SteveB,

First of all, congratulations on your purchase of the KETRON AUDYA product - an instrument I believe will bring you years of fine music indeed.

Now to answer your questions ....

1) Noticed that certain styles only allow a certain range of tempo. In other words you cannot bring the tempo above, let's say, 160. Can that be overwritten?
>>>AJ:- No (unless you EDIT the style in PATTERN EDIT and remove the AUDIO DRUMS). The reason being that these styles use AUDIO DRUMS which can only be stretched by about 30% above and below the original recorded BMP before it looses quality in the Audio Drums. With the AJAMSONIC package option installed, we've provided (in the Remix styles group) the same style (for an example) but where the AUDIO drums were recorded at higher and lower BPM. This allows you to have (8Beat1a, 8Beat1b, 8Beat1c) where between all 3 styles you have a wider BMP range from 40 to say 240 as each one picks off where the other ends ... hope this makes sense?


2) When you want to choose a voice while playing live, as soon as you select the voice family, it automatically selects the first voice on the list or the last voice you used. Is there any way to force the keyboard not to select the new voice until you actually choose it like the Korg (The Tyros seems to work like the Ketron)? Sometimes I don't want the last voice I used in that category.
>>>AJ:- Yes. This default selection (Voice Select MODE = 2 above) is what most of our players prefer. You can however choose (MENU - KEYBOARD CONTROL - UTILITY - VOICE SELECT MODE =1) where the voice gets selected ONLY after you select (using F1-F10) the actual voice - great for when playing live and you are 'searching' for a voice and don't want your audience to 'hear you ' search.
These kinds of features, and functions are elaborately explained in our 3+hrs DVD tutorial available to all. We take you step by step showing you the why, when, where and explaining all features (as of 4.0b).

3) Does the Audya 5 have anything like "Pads" that you find on the Tyros and Korg PA's? The Pads really help when you want to add a little extra to style on the fly.
>>>AJ:- No. However with the AJAMSONIC package you have ARPS and PAD/SYNTH sounds which you can assign to the LOWER VOICE on the fly (in STYLE VIEW MODE) and use just as you have PADS in other manufacturers. The good thing about these are they follow your chords as you change while you play! You can change their octave, volume, effects, pan ... etc ... all on the fly. The factory Arps (STYLE VIEW - CHORD 4) can only be used with the ARRANGER/STYLE ENGINE.

We are working on organizing some workshops in the NJ/NY area and will keep you posted on dates and times.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,