Jinx, welcome aboard. What a cool website you have! Very slick. As to your post---well, I cannot call myself a "Nashville songwriter" because I am as yet unpublished. However, I do live in Nashville and I purchased an arranger for the sole purpose of recording demos of my songs.Unlike most who post here, I am not a keyboard player, I just let the style parts provide backing for my guitars and vocals. I have zero interest in the solo voices of any keyboard and only look for good drums, bass, and keyboard fills. I purchased a korg is-40 and I'm very pleased with this way of working. It is great to be able to quickly try our a new song with different feels and grooves . For me, the korg I-series is best because of the quality of the style parts.,tho it really lacks in sound quality.I really wanted to buy a pa-80, but korg just lost it on this one. The fills are just a mess. I tried to fall in love with a roland va-7 because of the wonderful sounds, but there are NO simple endings, which for me kills the deal. And Yamaha gets so much right but the drums------have-------no-------life!
Ketron sounds great on the demos, it's just so much money for a product from a company that I've never heard of with no dealers within hundreds of miles------But,when i see my way clear to consider some of my income as "disposable", the Ketron is calling my name! I hope to someday soon be able to post a bit of my work to show how a non-keyboard player can get good use out of an arranger keyboard.
Bill