Oh dear. Just as I was about to make up my mind as to which arranger to buy.

I tried the Tyros and PSR3000 and frankly the sounds sounded washed out with reverb and just a little 'cheesy' to me. Liked the styles, but in the end the 61 note keyboard meant it was off my list.

Next I tried to demo a PA1xpro in Sam Ash's in NY. Neither of the guys in the shop could drive it (couldn't get the arranger section going at all) and in the end gave up saying that someone had probably messed with the demo unit and it needed a factory reset.

So I came back to Birmingham and, like Spalding, tried out their G70. I was impressed with it - the first Roland I liked since my D70 died a few years ago. I had to replace that with a Kurzweil at the time to get anything as good.

I've always avoided arrangers as they do have a reputation for being cheesy (although I did own a QY20 which was lots of fun - and worked on the beach on holidays!).

I still wanted to compare the Korg so I went back to Sound Control the other day and guess what? The same problem with the PA1x. The two guys in there couldn't make it work. We tried between us for over an hour and even got the manual out and called the Korg UK rep but to no avail. I know lots of you guys have PA1x's out there so they must work :-). I like the sounds (except the piano - never liked Korg pianos - I have a Yammy P200 for that). But I decided I can't take the risk of something that seems so obscure to operate.

You might ask why I need to 'upgrade' from a Kurzweil? But it doesn't gig too well as the K2500 and the P200 weigh a ton between them. I think all three manufacturers have matured their units and lost the cheesiness which seemed to define arrangers before meaning they could be a viable gig-in-a-box unit for me. So I just made up my mind to go for the Roland when this thread started. Life just isn't fair!

[This message has been edited by andrewpowell (edited 05-19-2005).]