Great answer??? Why would a "professional caliber" player be more "clueless" than some ol' fart who after 50 years has barely risen to the status of competent amateur. What we're talking about here is TECHNOLOGY. Can you honestly say that 'Grandpa' knows more about Xbox and playstation than the average teenager? Grandpa can barely figure out the object of the game. We say that pro musicians are clueless about arrangers and their capabilities but how much does the average (elderly) arranger player know about the capabilities of modern synth/workstations? I'm guessing, not much. Among arranger players, you will find that it's the most technically sophisticated (about 5%) that are most likely to include synths, workstations, and VSTi's in there arsenals. They are also usually younger than their arranger-playing peers. There are acclaimed pianist, acclaimed organist, acclaimed violinist, acclaimed guitarist, even acclaimed synthesist (sp) ie. Jan Hammer to Corry Henry, but to my knowledge, NO acclaimed Arranger players. This may speak to it's legitimacy as a distinct instrument (that's for you to decide).

So many of the posts in this thread have had such a strong defensive nature, but wasn't triggered by the original post (go back and read it). That started with DONNY'S series of 'stigma' posts and went nuts from there. Ironic too, since he is one of the biggest complainers of taking a post 'south'. Since the consensus here is that I am an arranger hater (totally untrue - I've owned a string of them going back to the G800), every post that appears to be aimed at me, no matter how far-fetched or factually inaccurate, always gets a rousing cheer from the rank and file. Oh well, it's lonely here at the top .

chas