I go back and forth on this. Of course, it would be great if I could reduce everything to one piece of equipment, or a keyboard plus PA system. However, I am not there yet. I have a PSR-8000. It falls short on expressiveness on two counts--the synthesis system is not very sophisticated and the controllers are very limited. Well, I have a Roland A-50 controller and a Korg Wavestation AD, so I have an expressive controller and an expressive synth. So I could drive the Wavestation AD with by Roland A-50 and plug the Wavestation AD audio outs to the PSR8k audio ins and listen through the PSR8k speaks, using the PSR8k for the accompaniment. I have not set things up this way because I cannot figure out a good way to stack the keyboards so that I can play them both comfortably.

If I were in a position to replace everything, I would consider the following. I would keep the Roland A-50 controller, using a Solton X-4 (Oriental) for the autoaccompaninment, and a Roland 5080 or Korg Triton Rack (with MOSS expansion board)for the lead sounds. (Both of these synths allow expansion to over 100 MB sound ROM). This way, I would only have to reach one keyboard, and reach over the keyboard for accompaniment controls.

Another possibility would be to use a Triton keyboard with a Solton X4 with a power-speaker system. This simplifies the setup, but some expandability is lost.

I have some hope that the PSR-9000Pro will be more of an all-in-one solution. The 48MB ROM is good for starters, I could add a VL synthesis plug-in, I understand. But I have not heard if the 9kPro will add controllers for using the VL board. I have noticed that the aftertouch on my PSR-8k is rather coarse, so if the 9kPro does not improve on this, it will not be very satisfactory.

Patience might pay off. Two years ago when I bought my PSR-8k, there was little on the internet about arranger keyboards. This year has seen an explosion of interest. I must believe the manufacturers have taken note and are investing more resources in the arranger area. There have been exciting developments this year, but they fall short in my opinion. (Although, I may be selling the X1 short).

Korg could have done better than the PA-80. A full Triton arranger with a MOSS option and a coupled of wave-ROM expansion slots, and maybe add the XY pad from the Z1, then I could be minimalist.