I've played with Band In A Box and a friends Jammer 5, which seem to be ok, as well, I owned a Korg Karma and what was it, Yamaha RS9000? (Cannot remember, sold them both though).

Arranging keyboards offer real-time changes as you play and was looking for feedback (or reviews) on how well the arrangements compare to say Band in a box (seems all to be jazz though), Jammer, Oynx (hasn't been updated in a long time) to HARWARE keyboards.

The problem is though on the HIGHER end keyboards, your paying for the sounds, yet I would be routing the sounds out and into a sequencer then to high end samples, (Gigastudio/EWQLSO, etc) so the onboard sounds are moot, unless just for inspiration, which to some extent could be important in and of itself.

But here is the questions, if using a software arranger, it's not really inspirational as you can't really PLAY the song in real-time at all, so this leads me to the following:

Does anyone here own any of the ROLAND EX (or G series) arrangers or the Korg PA59/80 to PZXPro keyboards? If so does one offer better arranging than another? For example, why would I pay $3500.00 for a PXpro if I never intent to utilize the songs and it’s the patterens and arrangements that I am after. Would a PA50 do the trick? I noticed though that the PA series offer no USB for direct PC use.

Also, how do they fair compared to software versions ala band in a box, or better yet, how do the lower end PA KORG series work in terms of arranging,

With that said, not to mention the COST associated with such a hardware device (especially if I send to sequencer and re-trigger), is as though I am "SEEKING" a keyboard arranger that will inspire, have quite a few bells and whistles, will OUTPUT exceptional midi code (for sequencer and trigger higher end samples) and want to know if anything, what others have tried and felt worth while.

The (KORG) PAXpro series is $3500, I am sure it isn't worth that much to me only because I will never use the onboard sounds but only for ideas....so it's as if I am looking for a device like that (with many patterns, perhaps limited sounds (to cut down on cost) but GREAT arranging capabilities.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks...
PS. I have knowledge of arranging/music theory, but of late, my ideas have ranged from
Cinematic scores and pop songs to techno drama. In a nutshell, good arranging keyboard, changes and inspires as you play, outputs well (midi data to separate tracks), easy to use, and possibly easy to input into Finale or Sibelius if need be.