Maybe the OP is confusing 'brand loyalty' with 'brand preference'?

I must confess, since the RA90, Roland's have been the only arrangers I have used. I've used lots of other stuff but none as an arranger.

Most of it boiled down to Roland's dominance during the early 90's with the products based around the Sound Canvas series. If you used SMF's, you used a Roland. And, wanting to multi-task, I figured out an arranger product that was based around the Sound Canvas could do both... This went on all the way to the G1000, arguably Roland's best arranger ever. After that, things changed, with often more being dropped (like the Chord Sequencer) than added (and some of the additions, like Vari-Phrase technology were of little practical use).

So I stuck to my G1000 for about ten years until the G70 came out. V-Drum kits, the amazing GrandX from the FantomX, the VK organ sim, touch screen, sliders, and the brilliant Makeup Tools editing system... it was time to move on. The only serious competition to it at the time was the PA2X, and it still hadn't drawn equal to Roland in SMF playback, had some weird fill issues, and wasn't equipped with as good a selection of styles (though those it had were great). Yamaha refused to bring out a professional 76 (9000pro had issues and I didn't like the sound) so removed themselves from the field of battle, never to return. SD-1 had the same lack of styles issue that Korg had.

So... my choices were limited. I stuck with Roland not out of fanboism, but simply because it was the only choice that did all I wanted at the time.

Fast forward to last year, and I wanted an arranger/SMF/MP3 player in a module form to go with my remote keyboard, and my choices were the hugely expensive Ketron (with all it's style shortage and lack of editing capabilities) or the affordable BK-7m, which was most of my G70's soundset, plus a whole bunch more. No-brainer!

So I've been a Roland 'preference' guy for 20 years or so. But not for lack of looking!

I've always been a ketron sound module guy (A2000, MS40, (2) X-4's,SD3) but their pricing is now a bit high...I'm getting a lot from my Korg now.

I think familiarity with the navigation keeps some with the same brand. I showed a friend mine but he was immediately stumped with Korg's operation and will not part from Yamaha.

Of course I'd want to know when Russ's SD5 goes on the block...

That's the price you pay for all that Korg flexibility... A pretty arcane OS to anyone coming from anywhere else.

You can save globals, styles, Performances, multi-pads, samples, voice edits, you name it. But all separately other than the Global.

One area I always thought Korg could improve is all that saving. Kurzweil's have a great system where you can save simply a Global. But... if you just want to load a voice, or a sample, or a multi-sample, or everything you need for just ONE performance, you can look INSIDE the Global file, and all the constituent parts are there. It's a great system to make backup easy, but detailed retrieval simple.

Korg would do well to look at this.

Korg would have to totally redesign the OS to change the File system the now use in arrangers....All Kbs should have a simple ONE BUTTON SAVE to HD/USB/folders, performances, registrations,etc. right on deck...just make changes and SAVE period and that's while playing also without a glitch!

No loyalty at all. I feel there some outstanding features on all the major manufactures keyboards and if I could afford it I’d have a couple of TOTL and even MOTL keyboards. But in reality I would hate to have to figure all those operating systems- that would not be time well spent. I feel pretty comfortable with my Tyros 2 despite not 100% satisfied with the sound of the drums and styles. If I were to get a Korg, Roland or Ketron I’d probably be satisfied with the drums/styles but not so much with the RH sounds. Plus learning a new OS would be a huge PITA… I rather spend my time working on my musicianship.

Yes... that's basically my approach. I really don't feel the need to lug multiple arrangers to a gig, so at the moment (and especially since the manufacturers make it impossible to 'link' any two together properly) I can't combine the best of two worlds or more.

But I must confess, my priorities are the exact opposite of yours, montuno. I tend to think that the RH sounds are more about what I play, and less about the sheer accuracy of the sound (a great performance can overcome a less than stellar sound), but the drums and styles, I have little to no control over. THOSE are the ones that I must have good, or all my RH work is wasted (to a degree). But both approaches work...

+1