Bachus, I think you just made Donny's point. If it ain't broke, why try to fix it?

The primary reason I agree with him about the sounds is that despite all the tuning and tweeking, the audiences don't seem to notice. Both Donny and I, and many others on this forum, are primarily entertainers. The sounds provided by the arranger keyboard manufacturers are more than adequate for our purposes. And, like Donny, Dave, Fran, DonM, and many others, we're it out there performing every day of the week for the most part, often more than once a day. We learned how to read our audiences, we interact with them daily, we often know many of the audience members on a first name basis, and for the most part the comments we hear are not about the keyboard's sounds, though TonyM seems to be an exception to this. The vast majority of the people I encounter tell me how much they love the song selections, and how much they love my vocals.

Like you, I own an older car, and it will only be replaced when it meets it's untimely demise, which is usually when I reach 300,000 miles or more. Additionally, I have a fairly extensive background in electronics, be it quite old. I'm one of the few individuals that have been through all the instruction manuals of every keyboard I've owned, I've repaired several for others, but never one of my own, I've designed and constructed my own circuit boards, and use lots of marine electronic devices. And, yes, I can even use a sextant, but not as accurately as I would like.

I enjoy reading your posts related to new devices, and I always try to investigate them to determine if they would be beneficial to myself and other entertainers in the field. I don't believe Donny is anti gadget or device in any way, shape or form. However, I think he is being realistic about his personal needs as an entertainer. And, his needs are not that much different than any other, live music entertainer that I know, both personally and on this and other forums. Please do not take this as an affront. It's just the opinion of an old codger that has been in this business for many, many years. And, please, continue to post your findings on other new gear and gadgets - it's good information.

All the best,

Gary