analogika wrote:The pianos and organs take literally seconds to set up (shift + parameter knob twist on the old machine, set parameter to same value on new machine)
Even seconds add up, if you have a couple of hundred programs. And even just a piano/organ Program can consist of a substantial number of settings, when you factor in splits/layers, effects, morphs. Also, this requires that you still have possession of your NS2, and didn't sell it or trade it in to fund the purchase of your NS3.
analogika wrote:the synth is so vastly different that there is no point whatsoever in trying to automate the transfer.
The NS3 synth is far more capable, but most NS2 synth parameters have equivalents, even if they might sound with a slightly different character. In many ways, the NS3 synth is a kind of superset of the NS2 synth. (The NS3 LFO button allows you to select more waveforms than you could on the NS2, but every NS2 waveform is still there for example.) Almost every knob and button in the NS2 synth section has an exact equivalent on the NS3. Some corresponding settings could be tricker than they appear, but many are straight-forward. A waveform or a rate or a cutoff frequency (at a given filter slope) is what it is. There are some things that might not come over as well (filter resonance might behave differently, for example), but most settings should have rough equivalents. That doesn't mean that the settings for the equivalent control necessarily relate to the same number... it is possible that on some parameter, a setting of 5 on the NS2 is more like a setting of 6 on the NS3 or whatever, but that's the kind of thing a conversion utility could address, as most of these should be constants.
BTW, in looking at the manuals, unless I missed something, it seems that there are two things the NS2 could morph that the NS3 can't... the rate for Effect 2, and an Ext parameter. So those are two other settings that would not come over in a conversion.