I pretty much agree with everything that DonM says, and might add the music business pays about the same today as it did 30 years ago. Consequently, when I had a 4-piece country band no one made enough money to buy gasoline and cigarettes, both of which were a lot cheaper 30 years ago.

As for the price of keyboards, in reality, they've actually come down quite a bit over the past decade. Keep in mind that a PSR-5700 sold for about $2,400 when it first came out, and that's from outfits that would offer pros a great discount. Back then the keyboard had 35 styles, most were OK at best, about the same number of voices, most other than the piano were awful, and they were heavy as hell. Today's keyboards are lightweight, have huge numbers of great style files, outstanding voices, lots of storage options, excellent interface systems, user friendly operating systems and much, much more. In retrospect, today's aranger keyboards are the best bargain in town, and for OMB performers, they're the best thing since sliced bread. For the first time in many years we can make enough money to support our families. We ain't gonna' get rich, but there's enough coming in on a regular basis to keep food on the table and put a few bucks aside for retirement at the ripe old age of 108.

As for using a Motif--I know lots of performers, probably a couple hundred, and none use anything other than an arranger for live performances--even the best guys around. I'll stick with the arrangers, and if the 3000 was double the price I would have still gladly paid it, and most likely still bought a pair of them. For what this machine does, especially in comparison to arrangers of just a decade ago, IMHO it's still the best deal in town.

Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy