During the last three months I first added a secondhand Roland E-50 and later on a BK-7m to my existing set up, Korg PA800 and Yamaha PSR750. I sold the E-50 within two weeks and the BK-7m should be going today. I would like to thank the "four D's " (Deane,Don,Donny and Diki) for their advice and assistance with the Roland gear.For many years now I have been trying to grasp why folks like Diki and Fran are so enamoured with the somewhat obsolete Roland material, in particular their G70 flagship. I for one started out with Roland gear in the 1990s and programmed endlessly on the G800, whose styles I thought ( and still think) were pretty corny, certainly compared to the new Korgs that appeared on the horizon in the mid 1990s.
However I learned that folks like Diki and Fran basically use their arranger for the bass and drum tracks and fill in most of the rest themselves or their bands. Having used the E50 and now the BK7m I can well understand their enthusiasm in this respect.Compared to my Korg and Yamaha the drum and bass sounds on the BK7m are vastly superior to the Yamaha and slightly better than on the Korg. (N.B. though not familiar with the new Korgs, I am under the impression that the drums on the previous series PA1X/PA80 and subsequently therefor even on the KMA are actually better than on the PA800/PA2X ).
So why not hang on to the BK7m you may well wonder ?
Well for starters it sorely misses one of Roland's highlights, the Dynamic Arranger. You must have had it to appreciate it and feel the lack of it.( I understand that even the new BK9 does not sport this facility and that Diki has contacted Roland about it in order they might incorporate it in a future update). But the major reason for letting it go again so soon is that, suffering from chronic headaches as I do, this contraption is bound to give any sane person a chronic headache eventually. Of course I mean the programming which has to be done via one dial/button for each and every parameter you can think of. At least the E50 like the G70 had both Dynamic Arrangers and superb touch screens. So who knows I might one day decide to get a G70 after all, but then I guess I would have to part with my yamaha PSR750 which, lousy as the bass and drums may be, gives me a lot of pleasure and many of the righthand sounds are absolutely superior to the Roland and even the Korg. Having said all that I am sure the next owner of my BK7m is going to be very pleased with the tremendous amount of styles etc. and as long as his programming will be limited he will feel quite happy with it.
I am looking forward to reading your BK9 experiences.

regards,
John

P.S. did you know the German guy (Deebach) is introducing a complete new sound system to work with virtually all Korg PA arrangers ? I'll keep you posted.