Frank I respect those who play and sing their heart outs as back ground music. My wife does that very thing. I just feel DIKI is a bitter guy who feels he is entitled to have been more of a success evidence by his many caustic posts on every subject and aggrandizing his skills and experience. He is the "know it all type" we all know and love. Apparently not getting the "respect" he feels he deserves. I feel bad for him.

I wanted to be a big star and rich some time ago. I worked for IATSE for three years out of school with touring rock shows as a truck loader. I saw first hand what its like up close what big acts get when they hit the stage, I wanted to be that but I was lazy.

I got a regular corporate job and I gave that up at 40 and just went with the flow doing friggin Neil Diamond...(I wanted to be Billy Joel) which was LAUGHABLE and believe me I put up with more jokes and public criticism than you could know. I also tasted the gourmet of the other adoring side. All for something I was not. Maybe I feel the same way about Arranger performers. who knows. That paid for my house and the Las Vegas housing bubble paid for my "retirement".

We are not rich. We are totally debt free. That may be rich today who knows. Our "Lexus" is in the bank. We still have to work. We just don't need to earn more than $1600 a month. I was offered $150 to host a Karaoke show once a week and I'm going to take it. Because Its fun and I totally enjoy watching people get up and sing publicly ,some for the first time, others revealing a repressed talent they have. The wife HATES Karaoke (because it takes work from real musicians) but thats "progress". Buggy Whips and all that.

I am learning that there are far more people earning a living with these arranger keyboards than I would have guessed. Just not here. I lived in LAs Vegas 15 years and never saw a single act with an Arranger keyboard. Always 88 keys. I don't see them here. This a very "new" concept to me. I learned about them first a couple years ago when I got off the road and started working for a Yamaha dealer in a huge MI store.I LOVED them. I sell more Bose PA Systems than Tyros. This is not a huge Arranger market considering its huge market for singles and duos, I wonder why. The owner is Acoustic piano oriented and did not even carry a Tyros until I bought mine. Just PSRs and recently the Korg PA50 which sold in a week.
He sells enough guitars, amps, PA, Sheet Music. He will put 300 guitars on the walls but won't carry pro keyboards like the Motif. When you compete against the Internet you become a demo house for them. Not so much the home stuff.

Yamaha's own research on the buyers of the Tyros going way back says they sell far more Arrangers to HOME users and STUDIOS hence their hesitance to make a 76 key Tyros. So those who play out using arrangers are few in the scheme of singles and duos according to their research. I have Never seen anyone playing out with one.

Now How can I sell them? EASY I sell them as a songwriting tool and sell them to small churches that don't have the room for a piano and organ and cannot afford the Clavinova they really want. Many ethnic latin folk buy the S900s. Never sold one to a pro player for use on a gig. Demoed them but they still have the toy stigma if they have speakers. and the Tyros is $500 more than the Motif X8.

My wife has been here 30 plus years playing for a living and knows everyone. No one on the "circuit: plays with an Arranger keyboard on a gig. That's why I have been extremely ignorant on them being used in that regard more than should and I wholly apologize for offending anyone who does. Especially those who play for those in nursing homes and charitable efforts. But unlike DIKI I do not need to be revered here and I will speak my mind and hope everyone knows it's only one person's opinion.

When you dress up in beads and sequin shirts with bad hair and sing Cracklin Rose for 12 years you understand the concept of not taking one person's opinion seriously, or you shrink up and die......all the way to the bank.