Earl, that 3000 is nothing more than a computer with piano keys. It will do anything you tell it to do, but in order to accomplish all that you wish, you must be able to speak it's language, which can take many years to learn.

I used the 3000 for many, many years, explored every feature and aspect, and I can guarantee you that there were things I never discovered. Life on stage was a lot easier when I was just a young man sitting on a bar stool with a 12-string guitar and a several, 3-inch thick books of lyrics in a milk box and one on a music stand.

Fortunately, for me, I have always had a good technical mind, and unendingly curious about the inner workings of electronic devices, computers, printers, bio-medical monitoring systems, etc... When I was just 24 years old and working at the University Of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore, I helped design one of the first physiological monitoring systems in the country for the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Unit. It monitored 17 bodily functions at the same time, displaced them on a 21-inch blue and white screen, and was the size of a large door. It weighed more than 300 pounds and was on 4 heavy-duty casters so we could move it around. Today, through miniaturization of transistors, chips and ICs, the same system would be about 20 pounds, and the size of a breadbox.

Same is true with arranger keyboards. When I got my first arranger keyboard, a Mitsubishi, if I recall correctly, it weighed about 40 pounds, had 35 styles and 30 voices. At the time, I loved playing it, and the operating system was such that you pretty much could not do another other than just sit and play - no tweaking or tuning, no EQ, nothing but a bare bones instrument.

Today, there is absolutely nothing you cannot do with an arranger keyboard. I think in the right hands, it will even make your lunch for you. They are truly amazing instruments that ironically, only a tiny fraction of the owners/users have taken time to delve into the inner workings and really put them through their paces. Much of this is because of the complexity of the instrument, while the other is just plain laziness and not wanting to spend the time involved in pursing the end result. I know a lot of folks that have never taken the user manual out of the zip-loc bag it arrived in with their keyboard, let alone opened it and read each and every page while sitting next to the keyboard and going through the steps.

Good luck,

Gary