This question has come up several time in the past It can be very confusing when starting out, and not knowing exactly what boards are geared towards.

An arranger is a keyboard that has preset styles that consist of mutltiple parts such as drums, bass, chord, ect. These styles can also be triggered via auto accomp.

A non arranger is called a synth or synth/workstation. These boards do not have the auto accomp feature found on arrangers. The newer models have preset patterns, but these are typically preset drum patterns and cannot be used in the arranger format.

Sounds vary between the two. In my opinion before the release of the original Yamaha Motif, good arrangers typically had the upper hand with the "bread and butter" sounds. Meaning they had the edge in the acoustic department, but seriously lacked in comparison with the sonic quality of a dedicated synth for the (synth) type sounds.

Now things are changing. Yamaha for example is now taking their signature acoustic voices that were once only the arranger boards and adding them to the synth line.

What board you choose falls down to your personal needs. With an arranger you'll get the preset styles. When recording with an arranger you can use these styles or create your own for song composition or performance. With a synth/workstation you'll program most of your work from scratch.

Squeak