I still hate the ‘mine is better than yours’ that permeates forums like this one.

I will, and have (!) criticized the flaws in my own keyboard as often as I do others. We are not representatives of any brand (other than AJ), we are CUSTOMERS. Our job is to expose whatever flaws we find in whatever and all arrangers, in the hope (seldom achieved) of encouraging each manufacturer to fix and improve the breed as a whole.

Each of us needs to find the one arranger that suits us best, but also to realize that everybody else probably isn’t using their arranger the EXACT same way we are. Their needs, if they understand them well enough, are most likely different from us. The brand we choose will often not be right for others.

And reviews that expose flaws, bugs, and non-standard ways of achieving arranger play are NOT ‘bashing’, they are the best thing to have here. The collapse of brick and mortar stores has reduced us all to buying without trying (or at least buying then paying a hefty restocking fee if we don’t like it). The last thing we need is reviewers getting called ‘fanboys’ if they write a review that contradicts your desires!

Personally, an arranger review from someone coming from another brand is about the best possible way of learning about a new piece of gear. Let’s face it, that’s what most of us do… leave one brand for another now that the new model cycle has bumped up to five years or more with most brands. Let’s hear what hoops and adjustments making that move is likely to do to us!

And yes, while there may be workarounds most cross-brand migration, they may not be obvious to early reviewers. How practical some of those workarounds are is up to the customer to decide, not the seller! I had to make some SERIOUS changes in my workflow just going from the G70 to the BK9, and that was the same brand! Some of them still aren’t quite as good as the original method…

But the other side of the coin was, took me a while, but some things turned out to be FAR better once I learned to adapt to the new method. An early reviewer may not stumble across the new way with a limited hands-on…

Just don’t forget. You don’t work for Yamaha or Korg. You probably don’t own stock in them. To my knowledge, AJ is the only person here with any connection whatsoever with a manufacturer or distributor. So get off your high horses, and embrace criticism and debate! It’s the only damn way any of us is going to find out anything other than what the manufacturers want us to know…

The devil is in the details. Let the devil speak..! 🎹