Hi, Bill. You have a point about your assesment of where arrangers are heading, but, to me, the world would be a really dreary place if the music spectrum included only country, R&B and Rock.

I'm not talking at all about the generational issues. Modern jazz is the synthesis of the best of a whole gamut of well-developed styles.

Of course, as the music gets more sophisticated the audience (and, sometimes, the money) gets smaller.

But what a dull place this would be without
"leading edge", evolved music.

Most of my jobs are jazz. That's my preference. They're fewer and farther between, but they're there if you really want them.

Just takes a listen to some of the leading edge stuff today...almost defying categories. There are beautiful phrases from giants of the past, interspersed with references to rock, hip hop, older fusion and more.

May not be mainstream, but has a place.

It would be a shame if musicians lost track of their roots. And it would be a bigger shame if musical references from the past disappeared from modern compositions.


So, I'd vote for maintaining a wide variety of styles in future arrangers...at least for some of us.


Thanks,


Russ

I didn't really mean for all arrangers to be as I suggested. I have no clue where they're headed. I simply meant that at least ONE company needs to put something out like that.

If _I_ owned an arranger company, it's what _I_ would do. The others can keep on keeping on. There will always be a market for arrangers suited to restaurant gigs, etc. where the music includes standards. But for the masses, parties and dances... make it rock.

In 20 years, standards from the 40s will have even less significance with the MASSES. I can't see any way around that.

It has always been my opinion, from day one for me, which was maybe seven or eight years ago... that arrangers sound too cheesy. Too old-fashioned. I don't mean to offend anyone, it's just my opinion. I grew up with Led Zeppelin, the Stones, the Beatles. Not Gershwin or Frank Sinatra.

In this thread, I also said this suggested arranger could include SOME styles that cater to old songs. But the focus would be contemporary sounds.

Then again, what do I know. I may be as wrong about it as anyone else.

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Bill
Yamaha PSR2000

i agree with bill...the arranger board manufacturers can do both on the latest gear, all it takes is a little (well a lot!!!) of programming the styles into what music is doing today...they are all still using drums, and bass and gtrs etc etc, most(around 90%) pop music is still written in 4/4 or derivatives..the latest boards have really good hip hop and dance/trance/house drum kits, and after all its the drums and bass which seems to predominate in those genres...so you could have all genres of music catered for on one board with some extra programming effort from manufacturers

[This message has been edited by miden (edited 02-07-2006).]

If I were designing the board, I don't know if I would even put ANY old sounding styles on there. Make it a free downloadable option to install those. If you put them on there, it gives the (young person) the impression it's nothing new. Sounds crazy but it's marketing. Design the board to look and sound like a board for contemporary sounds.

"By the way, Johnny, if you want to have some Frank Sinatra styles, you can get them for free on our website when you buy this board."

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Bill
Yamaha PSR2000

I think former Depeche Mode band member Alan Wilder who used to do all the programming uses a Korg synthesizer . Vince Clarke obviously uses analogue stuff which frankly isn't my thing . I like Erasure but I probably wouldn't use too much analogue synthesizers myself .

I agree. My board is overloaded with acoustic sounds which, apart from the live! and sweet! voices, are indecent or close to crap. As a former violin player I know it is imposslible to sample acoustic instruments properly because they can be played with many techniques. Those mega and SA come close to reality but these souds could be found only on expensive boards which they don't sell here.

As for the styles I think they should quit producing keyboards with only 2 variations. It is boring to death, I can't use my arranger as an arranger.

Another thing I am mostly displeased is the slow pace they improve the low-end arrangers (actually my keyboard sits on the top of low-ends). IMO The change between the DGX-300 and 305 is insignificant - they are basically the same keyboard. Not to mention the lack of usb 2.0, the ridiculous 1.6MB flash memory for user songs, the enourmous amount of time it takes to transfer songs betwenn computer and keyboard.

My $200 camera has USB 2.0 and transfers 1.3MB pictures in 2 seconds whilst my $550 keyboard has usb 1.1 and it takes ages to transfer a 100KB midi.

Having all this in mind discourages me from upgrading my keyboard

So the purpose why arrangers do not sell well lies in the manufacturer.

George
George

[This message has been edited by George V (edited 02-08-2006).]

[This message has been edited by George V (edited 02-08-2006).]

I wish arrangers came with more 'modern' styles, especially rock styles. I'm 37 and just play at home on a psr3000. The songs I most like to play are songs by Social Distortion, Green Day, Guns n Roses, The Offspring, etc. of which there are very few style choices. I always wish that I had more styles to choose from for these types of rock/punk songs. I've tried to create my own styles with not great results.
I also like to play Beatles songs, older country like Johnny Cash, even then I feel like there are few styles to choose from. Yet there are several big band styles that I never use.
Well, I'm not complaining I just wish that keyboard had more styles for the music I like. I know some are thinking why I'm using an arranger to play that music. Well, it gets boring playing guitar by myself, and I want to play with the band. :-)

Exactly . I'd never buy an arranger because I would use alot of synth sounds rather than accoustic sounds and the included styles probably wouldn't do much for New Wave , Darkwave , Industrial , Synth Pop etc .

Seems to me that when you cut through all the rhetoric in the last gazillion posts, what everyone is talking about are STYLES. With the available cheap storage, even modestly priced arrangers could hold dozens of variations of every conceivable style and not even breath hard. What's the point of eliminating certain genre's when you can have them all without penalty (unless you just can't bear the thought of having a rap or jazz style on your keyboard...there's probably a name for this). I think it's widely accepted that most of today's top arrangers have decent enough sounds for typical arranger use (no one is going to use an arranger in Carniegie Hall). The problem then, is obviously the availability of styles that suit your tastes and needs. Sure they could upgrade the technology (usb 2.0, massive memory, etc., etc.) but none of this is going improve the quality of the styles. All the SA voices in the world aren't going to help if the styles suck. In my opinion, this is the weakest area of arranger development.

chas

How about Jazzacrapaphobia?