Well for a start, you must have missed the G70 adverts in Keyboard, EM, and most of the other mags... none so blind as those who WILL NOT see...

Of course, in your situation, I imagine you tend to pay more attention to the lines you actually carry...

And sorry, but once again, I think you miss the point. If your wife showed up with an arranger, and rocked the crowd, the club owner won't give a damn what keyboard she does it on. You say she's currently using tracks and a harmonizer? Do you think for one minute the owner thinks she is actually playing all of that? If she showed up with a 76 note arranger (I agree that to play pianistically, you need more than 61), she could do exactly the same show. Most of them have MP3 players and harmonizers built-in...

I personally think you give far too much credit to the bar owners, They look at the crowd, and they look at the register. Only if both of those are off do they start looking for excuses...

Perhaps you have simply been looking at the wrong arrangers. You want something functionally close to identical to a TOTL WS for live use... try a G70. Yep, not the world's best pure arranger, I'll admit it. But easily enough to get by. But as a live use keyboard, it's actually FAR easier to run live than ANY WS... I have Tritons, Kurzweils, Ensoniq's, and have used Yamaha's, Roland's and a few other exotic things. NOT ONE of them is as easy to dial up on the fly as the G70 is. That bank of faders gives you instant adjustment capability of virtually every aspect of the sound and performance, the action is superior to anything in a 76, and the best all around action (both piano technique AND organ technique) available anywhere. I get nothing but rave reviews for it's sound with everyone I play with. No kidding...

No, it doesn't have an MP3 player... Thank God!

I think these are FAR more karaoke than using SMF's or styles, which CAN be re-ordered and adjusted on the fly. Mp3 is straight ahead karaoke, with no opportunity to shorten of extend depending on the situation. You want you bar manager's eyes to go up? Stop playing at the end of the file, when the floor is packed and people want it not to stop... Currently, there are no MP3 players (short of a full laptop, and how karaoke is THAT?) that can drop markers into the audio file... But SMF's and style play can do this, no problem!

No, I'm sorry, but using tracks and an 88 is MORE karaoke than using an arranger. Your wife is doing a karaoke act, plain and simple. And the club owner doesn't CARE what keyboard she uses. If he don't care about the karaoke tracks, he don't care whether it's an 88 or a 61, that's for sure! Sure, she wants to use BOTH hands. So do I... I go on about it all the time. But the answer isn't to use tracks and play piano over the top. The answer is to use SMF's, or Piano mode on the arranger, and all of a sudden it's YOU that is in control of the show, once again, not the track...

And use a 76 note arranger.