Steve,

I'm actually quite surprised Yamaha has not developed a Drum Voice Pack for the Tyros 4? I would love to see some more Motif drum voices in the Tyros 4.

Styles:
Contemporary Jazz - Think Rippingtons, Pat Metheny, Fourplay
Country - more two step, Cajun, Contemporary Country Rock
Contemporary Pop - keep up with the current hits / beats

MusicFinder:
Hits of the 2000's
Hits of the 90's
Hits of the 80's
Doo Wop
Oldies
Big Band Era
Current Hits

I have a really important recommendation. As a customer of styles at Yamahamusicsoft.com, I feel very strongly that Yamaha should offer at a reduced price upgraded versions of styles.

Let's say that I purchased for a T4 all of the Yamaha Premium styles at your website. Then you come out with a new keyboard, a T5 or something, and you start coming out with newer versions of these styles that take advantage of all of the new voices and dsps. Why should I have to pay $8.95 for each of these styles when I've already shelled out hundreds of dollars? It's not fair. I've been a great customer. Maybe I shouldn't get the upgraded style for free, but $8.95???

You have a record at your website of the customer's purchase history. All you would have to do is offer an option to upgrade for $1, $2, $3. But $8.95?????

Valid point Beaky, I agree. Where are the member or club privileges and Loyalty programs?

A low cost Yamaha micro arranger similar to the popular Korg MicroArranger

A new, perhaps a black, PSR-S9xx arranger lineup with more SA Voices

A chord sequencer on any new arranger would be nice.

Question for Yamaha.
Do you want to build TOTL for home players, or do you want to build an arranger for professional user who would want to do indepth editing????

You would probably want them to be one thing with one keyboard but that is not even close.
For pro players:
No speakers please.
I don't think we need audio loops, but only if you provide great drums(bfd2,superior drummer,addictive drums)
Same thing with bass and the other tracks
More control when we play live.Not every hall or restaurant/bar is the same.

More modern beats,otherwise you are killing arrangers from inside.

In depth synth engine(more than one)

Sliders or knobs,buttons that you can make it to your liking
better midi editing.
Some of these things are not new,every synth has them for 10-29 years.

I could go on and on with these things.

Perhaps the issue of pro editing vs. amateur OOTB friendliness could be addresses by having COMPUTER controlled in-depth editing, while the arranger itself stays fairly simple?

All that is needed is a file format that would allow the computer to read the styles, Performances, Voice data, Sampler data, etc., and then you could get into the nitty gritty without making the arranger itself over-complex.

I am pretty sure that most pro's that wanted all this degree of control would be willing to pony up a couple of hundred dollars or so for it, so there would be no need to raise the base price of the Tyros for features few would use.

And, let's face it... SOMEWHERE there must already be these kind of software tools floating around, because SOMEONE designs the voices, creates the Styles, edits the sounds, and does all the detail work YOU can't currently access. Converting it for public access would not be half the task of creating it from scratch.

I totally agree with this...the Motif has iPad Apps that let you do sound design off of the keyboard. I have PC tools for the Korg Kronos that also let you do sound design on the PC. Yamaha has Voice design for the Tyros 4 with a PC application as well. They just need to bulk it up a bit. Most arranger players would not get this deep into the sound engine, i'm afraid.

Content... Isn't it about time that American music got the love and attention that even schlager gets?!

Country... Zydeco... Second Line... Cajun... Grunge... Classic Rock... New Wave... Ska-punk... Tejano... Americana...

Genre after genre with little to no styles available, and then the arranger companies wonder why arranger sales fall flat in the US? Imagine how few sales in the EU would happen if schlager and sing-along stuff were equally scarce?

And don't even get me started on how even LESS attention is paid to MODERN US based styles. Sure, yes, you are going to need those loop and arp features incorporated to do them REALLY well, but even with today's arrangers, something that players under 30 might want is scarce!

However, I still believe that the primary reason for all this boils down to how easy the arranger manufacturers have made style piracy. I am convinced that, were it possible to actually get PAID for each and every style that gets used, 3rd party style creators would fill ANY stylistic gap the manufacturers leave. But who wants to go through the hassle and time it takes to create a GREAT style when you can make but a small percentage from it compared to how many players are actually PLAYING your style?

Few.... from what I can see.

Hi Diki

Good to see you back posting again.

The problem with style protection is that if you do it then everybody starts’ moaning that it impedes there freedom to do with styles (That they have paid for) what they want.

In addition they moan when manufactures and 3rd parties do not produce many new styles, so whatever the manufacture does will always be wrong, (There dammed if they do and dammed if they don’t) personally I think protection is the best way.

As to American styles, then there are no American style produces, and so all American styles are produced in Europe or Japan, whereas if you look at Europe and Japan they have their own style production houses, so there is no shortage in style development. The only way Americans are going to get the styles they want is to follow Europe & Japan and produce them in their own country.

The fact that Americans are not prepared to produce their own work is the main reason why little notice is taken of them during arranger development, (These are the first threads in years that may actually be noticed) so come on you lot over the pond, get out and start developing. (You do it for Workstations and DAWs so there is no excuse)

Bill

I think that pretty much all that,s required has been covered, for me importantly, as you can see from Ketron users, we want either a professional keyboard for live use, or better a module you ca use with any midi control keyboard. Don't need touch screens iPad's have this hands down. 76 keys, lightweight, no inbuilt speakers, vst inclusion for sounds, styles and editing, but most importantly, bring the arranger into the mainstream. I mean thousands of muso's use arrangers for their living, so let's get those synth guys looking at it and saying "hey this is great" instead of mmm, well you know.a Styles we need a box that gives us the option of what we want, instead of what we get. Make the option of preload or connect and download. A fab live feel, I think sometimes we forget that a great 3 piece can be fabulous, not overdoing styles gives it a better live feel, once again some kind of vst arranger would be great. Allow all sa2,s to be used in duplicated ways, instead of the limitations placed as they are. Sounds like streaming from the Kronos wstation gigs of beautifull samples in real time, could go on for miles, but lastly agree that a sdk for programmers for styles should protect them, thus allowing many more varied and better style making.