New Tyros

[rharv]

I'll just leave this here..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzrXHlvvr5M&feature=related

[kara]

Yep I know 

My thoughts.... as an owner of the Tyros 3

It looks to me as Yamaha has a cycle of upgrades, where every second upgrade is important and the other one is just a marketing trick...

The upgrade from Tyros 2 to Tyros 3, was way to expensive for the few upgrades in the new model but very interesting for Tyros 1 owners
Now the upgrade from Tyros 3 to Tyros 4 isn't worth the money, but interesting for Tyros 2 owners.

I played the Tyros 4 in a shop, and there is very little new for Tyros 3 owners.


Having said that, Tyros stays top category in the world of arrangers.
It has almost none competition in that market segment

But you need to have the money to afford it

k

[elwoodblues1969]

Never had a use for arrangers myself,especially since all of that additional accompaniment is so damn expensive.I mean...what can a Tyros do,that cannot be accomplished with a Motif?

It seems to me that a Motif-in contrast to the Tyros, would merely require extra work,in that one would have to arrange customized sequences,whereas the Tyros is just plug & play....sort of like a portable Band-In-A-Box,I guess.

I'm not putting Yamaha down,as I'm impressed with the Motif series,but I just don't quite understand the enormous expense of arrangers & the enormous appeal,that causes one to fork over that kind of cash.

For a guitarist who does not want to be bothered learning keyboards-or learn beyond the basics,then I could see the use of an arranger,for instant accompaniment in the studio....or a one man performance in a coffee-house.

A lot of Motif XS users complain about the only subtle differences in the upgrades between the XS & the XF & their grievances are valid for the most part.

For someone like myself,who has never owned a Yamaha...a XF would be wonderful to have,but I'm just not ready to contend with the enormous expense of those damn flash RAM boards!

Yamaha has always been a bit pricey & it seems that their upgrades from one series to another,has always been a marginal one.

I sometimes wonder about Yamaha's actual amount in their ROM...I mean them,Korg & Roland,all do the same thing...as they all advertise uncompressed ROM,whereas Kurzweil numbers are shown as compressed ROM.

From what I've read,Kurzweil has the best compression methods in the business,which would explain why Kurzweil keyboards have so many usable presets(as so many users have stated).


-Thom

[kara]

Never had a use for arrangers myself,especially since all of that additional accompaniment is so damn expensive.I mean...what can a Tyros do,that cannot be accomplished with a Motif?

I could give a couple examples, but that's beside the point

For a guitarist who does not want to be bothered learning keyboards-or learn beyond the basics,then I could see the use of an arranger,for instant accompaniment in the studio....or a one man performance in a coffee-house.

Or for the people that make a living by letting a 100+ audience dance from 9pm until 3am, on weddings, anniversaries, parties,....
Because the audience can't afford to pay a full band, but when you perform as a duo they want to you to sound as a full band !

k

[elwoodblues1969]

Kara,

One of the points I was trying to make,is that if someone is on a budget and for instance,if you do the duo thing,then becoming proficient in sequencing is the way to go.
For example,if you have a song set list for a wedding,you could use a Motif XF6 to program all of the backing tracks for every song on the list on a 61 keyboard with the same sound quality,but do it for about $2,000 less than a Tyros.

Besides which,I have read complaints about the Tyros not being as fully functional with certain computer applications,because the Tyros is more of a stand alone keyboard,then a workstation keyboard.

I'm not saying that the Tyros isn't a great keyboard,but with the Motif XF's sequencing,level of computer integration,auto accompaniments and superb sound quality,I think the Motif makes a lot more sense in terms of what you get for the money,is all.

I just don't think paying almost $5,000 for a 61 key is reasonable.


-Thom

[kara]

I take your point Thom, but it comes from someone who never played gigs like that, and I do
Here are a couple of extra arguments :

- Sequencing backing tracks ? No way, you just can't play live on such parties with sequenced backing tracks; What would you do then when people love dancing on a certain song and they want an extra chorus or verse or both ? As a live musician you are very interactive with your public on dancing parties like that.
- We have a live set of over more then 8 hours music, imagine that you have to program all of that, and rehearsing and playing live an doing the sales part of the job, and... and...
- Beside our live sets, we have the gig books of around 700 popular french songs. Why, because reguraly some one comes to you and say 'Can you play this song for me' ? With an arranger keyboard, all you need is the cord sheet and the melody. You just choose a style for the song and play it !

I know the Motif is a great keyboard, a friend of mine (member here MarcJX8P) has one and I played it.
But the Motif isn't the right tool for a job like this.

And that's the main selling point of arrangers, not only Tyros, but allso Korg and others

It just another world.

k
 

[elwoodblues1969]

Ok....you bring up some very valid points...I get the picture completely.I suppose that with massive gigs such as that,one can afford a Tyros easily!


-Thom