With the scaling buttons it surly is targeted for the middle east players and such,.....seems like a GW7/BK9 on steroids?
either way I'm sticking to yamaha just sayin'

Offcourse we are... sticking to Yamaha.. Did you know my T5 is still getting better with every day that passes, i only use the Kronos for pianos (mostly) Just cant get the KArma to integrate well with the T5 styles..


And about Roland, there hasnt been any real steps forward ever since the good old G70. And there is a good reason for that. People that can spend 4k on an arranger in general go for the best, and thats Yamaha, unless they have the need for deep edditing capabillities and creating a truely own sound, then they go Korg..

There is no room for a middle of the road between those TOTL arrangers. And so Roland stepped back out of the totl arranger market about 10 years ago.

This one is comparable to the PSR S770 in price, and they are aiming specifically at another market (eastern) to avoid the competition with YAmaha

Man, everybody seems to be so very knowledgeable about Roland...
Fact is, this little instrument, being priced maybe like a s770 seems to be really offering a much much value for the money.
We'll see. I hope there will be a 76 version of this, with added vocal processor.

I would love to see Roland come out with another TOTL arranger. Would be interested in Roland developing their great VH technology further and adding to their arrangers and stand alone units.

Marcus

I doubt you'll see that vision....
they went in another direction toward a different market then the rest.

The BK-7m sells well, this is where I hope to see an improved successor.

This particular aspect I find interesting about the perception over how Roland is doing that and that... For years now, people were saying that's it, no more arrangers from Roland, then before the BK9 came out, they say no MORE TOTL arrangers from Roland... And yet, it seems they are just doing their stuff and come up with models, no slower pace then any other manufacturer. What is with that? Why do we hear for good three or four years now - at least - how Roland arranger division is going dodo way and yet a new model (which looks quite impressive for what it is and for the cost) is introduced.
Anyway, looking forward hearing more demos of this. And more details about the packages for various regions or musical styles.

Lets face it is the New Roland arrangers even in the same class as the top 3 anymore?....
Well that's for the public to decide....?

I wish them luck in whatever direction they are going...

Roland is just making the first steps out of a life-threatening crisis, connected with the 2008 banking crisis and a number of desastrous failures in sales from Fantom G to the Jupiters. Several years in a row without profit.
Roland Europe had their last failure (in terms of sales and marketing) with the BK-9 in 2013, shortly before it was closed down by the parent company.
Then, as a next dramatic step, there was a management buyout.
So there were enough reasons to be sceptical whether Roland would continue their arranger division at all, and it is a pleasant surprise they have not abandoned it. It's logical they focus on the Asian market, you can read in their business reports that arranger sales were satisfactory there and desastrous elsewhere. I hope they will recover to the point where they can develop high-grade workstations or arrangers again, but it will probably take time.

How about a ROLAND/TECHNICS Comeback merger wow that would be nuts!!