If you sing and play arranger keyboard how many sounds do you really need?....I know some of you will be shocked but personally I don't use or need that many sounds or styles when performing. First off I am a singer who uses an arranger keyboard to back myself up and replace my band of which I was a part of for 30 years since the mid 1960s and played 3 or 4 KBs stacked before arrangers were ever introduced Vox Continental, Hammond B3, Rhodes, Juno 60, Arp Omni, Korg M1, etc, after the band broke up I wanted to still play but have that same band sound I enjoyed then in the early 1980s I discovered Korg's First Arranger KB The SAS 20 (shown below) and from then on never looked back as a OMB till today with my KORG Pa4x.
My approach using an arranger is this,......
I think of it as a small 7 pc band like I used to have with a drummer/perc, bass player, sax, Brass, guitar, keyboard, backup singer, Lead Singer (me).....now if you as a band these are the instruments you would always use for YOUR BAND job after job.You have your own sound and style with your music using these 7 performers using a few sounds...the songs might change but the sound is pretty much the same depending on the song,....in my user banks I use only a certain amount of custom sounds for MY band around for RH accomp, great Hammond B3, Trumpet, Growl sax, Tenor/Alto Sax section ensemble, Brass section, Stage EP, Octave Piano, Rock, Classical, Octave Strings, multipads, tweaked Standard drumkit,....I generally tweak & edit all the styles to suit my needs and change a few part sounds, eq/fx as needed also. I only use maybe 40-50 styles which I can then cover almost anything. The rest I use custom edited Mp3 backing tracks to sing and play over, I'll also always use the same KORG STS or Yamaha OTS sounds in the same Variation slots on all my styles so that I never have to worry what sounds are there while playing, var1 Piano/EP,Guitar, var2 Sax/Trumpet/var3 Strings/B3, va4 Brass, all else if need I draw from User menu, I only use two linked Boss FS-5U pedals VH/Sus.....for the rest I'll just dj songs for dancing for the younger crowds which are also edited every one from my laptop to suit the venue, etc,etc,..this for my needs creates a super MIX on stage to do just about anything. Sometimes I read where players are using thousands of styles and sounds and I have to shake my head in amazement and wonder why,....this might work for you but for me I'll stick to what I have said above using My 7 piece band to me less is more..
Now how do you as a singer/player go about it? I would love to hear it and maybe absorb and learn a few things along the way.