I definitely think that Yamaha's marketing is what drives the excitement with the Tyros. If you strip it down to simple basic features, TBH, all of them compare very well, very evenly. Each of them has got stuff the others don't, and is missing stuff the others have got.

But how well is it promoted, how well is it demonstrated, how well is the launch managed?

Yamaha are masters of this.

And, there is a certain cachet in launching a $5000+ arranger. Let's face it, it is going to sell a fraction of the numbers of the S950 and the others in the PSR series, but just like every boy wants a Lamborghini poster on his wall even though he'll probably never drive one, a ton of interest is generated by something few of us will ever own.

Personally, I think Roland have mismanaged the BK-9 launch epically. One of its primary features, the ability to play loops in sync with the arranger, the one thing that puts it square in the ballpark of what younger players want to do, has absolutely NO CONTENT included when you buy it! How easy would it have been to include a cheap USB stick (or even a download for you to put on your own) with a selection of tasty loops and a few Performances with the Audio Key stuff set up to go? You play that in the store, you see it on a few user demos, and suddenly, everything about the BK-9 begins to make sense. It is an amazingly good arranger, especially at the price and size/weight, but add that ONE feature in, demonstrate it well, and Roland could have had an absolute sensation on their hands.

There are times when I feel that most of the manufacturers that make arrangers AND Workstations are a little bit embarrassed about their arranger divisions. One wants to feel one is on the cutting edge, one wants to feel that what one makes is having an impact on contemporary music and musicians, and if there's one thing that's true, it's that arrangers are none of that!

But here's a perfect example of a manufacturer that has actually managed to pull something quite new off, make it affordable and appeal to younger players, and Roland go and sweep it under the rug with little fanfare and promotion. In the meantime, of course, despite lesser capabilities that the younger player might need, Yamaha make a huge splash with the Tyros launch, and all the bedroom poster kids go ape!

The truth is, there's no anti-Tyros sentiment here. Simply players that this particular arranger doesn't suit our needs (or budget, mostly!) and when these shortcomings are talked about, Yamaha fanboys lose their freakin' minds! Somehow, they feel it is their right to be able to discuss things about Korg's or Roland's or Ketron's that they don't like, would prefer different, wish that they had, but somehow, when the screw is turned, label anything less than fawning, glowing, gushing infatuation as 'bashing' and 'anti-Yamaha'.

Strange, isn't it, that when THEY make their comments about other arrangers, no-one rises up en masse and labels THEM 'bashers' and 'haters'. There's a streak of inferiority running deep down in there, or why does the slightest discussion of Yamaha's shortcomings (ALL arrangers have them!) engender this rabid response?