One is Quirky, One is Pregnant, One is Cheesy....and where will Roland sit in this TOTL Mix in the Arranger KB market? This should really be interesting when they are all on the market at once as release timing is of the utmost importance for sales as is customer impatience.

One to the rescue..

I was thinking...if we put together all the bugs and glitches from all of the manufacturers...making it the biggest nightmare.....put a Yamaha label on it ..folks would buy it and swear it is great....

I think the new baby to be born soon...will in fact be a beautiful baby!

Let me tell you why, The current model is already superb, If Korg is comming out with a new model...it will be significant, bacause to add some sounds/styles ect would have been OS, not a new model.
They could just make you pay for new styles/sounds like Yamaha does.

It will be much more.
It's just a guess...I think they added KARMA, Flash RAM, Styles, DNC sounds, maybe more fills, etc.

Lee S.

My instinctive guess is that Roland will not return to the arranger arena...I think they will focus instead on pro instruments (stage pianos, organs, workstations), or home keyboards like the VIMA.

As Dennis said on another thread, " It started with the Fantom G really, maybe even earlier. The market was expecting something pretty big, and Roland delivered a real dud!!"


Then there was the terrible sales record of the G70 and then E80/60/50....bad marketing did them in.

I think they are struggling to regain their once substantial share in the keyboard market...couldn't have been much money left to do more R&D for new arranger features that would let them catch up to Korg and Yamaha.

A new Roland arranger would be nice to see, as competition always benefits us players, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Ian

Unless someone has some reall inside information, I'm afraid Ian's prediction may be more the case than the exception. Roland has been arranger-silent for quite some time now and nothing in their inventories suggests a move to create or bolster an arranger. The department which handled the G and E series did a f@#$-up job in promotion here in the US. It wouldn't surprise me if Roland stayed out of the arranger market until the general economy improved enough to support the R&D.

All the arranger players will be dead, by then! Unless someone comes out with something in the way of an arranger to attract YOUNG players, this dodo is headed for the happy hunting grounds, alongside the 'home organ' and the modular synthesizer...

Maybe you're right, Diki, but since the average ages for arranger buyers, in my experience, is between 40 and beyond, arranger manufacturers only have to keep adding things to cater to that group.

It's a home keyboard...home entertainment is paramount and big bucks...these instruments compete against home theatres, and other systems.

You're thinking that we'll be playing arrangers for the "younger" crowd, where, in most cases, we'll be playing for our own entertainment and to our own age group.

As the age bracket shifts, more 40- somethings will join the club, and the type of styles and features will change to suit them...those companies that don't change, stay behind.

Consider Casio...watch what they do...they know the arranger market, and it's future.

Former Casio owners buy MOTL and TOTL Yamaha, Korg, and at one time, Roland, arrangers.

Ian

If most of the arranger players came from the home organ market, and that is pretty dead here in US...then after all the current arranger players go to the big music studio in the sky....who will buy arrangers.

I blame the dealers/mfgs for not getting ne blood into the game.

Thse are really cool instruments loaded with great fun! Lots of age groups should be buying them....most people you run into don't even know what they are and how 'easy' they are to use to play their favorite tunes.

Dealers need to get out, be creatuve and sell, sell, sell.

Is this the same in other country's??
I don't think it is true in Japan...but don't know about the others.

Lee S.

Other countries, on the whole, tend to have much more traditional musics popular with both young and old. Although the young in Europe love going to raves, they will also happily join in a singalong at a bar or restaurant. The US has no singalong tradition (or very little of it), so arrangers are given a pretty wide berth by any young player.

After all, forty years ago was the SEVENTIES (scary, ain't it? ) and, while perhaps disco gets good shrift on modern arrangers, rock is definitely weak, and don't even get me STARTED on how poor 80's, 90's, and especially anything from this century is on an arranger...

Yamaha's DJX proved how popular arrangers could be for the young if styled and voiced right. Sadly, Yamaha dropped it like a hotcake. Obviously, the arranger division is completely incapable of relating to younger players (or anyone that doesn't want EXACTLY what they currently make, for that matter!), and so it all goes down in history along with all the other 'Whatever happened to...?' products.

Buggy whips for a Model T generation.