I wouldn’t do the factory reset unless the OS is not up to date. But read the manuals carefully about the Global settings and the ‘Save as default’ function, which will allow you to set up the BK-9 so it powers up the way you want.

That’s also incorrect information about the USB/iPad connection. There’s a square USB port on the back where you plug in a USB cable on the back (it will hook up to a computer just fine with a regular cable, but you’ll need a Camera Connection Kit cable to connect to an iPad). The slot USB connector on the front is where you put your USB memory stick.

The only restriction was with the Roland Wireless connection dongle, which would take up that front slot. So essentially useles... Doh! 🙄

As to G70 compatibility, styles and sequences will play just fine. One of Roland’s strengths is that their style format hasn’t changed in decades. So basically, any well written style will play with no issues. However...

There was a fair bit of tweaking of drum kit sound volumes on the newer (better) drum kits compared to the V-Drum kits from the G70. In truth, the E80 was a closer match to the BK-9 than the G70, having almost the identical same drum kits.

Now, I’m being ultra picky... it’s subtle, and you may feel that it works for you with no tweaking, but for me, I often found myself adjusting the hi hat volumes a bit and sometimes overall velocity to hit sample vel-switch points. Again, subtle, but possibly worth it.

You’ll also find that the main electric basses have a LOT more low end now, so if you found yourself EQ’ing the basses in the G70 or boosting the whole arranger’s low end to compensate, you can take it off now.

To be honest, I approach each new arranger as an opportunity to rework EVERYTHING. Complete sonically identical compatibility kind of defeats the reason why I bought a new keyboard. I want it to sound better, not the same! So I don’t mind the work. But everything WILL play, and the differences are subtle.

There’s also now 3 MFX processors for the style/SMF section, which can transform your styles and sequences. Try replacing distorted rock parts with clean guitars and run them through one of the amp simulators cranked up... fantastic! Now chords break up properly like a real guitar does. A phaser on Rhodes parts, slapback echo on rockabilly guitars - sky’s the limit!

See if you can find the EA7 styles, most of those will work fine in the BK-9 with the exception of the ethnic stuff which uses sounds and kits the BK-9 doesn’t have. Many of them are reworked BK-9 styles, sometimes for the better. They also have a few which leverage the BK/EA7’s ability to run more than one drum part, which none of the BK’s styles did for some strange reason, and they also use some MFX on style parts, which was almost never used on the BK-9’s styles.

You will LOVE the massively expanded Performance List (UPS in G70 terms) which ballooned from 128 entries to 999! It now feasible to have one’s entire repertoire all in one list... The latest OS also has a utility to read G70 UPG’s, but obviously there will be some differences. You lose UPR3 & LWR2 parts, and may have an issue with MFX assignments. Plus, of course, any aftertouch assignments.

Losing the touch screen was traumatic at first, quite a few things that were easy using the screen are now a lot more difficult to get to, and losing the sliders for the Makeup Tool section makes it a bit slower, but there are workarounds, and for me, the thing that truly pushed me to new heights was simply to leverage the expanded Performance List to prepare adjacent Performances (UPG’s) for each thing I would have used the touch screen to do manually. It’s all totally seamless, as Roland’s have been for years, so no hiccups sonically. So one button press, and you can alter one thing hard to get to, or the entire setup, whatever, and just concentrate on playing, not button pushing!

If you have an FC7 you can also program Performance up/down to two switches and do it hands-free. Amazing!

The H Bar section (the Hammond sim) got a huge update, and fixed everything from the G70. The volume slider is now post distortion, so you can have a quiet but distorted sound, and the reverb send is post-Leslie! Plus you now have options for B3’s of different decades for vib/cho and different amp sections. A huge improvement (but still very difficult to use without a swell pedal, as it should be).

The Wav/MP3 player bypasses the Mastering Tools altogether, so your best way to set up your monitor/PA system would be to play a good CD rip via the built in player and EQ your system to that, then use the Mastering EQ and compression to make your styles and sequences match. The default settings are a bit extreme for me, IMHO they are optimized for pretty poor speakers, and boost the low end too much. I usually take the EQ off and only have a very gentle compression to even out the backing, and nothing on the keyboard side at all...

Let me know any questions when you start to play it, preferably on a new thread per unrelated question (so others can easily find info). I hope you enjoy your new arranger, I know I certainly have!
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An arranger is just a tool. What matters is what you build with it..!