But the key point that is continually overlooked is that if you dont use a single arranger style you still have a great sounding keyboard and if musicians would stop being led by the nose they would see that EVERY KEYBOARD should be an arranger or arranger kind. You can use what you need for any given situation whether in a band, in a studio or OMB. And indeed this is exactly what we are seeing in almost every workstation right now. All of them to some degree or other are carrying arranger type functions, call them Arps , Call them patterns, Call it Karma, they are all marketing hype for the same principle. I play my keyboard probably 50% as a straight up keyboard workstation and the other 50% as an arranger for composing and playing live with a choir and sometimes with other live musicians in straight keyboard mode and arranger mode. No one has ever said to me " Worth you shouldnt be using an arranger with this band" or "you cant use this aranger to record tracks for our songs". In fact saturday just gone a friend of mine asked me to record some tracks for him based on some loops i had preprogrammed into my arranger keyboard that he liked . He was astonished at what my PA1x could do and he kept asking me if i had bought external samples for my instrument. When i told him that i was using all internal sounds he just kept shaking his head. I programmed this bass funk grove on my keyboard a few weeks ago and a bass player who was listening thought i had sampled a bass grove and was playing back the sample. Listen to the groove here. Forget the lead sounds and concentrate on the drums and bass. Its really time to take the blinkers off and realise yth incredible flexible machines we have under our finger tips.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQql7g_kcX0&feature=channel_page

I'm still VERY interested in this board, and it's a relief for me to hear that many songwriters on this board (and Nashville) use arrangers as songwriting tools because that's what I bought it for.

Ironically, I have ended up using some arranger styles on stage - almost solely for "Old time" dancing - I mean that literally btw (Barndances, Swing Waltzes, Pride of Erin's etc)


Don't have to sell me on the PA1-X though, lol VERY live sounding sounds right OTTB.

Hi Frank,

Now that you have had a few days with the Mediastation, what is your opinion?

BTW: The link in your signature is non-functional. You need to move the [/url] directly behind http://www.audioworksct.com. It is currently behind the phone number.

------------------
Wm. David McMahan
LearnMyKeyboard
JazzItUp Band

The more I sit down with it the more I learn and realize how open ended this is.

It's a system that has endless possibilities, it is not, and I repeat not a keyboard for anyone who just wants to turn it on and go, and I don't mean it sounds bad and needs to be re-worked, it needs to be fitted and adjusted for you use, like a fine TAILORED suit.

Hi Frank. I honestly am not trying to cause trouble or scare you off but are you going to stick with this machine for a few months and then show us what you actually did with it to tailor it to your needs ? Again i am not trying to create anything here. I just want to hear what the MS sounds like after someone has had time to make it into the sound they want to hear. I am not telling you that you have to do this ...it would just be nice to settle this matter .

Difference, of course, is that a fine tailored suit is made by a TAILOR, not you with needle and thread! How many of us a great tailors?

And why wouldn't anyone want something you can sit down and turn on and play immediately? Everyone seems to think that adding this capability would take away from what it can already do. Utter rubbish...

All it does is ADD to what it can already do.

Diki & others MS critics,

With all due respect, you guys probably need to tone it down on your criticisms of MS especially the ones directed personally to synthzoner.

Why ?

MS owners are few in numbers. We need them to give us feedback and helps !! It is to our advantage. Come on, you guys ! We have to play nice. We really need Dom here so we can encourage him to develop the MS to our likings (arranger players'). We have to know how to balance out our criticisms. Someone here needs to send emails to Dom personally to ask him to come back.

Look past Dom's arrogance and see the potential. It is way past time now to stop criticizing heavily and it is time to repair the bridge.

Right now, Dom is our best hope to develop the ultimate arranger. The other big mfr is busy creating closed system and milking every penny out of us. At this moment in time.

I also hope the new US dealer for MS can filter out the good stuff and get to know the beast for the rest of us here.

-Han

Some people here do not like to play nice...it's just in their nature.

Don't pay attention to them. Do your own thing and share with us all. We are listening carefully.

Lee S.

Some people need to understand that any critiscim has been aimed at the instruments short coming and not the owners. And if any of my postings have been disrespectful to an MS owner then i apologize unreservedly.

Dom is a big man, not a child. He came on the forum purely to tout his product and he has made some incredibly boastful claims of this instrument over the last 4 years that simply have never been fulfilled. He has also been incredibly rude in his defence of his product. Thats a big mistake for any Salesman to maketo the people he is trying to sell his goods to. If Dom has decided to leave then thats his choice. But its probably not a bad decision as now he can spend time looking for customers that want his product rather than trying to persuade people that we should want his product. I have said before and i will say it again, i wish him and his product well. But like anything , if you try and sell something to people you have to show what the product does that meets the needs, wants and desires of the customer it is aimed at. Dom has not grasped this and has simply produced pages and pages of technical specs to sell his instrument or packing the instrument with tonnes of features, NONE OF WHICH CAN BE DEMONSTRATED TO APPEAL TO REAL WORLD ARRANGER CUSTOMERS and then infering and sometimes downright insulting the intelligence of his potential customres because we have not supposedly grasped the concept of the MS !

In the last few posts Dom seems to have realised that he needs to Focus his attention elsewhere and that as far as i am concerned was the smartest move he has made in terms of the success of his product in the last 4 years. Once again i wish him well.

However i see no harm whatsoever in asking MS users to show us why they love their instrument so much. I dont ask other keyboard users because examples abound everywhere that show why anyone would consider them to be great instruments.

Now this is not a challenge to MS users, and its not a reprimand. All i am saying is your skin is too thin. A request to demonstrate why you love what you play is not rude or insulting so whats the problem ? If you dont want to demonstrate it thats fine. Dont. But dont get upset if you post how great the instrument is on the forum and then people like me naturally ask you to show me . That makes no sense.

[This message has been edited by spalding (edited 03-14-2009).]

Careful, spalding...

Making total sense on this forum has not got anyone much other than insults and bile...

Curiously, the same people that think that the MS owners don't need to illustrate their points are the same ones that LOVE to hear other people's work, and discuss the work... or the arranger.

Sauce for ther goose should be sauce for the gander...

I know, I know... maybe it will bug someone, but I GOT to say it. Personally, I think the only reason someone would NOT post any of their music made on any specific arranger is that they have NO confidence in it at all... But they will brag, and brag, and talk and talk. Bullsh*t walks. Music talks.

There is simply no way of getting round this. If the MS had killer factory demos, sure, you could say 'why bother' But they don't. If you claim that the MS sounds MUCH better than the factory demos (that ALL of us have listened to and mostly been underwhelmed with, to be kind), why would you NOT post it? Other than perhaps you DON'T think it is as good as a T3 or even a G70.

Because, if you do, what have you got to worry about?

Personally, I think it is MUCH easier to say the MS is great than it is to actually MAKE it great...

Fight the good fight, spalding...