I have played the 9000 a good bit in the past, and I own the Korg PA80 presently. I could easily recommend either of these boards. Both have excellent sounds and features. In general I prefer the Korg styles over the 9000's ( more natural sounding to me ) , but for live work sometimes the PA80 styles are a bit "busy" and I have to turn off some of the instruments so that I can play "my part " without too much clutter. One other advantage of the 9000 is 4 fills per styles ( vs 2 for PA80 ).

I think that both the 9000 and PA80 are excellent arranger boards. It comes down to preferences, and each has areas that they are stronger in. For myself, I could be just as happy with a 9000 as I am with the PA80, other than the weight ( 9000 is a heavy board ). There is a ton of support for both of them available on the net ( mainly user generated.

I don't have any experience with the Roland VA series arrangers, so I cannot give a lot of help there. I did not like the previous generation of Roland arrangers ( G1000 or EM2000 ) because I felt the OS was extremely clunky and difficult to navigate ) The other strike against Roland for me is the lack of a vocal harmonizer. I also don't believe that there is the online user support for these boards comparable to what is available for the 9000 ( or the PA80 ) .



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 08-05-2002).]