Sorry, miden, but he's right. The way on a guitar (AND a keyboard) to bend DOWN, THEN carry on the phrase is to start bent up, then return and continue. That's why aftertouch is useless as a bender - you can't bend up first without hitting the note.

Foot controller bending IS a viable option, but it fights with sustain, variation selection, and a host of other things your feet are usually doing (including possibly playing the bass line!), but in lieu of a chord sequencer, I would be happy if Roland offered it as an option (they don't).

But it also flies in the face of over 37 years (at least since the minimoog) of using your left hand to control pitch, timbre and vibrato. Talk about practicing! Why not ask a sax player to use a trumpet mouth piece, or a bassist to use a MIDI mandolin....

It kind of reminds me of Joe Zawinul's experiments with the 'reversed' keyboard on the Oberheims. Sure, you COULD learn to play it as fluently as the other direction, but why would you? Even Joe only used it as a gimmick, to break pre-concieved patterns of playing, not as a substitute for a normal keyboard.

Two (maybe three!) generations of synthesizer players have grown up with the concept of using their left hand to alter pitch and other non-keyboard aspects of sound. But here come a few to say, 'oh no... you can't use that skill on an arranger, you have more repetitive things to do with your left hand'.

I say rubbish! Roland already worked out how to get around the problem. The trouble was, so few arranger players (and let's be honest, while some are VERY skilled, they are the exception, not the rule in this 'hobbyist' form of music-making) recognized the opportunity this afforded them (if you lack the skill to utilize a feature, what value does it have?) that Roland's marketing division must have gone 'drop it, no-one uses it....'