Dave -

I hear what you are saying, but as somebody that just came off a frustrating year of owning a Ketron XD3 I would stress that it is EXTREMELY important to have a lot of support.

I never got the unit to recognize my accordion's bellow sensitivity, which was a HUGE problem. Every note played on the right hand of my accordion had the exact same velocity. I simply couldn't use expression! I sent out several emails and never got a satisfactory response.

The polyphony was terrible and made using some styles with harmony unusable. I couldn't remember which styles worked with which version of harmony (jazz, full, etc.) without dropping out so I just quit using this valuable feature.

I bought a Yamaha AW16G and used the AW16G support group to get every single question answered on the spot. It was GREAT! Motifator is amazing, and there are PSRTutorial and SVPWorld among many other Yamaha support sites.

Nothing I can find for GEM and Ketron support. I mean sure, there are some VERY dormant (1 post a month) sites out there but that is no help to me. I even joined the Yahoo Solton/Ketron support group and it was very disappointing.

Why would I want to buy a keyboard that I have to search long and hard to just find a simple demo of it, and to see one in person is almost impossible? I can check out a Tyros and Motif ES at several stores within 5 miles of my house.

I don't care what else a company makes. Truth be told, the Yamaha R1 and R6 are unbelievable sport motorcycles. As a motorcycle enthusiast, these bikes are fast, reliable, and comfortable. My AW16G DAW from Yamaha is great. So what do I care if they want to make pianos, motorcycles, arrangers, etc? They are just a really big company with several divisions that do very different things. I am sure that their Keyboard division dwarfs both GEM and Ketron combined, so the fact they do many things just means there is more company behind them.

I've tried the Ketron route and was unhappy. GEM sounds like the same thing all over again. Love my AW16G and the support I get from it. I'll go the Tyros route and see if I'm pleased.

Just wish those saxes were a lot better. (I knew somehow I'd come back to the original topic!)

Tommy