For me, as of today, the “arranger” I use and the one that offers me the most versatility for live performances and the studio is the Gem Genesys pro.

To me the most important things on an “arranger” is the sounds and the ability to do extensive sound editing, the style making tools, storage facilities, a comprehensive sequencer, and most important an intuitive and easy to use O.S. Also it must be less than 50LBS.

Can not wait for the XP module.

I owned a Roland EM2000 for a while too - about a year I think. I used it with a Kurzweil PC88mx as my main keyboard on a two-tier keyboard stand - the entire rig sounded good but it was too cumbersome. The Yamaha 9000 Pro was the answer, mostly because it offered the polyphony I needed as well, once I added the PLG150-PF expansion card to it, and the 76-note keyboard for piano as the lead instrument. I now own two and both stay in active daily use. That's not an endorsement though - I have well-documented differences with Yamaha over their lack of support for this instrument on multiple levels. With care my 9000 Pros should serve my needs for years to come, or until their replacement comes along. I'm not tied to the hip with using arrangers either, but for now I enjoy them.

I have to say that if I could have any arranger in the world right now, it would be one of the Yamaha CVP-309 models I think. It's very much like a super-Tyros, with 88 notes weighted action and 128+128 notes of polyphony. I would LOVE to see this instrument in a portable package, but that seems unlikely. Well worth a look-see though.

Hmmmmm, yeah I'm gonna go with the Casio Rapman and the Casio SK-1. Those were some pretty heavy boards there Geez remember the SK-1 and how (expensive that little booger was for the time?)

Squeak

------------------
Disclaimer: These are the opinions of Squeak_D, and offered voluntarily by said member of the SynthZone. If any member disagrees with any opinions posted by Squeak_D and chooses to post a reply, he or she waives their right to moan, complain, cuss out, or be disrespectful in any way shape or form. Basically if you ain't got something nice to say.., well you know the rest.

I still have my PA80 an probably will for life ( it's life or mine ). I still like it's sounds and it's styles vs the other arrangers I've had or played. Tons of sound editing power vs most of the other offerings I've seen, which is a big plus for me. Great midfile playback machine as well. It's major weakness has already been mentioned, the fills on some styles are a terrible match to the main variations. Over time, I've managed to correct some of this on the styles I like to use, while adding and tweaking about 100 other brand styles ( mainly Yamaha and Roland styles ). The good news is that the factory styles can be modified and / or changed.

PSR2000: Liked the sounds and the OS quite a bit. Hated the key feel and didn't care for the blandness of some of the styles. Weaker in onboard sound editing than the PA80, but packed with enough good sounds to work with. I had a very bad experience with my first 2000. It's OS was as buggy as could be, and it resided longer in the repair shop than it did with me. My second one was flawless.

Casio MZ2000: Excellent sound editing capabilities. The sounds for my tastes ranged from excellent ( sax, organs, a few electric guitars, synths pads and leads ) to rather poor ( acoustic and electric pianos, acoustic guitras, woodwinds, bass sounds ). The styles sounded very thin compared to every other arranger I've tried. The sliders were cool and very useful. It's approach to midi ( it's own propietary format ) was poor, but the style creator was kinda cool.

PSR740: Key feel was again an issue. This board felt very cheap, not just the keys. The pitch wheel felt like a toy. The vocal harmonizer was poor. Still, it had some very good sounds and the styles were useable. I thought this was going to be a huge step up from the 530, and with 4 variations per style it was, yet in some aras, it really wasn't that much better.

PSR530: Bang for the buck. It'll always have a special place in my musical heart, but compared to today's arranger gear it's rather light on features and styles. Still, for the rather small amount of sample rom it had, it sounded pretty good. It was my first real new purchase ( PSR85 doesn't count ) since I purchased the Korg M1 ( now that was a real love / hate relationship) , and I liked many of the sounds on the 530 better than the M1. I'm kinda sorry I sold it. It was a cool board to take out into the backyard and just jam on.

A Technics late 80's model ( maybe a 920 ? I can't remember the model # ). Very crude by today's standards and even vs the 530. No pitch wheel. Still, for it's time some of the sounds weren't all that bad. The styles don't compare to today's stuff, but in it's day it ws kind of cool. Very light in the bells and whistles dept. I traded it for a small soundsystem. The guy I traded it to still has it.

PSR85- ( early 90's ? ) Supposed to be a stepup from the PSS and Casio toys of the 80's. Not even as good as the KN whatever it was... Poor styles, poor sounds, but my daughter liked it and she still has it.

PSS480. A K-Mart toy from the late 80s. I still have it, and my granddaughters enjoy it immensely. Terrible PWM sounds, very bad styles, mini keys, yet I kept it as a nostalgic piece ( kinda like the Casio sk-1 is to a lot of people, though my sk is long gone ). It had some crude synth editing capabilities, and well... that was all I needed to hook me.

I also had a few Casio toys in the 80s. I don't remember much about any of them.

I guess if I was ever considering a new arranger ( I'm not .. but who knows what the future holds ), based on what I've seen out there to this point, I'd probably pick the Tyros. Love the sounds and OS / layout. Key feel is fair ( at least a bit better than the PSR line )

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 01-04-2005).]

I've only owned Ketron boards, first the XD9 and now the SD1. Seems that you either love or hate the SD1... I happen to love mine. For me, sounds and styles are the most important items, with navigation coming next, for live playing.

I've never heard a KB with better sounds and styles, especially drums. With 118 buttons, you'll hate this board if you want to take it out and play it right away, but once you learn where everything is (yes, it takes awhile) you wouldn't have it any other way... never go into a submenu, anything you want with the push of one button.

As for as Ketron, when they come out with the SD2, of whatever they call it, they'll once agaon have a flagship AK that will incorporate most of what the Midjay offers, plus more. No inside info, just a 'seems inevitable' hunch. Hope I'm right.

Glenn

I hope you are right about Ketron. I talked for about an hour today with the Ketron rep in Houston. He doesn't know, but is looking forward to the NAMM show coming up this month.
DonM

Lets see if I can remember my old line up. May be out of order.

Yamaha DX-7: Sound quality still beyond attempted modern reproductions of this classic synth. The DX just had a warm classic sound to her. OS was a complete bit** to operate. Keys were great, midi was decent.

Korg Trinity: Sounds were so so. Synth wise, top notch voice editing. Acoustic sounds were good for the time. Build quality was solid, and the touch screen was ahead of the time. It was a little slow to respond though. Limited with 32 note poly. Looked lime something from Star Trek,

Yamaha DJX (original): In my opinion Yamaha's greatest attempt at a budget dance keyboard. The patterns on that model were off the block. They were dead on! Real time control knobs, ribbon controller (assignable), basic sampler--although limited created great lo-fi samples, and you could edit them and set loop points. I was not happy to see they really limited this board in the recording department. Only 6 tracks, and no style recorder (which was a shame because the electronic drum kits were really good)

PSR-540: Decent sound quality, terrible construction. Looked like a video game. I liked the large screen. Recording limited due to direct disk recording. Style recording limited due to lack of copy feature. Each variation had to be recorded over again. (I can only imagine how annoying this was with the PSR-740) Midi was good.

Roland XP-60: Excellent board. No complaints about this unit.. Good sound, great features, built like a tank. Semi weighted keys, real time control, voice expansion. Still worth every penny today.

Yamaha EX-7: (Motif 6 was based on this one). This was a good synth from Yammie. Good sounds. Synth sounds were awsome. Acoustic was alright. The piano was a little weak in the higher registers. VERY SLOW processor. Zip drive loading was a nightmare. Sampler was good, Contruction was solid, and the key feel was good as well. Sequencing was pretty good (had a great pattern sequencer). There were actually 3 sequencers. One 16 track linear, one 8 track pattern, and one 4 track arpegiater (I can never spell that word). Sequencing was limted due to several things. Even though the poly was 64 notes, it dropped drastically when recording because of the size of the samples. There were times I maxed the poly with just 4 tracks. The memory was also limited to 30,000 events.

Casio MZ-2000: Sill kicking myself in the a** for dumping this board. Had to let her go due to space--small apartment + wife + MZ-2000 and other gear= bye bye MZ This board was a HUGE step for Casio. Sound guality varied. I think a lot of us were comparing it to the PSR-740 at the time. The MZ had extensive voice editing with 4 element voice structuring. You could even set velocity curves. Effects (in my opinion were way beyond the 740 because of the editing options). It also had aftertouch. The drawbars were great because there were 9 sliders to operate them with. Although no vocalizer it had a mic/line input with separate effects to that input. Styles were as usual subjective. However the style editing was beyond the PSR-740. It allowed up to 16 bar loops, and pattern copy. Plus you could mix patterns, and it also converted patterns Construction was good. That board was huge. It also had a great speaker system (15w) The MZ didn't get the attention it should have. Casio had for years retained the title of (The Toy Keyboard). The MZ sold for over $1,000 when it was released. I thnk it went for $1,200 and up. Casio owners and the public was not ready for this model. Casio should have marketed the board better.

Casio WK-3500: Bluezplayer put it best when saying "it's a junior MZ-2000". That essentially is what it is. Same sound set (polished up a bit though with re-allocation of DSP settings). It has 76 keys, decent action, smart media and floppy disk storage. Drawbars, great speakers, both pitchbend and modulation, midi is alright, styles are again subjective, One feature sets it aside from others is the ability to load new samples into the board. I currently have a Steinway sample in memory and damn it sounds good. Limited in recording--6 tracks with basic editing, no style recorder (although new styles can be loaded, presets cannot be edited). Overall great bang for the buck.

This is some of mine. I think I missed a couple of them.

Squeak

Squeek: I think this thread was about which arranger keyboards you've owned. If I started listing all the synths and non-arranger keyboards I've owned (and still do), it would take a very long time indeed.

Whew .... you got THAT right!
I can't even list all the KBs I've had since I joined the "zone" !
So many kb's ... so little time ..... so many inferior products ... sigh.....
If I came the closest to really loving ONE unit it was the X1, but the down sides were too much to overcome. I could play that thing for hours ....just for fun.
AJ - if you ever want to have an in depth discussion of why Ketron is the smallest share of the market(MY guess) - just give me a call!

Ahhh crap! sorry about that fellows That's what happens when you try to read a post, type a reply and deal with a 2 year old throwing Cheerios at your head at the same time.

Squeak

------------------
Disclaimer: These are the opinions of Squeak_D, and offered voluntarily by said member of the SynthZone. If any member disagrees with any opinions posted by Squeak_D and chooses to post a reply, he or she waives their right to moan, complain, cuss out, or be disrespectful in any way shape or form. Basically if you ain't got something nice to say.., well you know the rest.