Well, "laughing all the way to the bank" is a relative term; you (or me) 'laughing all the way to the bank' is not the same as say, John Legend or Billy Joel 'laughing all the way to the bank'. In the words of my hero, DNJ, "just sayin'.



chas

All the upper level arrangers are great...most with great sounds features and quality keybeds..

What makes an arranger the best....flexability....we can do what we want..quickly, without limits..

Most "pros".. "Purist"...don't have a clue or hands on experience..for what they could accomplish with an arranger..

Myself, I prefer to limit the auto play parts..usually full piano mode, and use 3 auto parts ..drums, bass, and rhythm (guitar etc)..and almost always "bass on" with slash chords..

Quickly switch to SMF play with 4 markers..another big plus...On board sequencer for times when you need it..and onboard editing that rivals any keyboard....That is what non users are missing...

Remember also, that almost all of the top level pros (on TV/Concert circuit etc)do not need to provide more than their ONE part at a time ... there's a band for that. There are exceptions to the multi-taskers in Rock & Jazz history - consider John Paul Jones (Zep), Jimmy Smith(B3 master), Ray Manzarek(Doors) - all played bass while holding down the keys. That was the early suggestion that maybe one man could do more with better tools. Well, we have better tools now, so I intend to use them to their capacity. The argument of playing sequences as "boring" baffles me ... didn't we all start out just playing our parts while all the other parts were played by the rest of the band? (digital, or otherwise?)I see performing with a sequence as equal to performing with a band - I do my thing, and what I can't, or choose NOT to do ... is handled by other sources. Typically, I start the night with simple arranger patterns - left hand bass, right hand Rhodes and drums - as the night advances, I add more backing parts and use sequences or MP3s as called for. Some tunes just can't be beat in their original format, and the crowd responds in kind.
I love the flexibility of using all the tools, as I see fit to orchestrate the night. The best arranger? ME, of course ... I'm the guy at the helm - the big cheese, the lead vocalist and the caller of the tunes. It's GOOD to be the king.

The "PERCEPTION" in peoples minds of "Arranger Kb's" being the
"NEW HOME ORGAN" scenario is in full force and here is where the problem thinking lies. Home players regard it as one thing and pro Players gigging every night in what ever way perceive it in another way. But as a whole in the music industry an Arranger KB is a minority just look around you in a live music picture in clubs, TV, Concert, or any other live venues. It's just a instrumental automatic computerized tool that can be manipulated to do various musical chores in different ways for the player. But for the mainstream music scene its far from that in reality. Blame it on ignorance, laziness, or whatever you choose the facts are the facts. How this thinking will figure into the future that will show if Arranger Kb's Die Out we all have to wait and see won't we?

They don't build them for the rigors of the road because they are targeting a different audience. Some of the higher end pieces, like the 9000Pro, the PA3x and the Audya are all built like tanks and could easily find their way on a touring stage someday soon.

Of course most of this is from a United States point of view. I believe arrangers are much more widely used and accepted in other parts of the world.

I think you're right, Don.

Certainly not, Chas...I was speaking in relative terms, of course.

Now I go to the bank to give the tellers a bit of comedy relief...they look at my pension cheque and say, "Ha, you're livin' on THAT...what a joke!!"

My last year at my old house, I was so poor...the mice left!

Ian

I suppose I should have made my point more clear.

Playing along with a backing sequence can certainly be done in many interesting ways, and, this of course, depends on the parts you leave out (or shut off) and the portion you play on your instrument.

What I find particularly hard to watch is someone singing over the entire full backing and only occasionally, if at all, playing the odd melody or brief solo...this is sometimes accompanied by walking away from the keyboard completely and just singing.

To me, that's just plain keyboard karaoke....nothing wrong with it per se, but someone billing themselves as a "keyboard player" is guilty of an exaggeration...to "play" does not mean pressing the "play" button on the sequencer and letting the instrument do 99.999% of the accompaniment.

Yes, I do fully understand about playing "your part" in the sequence, as if you were in a virtual band...perhaps some piano or organ chords, fills and leads, and that makes perfect sense.

I suppose it all hinges on just how much actual live participation (playing the keys) is being done by the performer that would lift it out of keyboard karaoke and into an area where someone actually provided a relatively major part of the accompaniment themselves.

Again, it's not the actual singing over a backing track sans any real playing that I find hard to take...I think some performers that do this are very good and do quite well at it.

It's when they say they are "playing" but it is clear they are not.

We all have our pet peeves, David...yours is the word "gig"...mine is "keyboard karaoke".

Ian

Ian ... you said the "g" word!