Arrangers were considered toys in the late 90's and early 2000's but things have drastically changed for the better since then. The Technics KN7000 started to shake things up and then shortly thereafter the Tyros arrived on the scene and quite frankly it sounded as good, if not better, than some of the workstations at the time. Arrangers continue to get better and the features are in many cases cutting edge and highly functional. You don't find lyric scroll on workstations or certain other features like songbook, etc. On the other hand, arrangers usually won't have a *real* Sampler or professional sounding drum kits for that matter. Although the drum kits on the latest high-end arrangers have improved quite a bit, including those on the Tyros 5.

I owned the original Tyros as most people on this forum already know and I enjoyed it immensely but I ended up selling it after I purchased my Roland Fantom G7 (76 keys). Looking back I wish I had kept the Tyros but hindsight is always 20/20 they say. Arrangers are great composing tools and make great sketch pads for getting song ideas and the auto-accompaniment feature(s) come in very handy for that very purpose.

Arrangers are live performance keyboards and even though workstations can and are used for live performance they are also great in the studio and have certain features such as *real* samplers and multi-track recording which is something most arrangers don't offer. Workstations usually have professional quality sounds while mid-range and some high-end arrangers are usually a few notches down in quality by comparison. But the gap is shrinking and that's encouraging.

Auto-accompaniment is what makes an arranger an arranger and as such they are different beasts than your typical workstation keyboard. Workstations usually have drum 'beat' backing tracks and also arpeggiators but not full blown accompaniment obviously. Workstations can be more time consuming because of their comprehensive feature set, whereas, arrangers are basically 'grab and go' keyboards and are really fun to play. Keyboard players have different needs but in my opinion everyone should own a top notch arranger. They are great sketch pads for composing songs plus they are 'one man band' instruments and thereby allow a single person to become his or her own band - without the costs associated with a real band and they get to keep all the proceeds.

I'm still debating about getting a Korg Pa-900. I recently saw a Tyros 3 advertised for sale but I'm kind of leaning toward the Pa-900 since it would be brand new, with the latest technology (including after-touch), with a 2 year warranty if I'm not mistaken. Summer NAMM is right around the corner and it will be interesting to see what Korg and Casio have to offer. We already know the Pa4x is coming down the pike and I would really prefer something with 256 note polyphony although I'm not sure whether Korg will step up to the plate. Ketron is floundering but on the other hand Casio is up and coming. Roland is focusing mainly on the masses (as opposed to musicians) since most of their recent product releases haven't been very inspiring in my opinion. The BK-9 has some nice sounds but it also has a few shortcomings. Not the least of which are the two, low resolution, monochrome LCD screens that harken back to the 1950's. The Tyros 5 would be a great option if it didn't cost an arm and a leg. I'm not complaining I'm just critiquing. The best option seems to be the Pa-900 but I'll probably hold off until after summer NAMM. I might even wait until winter NAMM 2015 because the show in Anaheim focuses more on keyboards and by then the Pa4x should be on the market but who knows.

All the best, Mike