There's a lot of truth to this. Manufacturers need to lead their customers. The danger is getting too far out front and leaving them baffled. This was always a challenge in product planning.
Some people reacted to audio styles like they were the spawn of the devil. Could be they were ahead of their time? Might seem them again someday. Yamaha has a bunch of patents for Ketron-like styles...
All the best -- pj
The biggest flaws with that (other than limited tempo ranges, which also affects the Ketrons, but nobody seems to be complaining there) were
-not easy to edit (true); could be alleviated by including the closest fit midi style drums so people have the option. They've already converted a best fit midi style for some of them, like Nature Hip Hop, 80's Rock Anthem.
-Can't record while playing with an audio style
-true with midi (since there isn't drum midi data), but could be alleviated by allowing access of the .aus file and synch playback after recording
-true with PSR's via audio, since they only have 2 channels of audio. *but* all they'd have to do is upgrade the PSR's to 4 channel audio (like the Genos/Tyros) so that they can play back the audio style wav drums, while simultaneously recording audio through the remaining tracks)
But boy, some of the best sounding styles were Audio styles. 80'sRockAnthem, Industrial Chill, Tango Flamenco...
Mark