Maybe i am the only one over here, but i would love to see them add more features to arrangers when it comes to accompaniment...

There used to be just styles..

Some time ago, they added
- Sequencers
- Audio looping
- midi phrases (Korg and Yamaha hide these last two in the multi pads)

Now they added an arpeggiator to the PSR series and the CAsio MZ-X, i have allways loved arpeggiators. And its a good thing we will have this on future arrangers..

There is also the multi channel audio from Ketron, which i really like, looks very much like the more commercial stems from Native instruments..



I also hope they will add other things from other instruments to the arrangers of the future..

- Karma technollogy works well in combination with styles, its more then an advanced arpeggiator, it can be added to add different nuances to your styles, however, Karma is extremely hard to program and create your own GE's and such with

- Motion sequences, which are the latest trick of Yamaha to make music more dynamic. I think it works well in what it meants to do in giving the keyboardists more controll over the performance.

- realtime audio looping, just like on the Roland DS series.. just reord your audio loops in realtime and play with them.. also supported by the Casio MZ-X

- Pattern sequencer, much like the pattern mode in MOXF, it allows you to get some ideas into musical phrases really really fast.

- Chord track, much more advanced version of the Chord sequencer. You can choose between realtime keyboard chord input, or set chordinput.. if chosen set, there is a certain sequence of chords that are replayed. Styles would be able to use features that currently are only available in BiaB.. But also audio tracks could be transposed in realtime..

- New rhytm track, this allows you to controll the other tracks with parameters like swing, volume and others, much like the technollogy i recently showed from the Logix X drummer application, this track can be prerecorded, but also realtime controlled.. and not just influencing the drums, but also the other tracks, it would make music more dynamic... If they added a technollogy on top of that that allows your playing to influence these parameters, then we are stepping forward...


In the end, i think Synth workstations are slowly moving back to performance synths (Jupiter 80, Yamaha Montage) which leaves room and customers for the Arranger workstations to grasp if they add features that would for example hardcore Motif workstation users interest in the Tyros 6 as a workstation..

In the end, the lesson Yamaha has learned is keep it easy to opperate on top level, and add the real depth under the hood..




To me arranger workstations are like tools, that i love to play with, the more features, the better..