I think hardware arrangers will be around for a long time. The controls are (obviously) tailored to the needs of the arranger player, and the sounds can only get so much better before the law of diminishing returns sets in. These days it makes sense to use an arranger with a computer to get the best of each (convenient access to styles and the best sounds). In the future, there will be less to gain by adding the computer.

Don't foget, computers are "patch-work" instruments: different manufacturers for each computer component and each software program. They don't always work together as well as you would like. If you are into composition or electronica, computers are the way to go, but if you are into entertaining a broad segment ofthe population, I think hardware arrangers are the way to go.

I'm with Clif.

I would find it very hard to trust a pc + software solution day in, day out, because (as he says) PCs are such a patchwork.

The reason Apple Mac's are more reliable than PC's is that Apple have the hardware under such draconian control - there are less variables to manage so the drivers can be written in sure knowledge of the configuration of the hardware platform.

I'm writing this as a PC user, by the way!

[This message has been edited by MacAllcock (edited 01-20-2004).]