As I have been playing with acoustic jazz musicians I have become more aware of the different sounds as they are presented on the Tyros 2. In general I guess the acoustic diehard will find arranger keyboards gimmicky. They tell me it doesn't sound real that it sounds fake. I have heard them say things like "do you want to know how degrading it is to have horns playing in the background for a real sax or guitar player?" etc, etc, etc.

I think some musicians are actually intimidated by an arranger kb. Although I doubt they would admit it, and I'm sure they don't recognize it that way. And of course for them there is the slap in the face that I as a solo performer can get as much money as a band gets.

And yet, when people come to say how good the band sounds or to want to hire the band , the almost invariably come to me, the "sideman" instead of the 2 "primary" players.

I have also been told by one of the owners of a current ongoing gig that I have, who first heard me play with a quintet with the same sax player, and band leader, that I sound better alone, than the band and have more class. (Just stating what happened not trying to wave my own flag).

I also have people come up to the restaurant entrance where I am playing outside and they tell me they thought a live band was playing.

This type of experiences have unnerved me a bit. It's a rather interesting situation to be dealing with. It makes me pay more critical attention to what I'm doing and how the instrument sounds.

So I'm just trying to make a few points here about the sound of these arrangers and what people are saying.

My slant is, it is what it is and either a person likes it or doesn't, just like my personal choices for music and the way I play it.

I think if a player doesn't like a sound, then they can either tweak it. You could reduce the amount of "fret noise", or you could pick the Nylon string guitar.

As far as the other capabilities of the SA voices, like a horn player breathing and a guitar player hitting the top of the guitar to hear that knocking sound.........Well, I'll leave that up to the individual, but I'll tell you that I turned off the pedal control for those types of things on the SA voices and use it for something that is actually important to my performance.

Scott