Chony and others, I completely agree. I have a Tyros myself and the thing with it is that while it does have some great sounds, it also contains a few key element sounds like drums and bass that due to the pseudo stereo phase characteristics create a kind of boxy keyboard like low end that is very hard to get right on a record when you try to immitate the real thing because it sounds kind of flat and bulky. You need to be extremely selective in order to not choose the "wrong" sound and get that boxy kind of sound. This is especially the case with the kick drum and piano sounds in it that sound very "cheesy", partly because of the phase/cancellation. From what I heard on the Tyros 2 demo samples it goes in the right direction, especially with that Power Kit sound, but I could hear quite much cheesyness left, unfortunately...! I think the worst sound in the Yamaha Tyros (1) is the acoustic piano. To me it just doesn't sound close to the real thing, it has a completely different touch and vibe that feels very artificial.

Another thing with the Tyros is the noise in the outputs. While it is not noisy it could be more quiet. For instance my Roland A-90Ex digital piano is more quiet than the Yamaha Tyros and when you start adding tracks and limit you can clearly tell the difference in clearity. With the Yamaha Tyros the mic input is also much too noisy to be used on a professional record. It also has a noise gate that cannot be turned off which ruins the mic input that else can be used with an electric guitar with great results. I hope the Tyros 2 is equipped with digital outputs and a much less noisy mic pre-amp, because having all these great sounds and features and not be able to transfer them cleanly onto a recording is devastating...

Another thing that I think is annoying with the Yamaha Tyros is the way the sounds were sampled. It has not many stereo samples, so for instance without stereo drums you really have a hard time getting a full and wide sound on a record. I hope the Tyros 2 has more stereo samples.

I don't think there will be many keyboards able to compete with the sounds of the Tyros 2 yet, some of the sounds are simply the best immitations by a keyboard. From listening on those demo samples I think mainly the saxophone and the guitar sounds will make it the most advanced keyboard in the world, though still pretty far from the real thing. The goal with a keyboard is to immitate a complete band as good as possible. For reaching this goal key element sounds become extremely important. Obviously much attention is on the drum sounds, since the drums form the base foundation of a good groove, something that is the second most important element of a song (after the vocals/lead element) When listening to that Power Kit sound of the new Yamaha Tyros 2 you notice a huge difference in sound quality from the old Tyros. The Tyros has a very compact, dead and cheesy drum sound that I think will make professionals turn away from it. But the drum sounds of the Tyros 2 have more life and will certainly make the Tyros 2 a far better sounding keyboard than the Tyros, overall, this kind of an improvement in the drum sound section is simply making the keyboard step up a level.

When it comes to the demo samples I am not very impressed but not very dissapointed either. It seems like I'm more dissapointed with the demo sample choices than with the sounds. I would like to hear the acoustic piano of the new Yamaha Tyros 2 more. In my taste that is the the third most important element in a keyboard driven sound. If it is as cheesy and harsh as in the Tyros 1 it is simply not good enough for me because several cheesy sounding elements on a mix simply destroy the whole mix. With the Yamaha Tyros 1 you could add drums, piano and bass and already have a too cheesy low end. If two elements form a cheap low end I think I'm not ready to spend what Yamaha asks for this professional keyboard.

When you listen to the demo samples of the Tyros 2, don't be fooled by the marketing hype. If you listen carefully you will notice that many of those samples still sound very keyboard like and this means that you need to be very selective with sounds even with the new Yamaha Tyros 2. To me this is a little surprise since I thought all those sample layers would create the realism needed in order to create a softer and more realistic vibe. The sound quality has been improved, that's very obvious when listening to the sax, guitar and drum sounds, is it suitable for being used in a professional studio? I'm not sure... I have a feeling that it's mainly those upper freq range sounds you want to use in it, like for instance strings, woodwinds, brasses and flutes, the guitar sound is still to cheesy to use on a record, the acoustic piano (from the little I heard) also seems as cheesy as in the Tyros 1 and so on. I was pretty impressed with the orchestral demo sample, to me it was the least cheesy sounding of them all.

I can only admit that even though many sounds in it don't impress me I'm very interested in this keyboard and I'm glad that Yamaha will launch this keyboard. For me I think it is mainly up to the features of it whether I am going to buy it or not because I know it is not the perfect sound source for using in a recording studio. In that regard it is just like any other keyboard on the market, it sounds very much like a keyboard and that is sometimes good in a recording studio, but mostly not. I prefer clean sounding synth like samples, for instance the low end of a good Roland synth. Right now I think I would like to choose Roland for low frequency sounds (Piano, Bass, Organ), Kurzweil for low-mid frequency sounds (Pads) and Yamaha for high frequency sounds (Orchestral). I would record drums and guitar as real instruments.