Disk streaming was first introduced in the late 90s with the advent of the Giga sampler software, and it solved the problem of having to load large samples into memory.

How did it work: let’s look at the storage systems?

RAM: Allows virtually instant access to samples but is expensive, therefore it was not practical to have enough Ram to have all the large sample instruments you needed.

HDD: Has massive storage and can easily store massive samples; however access is slow therefore totally impractical for playing live. (Latency is an understatement)

GIGA Technology:

Loads part of the large samples into Ram, and marks where the rest of the samples are on the HDD, then when you press the keys, the part in Ram plays first giving time for the rest of the sample to load into Ram from the HDD. (As this is happening constantly it is called streaming)

The technique has been refined by many manufactures since the original GIGA Sampler, and really is a great and cheap way to get high quality sounds.

NOTE: The streaming technology used in Audya is roughly equivalent to the streaming technology that was available about 10 years ago, so contrary to what Ketron say it is not anything special or ground breaking. (Any of the current hardware arrangers could do what the Audya does, and if the demand was there it would be added, and I suspect the S950 is just testing the water to see if it’s viable)

Also if Korg added the PA3x Arranger section to their Kronos, (Which is essentially a Pre-set VSTi Player (And what the Lionstracs Media station could have been) with a user friendly interface) Audya would become obsolete overnight, so keep your fingers crossed that it doesn’t catch on.

Bill