Well......here goes my first report as I have just come home from my meetings with Roland, Yamaha, Generalmusic, Ketron and a visit to Technics....
I'll start with the easiest and move on to the hardest (in the amount of time it will take me to explain what I've seen.
Technics 6500 still does not impress me for as big and expensive. I tried the acoustic grand piano and was disapointed with it's lack of harmonic content when playing the keys soft to loud. Most of the new keyboards really shine in mulisampling on one key and I just don't notice this on technics. I still don't like the drum kits cymbal sounds. I think they sound canned! Sorry to those of you who really like the 6500.
Ketron had only one new product to view which was a glossy baby grand version of the SD1 with a selling price between $5000.00 and $6,000.00. It is very beautiful and looks very expensive. All features of the SD1 are included. Nothing else to report except that I had a really lengthy talk with Sandro and Paulo regarding quality control issues, packing issues and I suggested they hire somone like AJ to do technical support in the USA. They were quite interested in hearing all my comments including needing a lower priced product in their line up. For those of you experiencing screen blackouts on early SD1's, Ketron has a fix for this problem which requires a service center to replace a capacitor and possibly a condenser inside the unit. As to an oriental version of the SD1 it seems that they will make the X1oriental sounds and patterns available soon for SD1 use and I've explained to Paulo and Sandro the need for Armenian type styles besides the Arabic and the use of more instrumental tracks besides the oriental percussion.
Moving on to Yamaha, the four new keyboards I already knew would be shown, were shown. This includes a really good looking 88 key non-weighted version of the PSR350, a 76 key version, a replacement for the PSRGX76 and a new PSR292 low priced 61 note keyboard. Nothing was talked about the replacement for the 9000 series at this show. The PSR9000 and 9000pro were both on display. The DGX500 will sell for $795.00 (88 keys) the DGX300 with 76 keys will be $595.00, the DGX202 (replacement for the PSRGX76) will retail for $425.00 and the PSR292 I believe is around $295.00. All models are silver in color(as all the new models have been) and will be great values I'm sure.
Roland was somewhat a surprise, but not really. My district manager knew nothing about the VA76 until he was shown this a few days ago and was given these to sell to all pro Roland dealers (not CK dealers). The ability to sell both the CK and the PRO's is unique for my store. The VA76 is a version 2 VA7 with 76 keys, no speakers, a few front panel pad buttons and dedicated buttons for lower 1 and lower 2 and upper 1 and upper2 on and offs. The price for this keyboard will retail at $2995.00 with a MAP price of probably $2495.00. If you've been following my posts, the street price of the VA7 in my store has dropped to under $2000.00 and will continue there for the time being because the CK division made me an offer I couldn't refuse. However, they said this price on VA7's and VA3's are only NAMM show specials. Also, Roland introduced from the pro division the EM55 which we all expected. At a list of $995.00 and a MAP (minimum advertised price) of $895.00 I'm not sure how this will stack up. It looks much like the EM25 but with more features. There is 64 voice polyphony, a DBEAM controller,3,559 tones and 116 drum kits. There is a 100 popular song music asistant data base, DJ Pads (8) for triggering sounds or pre recorded phrases, a 16 track sequencer and a floppy drive. Maybe, as I write this I think this might be pretty good for the money after all.
The big news is from Generalmusic. Chris Anthony debut the new Genesis keyboard. First let me tell you that those of you wanting something light in weight will not like this at all. It weighs about 5 or 6 lbs more than the PSR9000. BUT.......what you get for this weight is almost 100 watts of the best built in speaker system I've every heard. What they've done is build a relatively narrow 61 key keyboard and put the speakers pointing right at the player up across the back and top of the keyboard. You feel like you've got studio monitors pointing at you. There are also vents and ports on the back to direct sound to you're audience, including a large bass port right in the middle of the back. The keyboard in the current crop of silver color. I am going to report everything off the top of my head because Chris is emailing me the spec sheet later tonight but I really wanted to let you know as much as I can remember about this keyboard.
There is 64 voice polyphony, the same 32 track 250,000 note sequencer from the WK series. You can program I believe 64 user styles, there is a dedicated section on the front panel with two sliders for the vocal harmonizer. The volume of the mic and the volume of the harmony. The Harmony board itself is the same as the WK8se but now there are three dedicated effects processors. Reverb, Echo and Compressor. Chris Anthony really impressed upon me how easy this keyboard is to work and I agree with him. For those of you thinking Generalmusic keyboards have had a high learning curve, I think you will be surprised.
The sounds are amazing. Chris has done a job like none I've ever experienced. The "live" sounds have captured every detail of live instruments including the way Trumpet players lip and the way a violinist slides up the neck. You will have to hear this to believe me. The styles are better than anything Chris has done. He played me about 40 styles from Big Band to Rock and they were all as live and real as any CD I've heard. The keyboard even has effects that are only to do things like stums for guitars, etc. He played a Trumpet with natural shake when you applied aftertouch and the best Tenor Sax I've ever heard. Chris is a sax player and he sampled himself! If at this point you think I'm excited you're right. If it also sounds like I've got stock in this company, I assure you I don't. I've just heard something so good, I'm excited. Now to let you know about all the new features.
Everything in this keyboard is in Flash Ram. There is nothing permanent. You have 64MB of sample ram. The factory has given you 48 MB of sounds which will come stock, leaving you 16 MB for your own samples or loading in Samples. Oh, by the way, there is a CD recordable drive. You can load samples from Akai, Wav, AIFF formats. You can even completely erase all the sounds stock from the factory and replace them with anything you want. And, if you want the factory stuff back, you can restore them with the supplied CD Rom that is included in the box. You can replace all the styles if you want.
You can record a midi file song, or load one you already have, plug in a mic or Guitar, record directly to the 3.5GB drive and then push the button called "MAKE CD" and you've just created an audio CD of your entire performance. You can even play MP3's and load them into the Hard Drive, then remove the vocal part, add your own and burn a CD. You can also record a midi file, create an audio file so you can free up the polyphony of the keyboard to play more and record more. I wish I can remember all the features, but this is just what my brain is remembering right now. I've seen so much today.
There are dedicated buttons for lyrics and notation to make things easy.
My concerns for this keyboard are not many but they are the weight, the light touch synth action (like the Korg PA80), however, this was still a prototype and Mr. Galantti from the company in Italy told me he would be looking into an action possibly more like the Ketron products and last would be the price. However, I don't think it's too much for all you get. Some of you might have liked to have seen 128 note polyphony but it just won't happen! The retail price is open but I would suggest a price of around $3995.00. Again, remember how much stuff is on this board.
There are the same volume sliders as the WK series except there is now a dedicated volume control for the entire style besides an overall volume control and you still have individual ones for Drums, Bass, Accomp, Lower, Upper tones.
The product is supposed to be ready by April.
Oh, there are 4 outputs and SCSI built in.
I'm sure I've missed a ton of things but this is just a start.
I saw many friends at the show today. There is much more to see Saturday and Sunday. I have to work at the store tomorrow.
If I mispelled alot of words, please excuse me, I don't have time to reread this tonight.
Regards,
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California


[This message has been edited by George Kaye (edited 01-17-2002).]