Back to the topic ! a pared down "pro" instrument as in, built for working musician professionals that need fewer bangs and whistles would fail simply because keyboards are massed produced ie built for the masses.The masses want tons of features. The majority of musicians that buy "pro" instruments are in fact hobbyists and amateurs and dare i say it play mainly at home or church (home players). There is no commercial sense in building a keyboard with reduced features for what is a small market. For example if you were to analyse the musicians here that made a living from playing , it would be very small compared to the people that own the same instruments and view or comment on the site. Then from that small number of pro players you have to look at the miniscule group who play regularly "live" and not in a studio, who would be willing to pay extra for an instrument as you have described. How do you compete in that market if not by having unique features and how do you justify the cost? ( the manufacturing costs and marketing costs are going to be very similar). Why go through all that hassle when a musician simply only needs to use the features that they are interested in from the existing keyboards to get the board sounding and playing how they want ? If they only need 30 sounds then simply save those sounds in any of the hundreds of user sounds slots on the instrument. If they want dedicated sliders then buy a controller board with multi configureable sliders and knobs that they need , midi it up to a laptop or synth module and there you are . There are very many solutions a musician could chose other than for a manufacturer to make and sell a new (relatively expensive as i repeat the production cost are likely to stay the same )instrument for a small number of purchases compared to their money making mass produced all singing all dancing instruments.

The market wants more features, not less. Thats why so many people buy a new keyboard every couple of years. The existing instrument doesnt sound any worse 3 years on.Most if not ALL pros do not actually need to buy another instrument every couple of years to make a good living. The technolgy in sound production has not jumped in any great way incrementally over the last few years (except the use of SA voices) but people keep buying new keyboards or in MS type instruments keep upgrading operating systems , Why ????? Its simply because of the increase in features.

Features sell keyboards and in fact most things. I would be very surprised if that wasnt the case.

[This message has been edited by spalding4 (edited 01-08-2007).]