I take that with a grain of salt Jim. The guy at NAMM who asked the Manufacturers may have an agenda or he could actually work on some level for one of Manufacturers that are steering away from 76 note Keyboards like you know who..

I think 76 note Keyboards (Arranger or otherwise) are actually in big demand and in no way are the Manufacturers (Korg, Roland, Yammie, etc.) hurting from the building, marketing or selling of them. You build for the market. You make as many as is necessary according to how fast or slow they sell and either increase or decrease production accordingly. That way they don't lose large amounts of revenue by producing too many for market conditions. They can always ramp up production if needed.

But there will always be a need imo for 76 key Boards.

76 Keys are a perfect go-between from the 88 note and usually much heavier Keyboards and the 61 note Boards where if you think about it, a person can run out of room (keys) on many an occasion on many a song. Octave Shift buttons are nice but in a Live situation it can be very challenging to master on the fly and are not at all practical for Live use.

And I can't tell you how many times I've flipped on the TV and seen the Korg Triton PRO, which is Korg's 76 key Triton, staring me in the face. Plus Korg has the 76 note Triton Extreme. Also regarding weight look at the Roland Fantom X7. 76 keys, and it weighs in at a very attractive (and slim) 32 lbs. Less than 5 lbs. heavier than the 61 note Tyros. >> 5 lbs. is 3 lbs. less than the weight of a U.S. gallon of milk which weighs approximately 8 lbs. In other words "no biggie", right? With composite materials getting lighter and lighter [and stronger to boot], it won't be too long imo that we'll see 76 key Boards weighing in at less than 20 lbs. Granted, that's probably a few years down the road but Roland sure has the right idea with the Fantom X7 which of course is on the market now.

The Motif ES7, Roland Fantom X7, Triton PRO, Triton Extreme, Roland G70, Korg Pa1XPRO, and the list goes on and on...

76 Keys are an extremely marketable item[s] and umpteen amount of Keyboard players would prefer them over the much heavier 88 note Boards and the less functional 61 note Boards because of their lack of keys. Especially if Manufacturers would get with it and also make fully weighted 76 note Boards. There has been and continues to be a big demand amongst keyboardists for a fully weighted 76 key Workstation and or PRO Arranger as you know. >> BIG demand.

But even more I think prefer semi-weighted or Synth weighted/Synth action 76 Key Boards because a large percentage of keyboard players are in to playing more than just Grand Piano patches on their respective Keyboards. Fully weighted keys and playing a fast Trumpet or Violin piece doesn't mix too well imo.

The point being is; either way, 76 note Keyboards are extremely sought after in my opinion and thus extremely marketable. They're not as big (long) as the 88 key ones are so they are better suited for portability. They have enough keys to where the chances of running out of keys either in the upper or lower registers during a song would be slim to noone. They're not as 'heavy' (ouch my back! ) as 88 key Boards are, thank God and in many cases cost "much" less than their 88 key counterparts. All of those benefits plus more and you can see why 76 keys are and continue to be hot ticket items and have a huge potential market.

The real question is Manufacturers making 76 note Keyboards that give the keyboardist what is pliable (workable) for his or her needs. In other words; make them par excellence. Feature packed and the utmost quality through and through, with a price that won't scare off a majority of the potential market for them.

My 2¢

Best regards,
Mike