This is why I always stress the importance of the drums in an arranger. Bottom line, if you want to attract younger players, you need drum sounds that pop, styles that pop, and balances that don't allow you to swamp the drummer... Not exactly Yamaha's forte.

Am I mistaken, or were those two done on essentially the same style (thought some of the fills sounded very similar)?

The thing is, as Ian has alluded to, arranger perception is a marketing thing. Yamaha excel at marketing to the elderly, but have fallen a lot shorter when it comes to attracting young players to the type. WS's, synths and Stage keyboards outsell arrangers (at least in the same price bracket) by a wide margin. Why? Because the demos and content are aimed at the young. And they are the largest buying demographic (unless you count the toy keyboard market).

Now, once again, don't get me wrong... I think that Roland have also failed in providing much up to date marketing, and why they failed to include some loop content for the BK-9's loop player (so you could check out how contemporary that can make you sound in the store) beats me. But I can only imagine the spurt of interest in arrangers by the younger, market if things like this were the strong points of factory demos, not Shadows and Take the A Train!

We have somehow got to get these things into the hands of the young for the type to not die out with its elderly demographic. Time to put the hoary old NH material to bed, and set our sights on guys this age (the second one, LOL)....