I know that basically pushing the bass and drum track about +10 in the mixer makes most arrangers (that figure is from Roland’s, other brands my differ a bit) sound a lot more ‘live’ and punchy, along with taking off much of the usually too aggressive master compression.
I doubt we could get any two arranger players to agree on what constitutes the ‘perfect’ sound… what works at home doesn’t work in a quiet restaurant, what works in a quiet restaurant doesn’t work in a noisy dance club, etc., etc..
Each new generation of arrangers raises the bar. But where each of us wants that bar set varies wildly. Korg release a product with the bar in one place. But as long as the tools for moving the bar to where you need exist, we shouldn’t really complain that Korg’s choice isn’t ours,
Roll up your sleeves, expect to have to do a fair bit of work. I can’t think of an arranger that didn’t need some! 🎹😎
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An arranger is just a tool. What matters is what you build with it..!