Why would ADDING to a style collection ruin anything...?

Thing is, other than legacy US styles, few arrangers have anything that could remotely be called 'contemporary' US material. Alternative, hiphop, emo, modern R&B, zydeco, all of these styles are as poorly represented as the styles from Mozambique, or Sierra Leone or any of the countries Ketron are franticly trying to cover. However, I'd be willing to bet that there are WAY more people in the US capable of affording an Audya, if only it addressed THEIR needs. But I'm not talking oldies and bigband... I'm talking the same kind of stuff you can find in a MotifXS, or M3, or FantomG.

You know... keyboards that actually DO sell in large numbers

I'd be willing to bet that the zouk styles will sound very contemporary (by zouk standards). Why not try doing that to US styles as well. You will be amazed at how many more you sell, if you style them for the majority of people that buy keyboards, not the minority (which is what arranger users right now are)...

Without even TRYING to break into the sounds and styles in modern WS's, you basically condemn any modern arranger to a dwindling niche market, and basic irrelevance and obscurity.

I agree with Diki on this one...
Soon he is gonna invite me for a Drink...
which i might be down in FL soon.

Yep diki. You are defianately on the money here. If the styles dont progress to more contemporary sounds and styles the arranger market will continue to dwindle but the pricing is also an issue. Young people just starting out in life , maybe with a new young family, huge mortgage cannot justify dropping $5000+ for a keyboard when they can pay half as much for a motif or fantom. I have no idea what is going on with Ketron. Korg has just dropped the Oasys line after charging customers initially $8000 for it. I can tell you it has left a nasty taste in a lot of peoples mouths. With this recession biting deep over the next few years its fool hardy (in my view) entering the arranger market with a TOTL arranger costing the same as a family car.

Oasys dropped half price, here in NYC new goes for around 4500-5000$...76 Keys.

Arranger manufacturers are faced with the chicken and the egg scenario.
Which one comes first?

Do you make contemporary styles for a TOTL arranger first then hope the market buys it?
Or, do you make sure you have the market then make the contemporary styles for that market.

If manufacturers are showing that arranger sales are low, that younger persons don’t buy arrangers, then what would be the incentive for a manufacture to make an arranger with contemporary styles?

Where as the persons who buy arrangers are the ones who use and play traditional music. A manufacturer would want to “take care” of the market that has supported their product. Manufacturers are very reluctant to expand their market (Just look at Yamaha and the 76 key arranger market).

You know style making cost.

It will come down to which one a manufacturer believes comes first; the chicken or the egg.

To mention another thing in here, which is a big reason of why:
Us, people that actually devellop styles for companies, we charge a lot of money. Its not
easy to create one style, its expensive, try calculating 30 style by 450-500$ each.

Or........dismissing a KB without ever playing or seeing one

That's not quite a half price drop Nedim. Originally the Oasys 76 went for 8 Grand even. Half price would be 4 Grand even. It might be worth snatching one up though, at that price. But you have to consider there will be NO more support for the Oasys since it has been discontinued for almost a year now.

Here is the reason the Oasys went the way of the Dinosaurs. It was TOO EXPENSIVE, AND the open architecture aspect of it was incomplete and/or archaic in my opinion. Plus the HUGE consideration, that the Oasys didn't sell near well enough for Korg to continue to put R&D into it and thus they discontinued the Oasys line altogether. Believe me, if Korg would have sold "enough" of the Oasys's, even at that ridiculously high price tag of $8,500/88/$8,000/76, Korg would STILL be making the Oasys as we speak. In fact, an Oasys "II" would most likely have already been released by now. But people have MANY, MANY, MANY, "OTHER" keyboard options available to them, without necessarily having to empty their bank accounts or max their credit cards for the privilege of owning one. And the *bang for buck* for the Audya is a similar scenario in my opinion.

Why pay $5,000 *plus* for a 'crippled' Audya when you can turn around and buy a fully functional Korg Pa2XPRO and have an extra (plus or minus) $2,000 left over, to stick back in your pocket for a rainy day??

PLEASE!!, no flames guys and gals. These are only 'my' observations and opinion. I realize Ketron is busy with OS 2.0 which "should" shore up the Audya with much needed enhancements and other improvements as well too hopefully. If OS 2.0 turns out to be the bees knees of Audya Operating System updates, then it very well could definitely, and significantly, increase the WOW factor of the Audya - to where it might actually then be worth the "arm and leg" Ketron is charging for it.

Needless to say, we will have to wait a while for OS 2.0 to roll out the door (hopefully not 3 more years though right? ) - and see if that will indeed be the case or not. In other words, will the Audya actually (and finally) be worth its salt or not?

Again, my opinion(s).. so please bear with me and try to respect my own personal observations and/or opinion(s) about the sky high priced Audya, okay? >> Even though I realize some of you may be chomping at the bit to unleash your flaming arrows full of fire and brimstone and directed directly at you know who.

All the best,
Mike

First of all, styles like hip-hop, rap are forever changing and whatever any keyboard develops it will probably be outdated by the time the keyboard is released. Second I can't explain it but I don't see younger generation ever using arrangers for rap, hiphop, etc, regardless is the styles are good or not. Most of the younger generation here in the states only use arrangers if they come from ethnic backgrounds and they play ethnic music like Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Polish, etc. I haven't found any keyboard company that will put out any decent rap, etc styles so why should it be Ketron. There specialty has alway been styles from all ethnic groups back to the MS50 days and been going strong since.

"all of these styles are as poorly represented as the styles from Mozambique, or Sierra Leone or any of the countries Ketron are franticly trying to cover"

That's totally un-true, almost all the ethnic styles that ketron develops are on the mark. Their Latin is the best hands down of any keyboard. They released some African styles that can with XD9 as a user style that was great and no other keyboard company even thought of providing anything from the region of the world.




[This message has been edited by mc (edited 05-02-2009).]

In my 12 years in USA and knowing thousands of musicians i havent found yet a SINGLE
YOUNG AMERICAN using an arranger for music, this is a fact. And still the biggest market
is us foreigners. No matter from where. Thats why they care about those foreign styles.
Noone will play Rap or Trance on an arranger. And when i say young i mean young, on
the forum probably i am one of the youngest and i am still 33, i mean really young, someone
my age wont really play RAP on an arranger.

[This message has been edited by Nedim (edited 05-02-2009).]