Hello,

I think it's safe to say he has really warmed to the Event! I have the same fuzzy feeling when I play this keyboard as well.

Hello!

The gentleman doing the review posted another in which he seems NOT so happy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQFZXTE6Qa8


This really caught my attention as I am very interested in an EventX. If some people here can't trust it yet in a gig, why would a home player want trouble either? I already have a PC if I want these glitches! Can a software fix take care of the problem? Is this more than an isolated issue? Thanks. -charley

I think the main problem is the mad rush to monetize YouTube content. Early bird gets the worm, and all that..!

So you get gushing reviews designed to attract and excite, at least long enough for the YouTube algorithms to count as a full watch. But eventually the reviewer has the product long enough for the niggles to sort themselves out into those you can live with, and those that you can’t.

And then you get ANOTHER review based on practicality. Often diametrically opposed to the first. A win/win for the content creator, a lose/lose for the watcher unless you control your enthusiasm until the second review gets uploaded..!

Thing is, most of us already have one (or more!) arrangers that do a great job. If you’re a pro, you’re set. If you’re a home player, your current arranger sounds as good as the day you got it… maybe even better if updated or edited well. You aren’t going to get anyone in your audience going ‘You should have the new, just released latest model, we’re going to go find someone who has one until you do!’

You CAN afford to wait until the dust settles, until the drawbacks are all found, until the drawbacks are FIXED, even… especially when trading in the previous model for the new. There’s no guarantee the dealer will still have your old model once you realize you might have migrated too early and want to swap back.

Let the YouTubers gush then rebound, then take a look at the product after the first update, and see if it addresses the more important issues you might have. You definitely want to place importing and easily using all your careful work from the previous model you just traded away high on that list. Unless you want to replicate the last three or four YEARS of your work!

I personally can’t think of many YouTube reviewers that I honestly think make their main living actually PLAYING arrangers exclusively. Hence the delay between the first gushing review and the more realistic follow-up review (you can always tell the non-arranger players by the fact they rarely do a follow-up!).

Also, gushing initial reviews tend to help these guys get a crack at the NEXT new model to continue the cycle of monetizing content. And on and on, rinse and repeat. Most of us regulars have been through this process ad nauseam, sooner or later the shoe drops.

Me, I don’t believe anything until I’ve had the arranger for about a month, and that’s often six months or more after its release! Running through all the things you NEED it to do, finding out if they still work, finding out if there’s a different way the new arranger does things, finding out if it’s better or not, finding out if there’s a workaround that might be acceptable (or even better than the old way!), all that takes time…

In the meantime, keep your old arranger! Trade-ins are handy at keeping the cost low, but you run the danger of finding something you can’t work with until you can’t swap back. I don’t think I’ve traded in an arranger since I went from the G800 to the G1000 (which had very little difference other than the ZIP drive instead of the floppy disk), and that’s a LONG time ago..!

Diki, a question...let's say everyone in the world follows your advice to NOT be a 'first adopter' but wait until more information comes in on the new model....who then would be providing that information, Jesus, Jeremiah, Muhammad???? Can't rely on the 'professional' YouTube reviewers as they always give "gushing initial reviews to get a crack at the NEXT new model to continue the cycle of monetizing content". Dammm...there goes my dream of being the first guy on the block with my fusion-powered car. Oh well..

chas

Don't worry Chas. I posted a couple of weeks ago that the new Genos 2 was about to be released on the 15th November, after seeing the countdown on Yamaha Europe's site. I then had an email from my dealer confirming the new Genos and received ths reply to my post -

"And dealers ALWAYS tell truth, right?

Until I see the full official announcement from Yamaha, with photos and full specs, all the above reasons to be skeptical still apply."

It appears to me that nobody else knows anything at all about keyboards other than one person. l'm still waiting on an apology for dismissing my thread, but I won't hold my breath.

Kind regards,

Russ

We're just 'funning' you Diki. Oh, and by the way, I want to apologize for not including you in my list of great prophets in my previous post .

chas

We on this site are hardly what I'd call ‘typical’ arranger users. Let’s face it, we’re a few dozen engaged users! If we are the industry’s future, it’s no wonder Roland quit making them!

But, let’s just say the trend becomes to wait until the dust settles on buying a new TOTL arranger… I certainly think this would ramp up pressure on the manufacturers to ensure they don’t release half-finished product thinking that somebody will buy it no matter what state it’s in.

Anyone remember the days before OS’s could be updated? Somehow the manufacturers weren’t so desperate for sales that they ignored obvious bugs, knowing they COULDN’T take their time and fix it when they felt like it.

I don’t offer advice thinking that everyone will follow it… I know there are people that don’t think at all, and buying the ‘latest, greatest’ is a reflex. Thank God there are, in these days of few brick and mortar music stores carrying TOTL arrangers for us to actually play before we’re forced to buy..!

I just hope that here on SZ, the home for ‘dedicated’ arranger users, there’s an opportunity to inject a little sanity into the mad rush for new product. If we ALL here waited a few months for the truth to come out, I doubt it would even make a blip in the sales figures..!

You want to know what REALLY dooms the Arranger market.....BUYING ONE EVERY TEN YEARS. Innovation is driven by the competition derived from a spirited market. No company is going to spend tons of money on R&D when "influencers" are out there bashing their product and telling consumers NOT to buy until their product has reached THEIR concept of perfection.

SOMEbody has to be first, and it could very well be the guy/girl that truly loves new, fresh, innovative product and not just the guy/girl who has to be the 'first kid on the block to own one'....or it could be the guy/girl who just wants one, can afford one, and don't feel as though they owe anyone an explanation or justification...and further, don't want to be criticized for their decision. Soooo, want the industry to survive, nay, THRIVE? Get out there and buy some product. If it turns out you don't like it, send it back. The manufacturer will respond with a better product in the next generation but healthy sales will at least garantee there will BE a 'next generation'.

JMO.

chas

Arraangers are a dying breed, as the demograph has changed and the youngsters no longer want what an arranger offers.
Just like home organs were extreamly popular (There was almost a shop on every corner), sales started to drop off as the demograh changed and the spin off of the easy play features on home organs spawned the arranger. (There used to be many home organ manufaxtures, however we are now down to 3 in western markets)
The amount of larger arranger manufacture left are very small compared to how it used to be, plus new arranger replacemnets are getting longer, as the demograph just isen't there.
Sorry to say but the Arranger (Like the home organ) heyday has passed.

Bill

I think that the rot has been ongoing for arranger sales for at least ten years (maybe 15!). One of the ‘majors’ has already left the segment while the rest of the company’s products thrive. This is a bit different to the collapse of the home organ industry, which tended to take the entire company down with them as they put all their eggs in one basket.

The rest of the surviving manufacturers have increased the time between models to close to double the length they used to (and few of them are released in anything close to a ‘finished’ state!). This has tended to ramp up the speculation and desperation to fever pitch and the consequent disappointment that so little may have changed despite twice the R&D time.

I remember the death of the home organ well. I used to demo and sell them. That wasn’t how popular music was going, synths were covering the traditional role of the organ player in bands, and home players were finding out that a single manual arranger was a far cheaper alternative to a massive organ with two manuals and a pedalboard (that rarely got played in its lifetime!).

Personally, I think the arranger industry should concentrate on adding arranger tech to existing workstation keyboards rather than the other way around. Things like the Montage M and FantomX are the future of pop music, but would definitely benefit from some basic arranger chord recognition in addition to arpeggiators (two totally different ways of interpreting what you play), and some of the arranger’s OMB ease of use features (lyrics display, emphasis on live changing of sounds without having to change volume or effect levels).

Asking an already struggling arranger division to come up with integrating workstation features into a ‘normal’ arranger seems to be beyond their tiny R&D teams’ capabilities in any decent time frame. It’s time to accept the ‘pure’ arranger is too niche of a product for meaningful timely development, but piggybacking arranger stuff onto existing well developed workstations may be its only survival strategy…

I remember the days of watching floor space in stores devoted to home organs make way to synths. I’m pretty sure that the same thing has happened to arrangers. The solution was to add organ backing functions to those synths, not to add synth functions to home organs (although a few tried with little success).

Perhaps the current arranger manufacturers could take a lesson from the last paradigm shift? Integrate with what the market is using, rather than riding the Titanic down to a watery grave… 🎹