Arrangers sure have come a long way in the last ten years. Curious what people think the arrangers will be like in 2017 or so...

I think the samples will continue to just getter better and better, and memory will also expand as it shrinks...

I'm sure there'll be numerous other enhancements...

If Yamaha, Korg and Roland held a conference for all of us and wanted us to design an Arranger for 2017, let's say...and they really wanted it to be a new generation, not just a slight upgrade board...what would it wind up like?

(This should be interesting...)

I'd like to see a neural input device... for those times when my brain knows what it whats to hear but my fingers just aren't up to the task

That's only 3-4 keyboards ahead of what they're planning now. Since memory configurations will be different, a lot of the new features will be centered around increased memory. Size is pretty much determined by keyboard and panel buttons/dials, so the overall look will be similar, but weight will continue to go down and plastic cases will be sturdier.

Live drums are here, so live instruments will be next - even better than they are now. Polyphony will be a non-issue. Arrangers will be the standard type prokeyboard, as more musicians will be playing and recording solo. The arranger section will be essential to pop music, just as it is to standard music today. No more cables, everything will be wireless.

Fran will be proclaiming that his Roland Sonic A73 is the cat's meow even though it weighs a whopping 19 lbs. And Scott Yee will counter that his Yamaha Astro 3 is just as good with only 61 keys. The big difference is that the Astro takes pictures of the audience and projects them onto the speaker grilles of his new Bose L5 column - just 42 inches tall and capable of filling a 500 seat auditorium with surround sound.

Whatever computer interface is dominant in 2012 will be the interface of the 2017 keyboards - yuk.

Sad to say but I dont think we will be using anything ...but Software based instruments way beyond anything traditional that we have now.

I'm not so sure about that ... all digital keyboards are software based and have been for 20 years now. Digital = Software based. The software currently just happens to be embedded in ROM rather than loaded from a computer's hard drive. I still think there will always be a market for stand alone keyboards but they will be competing with computer based synths. But I do think that keyboards similar to Lionstracs will become more and more common in the future.

2017
Samples will be DEAD all sounds will be produced by Sound Modelling of the original instruments. (Wersi OAS 7 has already started down this route)
The future looks bright

Bill

Cassp, ROFL


If I could bet, my money would go to Abacus. Sound modelling relies on algorithms, and processing power. Processing power will be aplenty in 10 years, (heck we have enough as of now), and algorithms are a clever programmer's mind away.

We simply have to ask ourselves how we will be able to afford those wonderful new instruments in 10 years!

No problem. They'll be given away with the latest mobile phobe !!!!

That should be PHONE of course.

Yamaha will own all the other keyboard companies, so we'll all be playing Tyros 12 or PSR-Z9999.

Tyros 12 will finally get 76 keys.

Ian