Last Saturday I played a job where my niece sang with me. She lives in Nashville, where she got a degree in music business management, is an amazing talent and very knowledgeable about the industry.
However, she was totally amazed watching me make music with the arranger. She had no idea anything like that existed. When she works alone she uses pre-recorded tracks (karaoke really) that she has either had custom made or has purchased and edited. She didn't know this option existed. She told me that in Nashville, you saw either 4-6 piece bands, or guys playing guitar and singing alone.
Last night, there was an almost equally-talent young lady, about 25, playing electric piano and singing in the lounge, while I was playing in the dining room.
She took a break and walked in to listen to me. She told me she works in a recording studio during the daytime and has been performing as a "single" for about a year, having grown up singing and playing piano in her church. Anyway, like my niece she was totally amazed at the arranger technology. She wanted to know how the background was generated, how the vocal harmony worked, etc.
She watched me for quite a while and finally said she still didn't understand all of it, but she wanted one.
My point is that I believe very few people, musicians or otherwise, have any idea of what modern arrangers are, or that they even exist. Many who see us playing the keyboard, assume we are playing along with tracks of some sort.
Also many remember the earlier cheesy Casios and Yamahas of 20 years ago, with one-finger chords and 4-note polyphony. Toys really. But they don't equate them with what we have now.
Question is are we a dying breed, or are we cutting edge technologists? Answer may be yes to both.

I find what your saying in the ignorance of the audiences and other fellow musicians who know nothing to what an Arranger KB can do & you can't blame them. Why should they know about Arranger KB's in the first place other then "WOW all that music comes out of that thing?" It is an art form to a degree using cutting edge technology.
But it's the "Talent" playing one that sets us apart. There is a place for the Arranger KB in dwindling live situations although the majority of live performance music is so branched out and with so many ways of making music today using so many means just be happy there is a small slice for us arranger KB players in the right situations. Where ever it goes I'm happy I was there in the very beginning after 20 years in bands playing keyboards/organs /etc.. discovering & playing arrangers in the early 80's up till today with an Arranger KB.
If they never made another model I'd be happy with what we have now..

The arranger, in my case, a Yamaha Tyros4, has been an indispensable tool in the recording studio where I can lay down a complete and high quality bed track in the time it takes to play through the tune...it's like a secret weapon or Swiss Army Knife.

Using the arranger "live" has literally guaranteed me work in places that are looking for something a little bit more than simply solo piano or guitar.

Like Donny, if they never made another model I'd be happy with what I have now.

Ian

Arrangers are great when used as a tool, not a prop or excuse for lack of ability.

I use them when appropriate, but there's something fulfilling about "going it alone", especially at high visibility venues.


R.

Don

I think its a catch 22 situation. There are very few arranger players out there so other musicians are not exposed to them. For the majority its have a totally live band, or part of a band with tracks, or do a solo with tracks. Everyone seems to follow the same path. I've educated a few players here about Arranger and have had the same reponses you had.
I'm falling in line too with the backing tracks but hopefully I'm still doing enough with Styles and playing live with SMF's as well as singing to keep it at a higher level.

Yes Russ I agree, going it alone is very nice but opprotunities to do so are few and far between.

I asked the owner of the venue where I work most why he was hiring more guitar player/vocalists now. He told me that there just wasn't anyone else around like me! He can't justify a full band, so one or sometimes two pieces will have to do. The good side is that he is one of the handful of upper classes venues that even have live music five nights a week.
There is a photo on the wall of four of us "one-man bands" sitting together. My friend HankB, Bill Bush, Billy Ledbetter and me. I'm the only one still alive. Last man standing.
It is necessary to a wide variety of music there, standards, blues, oldies, country, etc. The younger artists tend to specialize in one area.
There are about three or four high-end restaurants that have piano bars, five casinos and one honky-tonk night club and that's it.
Of course you can find a "jam night" to go to just about any night of the week. If you want to play for free and pay for your own drinks. And don't get me started on the karaoke places. Again, come and sing for free and spend money.
No thanks.

Like many of the forum members here, I began performing with an instrument other than an arranger keyboard. I kicked off with a guitar, a six string acoustic that I purchased for $20 in a pawn shop right after I got out of the Navy. At the same location I purchased a 100-watt amp, a beat up Shure mic, and a mic stand. I played some of the local blood and guts saloons, made hundreds of dollars a year, sometimes I managed to get a band job and split the same amount with four other guys - it was an amazing time in my life. I WAS A STAR! Well, kinda.

Then one day, while in a local music store buying some new guitar strings, the owner, who is still a good friend, showed me a Roland drum machine - WOW! This thing was incredible, and the owners of the bars I performed at said it really added to the performances. A few years later, I was in the same music store, and the owner introduced me to an arranger keyboard. He said, "You're gonna love this thing." He was right. It was a 61 key arranger, had 12 styles, and six voices. I was blown away, I used it in conjunction with the guitar and the audiences all responded favorably.

I don't remember the year, but the same store brought in some newer keyboards, one of which was a PSR-500. WOW! This thing was incredible. Then I purchased a big Apex stand, a triple decker, and placed a Roland G-800 on the bottom tier. It was a monster, really sounded good, but really heavy. I had that Roland for about a year when the PSR-5700 became available. It too was pretty heavy, about 51 pounds, sounded great and there were loads of styles available for it from a British guy, whom I believe still sells style files.

As the years progressed, I continued to upgrade arrangers and sound systems till I'm where I am now. I believe DonM is correct in that we were cutting edge technologists and still are. When I head south next month, I'm fairly confident that there were be a lot of have guitar will travels guys there, and if it is like the last time I was there, I'll likely be the only keyboard player on Marathon Key. Come to think of it, I didn't see any arranger keyboards in Key West either. There were a couple bands that had Motifs, but no arrangers, and no OMB arranger entertainers either. Are we a dying breed? I hope not, but only time will tell.

Cheers,

Gary

The reason most pros don’t know about arrangers is that they are not marketed to pro musicians and studios by the manufactures, as they are not (And never have been) designed for professional use, but for the home hobby player who wants to play music with minimum effort and at a reasonable price. (A task to which they are entirely suited for)

If you look at the professional pro musicians then they always seek out all possible options that may give them an edge in song creation, (Some songs have even used a stylephone) and these musicians you will find do know about arrangers, and while they may not use them in anger or final production, (Other equipment being far more suitable) as a scratchpad they are a brilliant piece of kit, thus giving these musicians the edge over others.

Technology wise arrangers are antique compared to the professional equipment out there, but they are all that is required for the job they are designed for.

Bill

Its not about the why now...

Its about what will be...

Personally i can see the best parts of arrangers being morphed into the ToTl workstations.... For example Yamaha might add things like SA2 voices, organ mode, styles play, ensemble play to the upcomming motif replacement..... Combined with other new things like internal Karma, yamaha mobile sequencer, the return of other synthesis forms and VST integration, Yamaha might be ready to convince the pro players that they can have a whole studio on the stage or in the home...

I hear Korg has something in the works like that.