With a PC sequencer, you have to set it up and thereby lose time...inspiration waits for nobody. On-board sequencer...one button press, and you're good to go.

Also, if the BK-5 is to be used as a backing keyboard, surely the user is going to want to use those great styles and sounds to make their own SMF and thereby give their performance their own personal touch.

I am very impressed with the BK-5/BK-7M sound and styles, but it is omissions like a simple midi sequencer that make me wonder who was leading the design department.

Donny mentioned there were no transpose buttons on the panel...why would they put such an often used function in a menu?

They win on the swings and lose on the roundabouts.

Ian

PS...We can also bet that the G-70 is a far better built instrument than the BK-5 (or any other Roland arranger, for that matter), and it would have a much more robust and better feeling action, but it's this obsession with lightness and smaller size (witness the microArranger) that have manufacturers going a bit overboard, in my opinion.