Just curious:

What order do you rank the market arrangers for easiest use in a live performance.

zuki

The best arranger to use in a live performance....hands down...the G1000..
The followers in no particular order..VA-7, E600, SD1,X1..as for the Yammies, I got tired of holding my breath, wondering if the wrong drums will appear with a SMF..
The Korg's are in the lower group too, because of poor searching of files..

Like I said, nothing beats the G1000..

Hi Zuki
Have a look at the Wersi OAS instruments, particularly the Ikraus as these are designed for live play as they have at least 28 real time controls, (Sliders) access to at least 36 sounds with 1 button press, 324 sounds with 2 presses and 1620 with 3 presses, likewise styles, at least 14 with 1 press, 126 with 2 presses and 630 with 3 presses, 2000 Total Presets (Patches) 1500 user programmable, (These can store almost all features of the instrument (Selectable) including 9 sounds per layer and 9 styles, in addition to the direct access sounds and styles previously mentioned) Style buttons can include Styles, Real Drums, Midi, Mp3, Wave or Video files. Also the instruments are constantly upgradeable by software.
World web sites are currently being updated but the main German site www.wersi.de has some sound demos and videos of software version 6, with version 7 due out soon.
Also please remember the old saying “What is ones mans meat is another mans poison, or in our case what suits one person in a live situation, can be a pain in the rear to another.
Hope this helps.

Bill


[This message has been edited by abacus (edited 09-07-2005).]

General music's Genesys is a joy for navigation and with 1024 user presets make them a real joy. It has sliders for instant adjustments for volume Etc. The Pro weighs a lot less so is much more portable. These instruments are worth taking a very hard look at.

I cant' say how Genesys compares with the Rolands that Fran speaks of but I would bet he would be pleasantly surpised. I've had the Yamaha Psr 2000 and the Technics KN 7000 and I feel the Genesys blows them away in General ease of use. The sounds and styles are subjective and this post was about use in a live performance.
Jerry

Jerry, I did get a chance with Dave[Gem rep], we covered a lot of features, and it is a great instrument..I am sure it is a good "live" instrument, but takes time to get use to it[as all instruments]..

What I like about the G1000, easy access to thousands of styles[immediately loaded on the downbeat of the next measure in real time.Thousands of SMF's with easy search features, and they can be linked with performances[allowing you the set up of sounds and style if you decide to switch from a SMF to style play].
Quick edits of SMF in real time, and easily saved..
And most important , 76 great feeling keys that hold up gig after gig after gig..

Fran,

Thanks for the info, I've heard quite a few people resonate their fondness of the G-1000.

I sold my Genesys and got the Genesys XP module to hook up to my Technics organ. Brillant combo soundwise. I'm still wresting with getting the organ presets to trigger the XP's presets then I'll be in hog heaven. The sounds in the XP module have been greatly imporoved and I thought they were good before. The brass is out of this world. Take care.

Jerry

hi Jerry,
Do you find that there are a lot of extra sounds on the Genesys xp than the regular genesys? Also, are the quality of the sounds better on the xp?

I am thinking about getting the Genesys xp. I would agree that the Genesys is one of the easyer keyboards to use in a live setting. Changing from style to style is easy and quick. Also, changing right hand sounds during a song whether in single sound mode or preset mode is intuitive and quick to get to.
In addition to having a lighter set-up (Genesys xp + a light keyboard controller), the Genesys xp from what I have researched has this feature where you can connect a multi pedal unit and this unit has 6 pedals.

So you can assign some of the most used opperations while playing a song to a pedal.
For example, fills, intros, endings, start-stop, vocal harmony on-off and so on. So while playing you don't have to take your hands off of the black and white keys.

Hi Fran,

There are 1500 sounds on the XP module and I have not counted them LOL. Genesys had 1000 or so if memory serves me right. I find a big improvment in most sounds especially the Brass & Strings. Come to think of it the Sax's are improved greatly as well. I don't do to much with guitars so I'm no help there. The Accordians and harmonica's were real good and I find there is big a improvment there. To be fair I am listening through the Technics FA1 sound system which is pretty damned good for a hobbiest and listened to the Genesys from it's own speaker system which was pretty darned good for a OMB. I do know there has been a lot of tweaking in the voice department. I'm very happy with it so far.

What has changed is this

The Genesys had 256 styles and 64 user styles. If my memory serves me right the Genesys also has 256 sound presets and 64 user sound presets. The xp has 128 style presest and 128 user style presets. Xp has 128 sound presets & 128 user presets. I do not find that a limitation with a 20 gig hard drive you can save a number of different total setups.

I'm not sure if they have the 6 pedal multi unit yet. Check with Dave he will give you a straight answer. I think you can download the XP manual and that would give you a pretty darned good Idea of what this rig can do. If you a sing as well then this may serve you even better then you thought. (I do not sing and would not even dare in the the shower for fear of cracking the pipes.

I certainly would like to see you get your hands on a XP I think you would have blast. I know you are a roland fan and I've never been near any roland keyboards so I couldn't give you any decent feedback for comparison. I have listened to the Atelier Organ and it's pretty impressive and so is the sticker shock.


In all the time I had my Genesys it never gave me so much as a hiccup it was rock solid, in all fairness I would probably never give it the kind of work outs a pro would but these rigs are solidly built.

Oh last but not least the carrying bag for the XP is first class.

Jerry

When I first started looking at arrangers (around 1992) I looked at a number of them and was totally impressed with how immediately user friendly the technics kn1000 was ... bought the kn6000 when it came out and haven't looked back since ... it's a damned shame they stopped makings kbs...
t.

I have owned KORG. ROLAND & YAMAHA boards. They all take time to get the best out of them and they are all as easy once you get used to each manufacturers individual OS systems.

Heres my top 5 just "easiest" arranger list ....not "sound ect" thats another list

Roland
Ketron
Yamaha
Technics
Korg

Yamaha is the best operating system for an arranger. The SMF playback of older GS ( roland) files is inconsistant, but your question was easiest ARRANGER, right?
No contest - the yamaha is the easiest to get around with. Style buttons, mixer funtions, voices that don;t cut off when you change voices etc....
The G1000 is a deep instrument, but not the easiect to navigate. The Keytron stuff is a close second, and then there's Roland, Korg and Technics tied for third in my book.

No ONE intrument has all the bases covered, but Yamaha comes closest in ease of use and above average sounds.

i have owned several and previewed many others.
the old KORG i-series is BY FAR, once you learn how
to use the number method, the easiest and smoothest
and most flexible to navigate live. i still have the 2 is-35's
I bought in 2000 as my main axe, in spite of trying for
years to find "upgrades". all the sounds may not be as
good as newer boards, but i have tweaked and tweaked
mine (easy as pie to do) so they are acceptable. the fact
that you rarely see an i-series korg up for sale anywhere
attests to the fact that they cannot be matched in many
ways and owners won't let them go. I have loved a lot of
features of more modern kb's i had better than the is35,
yet I let them go and still have the 2 i's....and evn if i buy
a pa800 or sd5 or s900( 3 kb's i am pondering now, I will
NEVER let my workhorses go. in fact, one of them lost
its lcd screen early on when i foolishly removed the speakers to lighten it, yet i can still navigate and play it
with no problem on gigs. Can you do that with your kb?
I just can't do sound editing on it, so i use the one with the screen for that and then just save it on a floppy and load it into the other kb.


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Miami Mo

Looking back at my previous comments and moving onto newer boards..I still must say my G1000 was the easiest to use on a job...

I am sure the biggest part of our decisions of the easiest...is what we are use too.

I have never considered the Yamaha as the easiest OS...far from it if you need to make edits live while performing...here is where Roland shines..

Even Ketron and Korg, I find are easier to use live, but I still do not care for either of them when it comes to saving and searching data..

I am sure the G70 will become second nature to me soon, but giving it's additional features[except the missing chord sequencer]..it is a little more complex to use live compared to the G1000..

From the current top arrangers on the market here's my offering:-

Yamaha T2
Ketron SD1+
Roland E80
Roland G70
Korg PA1x pro

Fran zuki asked for use in a live performance, I don't class a G1000 using SMF for playback as live, but when I had the G1000 I would certainly place it between the T2 and SD1+