Well, after seeing how this thread degenerated I'm surprised you even want to know. Even you said "screw them" to Yamaha. However, Thank-You for asking.

I mentioned I was female, and even that didn't stop this thread from becoming a 10 year old boy argument.

I had about One and half hours of very usefull explaination of the Tyros 4, which I videod. I put all relevent questions that the group had asked and some of my own. I did not ask about the 76 key controversy, as, basically it was not relevant as I was getting a very good demonstration of THIS keyboard, not one that may or may not be on the drawing board in the future. I also belong to a keyboard club which had the benefit of a full 2 hour demonstration by James Sargeant the same evening.

I was hoping for sensible questions as I spent 5 years living in Dallas, and realise that in the UK we are trully fortunate in the info we get from the demonstrations which are freely available. There are at least 4 venues within 50 miles that I could go to, to hear a full professional free demonstration. The one I went to is a 5 minite drive from where I live. The staff in the shop know about arranger keyboards, unlike places like Guitar Center etc. in USA. This is why I am truly disappointed in the degeneration of this thread. Some of you may have to travel hundreds of miles to get the arranger keyboard support that I am able to get locally.

I will revue my Videos of both the 1 to 1 and the full formal demo and hope to give you a full report soon. However, I can say, that I was so suitable impressed, to trade-in my Tyros 2 with hard drive and Dimms plus lots of cash, for a new Tyros 4, which I hope to get near the end of Oct.

In case the group think I am a Yamaha "fan". I own a Technics KN7000 (bought in a Piano specialist store in Dallas whose staff hadn't a clue what it was), a Korg Pa2x 76 keyboard (I find the operating system difficult but hope to master it one day) and a Tyros 2, which I play most days.

I had the same full demonstrations of the Tyros 3 but I was still happy with the Tyros 2, but the jump from the 2 to the 4 is a really huge improvement.

I thank the group for the intelligent questions that were posed at the beginning of the thread but unfortunately someone reading this thread from the beginning hoping to get to get my personal view of the "demo" may give up because of the trash in the middle.

In short, the Drums are much better, the Choirs and do wops, are amazing. The overall sound has improved ( lots more than T2, but for T3 owners not as much as a leap but still improved due to the drums and sa voices in the styles). I can't tell about the improvement between the Yamaha speakers as I have never owned them and use Logitech Z5500 system. James, who is not a singer, sang using the VH system. I tried the Tyros2 vocal system and gave up as I sounded awful. The shop is so confident on this facility that they are "throwing in" a boom mike stand and microphone. He used the VH facility where he spoke into the mike, whilst playing the chords and right hand melody, and it sounded like synthetic singing. Ok nothing like a real singer, but for people who can't sing it makes a change from only playing the melody. I believe Audia does the same thing, as I saw that at another demonstration. James also sang with harmony and it sounded quite good. For a non singer to sound good I guess means that someone who can truly sing should sound amazing.

As other people have said, if you can get a live demo go for it. Other than that the u tube videos give an impression but not the whole story. I still haven't played the Tyros4 myself and accept there will be a learning curve to use the new facilities.

To Be Continued ................

Carol