The pa4x replacement better be something different. They had 5 years....

A lot of companies that make workstations as well as arrangers are rather painting themselves into a corner, because traditionally arrangers are based around that company’s workstation technology.

But the trend nowadays is for extremely synth focused keyboards with very little attention to traditional sampled instruments, and it’s only getting stronger. Which leaves the VERY traditional instrument focused arranger somewhat lost for significantly new technologies to build on. A few more years of this, and arranger manufacturers could end up with having no really appropriate engine to power the arranger other than legacy stuff. Plus we are such a tiny market compared to the synth workstation demographic that it would be difficult to justify much R&D just for us...

Times and technologies move on, evolve, wax and wane. Some of the oldest amongst us watched the same thing happen to the flourishing home organ market. It’s happening slowly, but it seems we are watching it again...

As bands get smaller due to cost and singles and duos are still working there will always be a need to fill in the missing pieces. Unless its and Acoustic thing which is also very peopular here. Actually if I was looking I could find just as much work with a piano/drum machine as I could with an Arranger. So grab what you can now, learn everything about it before you go looking for the next new thing, and enjoy. playing. We have ehough available now to do whatever we need.
IT slooks like every pat of R&D will be effected with this new normal so I don't expect many new offerings in the near future.

Yeah, I look at the vast majority of workstation keyboards released in the last few years and ask myself just exactly what kind of gig would I use these on? The answer seems to be that they aren’t designed to gig that much any more...

The collapse of the band scene (happening long before Covid) seems to leave the majority of keyboard purchases going towards stuff you’d really only use in a studio, and most gigging keyboard players seem to be going back to Nord type stage piano/organs and older workstation stuff (legacy Fantom’s or Motif’s etc.).

I look with bemusement at the shift towards modular analog synths and all that weird stuff and wonder just how you monetize any of that stuff, or is it just for bored bedroom players with limited playing skills but happy playing simple phrases and widdling the knobs to create sci-fi sounds?!

It’s a confusing time for keyboard players... 🤯😂

Diki wrote:
“As so many of we arranger players are elderly, it’s a cruel disease that targets us disproportionately.”

After I read this my mind substituted the words, “The state of the art”, in place of cruel disease.

Wow,23 replays, I am not talking about the virus, it is the technology, I am lost with the subject, and it keeps coming. (smile)

In my younger days I did the same thing, just feel like complaining.
Have a great day, John C

I’m not so much worried about the technology, I’ve been all in on that. It’s about the ‘music’ that that particular type of technology produces, and its live application. Go listen to any synth demos, then try to figure out whether there’s even ONE venue in your area that plays that kind of music live...

I sure as hell can’t!

On the positive side, I think that arrangers have approached close to their zenith. Without actually needing to have any real grasp of the underlying technology, never has it been so easy to grab a one finger chord, create a quick chord sequence, and jam over a backing that is harder and harder to distinguish from the real thing...

Since the Technics 1000 I have bought every Technics up to the Kn7000, four Korg arrangers, three Yamaha arrangers, and now a Sx900. (Even had a Roland - wooow)
I was never disappointed because I expected small to medium advancements, if they put everything they have in the next keyboard, what can they sell next year. If they leave us like Technics. we would complain, and sing “IF ONLY THEY)

My second thought: There is so much in our keyboards, and my best bet is that most people never get to the full potential of their keyboards
ALL EXCEPT GARY. haaaaaa.

In the early days of computers, my advice was not to buy one you can learn in 2 months – or you will become bored.
John C.

I am often surprised at how little some of the features I consider essential get used by many players.

Case in point, I know I argued here for years about how useful the chord sequencer was, back when it was a Roland exclusive (or close to it), and was mostly met with blank stares and statements like 'why would I use something like that?' Strangely, Roland all but dropped the feature (I think it all but disappeared from the G1000 until the BK-9 and disappeared again) while both its major competitors picked it up and even considerably improved it (storage of CS files linked to registrations).

But I still don't read about many using it. Which puzzles me enormously. I can understand to a certain extent those that have only really mastered the one finger chord/one finger to solo playing style, although even there I wonder why they don't use the CS so that they can dedicate BOTH fingers to the solo LOL

But for anyone that CAN play with both hands, why would you want to tie up one hand repetitively inputting the same chords over and over? Many of us older players started out in bands, or playing organs with both hands and feet, often playing early synths with bend levers and expression wheels etc. None of which you can touch if your LH has to keep inputting the damn chords!

I'd love to find out how many of us that have arrangers that DO have a Chord Sequencer actually use it? Now that most do, is it being used as much as it could?

Hey, I resemble that remark! Honestly, that describes me pretty well. On most of the songs that I play, the chords change subtly from one verse to another, often enough that it doesn't seem worthwhile to record them. And if I make a mistake the first time through, then I couldn't replay the recorded sequence anyhow. My first keyboards didn't have a bender, or even a sustain pedal. To this day I have no clue how to use those! I couldn't afford a G1000 when they first came out. PSRs and early Korgs didn't have a chord sequencer. So the BK9 I bought last year was my first keyboard with a C.S. You can't learn to use what you never had!

Because I'm not good at comping or adding grace notes, multipad-triggered arps and chromatic phrases have more value to me in terms of enrichment and variety (because I couldn't play those arps and phrases in real-time, even with both hands!)

Since I *am* a left hand chords, right hand solo type of guy, chord sequencers lie on a "slippery slope"... With overuse of the C.S., pretty soon you're not really "playing" -- you might as well just turn on a MIDI or mp3. If single-finger chords driving a pattern-based accompainment is the musical equivalent of automatic transmission, then C.S. + multipads would be like Tesla autopilot!

Getting back to crucial features that aren't used by many players: I also like to edit styles, revoice them, simplify the bassline, etc. I make heavy use of sync stop and/or arranger hold "off," so that the sound ceases when I release the keys. "Free play" styles were a game changer too, although there's nothing really different or magical about them; they're just a specific use of the functionality that was already there. But- not all arrangers, especially the entry-level models, offer these possibilities. When friends ask me about keyboards, I tell them to beg, borrow, or steal to step up to a mid-range model. Even an older one. Because I just can't understand how anyone would play certain types of music without these options!

For me—look out – it used to be all that was going on at that time. (Kn7000) I would take pictures of the people and condo I was going to play in the coming weekend. They were put into the song in the (Kn7000) and play the song when while they were doing a sing-a-long, or a line dance.

Did the same thing with my email. Email a song to my friends, and they got too hear me play, and see my wife at the Grand Canyon. (nice)

Today, I just wanna play the music I love, and enjoy.
John C.