Oh, and another thing. As Ian and others have pointed out many times, if it has auto-accompaniment and you can play it with one finger, then it's mission is clear; to make you sound a lot better than you really are. That sweet music that your audience hears is not really you playing, it's you triggering. If you tell yourself that you're using SMF's or MP3's so you can "free up your hands to play in full piano mode" then you're wasting an awful lot of money. Why lug around a 40lb keyboard to play mp3's when you could do the same with a 2 oz. mp3 player.

I know that some members have difficulty accepting the fact that an arranger, when used in it's primary role, may not be what is usually thought of as a "pure" musical instrument, in that it is similar to pieceing together a bunch of loops to form a song. None of the loops were performed by you, but by musicians of (usually) greater skill. True, there is some artistry in putting them together in a musically pleasing way, but ultimately, how good it is depends a lot on how good the original loops are.

Organs were originally developed to (cheaply) simulate an orchestra (ha), but you STILL had to PLAY the darn things. Perhaps someday arrangers will reach a level of complexity and difficulty that those who are able to master them will indeed share the same status level as organist'.

BTW, this argument will never reach a conclusion.

chas