For me the journey to an arranger began in 1971. I was recently married attending Florida State, working in a music store and playing in a 4 piece band. We had a standing job on Thursday nights. We went to play one night only to find out we'd been fired. Instead of the band, they had a guy on Cordovox with a drum machine. He had good vocals and his setlist was really good. The other guys in the band got all pissed off and left but I stayed. I stayed for 3 sets. I said to myself, I can do that. The next day I talked the owner of the music store into selling me a Lowry organ at cost. I also bought a drum machine and the rest as they say is history.

In the years that followed, I had some great OMB runs, I also toured with a couple of name acts, ect but I always kept the OMB in the back of my mind. In 1996 at a worship leaders conference, I saw a Roland G800. I played it and thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I still feel that way today every time I do a show with my arranger. I don't have a band anymore, who needs one? I currently play a Tyros 1 but I also love some of the other models out there. Long live Arrangers!

Joe

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Songman55
Joe Ayala

Ian,

The first arranger I bought was an off the wall brand, which I cannot remember at the moment, it sounded OK, had 30 styles. I used it for a couple years, then switched to a PSR-500, followed by a G-800, then back to Yamaha with a PSR-5700, PSR-740, PSR-2000, and finally the PSR-3000. Somewhere in there I had a Korg for a while, but I never liked the sounds and quickly sold it. The PSR-5700 and the G-800 both had great piano sounds, and if I recall, they weighed about same, too--both were pretty heavy. For me, the transition from a guitar and drum machine to an arranger keyboard was a dream come true. Ironically, there is a guy around this neck of the woods who uses the same Yamaha 12-string guitar, Roland drum machine and Crate amp that I used many years ago. And, he's working pretty steady in the bars, but unfortunately, the pay scale is still the same today as it was back when I was playing the bars--$100 for four hours. I'll stick with the old folks circuit. It pays a lot better.

Cheers,

Gary

Ian...
Very interesting topic and replies.
I was a drummer in a variety of bands until 1980 when local venues from the Holiday Inns and Ramadas to the Animal Circuits started using keyboard players using sequencers or drum machines.

My 5 pc scaled down to me and a girl singer. I used a Technics KN 700... later adding a Roland E-20 to the mix. (Looking back...I am almost embarrassed to admit that.)

From there, I took a major leap to a Yammie PSR 5700. I felt the piano was a bit week and added a Korg something-or-other to the mix. Together with these two KBs, cases and Peavey speakers, stands and amp...it took all the strength of my youth to set up for a gig.

When Yamaha introduced the 2K I jumped on it and loved it. The floppy drive was a bit of a problem...but that all disappeared with the introduction of the 3K....which I use to this very day.

Friends in the biz use a variety of KBs by Roland, Korg and Ketron....and they all sound good. But my Yammie 3K works for me.

Eddie

This migtht be a little off ... but my first Arranger (believe it or not) was a Technics sx KN***. I know it was releaed sometime in mid 80 and it was 49 keys -Silver/Gold color. The panel buttons were right at your finger-tip (above the keys) and these were silver. Speaker grills were actually cut into finish.

This keyboard was used in church and eventually replace our group (tired of bass player not showing up, drumer counting too fast/slow, so this was the way to go). Remember - we were just about 14 years then, but that was the start for me.

ANYONE HAVE A PICTURE OF THIS AND THE ACTUAL MODEL NUMBER THEY COULD POST/LINK HERE, PLEASE.

It didn't have that many styles and vocies so there was no great panel display ... you wanted a march style, you pressed the MARCH button. Wanted a string sound, you pressed STRING ... simple. Looking for a pic if anyone comes accross this. Memories!!

AJ

....lousy typist, too . Just kidding with you, Rikki. You NEVER, EVER, get any flak from anyone (a tribute to your personality) so I thought it was time you paid your dues .

chas

Ahhhh, but Chas...perchance Rikki was a lousy piano piano player, as opposed to a much better arranger piano player?

There be a difference, methinks (as I chivalrously, and unabashedly, come to the lady's defence).

I cam from playing organs in the early 80's

Then in the 90's i switched to keyboards for the auto accompaniment feats.. Later on other feautures like midi files strated taking my attention..

I have allways prefered Arrangers heavy on sound creation as that allowed to have the best of both worlds..

Only in recent years i picked up a more piano like playing style... allways sticked with the static chords on the left side...


If i had to do it all over again, i'd start out with piano instead of Organ... gives a much better base, and maybe i would have ended up in the synth market

Ahhh Ian, we can always rely on you to find a positive in anything . Well, for the record, I don't like your spelling of the word 'defence'. Although technically correct, it is usually a British variant and since you're not British, I find it insulting to the senses (or is that 'senCes').



chas

(why do old men seem to bring out the silliness in each other ?)

It's those bloody Canadian schools Chas...when we had an "English" teacher...they were "English teachers"...

Luckily, my Cape Bretonese comes to my defenCe....does that make me multi-linguistic, or merely linguistically polyphonic...does this make any senCe?

On arrangers, my neighbour owns a keyboard he hates so much, he doesn't want to sell it because he doesn't want to meet the person who would buy such a thing.


MAKING SENSE
Life makes sense,
and who could doubt it,
if we have
no doubt about it.

On being Canadian, we have to put up with the metric system, even in music...for instance, the song, "Five Foot Two" becomes,

“She’s a centimeter shorter than a meter and a quarter...

Has anybody seen my gal?"

See...it's not all free health care and unlimited complimentary ice. We suffer...really....and I'm not just being defenCive.

You, know the "C" does make senCe, it being the first letter in Canada...

I am a CanadIan, and a MusicIan.

Ian

We old guys can sure be cilly.

[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 11-15-2009).]

Synthzone (or is it Cynthzone), the absolute best, most effective, most efficient, place in the world for getting a good topic off track .

chas