A lot of us used to make fun of Yamaha’s ‘micro-updates’ until the SX900/700 seriously upped their mid-line and the Genos did the same for the TOTL.

Now they appear to have returned to their original game plan. Keybed issues aside, I don’t think anyone with an SX900 is going to seriously lust after this. It might make sense for an older S900 owner (the IFX and chord sequencer improvements alone make that a serious step up) but it’s looking like we’re back to going two or three models before an upgrade can even be audibly noticed.

Trouble now though is the timeframe between models has lengthened to over five years, so skipping a couple of micro-upgrades is a 15year wait! Skipping just one is ten years! There aren’t many of us with that kind of patience any longer..!

We spent many a thread discussing Donny’s latest acquisition, sometimes two or more a year! Nowadays even if Donny got every new arranger the minute it came out, we’d be having the conversation with a three or more year gap between the fun!

I don’t think the market’s big enough any longer for updates to be as insignificant. That’s not what’s been happening in the synth/workstation world.

And I definitely think the major manufacturers are missing a huge market for arrangers. While EDM and other loop based music is what consumes the younger player market, the tools they have to make it are STILL nowhere near as ‘instant gratification’ as an arranger. Adding modern loop capabilities and arpeggiators to arrangers is a snap and could easily ease the creation process for inexperienced younger players who struggle with things like Maschine or FantomX synths.

We all remember the runaway success of the Casio Rapman… an arranger dedicated SOLELY to (at the time) contemporary hiphop and rap. It had no old sounds, no old styles, it was focused and cheap. Why no one tried to capture that lightning again is one of life’s greatest mysteries!