I was recently at the week-long organ & keyboard festival in the UK and was thus able to try the new models and talk to the demonstrators, as well as other users, and you may (Or not) be surprised at some of the conversations.

As I mentioned in another thread, (Off the record) all the manufactures said that arranger sales were on the slide, the typical buyer was 70+ with most using only 2% of the capabilities of their instruments, which is disappointing to say the least, (But not unexpected)

The UK & US have similar markets, however Europe is a totally different animal in that it is not just the more mature that play organs and keyboards but younger ones as well. (They both regularly appear on radio and TV)

Back to the Yamaha & Korg mentioned, the Yamaha development of arranger keyboards where you just need to press a button and everything is done for you is ideal for the mature market, as they just want to play all their old standards (Mention modern music and they run a mile) and enjoy themselves, (I�m the opposite as I hate having everything incorporated forcing me to first get rid of all the fluff so that I can customise it to what I want, not what the manufacture dictates I should have) however younger players don�t want all the older sounds and styles, they just want to be able to twiddle some knobs and put some loops together that they like (Usually nothing like any traditional sound or style) and store them in a patch. (Mixing the patches live later), this is where Yamahas brilliant OOTB philosophy falls down miserably, whereas the Korg (While still not as flexible as a workstation or loop station) allows the young ones to do more of their own thing.

For me personally (As I am regularly out listening to all types of live music) I find the T5 to be like TVs in a showroom, in that they look/sound impressive but are totally overblown when compared to the real thing, whereas the Korg tends to hit the nail on the head more often, hence out of all the arranger keyboards on the market I rate the PA3x way ahead of other manufactures models. (Don�t get me wrong there are some great sounds and features on other manufactures models, but they are just too inflexible or artificial sounding for me)

The biggest theme at this year�s festival was the return to organ style play with the addition of keyboards and pedalboards being added to arrangers (Korg had 3 versions, Yamaha had 2) with the PSR950 & Korg PA900 versions matching price wise the Orla/Ringway organs which as usual also went down extremely well. (Since Orla/Ringway introduced their entry level organs costing less the TOTL keyboards they are selling faster than they can make them, and has really put the cat among the pigeons of arranger manufactures) All the arranger manufactures there were all emphasising learning to play the instrument again rather than relying on sophisticated style play and backing tracks.

One surprising (At least to me) thing there was that talking to a lot of Yamaha owners that had upgraded to a T5, many had downgraded back to the T4 as they just couldn�t get on with all the fancy new features. (For example the ensemble functions was explained clearly using the projector screens, however I could see many a vacant face where it just went completely over their heads) it seems Yamaha may have hit a barrier with the current features offered.

As to the future then all agreed, that the arranger that we know today will morph into something new in the future. (But don�t panic as there is a good few years left yet)

Bill