You can tell from Roland's marketing, and their almost comical bending over backwards to avoid using the word 'Arranger' either on the products or in any of the literature, that they must have done some serious market research, and discovered that there is an association between 'Arranger' and cheeze (or at least lowered sales because of it!).

Perhaps we have ALREADY become the 'home organ' in its' declining years? Too square to be even mentioned?

Perhaps it is time to get on over to the Synth/WS forums, and start to make noise about bringing some of the practical things from arranger operation to be ADDED to existing WS OS's..? Rather than this self-delusional idea that the existing arranger manufacturers are going to come to their senses and admit to themselves that they are being KILLED by the WS/Loop player segment, sales-wise, and if they don't adopt some of what makes them so popular, it's game over.

I must admit, I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. I really don't want to lug TWO bits of kit to do a job, but increasingly, WS's like the Kronos and MoXF are able to do things no WS can really approach, but no WS is as easy to use on a gig as a good arranger. One of the two needs to adopt the best features of the other.

But I think I can tell from the head in sand attitude here, and the almost puritanical approach by the arranger manufacturers that they had better not adopt anything remotely usable by a younger player (lest we get confused too easily!), that nothing is going to improve on OUR side of the fence. I guess we can only hope that WS/Loop players gradually morph into something we can use...

I think Roland's gradual disappearance from the high end arranger market is simple admission from them that there ISN'T a high end arranger market, at least not one that sells in the kinds of numbers they used to have, and paid for the R&D it needed. I am pretty sure that, if the figures were public, we'd see a drop in high end sales by ALL the manufacturers. Some are big enough, or have cornered the majority share of the dwindling market to survive, some aren't, or have just decided it's not worth fighting over an ever disappearing market segment.

Roland's move into the downmarket segment I think reflects what has happened to our arrangers... Losing market, losing relevance, only kept in production to satisfy us old fogies!

Shame, really...