Donny,
There are so many choices for players these days it boggles the mind. It seems to me just about any player of any genre can find an Arranger that will fit their needs. I use Dan's Varranger on gigs too and it has many very strong features the best of which is Dan's loyalty to his customers. Right now I am deep into my S950 and like it a lot. I might take another look at the BK-7M in the future.

Yea, I'll be 73 this year - but you never stop learning in life.

Deane

Don't mean to start a pissin' contest here, but I've only heard the 5 live, but I've listened to most of the samples, and neither of them seem to sound as good as the PSR-3000, at least to me. But, what the Hell - I'm deaf as a post, but my audiences sure as Hell are NOT! Just because it's new or different, doesn't mean that it sounds all that great.

When I listened to those sax samples DNJ posted I thought they sounded like a Kazoo. At first I thought this may be a function of my tiny PC speakers, so I connected my Bose L1 Compact to the PC and it sounded worse. I then borrowed a high-quality Bose headset from another boater here and by golly, it sounded just horrible. I may have some hearing loss, but not at those frequencies - TO ME, they just sounded lousy.

Just the opinion of an old man living the dream in Paradise,

Gary

No I am with you Gary rather have all my teeth pulled out with cold steel, Roland my butt...waste of money

[quote=hammer]Donny,
Because I did own both the BK-7M and the BK5 I am convinced they are not the same. I did not keep the BK5 very long but regardless of what I tried it never sounded as nice as the BK-7M.

I sold the BK-7M because at the time Roland did not allow any of the OTS voices to be changed and saved. That has been corrected in later OS updates I believe. Also, at the time I did not know how to program my controller, a Roland A-800 Pro, to control the unit so I had to make changes on the unit itself which did not work for me during live gigs.

I actually have been thinking about buying another one. With the controller programmed properly all the needed controls would be right at the keyboard.
I think Don had his setup that way.

Deane

The BK7M with the latest update does allow you to save your One Touch setups ---BUT !!!--- It does weird things when you try to program it. Seems to get tangled up with the PART settings and can be confusing. I've spent many hours with it and sort of have it figured out. Called Roland and they weren't any help. I think it definatly has bugs but they can be fixed.
The reason I'm going through all this trouble with OTS is I like to use three different sounds in my RH where the Part settings only allow two. I though I could get around this by using the MI as I do on my G1000 but no go. Its either MI on and replaces one of your RH parts or off. No way to do it with Velocity or a pedal.
the other weird thing is the data wheel. When I go out to my garage studio and its still cold in there the thing won't progress through the menus. Starts forward and then jumps backward !!!!
Get one and we can swap problem solutions HA!

Hey guys I still can't figure how you think there is a difference in the sound engines...other then revoicing of styles..

Here are two recordings similating Deane's sample demos..I recorded on the BK5 using the Audio recorder...than converted to MP3's...One touch settings and non edited styles and tones...

Deane I think either you had a bad BK5 or Mastering was set up wrong...Did you have the latest OS...no, the newest came out after you sold the BK5 ..1.03..

The BK series sound source (engine) is the E-50/60 engine..the BK series lacks the quality sound (richness and detail) of the tones in a side by side test with a G70...

When tested..the E-60 and G70 comparison had the same results..

The BIG plus on the BK series are the "New" drums..

killer demo of the BK5 Fran...
Roland surly has such a rich quality sound as shown in so many of their products which makes them stand out. I gotta tell you these MOTL arrangers such as the BK5, Pa600, S950,etc, have raised the bar.....they are all very close in so many ways feature & sound wise,..Same thing goes for TOTL units also ....it's just the players choice which to buy learn, plays & enjoy. This silly mine is better then yours is getting a bit old...all these different demos prove it beyond a doubt.
At this rate it all comes down to the players abilities, experience, and creativity.....
just buy one and start enjoying music I say!

I personally believe you should ALWAYS turn the Mastering Presets off when comparing arrangers. Personally, I believe there is too much compression and too much jacking up of the low end in Hammer's examples. Don't get me wrong, that's probably how it came OOTB (set up to sound decent on wanky cheap speakers) but if you ever want to compare apples to apples (Granny Smiths to Golden Delicious's!), listen to them all without that junk applied.

Or at least make the effort to copy the same settings to both.

I am still waiting to get my friend's BK-3 back (although I think he is trying to swap it for a BK5 so he can use an expression pedal) so I can definitively listen to it alongside my BK-7m.

Just from general listening, I felt the BK-3 had much shorter loops in many of the samples, or fewer samples (stretched further) to give it an overall loss of vibrancy and depth to some of the sounds. But, OTOH, much of it seems pretty much the same, including many of the great drumkits. But until I get them back to back, I'm not prepared to stake my life on it.

The BK-7m and BK-3/5 have a lot of styles in common. It ought to be a quick job to play them back to back with their Mastering effects off, and see what the TRUE difference is.