I think, though, Dan, that the issue lies with how fast the audio and streaming engine is at switching between different streams in realtime. At the moment, it seems that Ketron have problems with more than two (or three tops) plus the drum track. Start to add in three or so more, to cover dim, aug and sus4 (chord types that currently HAVE to be MIDI'd in their entirety) and you multiply the amount of data that must all be streaming simultaneously to be able to be switched instantly (in response to chord changes) by at least a factor of two.

There's no point in a HD full of loops if the engine can't play them on demand...

This isn't a chord RECOGNITION issue. The arranger has no problem in MIDI of recognizing and playing the chords. And, I think, just like Y, K & R, it has provisions for triggering different MIDI patterns depending on chord type. I know Roland do maj, min and 7th, I think Korg adds in dim, not sure about Yamaha. If it can recognize these different chord types and switch to a different MIDI stream (in effect) it ought to be able to switch to a different audio stream as well. It's just that I don't think the engine can do this fast enough for them to be successful at more than two or three simultaneous audio streams.

Many computer based softwares that try to do this trick pre-buffer at least the START of every sample in RAM, so that it can be played instantly and then hopefully the streamed HD track has time to come in and cross fade to the buffered. But this may prove a LOT harder to do in a realtime instrument.

But, be that as it may, there is STILL the question of, if it even WERE possible to stream five or six simultaneous streams to cover the basic chord types (and a drum track), would Ketron (or any manufacturer) have the resources to make the loops at an affordable price point? Some of the better guitar looping VSTi's have nowhere NEAR the variety of styles that an arranger player needs, and yet can be quite expensive. Multiply that by the vastly greater range needed for a worldwide customer base, and you begin to see the problem.

But still, don't take me completely wrong, everyone...

The Audya is STILL an exceptional arranger. It's full arranger demos are spectacular in their liveness (and wonderfully played!) and the audio loops, for all their flaws, still help push this to a new degree of realism... once you realize their limitations. Basically, I think for anyone that is 100% satisfied with the styles that it comes with, it's going to be a great choice.

But if you are a player that uses any significant proportion of either 3rd party or conversion styles, or self created or edited styles, you are going to have a more uphill battle...

This topic would have NEVER gotten so out of whack were it not for the hype, then silence (once it was out) by Ketron employees themselves. If a caveat about it's abilities had been talked about, but audio examples posted to show that it isn't the hurdle we might think it is, none of this would have taken the tone it has. Just as arrangers have become amazingly more sophisticated in the last few years, so have their users. It is at your peril that you treat us ALL like a bunch of retired one finger 'home' players and try to obscure technical issues that are germane to the kind of player that WOULD use something this advanced...

JMO...

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 02-04-2009).]