You know the fault lies with the user..

Example Roland had the "chord sequencer " in production for more than 10 years, before dropping it on the G70, and added it again on the BK9.

Users rarely used it , and most owners were clueless what it did.

No wonder Roland dropped it.

Even with all the hoopla from Korg and then Yamaha bringing out the CS.. Most of those owners will rarely use it... if at all.

Buyers are weird.


Just think where electronic instruments would be if not for Roland

Fran it could have been Rolands fault on the G70 for NOT
presenting the CS good enough to the buyers market also?

Roland has only itself to blame. You can't readily find their arrangers in musical instrument stores, especially in the big chain stores. Instead of sticking with a consistent approach, they seemingly start over with a new development team for every generation. So exciting features are added (or resurrected like the Chord Sequencer), but others are dropped without explanation. Some of their products don't really hit their stride until "version 2," and by then a lot of the buzz or initial hype is lost.

Yamaha is haughty (see my comments on the other thread) but Roland seem to have no interaction with, nor a mechanism to elicit input from their user base.

When I first got back into arrangers I bought a Yamaha because I was familiar with the brand, the interface seemed more approachable than Korg, and it was highly recommended by the salesperson at my local store. A year later I planned a trip along Route 66 to look at classic cars, etc. After hundreds of miles I grew a little road-weary and wanted a break from driving. I spied a small music store on the side of the road and decided to check it out. THey just happened to have a dusty EXR-5 on display. I bungled my way through the OS well enough to understand the Roland chord intelligence, bass inversion, EP Chord, etc. I concluded that compared to Yamaha's "nearest black key to the left" nonsense, this was indeed a better mousetrap! If not for that encounter, I probably wouldn't be playing Roland today.

On a subsequent road trip to NM or AZ, I forget exactly where, in another small music store I stumbled onto a GEM SK-series, which I also found easy and fun to play, packed with thoughtful features. If it weren't so big and heavy I might have brought it home.

Yamaha's marketing muscle makes it the dominant brand in the US, and probably in Oceania too. But that kind of hegemony isn't good for the long-term health of the hobby. "Peak arranger" was circa year 2000. Since then we've lost GEM, Technics, and now probably Roland too. Medeli, Debeg, Kurzweil arrangers are inferior copies of Yamaha products that literally offer nothing over a PSR-SX700. If these companies really want to step up and compete, one of them should make Roland a blockbuster offer for full intellectual property rights to its arranger technologies, and continue to develop them! If not, well there's always eBay!!

I'll bet after all the Roland G70s made a few were hoarded up and now reside in someones house, store room, etc, brand new
old stock in boxes never opened? It could be true.

Roland is actually known for its awkward marketing choices..
They allways try to innovate ... moving forward... but also dropping things from their backseat..

The current Roland arranger was made mostly for south east asian markets and succeeded very well at that..

I think they left the western arrnager market behind when they closed down Roland Italy. Never understood that, the company was still making money. But then i didnt study economics..

Roland keeps looking for new and old markets all the time.. but they are more back to their roots then ever, being a synthesizer company first.. (with digital piano being a good seccond) ..

I had two G70s years ago Steve and gigged them too..
yes heavy and awkward to transport...
but everything else about them was way ahead of the pack.
Pro arranger all the way.
A New Roland Fantom/G70ish hybrid would be the ultimate arranger KB.

Roland will always have their PRO following..
their digital keyboards are amazing.

https://www.roland.com/global/products/rd-88/

Actually, they are amazing, yet i still tend to think allmost all their sounds are a tiny bit unnatural, almost synthy in nature.. for example their V-piano sounds.. or their super natural acoustic sounds... i still hear the Roland nature of those sounds.. which i personally don’t mind, it gives them character and depth..

But i allways hear the synthcompany back in most of their sounds..

Bachus we all hear it differently.....but there is no denying the Roland sound has been in so many hit songs thru the years and still today remains the pros choice for many players.
If I was a Piano player I would probably be playing a Roland.

Bachus, I agree, and that's why I sold my G-800 many years ago - the sounds did not have the depth I had hoped for. Plus it was heavy as Hell!

Gary