The Lazarus of threads! 😂

Boring often gets two different levels of recognition. One, from those that always have played with machines, then from those with (at least at some point or another in their lives) some experience playing with other musicians.

There’s a level of surprise a real player can throw at you that no number of multipads or styles can ever equal. For starters, arrangers are slaves to the input chord. No matter how different the style or multipad might be, at the end of the day, you tell it to play a C chord, ALL its parts are going to play a C chord.

Not so, real players! Every now and again, someone’s going to play something different that will take the music somewhere else, you weren’t expecting it, but there it is. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But your arranger will never do it.

So, to avoid boredom you have to work incredibly hard trying to work around the arranger’s slavish devotion to what you play. Reprogramming style or multipads, using audio loops etc.. But, in the end, because you had to do all this in advance you lose that sense of surprise. You know it’s coming because you programmed it to do it.

No surprises. 😢🎹

I didn`t realise that these posts date back to 2018,it wasn`t
until I saw the post from Don Mason that I checked the date.
As it is almost 4 years ago I would imagine that aaranger keyboards are much less boring.

I always enjoyed the excitement of waiting for the next model of an arranger to arrive, right from the rumour stage, from the photoshopped pictures that then turn out to be true leaked pictures & specs, then the debates & arguments we’d all participate in until it’s release, all seem to have become fewer & far between because the gaps between each release has more than doubled now, possibly making things stale.

The last exciting release I can remember was the SX900 which turned out to be such an awesome instrument (for me) that I recently sold my T4 to get a second SX900 as I can’t see Yamaha updating that anytime soon unless it’s by a major OS update.

I think an arranger can add some variety, on the fly. Adding pads, using intros/endings and a host of other surprises bodes well to mix things up. Flowery chords add an element and I enjoy the unexpected band that follows at times. If set up properly, the audience doesn't seem too locked in on boredom. It's also a lot of fun;kind of like painting a picture, IMO. Happy New Year everyone.

This applies to all arranger keyboards from any manufacture, in that the styles are all monotonous and just playing along to them gives no true fulfilment. (Much better to play the song yourself with just a simple backing as it’s much more satisfying)

Bill

Starting with a simple backing is a good start. One who finds no fulfilment is not digging deep enough, IMO. There are many ways to enlighten the soul of the song, even in arranger mode. I do find some models extremely predictable, but I find Korg styles exciting and moving. So glad we are all different.