Re: problems with touch screen - There is a marked difference between the usability of touch screen vs. the buttons. The strength of the touch screen, or any elaborate visual interface, such as Windows' menuing system, is that it can help an unfamiliar, novice user get around the instrument functions easily. As such, it is a very useful tool for the salespeople, who are not too familiar with the instrument they are trying to demo, and for casual home users, who do not routinely go beyond the very basic functions of an instrument.

The underside is that using a screen, you have to operate it sequentially, i.e. getting through one menu level at a time. Obviously, navigating through the levels of the menu takes more time. The problem with Roland's touch screen is that it is designed for large fingers, i.e. display density is very low, with fairly few screen "buttons" displayed at a time. This requires more menu levels to get to the functions you need.

The other disadvantage of a large screen, in lieu of buttons, is that the user must wait to see the screen being updated, before seeing that the previous selection was the one he intended to make, and being able to select the next "button". This takes the player's concentration away from the audience.

The buttons are not as flexible, but they have a number of advantages: first, they can be pressed concurrently, or almost so - for example I can press the Upper1 and Upper2 buttons at the same time, and the parts will be toggled. I can select the Bank and Sound by two concurrent button presses (of course this only works on a keyboard which has separate sets of buttons for bank and individual selections, i.e. on E-70, but not quite so easy on G-1000).

Second, a button provides tactile feedback to your action of button press. This means that the user does not have to take his eyes off the audience (or his fake book, or wherever) just to change a setting of his instrument.

IMHO, the most user-friendly arranger was Korg i30. It allowed you to use the buttons in a performance, and screen while setting up or playing at home. The VA-7/76 has gotten the sound/style/perf selection almost right; the Favorite sounds buttons are useful too. However, they decided to skimp in the real time style controls, and having to go through the screen to select between the variations (there is one button, I believe) is a drag.

That is why most home users and people seeing a demo at the store like the VA- series, while those of us who play live and have to quickly adjust to the audience requests and moods, do not.

The same goes for the eKo keyboard - it will only be useful to live arranger players if it offers a panel of many discrete buttons for realtime control, preferrably with feedback indicator lights (perhaps in place of the rotary pots panel on the picture). While having a large screen to show the status of the current selections is useful (on a single screenful), there should be no functions used in live play which would require the user to to through the screen menus.

Regards,
Alex