I figure that professional entertainers/musicians probably make up less than 1-percent of the arranger keyboard market's sales. And, just yesterday evening, while watching Bar Rescue on TV, I discovered that Blues Music has completely fallen to the wayside (sorry Chas) and now only comprises 5 percent of the musical audiences in the United States and UK.

Now, if I were an arranger keyboard manufacturer, I would definitely NOT be producing a product that only appealed to 1 percent of the target audience. Instead, I WOULD be doing exactly what Yamaha, and apparently, most arranger keyboard manufacturers are doing - producing a keyboard for the masses.

I seriously doubt that the masses want, or need, a chord sequencer. And, does anyone believe the color of the case makes one bit of difference to them? Does anyone remember when those bright red boards were on the big stages? I was so impressed I cannot recall who the manufacturer even was.

Cheers,

Gary

Right on. Lloyd

I totally agree with Ian and Gary! Yamaha knows their market and knows it well. Considering all the different genres of music and their worldwide market they do a good job of offering a vast variety of usable styles. Any arranger I have ever owned had onboard styles I would never use and those same arrangers all had styles that blew me away.

I'm 54 so I must be their target audience. We have said this for 10 years..........How many members under 30 are buying and using arrangers? All my younger music friends have all gone PC with their music. But most of them didn't grow up with a piano or organ in their home............. -charley

The topics' name is not correct, this one was NOT filmed in the Netherlands but in Belgium (Brasschaat) at the dealers presentation. A little strange they were allowed to film.
The first official Dutch public demo will be at december 2nd in Music Center Oostendorp.

Im 32!

I was in my mid-30's when I started playing arranger type instruments, first the home organ type, like my old Yamaha D-85, but then I got a PS-55 (first Yamaha arranger with PCM drums) and then a PS-6100 (used FM similar to DX-7), and I was really hooked.

We went gaga over the PS-55's 16 styles back then, and then the the PS-6100 wowed us with 40! Unbelievable!!!!

A friend, fellow Caper, and new SZ'er DMAC (Donnie) still has his PS-6100 (amongst a shed load of other keyboards) and it works like new...Yamaha made great quality stuff back then too.

This was before Roland introduced the E-series arrangers, beginning with the E-20, and sent all the other manufactures scrambling back to the development labs to try and compete with it's incredibly life-like and comprehensive sounds and styles.

Finally, the playing field leveled and now Korg and Yamaha are the only ones left making the TOTL flagship models, although Roland is still pretty competitive with the new MOTL BK-9.

Now, after all that history lesson, my original point was that 32 isn't too unusual for an arranger user. More people are discovering just how powerful (and convenient) they are.

Ian

I also hope in the future arranger KBs etc, could be majorly upgraded with just an OS upgrade so we dont have to buy a whole new KB every year.....makes sense.

If they do that Donny, they will probably charge quite a sum for upgrades...it's business, and all these companies, Roland, Yamaha , Korg, Ketron, have to make a profit, no matter if we agree with their methods or not.

Ian

Yes but much less then buying a completely NEW unit..?

Maybe, but I suspect they still come out with new hardware as the technology progresses...just not as often, probably.

Ian