Ouch... Sorry.

That has got to be an increasingly difficult problem, these days, eh? About the only workaround I can think of there is that most functions and style selections, etc., can be called up with MIDI, so some kind of tactile MIDI control box might be able to be programmed to call touch screen functions...

Roland tend to bias their OS towards the 'one registration per song' system (although you CAN do 'free-panel'), so you CAN call up UPGs (reg's) using panel buttons and two spots on the touch-screen (bottom left and right) - for paging. You would bottom left a bunch of times to get to page one, then count bottom right beeps to get to one of 10 or 12 pages, then panel select the choice there.

But I can only imagine how difficult it can be to operate one of these without sight. You might be better served going back to an older arranger (G1000, perhaps) that still sounds good, but relies on buttons a lot more...

I don't think the Yammy arrangers use touch screens do they? So I should be fine with a 900. But you are right, modern music technology does seem to be getting harder and harder to use. What with all the software plugins totaly being graphic and bitmap interfaces, which have no keyboard commands, or at least very few, and rely entirely on mouse. But that's a whole other discussion for another time on another forum.

Whether a screen is a touch screen, or whether there are buttons surrounding the screen wouldn't make that much difference I would have thought... Unless you can see WHAT page the screen is on, you will still have little idea what the buttons do...

The trouble with the idea that some 'alternative' should exist comes up against the fact that hardware buttons as an alternative to screen selection on todays incredibly powerful (but incredibly complex) arrangers, would raise the price an awful lot. There's a real cost reason why they are moving towards touch screens. Buttons cost a lot of money.

Perhaps some kind of tactile overlay for a touch screen would at least help your fingers get to the right spot...

I have a small amount of experience with this myself, because I play outside in the Florida sunshine on a beach gig several times a week, and in those lighting conditions, sometimes the display is close to unreadable if you are a hurry..!

If there are buttons, at least you can memorize button presses, and often exit out enough times where you can get back to a known location if you mess up. With a touch screen, it is very hard to eeven know what places to touch, unless as you said we designed some kind of tactile overlay. Still, it is harder to accidently push a button than it is to accidentally push something on the screen without knowing it. At least if you push a button, you have the tactile sensation of the button being pressed. With a touch screen, I might accidently activate something and not even know it while feeling around for the place I meant to push.

I worked with a blind musician..setting up a G800..He recorded our sessions, the key was remembering default settings and then counting button pushes to get where he wanted to be..I was totally amazed how he mastered the keyboard...BTW: did I mention, one of the best musicians I have ever heard..

Hey Scott..... the gig was with Jeff and Andrey Byrd. They are from west P'Cola. We played the gig at the SanDestin Hilton.

Have a great week all!

Randy