I have read and re-read your post so as not to misinterpret or misquote you. Let me start by making this GENERAL statement. THE MOST DIFFICULT THING IN ALL OF MUSICDOM TO CONTROL WITH A KEYBOARD CONTROLLER IS AN ARRANGER MODULE. By their uniqueness and the very nature of the way they are used in live performance, no controller that I know of is designed with 'arranger' features. You could program your super-sophisticated controller until you're blue in the face and still not get anywhere near the kind of 'fast and intuitive navigation' (as prized by working pro's like Donny and others) found on (even cheapo) integrated keyboard arrangers. Personally, I would never choose this route if that were going to be my ONLY arranger. Now, on to your points.

1. "Well priced" - that's only true if you REALLY, REALLY like it.

2. "Value for the money" - VERY subjective. Many of the sounds are good enough to use in the role of 'sound module' in the studio, but this role could also be filled by the much cheaper SonicCell or SD2 (or software).

3. "Weight" - one of the LAST reasons to buy an arranger. You still have to add the weight of the controller keyboard and you still have to LIKE the thing to begin with.

4. "Makeup tools" - here again, you have to like the basic style to begin with before you start 'tweaking' it. In my case (and I realize that this is personal), I have only found ONE style that I actually like. 2 or 3 others are usable (for ME) with some tempo and voice tweaks.

5. "Accordionist and Guitarist...." - Again, what would be appealing to these types of musicians is the CONCEPT of the BK7m, not necessarily the instrument itself. They still have to like the styles since they are the MOST likely to use it strictly as a backing module.

6. "I really can't see what's not to like...." - how about the STYLES; after all, isn't that what Arrangers are all about?

You said you were amazed that I didn't like your Rhianna demo, that perhaps it was too 'modern' for me; trust me, that was not the reason I didn't like it. I do, however, apologize for the 'bullet in the head' comment. You weren't a Synthzone member at the time, which made you fair game for an honest reaction to your presentation. For some reason, the BK7m seems to accentuate the monotonous quality that is already inherent in arrangers. Telmo does a good job of avoiding this by using large amounts of 'external' content and production techniques that would be difficult, if not impossible, to duplicate in a live performance situation. Tony believes this will sell a lot of Tyros 4's. It may, but those buying one and expecting to sound like Telmo, are going to be hugely disappointed.

Look, I'm no different than anyone else, in the sense that I would LOVE to be able to justify my purchase by (falsely) singing it's praises. I gave my honest, though admittedly subjective, opinion and consider it to be as valid for me as yours is for you. That's the way the world works, if not necessarily the way it works on THIS board . I felt the hostility when I suggested that Deane's dream of having a module OTB that required no tweaks and was somehow perfect for everybody, was more like a pipe dream. People are different, with different likes and dislikes. Nowhere is this more true than among musicians.

There was a pent-up desire for an arranger module and this one hit the market first. Everyone wants this module to be 'THE one', so this sets the stage for being easily swayed by well-articulated posts such as yours. I bought mine without hearing it first, based upon many of the points you made in your post. Once I had it in my hands, I didn't like it and none of your points had any real bearing on it. I won't sell it, because I like gadgets, but if I had had it in my possession for a day or two before purchasing, I would not have bought it. I had no previous exposure to the the e50,e60,e80,g70,GW7/8,Prelude or any other Roland arranger since the G1000, else I probably would have known what to expect. I probably would not like the G70 either, if this is representative of Roland styles. JMO.

chas