Where to start... well, for one thing, I have a K2500 fully expanded, and a Triton (and several older things like DX7, Ensoniq, XPander, etc.) so I don't think ANYONE (except Ian, who is only doing it because it's COLD up there, too cold for any other sport! ) could call me a Roland 'fanboy'.

I have NO affiliation with any company (unlike Ian), and use whatever my ears hear is the best (if I can afford it). My admiration for the V-Piano, or ARX-03 brass board would be equally great if they came from Yamaha (unlike Ian).

Several people are still not QUITE getting the strength of the ARX board. For one thing, unlike SRX boards, it is an entire synth on a board. In other words, it has it's own polyphony, effects an OS. This means, unlike just adding SAMPLES to an existing board, they can also add capabilities not in the parent board's OS.

And this is where the main difference lies between SA and this thing. SA concentrates on SOLO sounds. Most of them are monophonic. You CAN'T PLAY CHORDS... And for those few sounds you can play chords in SA, it doesn't revoice them. Merely fudges with the attack samples. The ARX board does some revoicing tricks that SA has nothing like, all designed to make playing a SECTION in realtime possible. No matter your corporate allegiance, you might at least acknowledge that this technology is unique...

As to the issue of sounds... abacus, I'm afraid, coming from the perspective of someone with a Kurzweil, that even my G70 has some brass and woodwind stuff that beats the K. And the K has some stuff that beats the G70. It's more of a push than your description of overwhelming superiority. But again, that's only the opinion of someone that actually OWNS both pieces!

And the M3 demo? From listening to this, I still get the impression that Korg haven't yet fully developed the sound library to utilize the DNC capabilities they only just came out with. Even the expansion library is mostly ported over from the Oasys, which didn't have DNC either. There is a weird disconnection between some of the samples, where bends and scoops sound amazing, but don't always seem to be part of the same performance as the normal notes.

Yamaha have approached this differently, by releasing very few (comparatively) SA and SA2 sounds, but developing entire sample sets for them first, that are very consistent between the different types of nuances and inflections. It's less open (you can't edit them) and so far, no expansion library at all (we still haven't been told whether Yamaha intend to sell extra SA2 voice packs for the T3, or even if is CAPABLE of addressing the SA engine from the sample section), which, unless it is copy protected, I can't see how Yamaha could possibly profit from this VERY expensive sampling and programming project with piracy of styles and samples as rampant as it is... Time will tell, I guess.

Oh, and Mike... no there isn't ANY modeling going on here. Nothing to do with V-Piano at all. It is all still just samples. But, just like SA, it is HOW those samples are triggered that makes all the difference. But at least our palette has been improved. I think I still give the nod to Yamaha's SA2 sounds for solo realism, as scant as they are (watch out, Yamaha, Korg's system is open and up and coming, quickly!), but for section stuff in realtime (as opposed to using GIGA or a sampler and doing it part by part), as a brass player, big band enthusiast, and regular small section player, I have to say, I've never heard anything do THAT trick before...

Kudos... (tuning forks or not... )

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 02-10-2009).]