And I am still amazed at how expectant some are about a new Roland's capabilities (or even appearance!).

For starters, forget the FantomG. Roland have NEVER incorporated this year's latest WS technology in an arranger. Took them over four years or more before they even incorporated OLD Fantom sounds and engine capabilities into the G70. And NONE of the Fantom's loop and audio capabilities were ever ported over.

There seem to be clear indications that future Roland arrangers will be built on the Sonic Cell engine, which is firmly rooted in old Fantom technology. They don't have a product anywhere in their entire catalog that has anything like Mega voice technology (or what little there is is extremely disappointing, compared to even a lowly S900), multipads are nowhere to be seen...

I am confused as to exactly what technology Roland already have that COULD be leveraged into a groundbreaking new Roland. In all fairness, even the FantomG is hardly a great leap forward, except in it's DAW capabilities. What's one of the things it touts the most? Yep, glitch-less patch changes (to a limited degree). We've had that on Roland arrangers for well over a decade...

All I anticipate is a refinement of existing technologies, but to expect Roland to pull a rabbit out of their hat for the arranger division alone is optimistic, at best. One would expect to see groundbreaking technologies across the board if Roland could be reasonably expected to do it for the arranger division as well (probably their LOWEST priority division, from all indications ), but, where is the beef?

Only modern techno and hiphop products like the V-Synth carry any kind of 'next-gen' banner for Roland, these days... Few of us will go wild at the inclusion of this in an arranger

Fixes, refinements, a few more sounds and effects capabilities, MP3 playback and possibly recording, some new styles... To expect any more than this is wildly optimistic, IMO...