Hello,
I only made very obvious comments. I play two different Sylphyos on most days. The shortcomings of not having expected key functionality is always disappointing. The quality and immediacy of most the sounds has the opposite effect. My frustration is the comparison between what should be vs what is available. For example, the decision to remove the most usable Phi sound was removed (DudukPhi) during software updates was very disappointing, as was the decision to leave AltoSaxPhi and FlutePhi. It seemed that production decisions were being made that were either insensitive to modern musicality, or from a hard financial course that could not improve on the obvious shortcomings. Then I saw the Omega and realized that any keyboard player could immediately relate and connect with performing with one. This is what the Sylphyos are missing. It is the odd dog owner versus the main stream dog owner metaphor. If you choose to own an unpopular dog breed, yes the dog can love you, play fetch, hang out, etc. But you will miss out on all the specialty gear available for the Labs, Shepherds, Poodles, etc. Hats, T-shirts, Bumper Stickers, Buttons, etc. An instrument is more than the sounds it makes. The missing (pinky and Bis) keys on the Sylphyos force it to the niche end of wind synths. No, I have never proposed moving hardware keys (my Lyricon I and Aerophone Pro both have those), just distinct places to place fingers that any band member can relate to. In fact, I love the EWI-like silence of the Sylphyo key layout. It works particularly well at church and at night beside a sleeping baby (it needs more available LH keys (like Bis) and notes RH at the bottom end though, for example, not ending at at least low Bb is a truly surprising and restrictive choice). This is not new or unusual thinking. We aren't talking about practicing Sylphyo for the sake of improving Sylphyo performance, but rather pulling Sylphyo toward the center to increase the user base and bring it out of the niche market into the mainstream. The Omega design shows that someone at Aodyo gets that, or else it could have been released with a chicklet keyboard with great sounds and advertising would notify potential buyers, hey, just practice and hope for the best. Sorry if you intended to jam out on Spain or Donna Lee, but you need a real keyboard for that. Imagine if the Omega had only a single octave of keys available. This would be a non-starter. However, considering that keyboard players can simply Midi connect to an 88-key controller, their situation is less critical. Controlling a Sylphyo from another device is far more complicated due to the reliance on Sylphyo motion to alter the responses of patches. If I could reliably control a Sylphyo externally, with the same unique motion-sensitive responses I would.