Well when you have some proponents of arrangers classify an arranger as content driven therein lies the problem.


If you say an arranger is all about the content, then you are saying it is a glorified Ipod or CD player. You are concentrating on what the instrument can do for you rather what you can do for the instrument.
If you think of an arranger as content driven, then it does not become a musical instrument but just another play back machine.


What open arrangers try to do is bring back the artistry in electronic music.
An electronic musical instrument is a bit different from a standard acoustic instrument. On an electronic instrument while some of the things you may have to do is none musical, it is still an art form since it is something you do to help your music to sound unique.

Quite frankly, even acoustic instruments have none musical things you can do to them to make them sound your own.
Take a drummer and an guitar player for example. Look at all the none musical things they do to their instruments to make them sound different.

With respect to keys, synthesizers have shown that other skills can be used to get different sounds.
Is subtractive synthesis just getting on the keyboard an playing? No. There is an art form that is involved in creating the right sound for you and making it work for your style of playing.

An open arranger is no different.
Is styled modification (changing sounds adjusting sounds playing with effects) musical?
Probably not. But it is an art form that helps the player be more unique and expressive in his or her playing.

It always baffles me why a person would want 1000 of styles and song specific styles for their arranger. It defeats the purpose of an arranger. If one needs songs specific styles, then midi files would be the way to go.

If people continue to advocate for the arranger to be an Ipod and demand content, (like what Yamaha arrangers are), then yes there is no future for arrangers as a legitimate musical instrument.
It would only lead to arrangers being an extension of a DJ machine.
Song specific content would be the order of the day. An it would include the actual audio from popular songs.

The art form of playing a song with your interpretation as a musician would be gone.