In another thread Ian (who has worked for Yamaha) outlined very precisely the Tyros potential buyers: people in their 60's or over, who have a rather comfortable income and who, in their younger years, had an interest in music but had to sacrifice it to the 9-17 routine, in order to make a living, rise a family, etc.
Well, now they have finally risen their families, don't have to work anymore, are relatively free from the everyday worries, and can go back to their first love, neglected for so much time: music.
Of course in all the years spent working they were unable to keep up their chops, but here is the trick: Yamaha gives them a plug and play instrument, that sounds great right out of the box. Just select one of the intros and one of the OTS and you will sound like a CD and all your friends and relatives will listen with an open mouth, even if you play in one finger mode.
Who needs multipads that can loop, a voice creator or deep editing facilities? All they want is to sound like the musical heroes of their youth, and Yamaha here delivers big time! Ever wondered why even in the newest Tyros 5 demos there are so many voices and styles that emulate the sounds of groups like the Shadows? And why so many people use an arranger to play songs like Apache, that were originaly written for an electric guitar? Because they grew up listening to Hank Marvin, and now can finally sound like him, that's why.
If you want to understand the psychology of the Yamaha people you have to go to sites like the PSR Tutorial Forum and see what kind of reasons they come up with to justify the upgrade to the Tyros 5. One of the most common is, more or less: you can't take your money with you when you are dead, so, as long as we are here, let's enjoy life and get us a new toy, if we can afford it. After all, we deserve it, don't we?
Kudos to Yamaha for having targeted precisely this kind of audience and potential buyers.
100% CORRECT. However, if I'd said that, I'd be promptly accused of "looking down" on arranger players........I don't, I just accept them for who they are, the population you have described above. Except for a handful of OMB's that label themselves as 'Pro's' (getting paid to entertain 'old folks' might make you a 'pro' but not necessarily 'pro quality', especially in the eyes of the REAL 'Pro' community of well-trained, talented, musicians). From what I've heard during my 10+ years here, there are maybe 3-4 pro-level musicians here, the rest (working 'pro's) are able to make a living mostly through sheer force of personality, modest vocal skills, and very good business sense. Kudos to them, I say. Especially if they're having fun doing it. You don't need a $5000 KB to do this, however, and despite the justifications they put forth for buying a TYROS5, the REAL reason is probably just because THEY WANT ONE. 'nuff said'.
chas
Forgive the run-on sentences, I wasn't in a 'paragraph' mood today.