I found the wheels and the joystick equally easy to use, though I must agree with the Pro about leaving the modulation wheel in the middle position for a certain amount of controllable effects.

I found, though, that ever since I switched to arranger keyboards, I use the pitch bend and modulation very little, as both of my hands are hitting the keys all the time. Yamaha had an interesting system in one of the early PSRs, where the modulation and pitch bend were controlled by the rollers under the keyboard, which you could control with a thumb or a heel of the hand, without taking the rest of the fingers of the keys. This to me is more practical. I would also vote for a breath controller input (like on DX-7), to allow a degree of control over the wind instrument sounds (especially for solo parts).

However, my main concern is with the fact that having the joystick or wheels on the left of the keyboard adds extra length, and hence, weight. I think that SD-1 has it right, locating the wheels above the keys.

IMHO, most arranger keyboardist are too busy playing to be doing real-time manipulations of individual voices, and hence, these controllers are useless anyway.

Regards,
Alex