This thread is starting to show the range of usage arrangers are finally getting, and the wide range of users that use them!

Ensnareyou has the luxury of a seemingly limitless supply of money (at least from his keyboard list.... a Fairlight, an Oasys, a Mediastation AND a Wersi Abacus, and probably everything else on the planet!) and never has to lift a keyboard himself...... congratulations!

Unfortunately, the rest of us live in the real world, where even affording ONE of those keyboards is a stretch on our budgets at best, and roadies are only available if your wife bears them and you raise them as weightlifters!

Taking financial advice from a billionaire is only valid if you have the resources to play in his league! $1000 dollars invested doesn't have the same power as $100M...

So...... in the REAL world, 60-70lb keyboards HURT...... Even 45lb ones are work!

Also, ensnareyou gets our posts mixed up.... 'unusable' (from jonesboy's post, not mine!) refers to the styles, not the sounds, or the audio quality of Domenik's demos.

'Fess up, ensnareyou..... do you actually ever GIG with the Mediastation, or is it just a studio toy you never have to move, or rely on for a show (by itself)? Under those circumstances, it's easy to imagine that not sounding very good (style-wise) OOTB isn't very important. But once again, in the REAL world (as shown by the majority opinion of the members here) the styles and OOTB sound and ease of use are the primary concerns of arranger players.

Most of us rely on ONE arranger, at most two, to gig with. If that arranger's styles are stiff, limited in choice, and generally translations from other arrangers, rather than tailored specifically to the strengths of the onboard sound-set, it's a tough choice for us to pick over arrangers like the T2 and PA800, etc., that come loaded with high quality, well balanced styles.

Add in the fact that the 'open-ended' arrangers are not the only ones that can add in new styles, and sometimes get OS improvements that add completely new features to our supposedly 'closed' systems. Plus several of them have samplers, to add to the sound-set (albeit with glacial load-up times!)

It IS refreshing to have a viewpoint on this topic completely devoid of concerns for price, weight, and usability or of the effort to correct that usability, but in the REAL world, most of us care about stuff like that. Maybe one day I will be in the same situation, but until then......