Ive just got back from a weekend at a lively night spot hotel down in Torquay here in England.Very dissapointed in a couple of the top arrangers.
On Friday night we were being entertained by the va 76 roland after the bingo.The room was a big room with about 150 people playing the bingo,but after only 15 minutes of the VA 76 playing the 150 people was reduced to about 75.I sat it out and noticed that the sounds and livlyness of the whole thing was crap.The keyboard player needed his own live drummer which says to me the drums on arrangers do not cut it.When they played ballroom and some country hits some people did dance but they were the older generation and very good dancers.

Saturday night it was the Tyros and that was also backed by his own live drummer.The Tyros was very good in the Guitar department but even then I thought it didnt give the live experience of a live guitar player.They played a Mavericks hit and the brass sounds to dance the night away was awful nothing like the cd.

All in all I was very dissapointed in the whole idea of an arranger board in supplying the evenings live music entertainment from a listners point of view although from the players point of view it may seem different.

I think until I see just a 1 man band on an arranger board do the buisness for the younger generation I will not be convinced.

I have yet to see.Maybe the korg pa1x or the ketron sd1.

Maybe some of you on this forum could make me change my mind of the future in arrangers due to the fact that the younger generation will be the older generation in years to come.

But for now I see arrangers just used as home keyboards.

Thankyou for reading and any replys I look forward to.

Hello Dazart,
Your night spot hotel sounds very 'happening' especially if the musical interludes are fillers for the bingo Kind of put's me in mind of Pheonix Nights (For the benefit of you peeps not in the UK Pheonix Nights is a very funny TV comedy over here.)

I do not intend to sound snobby or rude but it is a little unfair to categorise arrangers as not cutting it for the younger generation when the venue given as an example was obviously not geared to that generation at all. At least I know very few people of my age and below who would contemplate an evening out anywhere where the music (or anything else for that matter) was interupted for Bingo!

I am not having a pop at Bingo enthusiasts either......my point is that it is horses for courses. You gear the show to the audience. How many of the 150 were there just for the Bingo? Believe me I know that you could have had Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and Judy Garland booked to appear but if the hotel next door was offering £2 a line with a Tenner full house half those pensioners would be out that door quicker than whippet s*** and spending next weeks pension.

I can't imagine that any of the Pro's on this board would make much of a living if the top end arrangers were not up to scratch and much of what an arranger sounds like has a lot to do with who plays it, and how they set it up.

Then again your analogy of the Mavericks song is a little unfair also. I doubt even the Mavericks can sound 'like the cd' when they perform live.

A friend of mine plays keyboards in a live band (as opposed to a dead one?) and uses a Triton. I think I mentioned on here once before that he always scoffed at my 9000pro until he borrowed it when his board met with an accident. He was amazed. Of course he did not use the arranger but he was suitably impressed wit the standard of voices (at least the Synth and organ voices he uses when performing.)The band members are all under 25 and the other guys did not even look twice at the keyboard....It was just a board as far as they were concerned. As long as Dean could do his thing on it!

As far as I know, when they started their spot the audience did not as a group let out a gasp of disgust. People were not whispering that there was an arranger on stage and to make for the nearest exit without causing a panic. People were not lining up to request New York New York and NME did not run an article on this cool indie group crossing musical boundaries. (At least I think he might have mentioned it if any of that had happened!)


Tony W





[This message has been edited by Tony W (edited 10-26-2003).]

An arranger, or any other instrument for that matter, is only as good as the artist who is playing it. Some of the performers that frequent this forum can entertain a room with a kazooo! Ok, maybe not, but you get my point.

I think it's a terrible Idea to combine an arranger and a live drummer. Acoustic drums are loud and can drown out an arranger.

The most successful use of arranger has been used by either a soloist, or as part of a keyboard players rig in a live band.

Al

Yes Tony, I was going to say something like that, but didn't have the energy.
DonM

I once entertained the band of the Royal Air Force with a kazoo!

I was eight at the time and in the school 'band'. However the memory lingers!

Tony

Let's see now--We have a room filled with elderly people playing bingo, the floor is filled with tables surrounded by chairs, the lights are turned up as bright as possible so they can see the bingo cards, the caller has his mic turned up so everyone can hear the BINGO numbers he's calling out, and now there's a guy playing a keyboard in a room that has the accustics of a gymnasium--OH YEAH--this will put them on the dance floor. Now lets add one other feature to the fiasco. Is it at all possible that the person who was supposed to be entertaining a group of bingo players was not an entertainer? And, is it at all possible that he had a lousy PA system? NAH! It was the keyboard's fault.

Gary

On the saturday night.There was no bingo people here, they were here just to see a band and that was the tyros with a drummer they did use a good pa system.But as I already said those keyboard sounds didnt cut it for me and the people didnt seem to impressed either.The bar was full of all ages that night and the duo only got a fairly good reaction from the older generation.
What I was also dissapointed with was the keyboard player was trying to interact with his audiance between every song having big gaps just waffling on about nothing.

Dazart,
Like I said before you can't always blame the tools.

I currently have two cars, both are blue, both are made by Ford and one was very expensive and the other was quite cheap. Both were in immaculate condition when I got them. However both of them now have at least two dents or scratches to varying levels of severity.

This is obviously the fault of Ford! Their blue cars are notoriously prone to hitting bollards in car parks or the gatepost on my drive. I am sure that the cars would still be pristine had I bought red ones.

The fact that I have had nearly every colour and make of car under the sun and that they have all ended up the same way (and often worse) has of course nothing to do with it at all. My inneptitude as a driver is a scurrilous rumour put about by Ford to cover up their Blue Car design fault.

It ain't what you got......It is what you do with it!

Best wishes
Tony

When an actor can make me forget who he is, and get right into the movie, I says he is good, very ggod.

When a keyboard performer can work his crowd so they are no longer aware that he is a one man band, he's is also good, very good.

As far as music for the younger generation, very difficult to do it sound like the CD, so I use the CD.

Cheers, John C.

PS, I will never play with a drummer--they will control the beat, and that my keyboard does not like.

You've never played with a good drummer then. I have a few guys I can call that will play with or without the machine running, and sound like a million bucks.
Hacks and amatures are the only ones that can't follow a beat. A good musician can even be a drummer !