Sorry, but the only way to judge the MS is to go to the website and listen to the demos....

And sorry, but to my ears, despite its' acknowledged technical superiority, they STILL don't hold a candle to the Big 3's TOTL offerings. Bottom line... if it walks like a duck, it IS a duck, no matter HOW many 'eagle-like' features it is supposed to have.

Everything the MS does (even the arranger section, to a certain extent) can be done with a computer, with easier workflow - no Linux 'wrappers' to have to deal with on a regular PC or Mac. If, for some reason, you GOT to have EVERYTHING inside one keyboard case, well, yes, this is your only option, but in the real world, most TOTL studios and recording facilities have a dedicated computer for these tasks (or three!), most players here got a decent computer already. Do you REALLY need to take a full recording studio out to the gig?

Until the MS demos new sounds and styles that completely destroy the competition (and yes, I HAVE heard the latest demos), this is still a great workstation, and a poor arranger (IMHO). CONTENT is what sell the arranger, not capability. Most T2 owners here probably don't use all of the available features like sampling, HD recording, but if it were to have styles that sound like the MS's, well, Roland would be a LOT happier!

The trick with arrangers is, most of the target audience have never completely programmed a style in their life. Very few of them use the sampler extensively. They don't WANT to 'program' a workstation, they just want to PLAY an arranger. If you can't open the box, take out this VERY expensive keyboard, press the power switch, load a style and COMPLETELY blow away an E80 or T2, you still have a LONG way to go in the arranger business.

You can get away with missing features as long as the styles ROCK (Technics and Ketron been doing that successfully for ages), but no amount of extra capabilities can make up for poor styles and sounds.

But don't listen to me.... go to the MS website and listen to the style demos. Then go to Yamaha's site and listen to the T2 demos. Now forget 'features', and just decide which you'd rather PLAY.....