Happened to see this on the yamaha psr styles yahoo group:

"Hi,

I have just been informed by my dealer Roland and GEM will no longer produce any arranger keyboards.


Best wishes, Jeff / The Netherlands"

Time will tell, seems to me I've seen that GEM was gone, but Roland? Anybody else heard anything on this yet?

GEM..., yes we know how that story ended.... Roland..., I wouldn't place too much on this story. Roland is still set to release the Prelude (a new model). I don't think Roland's getting out of the arranger game. They may downsize some products, but I don't see the arranger section going.

Not only that Roland even produces arrangers that are seated in their synth sections.., like the GW-8 and older model GW-7.

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 03-06-2009).]

Rumors abound

is that bridge in Brooklyn still for sale?

As long as Yamaha is making instruments too play the world is a happy place!

Let's face it what we already have is more then good enough to make beautiful music.....if more people would concentrate on improving their playing skills & stop worrying about what is coming out new maybe some day the world will return to the glory of the golden days of people playing live again instead of teh instrument playing you Ahhhhhhhh.....whats the use?!

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 03-06-2009).]

That Jeff guy is probably the same one that started the rumour on my website about GEM. I checked that story out and it was based on ONE website that saw the GEM website (Italy) was not responding, and quickly wrote a "blog" about GEM being bankrupt and firing 75 workers.

So I e-mailed GEM Italy and GEM USA. GEM USA told me they did not have any idea about the situation in Italy. GEM Italy never replied, but that is not uncommon for GEM...

Meanwhile, the GEM Italy website is back, and GEM USA just moved into a new office, as one of their employees told me.

There is, apart from that ONE website, NO other report about GEM being bankrupt.

Roland has a new arranger out, that barely hit the stores yet. Roland Central Europe is my site's sponsor for the next years... My site is about arranger-keyboards...

Rumours, rumours... Please... Check the facts before spreading nonsense.



------------------
- THE DUTCH KEYBOARD FORUM
http://www.keyboardforum.nl
Happy owner of a Roland E-80 V2

Roland simply seem unwilling to use the WORD 'arranger', even though they are still making them.

The GW-8 is an arranger, plain and simple. Putting it in the WS section of their marketing plan, and using the word WS on it does not actually change what it IS...

But it might reflect how poorly younger players view the arranger lines in general, as little has been done to address their tastes in music styles and sounds, and as packed with ballroom and schlager styles as they currently come I mean, come on! You're a young, hiphop and rap loving twentysomething... who would want to buy something that your grandparents would feel at home with?

I can see the thinking at Roland now... 'Arrangers aren't selling well to younger players. What do we do? I know! Let's just take the WORD 'Arranger' off of it, stick the word 'Workstation' on it, and put it up on the website with the other WS's...'

"BRILLIANT!"

Yamaha does the same thing Diki! Can anyone say Mini Mo..., a lot of buyers who later realized they bought an arranger keyboard found themselves saying Damn Yamaha and that Mo Pho Mini Mo

Before anyone tries to scream the MM6 isn't an arranger YES it is.., it's just not as full featured as other arrangers, but uses auto accomp and even has variations and fills that trigger exactly like an arranger. (plus as even confirmed by Yamaha it's made in the PSR factory)

You said it before Diki.., even if it's an arranger made by Roland.., if they put knobs on it.., well PRESTO ya gotta synth/workstation now



[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 03-06-2009).]

Diki......
listen to today's top 50 songs...
then listen to the styles of each song.....
now tell me how many songs you can play with each style versus how many you can play with styles from the 30's to BEFORE the pre rap era...not as many at all......why? because many of these modern songs are being created in a different way using so many different pieces of gear that it is very difficult to use only one style to achieve what you want.....so instead we have workstations that are sought of a hybrid of both arranger/synth with arpeggiators etc etc .......& here lies the problem of today's arrangers using so called older styles......if they would just mix both KB's together even more eg: a Fanthom with G70 styles & features, Tyros3/motif... etc.... etc ..
any manufacturer that does this in opne package will be a WINNER for sure!!

Donny.., I think that's a great idea.., but "ignorance" will destroy this entirely. The problem is actually on both sides of the fence too. You'll have di-hard synth/workstation buyers saying "ain't no way.., no style or auto accomp on my workstation". On the other side there are even arranger players who'll say "no arps, pattern sequencers, and deep synth engines with fully expandable sampling.., no no, not on my arranger".

Could you imagine the cost of that unit alone as well. The pro arrangers already greatly surpass the average price of a workstation. We're bitching now about a $5,000 Ketron. Get a company to merge the two and $5,000 will be the price for the BASE model.

What you are missing, I think, Donny, is that the number of people that would even WANT to play some 30's music, and THEN do a bunch of hiphop and rap has got to be on the fingers of one hand!

You want to sell arrangers to today's kids?

Take out ALL the older styles...

If they WANTED to play Bossa's and Quicksteps, they'd already HAVE an S900 They don't. They want Timbaland styles. They want Outkast styles. They want 50 Cent styles. They want Muse styles. They want as many styles as we do. But not the same ones.

All the rock styles in any arranger today go back twenty years (at least!). You would kill a block party in four bars with any of the rap or hiphop styles we have! It is no wonder that arrangers are dismissed by younger players, to the point where they don't even want to see the WORD 'arranger' anywhere on a product....

It is by no means difficult for ANY arranger company to make a modern HIP and up to date arranger keyboard. If it wasn't possible Yamaha wouldn't have sold so many Yamaha DJX models. Shit.., that board was so MODERN for the time and AFFORDABLE that people bought one to play.., one to hold the door open, and one just to say "hey I got me three of em".

Even today the DJX would still give ANY top end arranger out there a good run for the money in terms of MODERN styles. IT CAN BE DONE. The problem is Yamaha had no idea how popular it would really be... Guess what happened...., that $299 arranger started cutting into the top line. Yamaha released a second version (totally stripped of many important features the original had).., then KILLED the line.

Donny.., younger players WILL buy an arranger if the styles were modern and up to date. The problem is no company is making it for them. Not only that..., but NONE of the top three companies are willing to admit they ain't got the style writers educated and skilled in the area to pull this off too. You spend all these years sticking to the classics., well that's what you end up with.., old fashioned out of date and out of touch "classic" style writers.



[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 03-06-2009).]