Until Roland bring out some NEW technology in those BOTL arrangers they are making, I don't see the point to a return to the TOTL arena. There isn't really ANYTHING on a Prelude unique in any way, or a GW-8. The sound engine is mature (Sonic Cell, not exactly a barn burning product itself), the overall OS is simply stripped down G70/E60, there's barely one or two new capabilities over even a G1000 (we FINALLY got multiple Drum Parts in a style, whoop-ti-do! ).

But overall, I never got the impression that Roland were even trying that hard. I must confess, being part of the Roland Arranger Division must seem like being relegated to Siberia for any competent keyboard designer...! The Prelude/GW-8 just seems like a recycling job for them. Old arranger technology, cobbled onto a sound chip that never set the world on fire in the first place.

I truly believe that, when all is said and done, the sounds and the styles make any arranger. Everything else is just fluff. And there's just too much that is very raw, unfinished, and unpolished about the Prelude's OOTB sound to attract the majority of the low end market - players that WANT everything pretty much done for them. That's Yamaha's strength, and what helps them overcome their somewhat anemic sound (compared to Roland or Korg or Ketron). It might be anemic, but you don't have to mess with it much to get it to sound polished. You HAVE to work a GW-8 pretty hard before it's ready for prime time.

I get the impression that Roland are WAY under budget when it comes to their sound voicing and style creation teams, these days. Roland styles USED to be the benchmark, but they have stripped that section down to the point where, I sometimes think there are better sound designers and style creators on many amateur forums compared to what Roland hires.

There's altogether too much writing on the wall to make me believe that Roland are doing anything more than coasting on their run at getting BOTL sales to increase. It really IS going to take something quite innovative to kickstart their rise from the ashes, and I haven't seen the slightest evidence of it, yet. Me, I just put this down to corporate inertia, I honestly think that, if there wasn't already an Arranger Division, Roland would never START one now...

Now, don't get me wrong, the GW8 is a pretty good arranger at its' price point. But it's a pretty good arranger for guys like me, more concerned with raw basic SOUND than bells and whistles, and having the skills to re-voice it to sound closer to its' capabilities. But it AIN'T a good arranger for the vast majority of people that buy arrangers at that price...

Thing is, I really don't see anything innovative in the slightest even in Roland's WS Fantom line. Yes, the FantomG is a good combination of features to make trance music, etc., but the raw technology under the hood is all mature. Only the re-voicing capabilities of the Brass ARX board got me even slightly awake, and it's demo's were not all that impressive. The rest of what's good is mostly to do with it being a virtual studio in a box, which AIN'T what most people buy arrangers for!

Until Roland bring out something innovative in the WS line, what on earth makes us think they even HAVE anything innovative to stick in a TOTL arranger..?

Personally, I'd rather see Roland get COMPLETELY out of the arranger market, and concentrate ALL their efforts on new technology for the WS and Stage line of things, than do it as halfheartedly as I see them trying now. Maybe if they DO come out with something that rocks, they can revisit the arranger field and recapture their glory days, but it's kind of sad to see how far they have slid into apathy.