Alright here is a serious question for this froum. What are the adavntages to useing an arranger keyboard? And are they the same as a music workstation?

Know I know Korg had produced the i2/i3 interactive music worksations back in the 1990's. Now they have the Triton and Karma Music workstaions.


Roland has the Fantom and Yamaha has the motiff. These are all nice but also rather expensive boards? Plaese Help?????

PAUL,this might be irrelevent but i bought my PSR2000 18 months ago an easy keyboard to play but it took me ages to understand because there is a learning curve you have to get around,now yamaha are quite easy in comparison to many other boards ,so bear this in mind when choosing because if you don,t have a manual or its incomplete ,(some suppliers expect you to be a genius or be able to read minds) it could drive you up the wall, good luck,mike

Today Korg has PA80 and Roland has VA7. Yamaha has Tyros and PSR2100. We even have Technics, Ketron and more. There are newer models on the horizon with new names and numbers. A lot of members here are familiar with the Yamaha PSR2100, which is selling for around $1200. Features vary as prices go up or down. Basically, an arranger provides pre-set rhythms and chordal/bass patterns to accompany a drum machine-style percussion. Things can sound very full and impressive.

This group will tell you all about them, but be prepared to hear subjective cheerleading and bandying about by all sides. Keyboard workstations like the Karma, Triton, Motif, Fantom, etc. are not considered arrangers, but many of us own these boards too to help in our music making.

Well, that's a start - who's next?...

Paul,

There are lots of advantages to each and every new arranger keyboard that's out there today. I'm a Yamaha fan--no question about it, and I have owned other brands. The decission which to purchase should be based on your specific needs--not the likes and dislikes of the good folks on this forum. The best advice I can give you is to sit down and carefully evaluate each and every board you can, then go home, think long and hard, then make your decission. If necessary, go back and repeat the process. If I recall from another post, you live in Frederick, Maryland. You're just a short drive from Rockville and Washington Music. I would strongly urge you to go there and go through all of the keyboards they have on display. They have an enormous selection of nearly every major brand and a very knowledgeable person working in that department.

One of the things you will ultimately discover is there is a lot of support for Yamaha boards, and when it comes to third party style files, there are more Yamaha files available than all the other boards combined.

Sounds like you're going to have lots of fun in the next few weeks.

Good Luck,

Gary

Here is what you get and what you lose with Arranger's keyboards.


First, I would say that arranger keyboards need to be divided into two groups: home use and professional use. What determines which one is professional and which one is not is whether they have sufficient tools and sufficient quality sounds for the performing/recording musician to do his job. In other words, what many of here select is professional because most of us here actually either earn living or produce professionally in a studio.

Those professional arrangers they range drammatically from one set of features and price to another. However, all of them do not emphasize (with the except of Genesys maybe) digital synthesis of sound. They may actually have synthesis capability but not to the same tweeking power of Motif or Triton. That does not mean that they lesser quality in sounds. Top professional arrangers offer nowadays comparable set of sounds with their workstation counterparts (amazing that today they are considered counterparts when in the past they were considered inferior products).

Second, arrangers offer a concept called styles. Each style is a set of repeatable tracks of drums, bass and other chords that repeat intelligently depending on the choice of chord or note of the player in the left hand section. So If I play c major in the left hand section, these tracks will loop in C-major chord. Of course, you determine the speed. As you switch to another chord, the tracks will switch (gracefully) to the second selected chord. If you choose a different VARATION, a similar but different set of chords will play. If press "fill-in" a shorter sequence will play once before returning to the last looping sequence.

What does this mean? It means that you can perform on multiple instruments at the same time without the need to hire a drummer, a bassist, a guitarist and others. Furthermore, this can be very wealthy material to assist in recording a very complex arrangement. Finally, it is fun and a reason to encourage people to play and learn to play.

Would Korg's Micro Korg be considered an arranger keyboard?

No, Paul - the micro seems to be aimed at folks who want synthy sounds and vocoder options. I could never play those mini keys .... yuk.
Most of us that use arrangers, do so because we are trying to fill up the holes behind our solo playing. Given my "druthers" ... I'd be in a 10 piece horn/funk band playing bass and singing harmony, but the market for that kind of act is scarce.

Most high end arrangers are a kind of cross-breed workstation, having 16 track sequencers on board, large storage drives and/or usb connections. If you are the kind of player that sits alone in a room, (at home, or on stage) and wants to make as much music as possible with as few hands as we are blessed with, then arrangers can provide a means to sound like anything from a small combo to a large orchestra.
If you're more into creative manipulation of sound with envelopes, filters and such - then maybe a dedicated workstation will fill your needs. It seems almost a redundancy to own a workstation in today's world of high powered computers though. Having an arranger, coupled with the power of a PC close at hand will give you endless options.

The biggest advantage to some of the newer workstations are the editing power, and sometimes, sampling options...... but some arrangers even do that. The Korg PA80 has a sampler, the Yamaha 9000Pro does too. There may be more, but I own those 2, and I never use the sampling options. I leave that to the real pros. I never heard an end-user sample that I liked...... I'm sure they are out there, but I never heard one. Then again - I play the hits. I need staple sounds that reproduce the instruments in a band or orchestra. I rarely use weird or synthy sounds, because my target audience is usually dining or dancing in a more elegant setting. No raves for me at 48!

I remember you saying that you wanted a modular synth. Sounds like you are more of a tweaking fan. Do you like sliders and knobs more than rhythms and patterns?

Ask yourself a few questions:
What do you need the kb to DO for you?
Is it a production tool, or for performance?
Does it need to be portable?
Do on board speakers interest you?

There are many more relevant questions to consider when buying a high end keyboard, but since budget is almost always a concern, and I've seen you mention it before .... I suggest that you take Gary's advice, and go to the Maryland stores and make a day of it. take notes, write down specs and websites ..... and then come home and do some research on the web. We are so lucky to have all this info at out fingertips. Use it to your advantage.

Good luck, my friend.

Thanks Dave!

s'allright !

Anybody use Yamaha DJX keyboard here? Can this be an arranger keyboard or just a plain groove machine for the DJ. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Danny