Quote:
Originally posted by leeboy:
I went...and it was a lot of fun. Two other members were there, Tom C.(Michigan) and one other(can't remember his ID but Tom will. (Others may have showed up while I was at lunch, so if I missed someone...sorry) We have some photos and they will come later.

It was very interesting...Audya (AJ), Jay Fox playing SD-3 with a accordion and Ron Crites playing a SD-3 with a MIDI guitar. Ron plays ctuise ships. All the audio was played thru a PRO sound system and it kicked serious butt! (Yorkville). No, 8" $250 speakers would not have been the same!

Everyone did a great job and lots of music came forth! What great talent! These guys can PLAY! Big Time! My wife came over for a while and also enjoyed it, especially the accordian part as she used to play one.

Audya sounds excellant! It was a pretty full day of demo playing and presentation (Audya, Accordian, Guitar). Several folks tried out the Accordian with SD-3 and after all the excitement throttled down I spent an hour one / one with AJ on Audya. Jay was tearing down (6:30PM)...darn it...I would have liked a couple more hours with the keyboard.

I liked it a lot. Spent a lot of time on solo voices which were excellant. And lots of features were checked out. Listened to some styles, but would like to hear many more.

Also had AJ show me this issue (I asked) about complex chords using audio having some notes added by MIDI sounds...We muted everything but the Guitar (audio track) in our test style...while changing to chords that needed MIDI note(s) added was slightly noticable, if you listened carefully...not a very big deal to me.
While playing the full style I could not tell any real difference. YMMV.

AJ and I dinked around with many songs...I found the styles very good indeed and the solo voices very realistic. (Guitar could still use some work IMHO) but it sure wasn't bad either.

The Audya is truely multi-tasking OS...AJ was loading styles/and/or solo voices streaming from disk AS HE PLAYED a complete arrangement..Audya handled it perfectly.

As an example the new PRO level voices (forgot what he called them) loaded in just a couple seconds from HD. Ready to play.

Jay had a special price on Audya for anyone buying TODAY ONLY! $4,895. While I was there one was sold to a guy from Chicago. Bought and paid for. Delivery to be in a couple weeks (max). He was a current SD1+ owner. For me...the price is a negative.
If I used it for work...probably would be a lot less of a negative.

The Audya we had was pretty up to date but AJ said one level back. Also told me some of the things forthcomming soon. Style building/editing on the keyboard was one. Sound editing another. Full English manual also comming soon. More styles also.

The way I left it with Jay was when one came into stock (was told soon) to call me to come over and spend a full day with it on my own.I would need to spend a lot of time with it to decide if I would give up my PA2XPRO for it.

Not saying I won't...not saying I will.

My personal opinion is it is superb...anyone looking at it should spend a day with it to see how they like it overall. Probably Ketron fans...just buy it.

I was very impressed with AJ's presentation, he stated it is not a perfect keyboard, and no other one out there is either. I concur. He showed us a lot of the sounds / features.

I can tell you this...if I took Audya to a gig...(especially a dance gig) played all kinds of music..and 'if' I played well..I think the crowd would be impressed. It sounds terrific.

It really was a fun day for me....

Lee S.



Lee thanx for the report on the Audya....pretty much my thoughts when I saw it at the Shreveport, LA demo in January.....do you think the price is a big deterrent to many buyers or?....
Hope to hear more reviews as the Audya Demo Tour goes around the country....next George Kaye's store in CA.... then somewhere in Florida.



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 03-16-2009).]