I have always thought that, if arranger manufacturers would put as good styles in a contemporary arranger as can be found in the 'loops' sections of most workstations, and reworked the sound-set to be more contemporary, workstation sales would be decimated.

They would need to add a few features to the arranger OSs to make them better suited for urban styles (particularly the ability to allow any track, not just drums, to be non-transposing), but basically, it's all about the styles and sounds.

Perhaps an arranger with an arpeggiator in there as well as usual arranger functions.... Imagine a MotifES mated to a Tyros2, or a FantomX with G70 arranger capabilities. Tasty, isn't it....? They are SO close, and yet so far.

Maybe when software/hardware arrangers like Mediastation put pressure on this market, the Big3 will finally wake up to the fact that most young keyboard players would LOVE (and pay lots of money for!) an arranger that sounded as contemporary as a MotifES or Triton Extreme or FantomX.

After all, it's just as hard to make hiphop on a workstation as a good big band tune, you still have to do most of the work. If arrangers can make urban styles as easy to play as we find big band styles are now, imagine the sales......