It doesn't matter what current arranger has the 'best' hiphop or rap beats in it, because, as I said in my first post, they are a tiny fraction of the whole soundset. One or two great beats are not going to drive a block party - you wouldn't use an arranger that only had two or three ballroom styles (or whatever you're into), and no young player is going to get worked up about an arranger with two or three semi-lame urban styles.

For arrangers to sell well in the US (young players with plenty of disposable income is the wet dream of the industry!) they are finally going to have to develop styles that won't embarrass a young playa in front of his friends!

squeak, you're right about the DJX....... they sold a boatload of those, why didn't the light come on?

I think the arrangers with sampling capabilities are the answer, but the manufacturers have GOT to implement USB 2 for loading them - currently it's WAY too slow for live use.

We also need to put pressure on the arranger makers to allow us to make ANY track a 'drum' track - in other words, even if it uses a melodic element, not just a drum kit, we should be able to disable the transposing of it when we change chords in the left hand (I don't know of any arranger that does this, but I'm only really familiar with Rolands).

A couple of changes to the OS and a faster way to load samples, and I think the arranger market would EXPLODE..........!