Interesting Squeak. I don't know your friends but it seems a matter of horses for courses. If I were going to do large-scale synchronized music production (score a video for example) I wouldn't want to be limited to the tiny display on an arranger keyboard. But for LIVE performance... do these folks actually push pads on a grid controller, etc., in real time? Do they have a MIDI keyboard controller next to their PC? How easy is it to do a live set with a DAW setup?? Not criticising but asking a legitimate question, since I've never tried.

I would like to see some videos of folks doing live covers of pop standards with a Launchpad. (And presumably, a compact keyboard controller for melody.) Everything I see on YouTube, etc., is folks making their own "beats": House, Hip Hop, etc., or launching pre-recorded audio samples ("clips.") Not that that's a bad thing. But I play for fun, and I don't write my own music, so I never explored this type of setup because I assumed it wouldn't be useful to me.

I'm not saying that it CAN'T be done. But it would certainly take a lot of preparation. Maybe even a different setup for each song (although that isn't much different than the way we use registrations.)

I also wonder how competitive the ergonomics are (i.e., location of the primary controls, chord fingering and available chord selections, etc.), compared to a pro arranger.

I'm always looking for a better mousetrap, and for a long time I've wondered whether it would be easier to use a grid-type controller to trigger chords. (I don't play left-hand.) But seeing some successful implementations would be instructive.

Good try Bill, but nope. I saw a Roli Seaboard (i think) and an Orla C465! A couple accordions and one chromatic keyboard controller. But NO Launchpads, Ableton Push, etc. Maybe Dan should raise the price of vArranger so he can pay his web services bill. That page took so long to load, pardon me while I go and shave ;-)