I think if anyone is interested in continuing to use Roland arrangers, the BK9 is head and shoulders feature and technology-wise over all others. Sonically it is a quantum leap forward from the E80 with the addition of its SuperNatural voices, revamped VK Hammond sim and huge range of sounds, many from the SRX cards.

It has the return of the Chord Sequencer, now a mainstay of other brands. It plays .wav and mp3 loops in sync with a style, and plays .wav and mo3 backing tracks, all of which are absent from Roland’s previous flagship E80. It has a 21 lbs weight despite a great feeling 76 note keyboard, and reliable, good feeling controls.

It has a full featured sequencer, a full featured style creator, one of the easiest to operate style and sequence header editors ever made, with deep editing for drumkits and effects. Speaking of which, two insert FX on the keyboard sounds and THREE to put on style and SMF tracks. That’s a lot for an 11 year old arranger.

It has a superb Pianist chord detection mode, allowing better chord recognition for pianists playing pianistically than any other arranger I’ve played, and the Dynamic Arranger feature which allow you to get the style to quite accurately follow YOUR dynamics.

They are hard to find, but if you’re considering going Roland, get the ONE Roland that has it all.