Bill,

You need to look at what Roland did to their "arrangers"...the G-70, the E series to see that this is not so. They are aiming at the professional "workstation" market because they know the average person has no desire whatever to address the learning curve on new (non-arranger) keyboards.

Everyone, everywhere takes the "easy" approach to everything. Personally, I don't blame them as I haven't bought a keyboard in years for that reason. Not by choice, but by necessity. I don't have the time to sit and learn a whole new product operating system (Ketron being the worst for that).

And then there's the never-ending "learning" situation. Look at what's happening with Windows. Just when you finally get comfortable with XP, Vista comes out and the whole cycle starts again. For what? The end result is basically the same, except that you can get from A to Z a half second faster!

Getting back on track, "arrangers" may be "designed for the home user" but are played more and more by professionals! Particularly those who are caught up with and trying to survive the "system" in this very modern and complex world we have today.

Mark

PSRs are designed for the home user, but lo and behold! A lot of pro's use them.

Roland Korg and Ketron TOTL arrangers are designed for pros, but lo and behold! A lot of home users play them...

Doesn't seem like ANYONE is paying any attention to how these things are SUPPOSED to be used...

No offense, Mark, but the S900's OS is no less complicated, no more geared towards a 'home' user (apparently, someone unwilling to crack a manual) than any G70 or SD1+... As they continue to slather new features willy nilly over 'home' arrangers, that have little use or purpose for the player unwilling or unable to fathom their intricacies, they blur the line between 'pro' and 'home' to the point of invisibility.

A LOT of this interminable thread has been about the fact that, basically, stick a decent action on an S900, and offer it with a 76, too, and you have as 'pro' a keyboard as any offered by the supposedly 'pro' manufacturers.

Short of the sub-$500 dollar offerings, they are ALL 'pro' keyboards, at least as far as complexity. But Yamaha are the only ones that insist on putting 'home' actions on 'pro' arrangers. If you basically have to spend $4000 before you can get a Yamaha arranger with an action as good as a $1500 workstation, well, firstly you have to realize that cost of the key-bed is NOT what is preventing this...

Aside from Ian, is there anyone here that actually PREFERS the PSR key-bed to anything else in a similar price point...?

And this is a bad thing? More features at the same or less price?

Please don't insult the intelligence of "home users", Diki....in my experience as a clinician, they are very capable of working their way around these new keyboards.

I say "slather away"...we can all benefit from more features.

Ian

Yes, I do. I love the action on the 3K. It suits my playing fine, since I'm an organist by training.

zuki

And to really put the cat among the pigeons
http://www.jazzhooves.com/index.html

I was with him until I got to the end....

" Luckilly I still have a Wersi which creates that thrill each time I sit down and play it. "

chas

The guy says..."Instruments like the Yamaha EL90, HX1 and dare I even say AR100 required skill and ability to play them."

Yes, but they are HEAVY.

The poor guy is still in the dark ages.

Ian

The road is long - with many a winding turn,
that leads to who - knows where, who knows where ?
x
x
x
x
x

My 2 cents and maybe a bit of a different approach to the discussion. Some of you know that I own both the the Roland G70 and the Yamaha Tyros 2. I'm a part time mediocre musician at best, at times it's more the technology of the keyboard than anything that keeps my interest. That being said, I sometimes have this illusion that using one brand of keyboard vs. another will get me more gigs. WRONG and I know that intellectually, but sometimes reading the hype and opinions here I get fired up and before you know it, I sell a PSR 3000, then purchase a Tyros 2 before you know it there's a G70 sitting in my home studio. Still have a few gigs a month and have bookings into 2008, but nearly as busy as I'd like to be. (and I'm working all the time to change that)

I gotta say I love both the G70 and the T2. Thought I'd sell the T2 and keep the G70, then thought I'd sell the G70 and keep the T2. As of today I'm keeping both.

I did a Ben Franklin balance sheet weighing the pros and cons of each keyboard Each keyboard pretty much came in with tie scores when listing pros and cons. To further assist in making a decision as to which to sell or not sell, I recently recorded samples of 6 songs, each recorded once on the T2 and once on the G70. One of the tunes was recorded 3 times, once on the T2, once on G70 and once using a G70 style converted for use on the T2. I really didn't want a musician who plays an arranger give an opinion because of the obvious bias and their knowledge of what keyboards. I didn't exactly work out that way and to date 5 people 2 who play arrangers and 3 not in the music business have listened to the samples without knowing which keyboard(a 6th person who I'm waiting to hear back from will let me know what they think sounded better later this week). But out of the the 3 non musicians who were asked what sample they like better the voting was close, but the G70 won out by just by a very slight margin. I'm placing a little more weight on non musician opinions because they imho are more representative of an audience.

Bottom line as said here many times " play what makes you and your audiences happy."

[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 08-26-2007).]

I'm not surprised at the results the G70 is an awesome unit.