I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. If Casio players demo the software (can users demo it before buying?), they'll quickly miss their single-finger major chords and two-finger slash chords. It's my hope that they would do a web search and find these posts BEFORE they buy Giglad. Some will just pass it over instead of spending a considerable sum to struggle and re-learn. When the dev starts wondering why his sales aren't better, he might also find these posts. Then perhaps he'll ask me to help him add the Roland emulation. I would be glad to test or collaborate with him, as I did with Klaus for Nimbu.

The bottom line is, if you're developing an assistive software (which is what Arranger OS's fundamentally are), why wouldn't you code it to provide the maximum degree of facilitation for the broadest cross-section of potential users?

What I COULD have learned is irrelevant because it wasn't my goal to play full chords on a piano or other instrument. I just wanted to play my pop and liturgical covers in the easiest way possible, with a reasonable degree of authenticity. After much comparison and analysis (and money spent!) I believe I've figured out how to do that, at least to my own satisfaction. So why wouldn't I want to pass that on, make it known to others who have the same goal? As I've said before, most if not all of you are trained keyboardists. If someone who is primarily a guitarist, percussionist, vocalist, etc. wants chordal accompaniment, they're also likely to be focused on results. NOT learning to stretch their fingers over a seven-note span, while avoiding the thumb on black keys, etc.; historical inconveniences late overcome by technology.

I would LOVE to read a study by a trained ergonomicist or learning behaviorist that compares the difficulty of learning and playing with traditional versus simplified (AI-assisted) chord fingerings. I believe my analogy to a stenograph or repeating firearm is valid. No matter how skilled you might become with manual methods, someone with less skill and less time invested could be equally effective if assisted by a well-designed machine. This is how physically feeble humans have (for better or worse) dominated and transformed the planet.

There certainly have been times in the past when human knowledge was lost. The destruction of the library at Alexandria; the Dark Ages; the loss of the Roland Arranger forum :-) Roland might have (mostly) closed up shop, but I won't stand by to see their venerable and meritorious system get muscled out for lack of prevalence and consigned to the dustbin of History. Posting about it here might be the best way to let folks know exactly what they're missing!!