Diki has made a very good point here. My experience with the BK-9 may not be typical and it should not turn others off to the product. This is the main reason I tend not to post negative things about any keyboard. Each of us has our personal likes and dislikes about music in general and that tends to influence our thinking about various keyboards.

There is more here then meets the eye! My eye in fact. I have a very difficult time
reading in general due to a detached retina some years back. Therefore, if things are generally not intuitive on a keyboard I tend not to spend much time reading about them. However, with the help of my computer and lpad I did read this manual front to back - twice! The reason I have spent so much time with the BK-9 comes from my experience with the BK-7M which I liked very much but found it very difficult to use live. I had very high hopes the BK-9 would offer the same amazing sound that I got from the BK-7M with the convenience of having it all wrapped up in a true arranger keyboard.

I'll continue to play with it and see how it goes. If a buyer comes along before I get it gig ready it will be sold.

Deane

Good to hear it works for you Bernie and I am sure it will work for Deane or anyone come to that who wants to pair the small KMA to another arranger. For all of those with a Yamaha main keyboard I will add it here in another thread as we are straying from the subject, being the Roland BK9.
So here is info as how to best hook up a korg micro arranger to any Yamaha keyboard both MIDI and AUDIO wise:
http://www.synthzone.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/371635#Post371635

Regards,
John

Just in reference to the above, if you do want to link two arrangers, PLEASE contact your manufacturers of choice and beg, plead, cajole and DEMAND that they standardize the way you select Style Divisions and transposition.

While it is feasible from one arranger to select Keyboard sounds from another, there is still no standardization about syncing the two and having BOTH arranger sections play at the same time. Imagine a Korg's drums and bass, and a Yamaha's guitar Parts! Best of both worlds. Imagine how many different permutations of styles you could get selecting the bass from one, drums from another, then same style, reverse the Parts, etc., etc..

But currently, each arranger, unless of the same manufacturer as the master, completely ignores all Variation and Fill, Intro and Ending commands. So you can't run one from the other.

If enough of us show that this is a popular feature, odds are they will get together and come to an agreement about what codes to use. But only if we TELL THEM!

And Deane... get together with me on the Roland-arranger site, and let's see if I can't help you with either solutions or workarounds to problems you may have. I believe I've already posted the solution to the split point problem there...

Having owned Roland, Korg, Yamaha, and a few other brands, I can unequivocally state that the user/owner manuals for each and every one of them were poorly written. Not one manual, including the one that came my current keyboard, seems to have been written by a competent user. Instead, I believe they were assembled prior to the keyboard's release, placed in a Zip-Loc plastic bag, sealed and never looked at by anyone at the factory level again.

Fortunately, there are websites such as the Synthzone and PSR-Tutorial that tend to have a lot of very helpful individuals frequenting their forums, folks that have a significant amount of technical expertise, plus a lot of hands-on knowledge with the various brands and models. Not only does this save many new or inexperienced players a lot of time and effort by answering many of the technical questions that are NOT well covered in the manuals, but additionally, these same individuals usually take the time to provide step-by-step instructions on how to go about solving a particular problem. While this is not always the case on this particular site, without a doubt it IS the case at PSR-Tutorial, both on their forum and a number of other pages within the site itself.

As DonM said, the operating systems of each major brand has some great features, and each has their downsides as well. Personally, I've never really had a problem learning any of the operating systems, but without a doubt I can state that it takes years to learn every nook and cranny of any MOTL and TOTL arranger keyboard's operating system. And, just about the time you think you have an OS mastered is when the manufacturer makes dramatic changes to some of the more important features that you frequently use as a live entertainer.

Of all the operating systems I've used over the past couple decades I would say that Yamaha has been among the most complex and intricate. After nearly a decade of playing the 3000 I was still discovering things that I did not know existed - and I have a pretty analytical mind. That said, the S-950's operating system is quite similar, but guess what - I've spent two months getting this keyboard to sound the way I want, and I'm still not 100-percent happy. That's because many of the things we take for granted within the operating system have either been updated, and in some instances, removed. So, it's back to ground zero again.

Deane is pretty savvy when it comes to working with arranger keyboards, he has owned a lot of them, various brands, and like most of us, he knows what he wants to hear coming out of those speakers. He's quite aware of how to utilize most of the major features on every keyboard he has owned since I've known him, and like many of us, he spends countless hours digging into the bowels of the operating systems these amazing machines. He took a chance with his most recent acquisition, and unfortunately, it didn't do what HE wanted it to do. It's that simple.

Good luck Deane,

Gary