Hi Markus,

Fasinating to read your how your band has evolved with the advent of your arranger keyboard. Sounds like you have played some great classic synths over the years. My first synth was a Korg T3; then traded that for a Fatar 1176 keyboard controller with Korg X5DR, Yamaha MU80, and General Music Piano Expander modules. My first arranger unit was a Roland RA800 (table top module version of the G800) connected to the Fatar. I soon got tired of lugging all this equipment to/from gigs when a couple of years ago I discovered the Technics KN5000 arranger keyboard which I have been performing with exclusively ever since.

The beauty of the arranger keyboard is the flexibility it provides (adding/eliminating) live musicians as clients budgets and/or room size allows. It is indeed sad (but also a fact we have to live with) that music has become just a financial commodity' to hotel and club managers to maximize profits. The hotels find it more profitable to add a couple more tables for patrons and eliminate the drummer.

I am pleased to hear that arranger keyboards are accepted professionally in Germany. I think you are right about the snob factor which seems to prevail among many musicians here in the States. I also think some prejudice might be borne out from earlier generation arrangers which were vastly inferior in both sound quality and auto accompaniment styles as well as their prior reputation as "K-Mart special" shopping mall toys. Arranger keyboards have certainly "come a long way" since then.

It's exciting to follow the latest developments in arranger keyboard technology so I'm anxious to find out what Solton will come out next with to top the X1 (I'm hoping it will include the implementation of more advanced (rootless) chord voicing recognition features, or better yet, a feature which will allow "us", the musician to program our own custom chord recognition tables). Solton!!!, are you listening?

Scott

[This message has been edited by Scottyee (edited 10-29-2000).]