Since when has it been some newly discovered secret that Roland coddled the hip hop market? Shoot.., that's not (new) news for Roland or ANY other major workstation maker. Synth workstations have ALWAYS been geared more toward electronica. A lot of that has started to change over the last few years though.

Not too long ago it wasn't uncommon to hear that arranger keyboards had better acoustic voices (they simply did have better acoustic voices). The synth makers over the years got smart and started moving some of those higher end acoustic voices from their arranger line to their pro workstation models. The ENTIRE Yamaha Motif line is proof enough of how they've done this. SA voices were a "trickle up" for the Motif XS (many including myself still feel the SA voices were better on the Tyros 2 than they were on the Motif XS though).

The problem is this..., the keyboard makers got smart and realized the need for good acoustic instruments in their pro workstations but made damn sure they still produced synths that do what the do best and that's MODERN MUSIC. Problem is we don't have this TRICKLE DOWN effect in the pro arranger line. The synths are kicking ass at acoustic and more traditional styles of music now.., but the pro arrangers still suck donkey butt for ANYTHING modern.