I only brought up the township reference as an example of a world music you may be familiar with, not as anything I particularly use (although I'm a big fan of the style, from Ladysmith, Super Tens, all the way through to the stuff Paul Simon did in the style).
The dueling interwoven guitar lines are fascinating, in a way, a return to the Baroque style of two part inventions and the like. Hypnotic, inventive, irresistable!
I've got a couple of older Roland styles that sort of work, and can bring up that African duality between the two beat and the three beat that western music rarely uses, but nothing recently.
But the point that I've been trying to make is, yes, you can often find either factory or user styles in some fairly obscure styles, but if you bring them into the Audya to turn into audio styles, there isn't a lot of existing content in the Audya that matches it. So little chance of getting to the same high standard that the audio styles achieve.
I've got little issue with the Audya other than this, to be frank. It's a really, really good arranger, with a lot of innovative features that I only WISH other arrangers had... a different break/fill for each Variation is one of the big ones, the real arpeggiator is something ALL arrangers should have, to stand a chance of sounding reasonably modern, key triggered loops, whether audio or MIDI is something that Roland are only just starting to get into...
Don't ever get me wrong, Henni. I like the Audya in a big way!
But I feel that an arranger that uses audio loops is SO good, it obviously puts your MIDI only styles at a disadvantage, soundwise, and ONLY styles that suit existing loops can be converted.
For me to adopt this kind of arranger, I think the ONE thing I would need to see is a VERY user friendly way of computer editing existing loop libraries so that they could be incorporated into the Audya. There is a VAST number of ultra high quality loop libraries out there, in almost every conceivable style and ethnicity you could think of, easily available.
If an arranger lives or dies based on the playback of loops, having easy to use software to add your OWN choice of loops to the arranger is almost a #1 priority. Not just drum loops either, but the melodic ones. Guitar loop and bass loop (and most everything else) libraries are rapidly expanding, and being able to easily add these to the Audya is a must.
I have also noted that the Audya is finally available with a SSD... If this is tied to an increase in the width of the data pipe (speed up how fast the data can be 'streamed', not 'loaded'), this is great news for the potential to be able to have guitar loops that are ALL audio, not just audio for 3 simple chords, then MIDI grafted on (or completely replacing it) for more complex chords, also an initial issue I have with the Audya.
SSD's, as we have seen in the Kronos, really are the answer when it comes to rapid access to MUCH larger amounts of data, and if there's anything a loop based arranger needs, it is this!
But please don't misread my feelings for the Audya, Henni. It is a fine arranger, with superb styles. IF those are what you need! And the form factor and features are head and shoulders above most out there.
If there were more than a tiny handful of dealers over here in the US, I'm sure a lot more of us would have them.
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An arranger is just a tool. What matters is what you build with it..!