The problem, as far as I am concerned is that yes, PERHAPS this kind of ‘teaser’ marketing might appeal to the younger generations, but arranger players are primarily (let’s face it, almost entirely!) from the generation that came from the era of no social media leaks (no social media in the 80’s and 90’s!) and we got our info from NAMM and Musikmesse from the manufacturers when they were good and ready.

The first we heard of something, it was in production, full specs and details and price were available, and we could judge pretty much on the spot whether it was something innovative, something we could afford, something we needed.

Now I got to wait God knows how long before Ketron decide to release any of that kind of information, and particularly in these days of supply side shortages and chip scarcity, just how long before it comes available to ship. Or if I could even afford it.

Bottom line, if I WERE actually looking at new arrangers (I’m not!) I couldn’t let this affect a decision, because who knows when they ship or what they cost?

Never owned a Ketron product but from what I've seen of their pricing history, this thing is going to make a Genos seem like a Walmart Black Friday sales item.

chas

Well, at least it’s cheaper than a a Wersi! 😂🎹

Here in Europe Ketron has always had similar prices to the rest of the big boys, (Although we are now down to 2 (Yamaha and Korg) so if it does what you want then go for it.
Interestingly there are more home organ manufactures than arranger manufactures these days, even though they became a niche market in the 90s. (Who’d have thought?)

Bill

There may be more organ companies, but I’d wager the total number of units shipped is still a tiny fraction of arranger numbers…

Then there are offshoot companies like Medeli, and Casio are still pretty strong in the segment, and while Roland may have left the upper end of the market, they are still busy churning out low end and low-mid end arrangers.

There are a lot of boutique car manufacturers making a handful of cars per year. I doubt Toyota are worried!

Ferrari too is not worried about how many millions Toyota have been sold last year (vs the 5000 or so Ferrari manufactured per year, intentionally limited not to inflate the brand).
I think they are more worried if the average price of their sales, per single car, is down from 400 k€ to 350 k€.

And, for what it matters, most people dream to own a Ferrari (being well aware this will never happen), I have never seen anybody dreaming a Toyota.

In Miami Vice, well known TV series of the 80s, Sonny Crockett drove a Ferrari, not a Toyota. I think this is not by chance.

I don’t really think of Ferrari as all that boutique. 8.5k/year units shipped isn’t exactly ‘boutique’!

How many units did Wersi sell this year? Couple of dozen? Now THAT’s ‘boutique’!

KETRON officially posted images of the EVENT and some of those who are officially working on the project simply echoed what KETRON put out. Not sure what was wrong with that - but I can say this for a fact, that as an Engineer working with/for KETRON since 2006, SOKRATIS 1974 does not fall into the category of someone who is "not in the know, or outside the official channels". I say this just for others who may read this and assume he is.

Thanks,

AJ

Exactly. You beat me to this response as this is what I was referring to above.

Thanks AJ..