would probably record my demo using the onboard recorder, then synch it with high-resolution video. When I watched Michael Vonken demoing the S-950 at the shows on YouTube, there were connections made to the back of the keyboard. I'm fairly confident that those connections were going to a mixer, then through the best sound system, and also outputted directly into the video camera. For the few years I worked as a TV reporter, and newscaster, we used Ikegami TV cameras, which were quite heavy to haul around on your shoulder, about 50 pounds. In the studio, the same brand of camera was used when in-studio production work was done, TV commercials for example, and in every instance, we had a sound board coming from the various devices in the studio, and that sound board went directly into the camera's line input.

Now, I would suspect that any manufacturer, especially one that distributes their products to a worldwide market, would do the same when making promo videos. Do I know this for sure? Absolutely not - but from past experience in the field I'm fairly confident this is the case.

Now, we do the same thing when we perform. I know some folks that try to get away with the least expensive amps and mics they can, but I feel that defeats the purpose. I have always prided myself in my sound systems, and in reality, cost was never a factor. For me, being an OMB entertainer is a business, and I want my business to sound better than the competition. I want to be able to get the very best sounds out of every piece of gear I use on stage. I would think any manufacturer would do the same for demos.

As for buying a piece of equipment, especially an arranger keyboard, based on what I see or hear on a demo, not a prayer. That demo will put me in a mind frame to take a look at the keyboard in person, and there have been times that I have traveled great distances to hear, see and touch those keyboards, sound systems, mics, etc...

As for the manufacturers trying to pull a scam on consumers with their demos, no, I don't believe this is the case. If it were, they wouldn't be in business very long. Misrepresenting a product in any way, shape or form, is strictly against the laws of the Federal Trade Commission. Anyone that does so is on deep doo doo, at least in the U.S..

All the best,

Gary

I think we've pretty much got a consensus here. Maybe the OP has learned something.

Used car Salesman comes to mind...

I dare anyone to record the same song as the demo in your keyboard and place on this forum.

Yes, if you have all the knowledge that the performers and engineers have, then you might be able to. That would include the ability to create special sounding instruments with effects that most of us do not understand and spending more time than we wish to give – it is their 9 to 5 five days a week job. They get paid to create demos.

IN my humble opinion, John C.

Right on, John ... I've always felt that the on-board demos were there to show the 'potential' of the KB ... but it is potential that 99.99999% of us will never achieve because we lack SOMETHING - whether it be the expertise, time, desire, need, or ALL of the aforementioned - whatever ...
Personally, I preferred to put in enough time to make my KB sound good -to me, and therefore, hopefully my audiences - and spend the REST of my time PLAYING it ...

The on-board demo on my rather mature Yamaha MU80 still sounds pretty good straight off the device and I'm sure that is a midi file playback operation (rather than a stored wave file) due to the limited memory capacity of the device.

Nevertheless without some very serious midi and sys-ex editing I know I could not approach the level of realism attained in the demo. As for playing it live.....

I visited an old friend of mine, and retired arranger keyboard entertainer, Jerry Burns. Jerry and his wife Elsa played the Baltimore nite club and restaurant circuit for nearly a half century, he was Peabody trained, and knew more about musical instruments than anyone I ever met. His fingers flowed over the keyboard like magic, and when he played a piano or sax, you could close your eyes and they were as realistic sounding as if there were a fantastic pianist or sax player standing right in front of you.

He tried out my S-950, which is light years ahead of his old PSR-2000. His wife, Elsa, who was an outstanding vocalist, especially with jazz numbers, sang some of the songs Jerry played on the S-950 using my old Samson Q7 plugged directly into the keyboard's mic input using a homemade adapter cable. I was amazed at just how great they still sounded after three years of not playing or singing a note. WOW!

I'm quite confident that Jerry could sit down and record demos for any keyboard, and make them sound like a million bucks. He didn't need any special effects, he just played as he has always played. As has been stated many times on this and other forums, "It's not the keyboard - it's the keyboard player!" So true - so true. While driving home that afternoon, I thought to myself, Damned, I should have recorded that. But alas, I was too enthralled with what I was hearing from my old friends.

Cheers,

Gary

Gary ... I don't doubt your friend's MUSICAL talent in the least, and I'm sure he made your 950 sound GREAT ...
but when talking about the SOUNDS of the on-board demos, we are NOT just talking MUSICIANSHIP, but also the TECHNICAL expertise needed to get the voices to sound like the demos ... as great as your friend may have sounded, I doubt that the VOICES he used sounded JUST LIKE the ones in the on-board demos ... it takes TECHNICAL expertise, and fully 'digging in' to the KB to achieve those sounds ...
I doubt that there is a player on this forum who took his/her KB out of the box and kept the factory sounds 'as is' ... everyone has 'tweaked' a board to some extent ... taking that to the 'Nth' degree might bring the sounds close to the demos ...

And you are right - a great player can sound great on a cheap board, but a lousy player will still sound lousy on a Steinway ...

JMHO