I remember the shootout, and I’ve already referred to the ‘solutions’ that were forced on it.

Extensions (add9, 6ths, 6/9’s, min(maj7)’s etc) are dealt with by adding those extra notes to the basic maj/min recording. You now have a guitar voicing that no guitarist can play, and a MIDI note mixed in with the audio recording. A 7 or 8 string guitar. Not very realistic!

Chords that aren’t recorded that cannot be derived from the audio loops are wholesale replaced by the MIDI guitar loop - diminished, augmented, half diminished, open fifths, sus4’s etc.. As pointed out earlier, either there’s a massive difference between the audio loop and the MIDI pattern, or there’s no advantage to the audio loop in the first place.

But the thing you are forgetting, Tonewheel, is that the Audya shootout was done probably ten years ago. The state of the art of MIDI guitar modes has advanced enormously since then, but no solution to wider chord choices for loops other than simply recording them in the first place exists now any more than when the Audya launched.

What IS disappointing is, as admitted by AJ at the start of the thread, the Event is actually capable of streaming a vast selection of chords in response to your input, far better than the Audya can. Technically, it is capable of addressing my criticisms. But for obvious cost reasons, Ketron simply have chosen to not bother including a FULL selection of chords for all styles. Which leaves them (and us) in the same situation we were in with the Audya.

Adding extra chords to existing styles will be close to impossible (not easy to find a guitarist that can match the style, guitar, tone and effects of the original and play indistinguishable from the other loops). And creating brand new styles will involve either the expense of studio time and session fees of a highly skilled guitarist, or considerable time and skill creating loops from a VSTi guitar program.

That the Event COULD have a full selection of chords but Ketron chose not to record them is, to be quite honest, far more disappointing than the Audya’s inability to stream them fast enough, so the workarounds were necessary and unavoidable. It kind of begs the question… why spend all that money allowing the Event to be capable of full audio chord selection, and then skimp at the end and not bother?

To my mind, it points to the obvious high cost of doing it. Or extreme laziness. I would hope it’s the former.

Yamaha and especially Korg’s current gen guitar modes are light years ahead of where they were at the Audya’s launch, and the state of VSTi guitar plug ins is way further on than that. Time waits for no man, especially in tech, and dragging out a ten year+ Old comparison to justify a contemporary problem is like arguing Nokia vs. Blackberry!

I have listened to every demo Ketron have done with the Event, and the problems are already more than obvious. You hear a LOT of passing chords and jazzy chords, but they are all in the pre-recorded intros and endings (so not responding to your input at all) and the few times they try it while the style briefly plays, you can hear the lack of chords.

Maybe it’s easy to fool people that don’t play guitar, and wouldn’t recognize a wrong chord or incorrect voicing, people that assume that what they are hearing is the style being played and not the pre-recorded sections, or maybe people that just want to believe the hype.

It doesn’t fool me. It doesn’t fool a lot of people (or Ketron would be the market leader).

If I were Ketron, and wanted to show that the issues from the Audya had been solved, that’s the FIRST thing I’d demo. I’d show a stripped down bass drum and guitar style, responding well to live chord input from a skilled player doing all the chord types that caused the issues in the Audya. But what we have is pre-recorded intros and endings and very little else of any serious challenge.

I truly wish things had improved. I was not impressed by the Audya’s handling of chords when it came out, but to learn that TECHNICALLY the Event could have a full chord selection but Ketron just couldn’t be bothered to record the loops is even worse.

I would be happy to listen to a comparison between the Event and a PA5x on soloed guitar parts playing extended chords. But I am not sure the Ketron apologists would. Seems like they’d prefer comparison to a 10 year old arranger. That would have been the PA3x and the Tyros4. Dinosaurs!

And don’t get me started about VSTi’s (too late!).

I’m sorry, but am I the ONLY one here hearing the issues with the Event’s demos? Should I really be the boy pointing out the Emperor’s clothes, or lack thereof? 😂

This is the 2020’s. We are in the age of modeled horns and strings that can fool professionals. We are in the age of guitar mode VSTi’s that can fool guitarists. And hoary old technologies are being touted to us as the latest thing because they think we are a bunch of easily fooled amateurs.

Perhaps we are…