I've been using Roland arrangers on stage with bands for ten years or more. No-one, not a single band member, and not a single member of any audience has ever come up to me and ridiculed my use of an arranger... EVER

Since I got the G70, the only thing anyone ever does is come up to me and say 'what the hell are you using? It sounds AMAZING!'

This is all with full live bands, and some pretty picky ears. I have a Triton, I have a K2500, I have some older stuff too. I won't take them out on gigs any more... They are too hard to program on the fly, edit on the fly, store the edits on the fly, and the sounds just don't quite cut it.

Why do you think no-one criticizes it? Sure, my chops are OK, but I tend to put a lot of the credit on the way it is built and voiced. For starters, I never have to apologize about my piano parts (or sound) because I am trying to shoehorn them into a 61 size keyboard. An 88 is only a fraction better (you'd be amazed, in a band situation, how little you need the extra 12 notes - as a solo pianist, sure, but in a band, 76 is more than adequate).

I never have to apologize for the organ parts. The drawbars make grabbing JUST the right registration a snap, and the Leslie and chorus/vib is fine for live use. And the keyboard, once again, doesn't get in the way by snagging my hands on smears.

The horn parts are to die for (up to three different horn sounds and layers in one patch makes for a LOT of dynamic timbral variety), the strings are lush, the synth sounds are plentiful, I've virtually never been stumped for a patch to match a song, or meet a mood.

The effects are simple to call up, simple to adjust, and as powerful as you need for live. The OS is optimized for LIVE adjustment (which my K2500 and Triton are NOT), and the ability to change patches and whole setups on the fly without ugly cutoffs in the sounds and weird glitches in the effects is smooth, smooth, smooth. To be honest, few WS's can do that!

And it is all in one keyboard, and a darn good lookin' one at that!

So, the next time someone comes up to you and pooh poohs your arranger, ask them what was it that the HEARD? Maybe that might give you a clue as to whether they simply have an axe to grind, or a real comment...

Oh, and one last thing.

DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, EVER TURN ON THE ARRANGER SECTION!

Not in a live band situation. Just as you wouldn't want the singer to plonk down an iPod, and do a number (or just a few bars) with their TOTL, fully produced, amazing sounding karaoke track, while you sat around and twiddled your thumbs, no band member wants to listen to you demonstrate how you COULD do without them, thank you very much!

Maybe THAT's why they like my arranger so much, after all... They don't KNOW it's an arranger!

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 09-15-2008).]