I wanted to clarify my previous statement about arrangers being used in a professional setting. Some professional keyboard players actually use arrangers as sketching tools to quickly compose ideas for songs on the fly. In the event arrangers ever get used on stage in an actual live performance I realize they would need to turn "auto-accompaniment" off. A big name band might have to tape over the name on the keyboard as well. Tyros7 might cause an audience to riot. Covering the name would avert that potential scenario.

All the best, Mike

Mike.....I think keyboard emulation of real instruments has actually come a long way in instrument reproduction. What HASN'T come "a long way" is the player's technique.....learning to play the characteristics of each instrument that the keyboard so faithfully reproduces.

I've seen so many players, when playing wind instruments, fail to use their pitch bend, vibrato, portamento, and, most important, remember to take "breaths" between notes. i.e. they play all "instruments" like they're playing a piano.

The keyboard can only do so much in trying to "fool" the listener. The rest of it has to come from the player!

Ditto!

And so I went to a neighborhood Festival last week. There I saw the ultimate in musical con artists. An 8 piece band that said absolutely nothing. All I heard was the 2 lead vocalists and the drummer playing so loud that I'm not even sure I heard the bass player.

Having that thought in my mind about "all you need is a strong beat and good vocals," I stood there and analyzed what was going on.

The first thing I noticed was the two lady keyboardists were just "stabbing" staccato type at their keyboards, so they could have been playing "15 year old boards" and gotten away with it. The stringed instruments (rhythm, bass) could have been converted broomsticks and no one would have noticed, or even cared. The Latin percussionist was drowned out by the rest of the band. And, BTW, the kicker was they had a "sound man" doing what a "sound man" does. Unfortunately, he wasn't up to snuff....or maybe he was smoking snuff....or maybe, ironically, he was doing the sound correctly.....turned up the vocals and the drums 'cause that's all that was really needed.

So, I'm not saying a OMB shouldn't sound as good as he can make himself sound. I AM saying I never really thought about current requirements for musical presentation until Bill mentioned it.

Throw in the "law of diminishing returns" and I'm now wondering why I'm spending so much time working on progressing as a musician, when, the average "bear" listener these days just wants to hear "noise" (as Don said).

For all of the 1980's I played every Saturday in the shopping mall. I played three keyboards simultaneously. I could have played only two but, knowing my audience was "discriminating" I wanted as much "variety" in sounds as I could get. In addition, I spent months tweaking the DX7 until every sound in my keyboard orchestra was perfect!

"Discriminating audiences want to hear real instruments coming from the keyboard" has been mentioned a few times in this thread. At one time, this was true, but times have changed drastically and a whole new generation is out there now. "Discriminating audiences" is a thing of the past now. Musical integrity has gone the route of stagecoaches and snake oil salesman.

Now none of this is neither good nor bad. It's simply "awareness." Couple that with what Russ said about "going where the money is" makes you stop and think about what you're doing.

I spent all those early years being a OMB and not getting input from other musicians. It's really rewarding now, in Internet times, reading everyone's thoughts about just about everything musical here in the SynthZone. Great comments from everyone.It certainly has helped me in bringing to my attention a lot of what I wouldn't have gleaned on my own. And I have an IQ of 812!