Hmmmm, ten years?
I'll be using the same thing I use now......the same thing I used 20 years ago!

1) A good mic
2) Something to play bass with
3) A solid drum pattern generator
4) Something cool to bang out chords with.

That's all I've ever needed or wanted. I buy the new stuff to stay up with my competitors, and keep myself amused, but if it all went south tomorrow .... I'd sing, play LH bass over drum tracks and make my own chord arrangements while my (former) competitors watched my dust, crying about the state of electronics and why the new "whatchawhooziee" is falling short of their desires.

Seriously ..... I could live very nicely without any auto arranger features or sequences, but the current audiences I play to seem to require more than that to stay attentive. I'd have to relocate or retrain some clients' thinking, but hey - that's why I became an entertainer in the first place.....I wanted to share what I knew and taylor it into a package that the public would love, and love to PAY for !

So, bring on the newest, baddest, greatest digital revolution we've never dreamed of....I'll still be singing, playing and people watching ... just like always !

This may shock some of you to hear from me, but it's really never been about the gear.

It's about what I can do WITH the gear. Odds are - if I'm happy .... my audience is too !
I've always said that from the stage -
"I have the best seat in the house!"

I agree Dave, although some of us started out that way and could easily slip back into if necessary, many players are tied to the auto accompaniment or SMF and would be lost without them.

Then again...it sure is nice to have all those cool backup styles.

Ian



[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 10-12-2007).]

What will I be playing in ten years? If I change my ways now and am lucky, probably a harp. If it goes the other way (down), probably a pedal steel.

chas

....or, if hell is worse than we thought, an accordion.

chas

[This message has been edited by cgiles (edited 10-12-2007).]

Nigel, you are right.
Musician right now and in the next 10 years future, they will always have one hardware stand alone keyboards. This because not all musician are prepared and have know how about PC system. They can pay a lot of money, BUT they will all ready to play, turn ON the keyb, press some keys and PLAY!

PC system with softsynth are right now the new future, BUT untill you are able to assembly one working system, integration of the all sounds engine with latency under 3ms..you need to be one software engineers!

For that normally musician prefer to continue buy closed embedded system, because are so simple to use and ready to play.

Untill you there will be happy with the USB 1.0, 64-128Mb ROM sounds, slave to PC connection, more cheap and plastic possible...the big brands there will be always so happy to continue sell you the same sup every 6-8 months.

The future anyway is around the PC system and for sure someday they maybe will arrival too.
But for this need:
+ AMD CPU 64bit system
+ Powerfull 24bit Audio card with min 126dB Dynamic range
+ Possibility to connect external Fireware/usb audio cards in the internal mixing
+ Full open controlled API/Midi/USB hardware pannel
+ Double OS, Linux 64bit and windows as slave server (lol)
+ Unlimited VST loader and Clients
+ Unlimited ASIO Clients
+ min another 540.000 line of new C, C++, for try to manage the only keyboard system ( not included the all other engine application)
+ make that this all dream can really working
= Mediastation hardware and OS 2.0.
This we have right now. http://www.lionstracs.com/store/information_pages.php?info_id=24

IF someone try to start with this Open technology ( and need more 4-8 years for see some working) in the next 4-8 years waw the Mediastation will be able to do?

Of course, if someone there will start with this new technology, for sure in the next years we wil see a lot of new products, PC based that are able to LOAD the all what you like.

For now...enjoy what you have in your hards and have FUN!
cheers

[This message has been edited by LIONSTRACS (edited 10-12-2007).]

Yep, one of my favorite Far Side cartoons:



-mike

standalone controller KB only maybe Nigel.....but hooked to a laptop of some sort of computer instead of lugging a big unit.....20 years from now is another story

In 10 years some of us will be in the home. And when you younger guys come in to entertain, we will be quick to tell you about how we did it in our day. You know, we had to carry heavy equipment uphill in the snow....hehehe.

Ciao,

Joe

------------------
Songman55
Joe Ayala

I'm not sure if sonic improvements over the next decade or so are going to be that important. I believe that what we currently have on TOTL arrangers is sufficient (and my audiences seem to agree!). But I think the major improvement may come from more elaborate OS's, and chord tracking and triggering algorithms that respond more like real players.

The Korg implementation of Guitar Mode is a good start. Finally, something on an arranger that works IN arranger mode, that accurately tracks chords and inversions like a guitar player, NOT just transposing the original performance, but re-voicing it AS A GUITARIST WOULD, according to where on the keyboard you play, how hard you play, what key you are in...

Non-linear things like this are the way, at the moment, that we can tell arranger play from real performance, but as computers get faster and cheaper, sophisticated algorithms to adjust the performance based on real-life rules and player techniques will make the arranger close to indistinguishable from live performance. We already have software libraries and players that chose different sets of samples according to your live playing (selecting legato, staccato, slurs and trills, etc.)... Imagine these (kind of like SA voices on steroids!) on ALL kinds of sounds, triggered from your chords!

I see a move away from simple 'four variations and seven fills' choices to FAR more elaborate variation choices, perhaps triggered by an intelligent analysis of what you are playing (LH and RH!), it's intensity, frequency of fill usage, etc.. I see some effort made to have a more intelligent fill system, that does a better job of smoothly flowing from each variation to the next. If these kinds of things can be achieved by algorithmical extrapolation, rather than some poor programmer having to laboriously come up with umpteen fills, styles may eventually get sophisticated enough that they rival live playing in non-repeatability and sophistication.

Imagine rules that not only provide variation for several different chord types (like we have now) but also provide variability depending on what chord type goes to another (so a change from major to minor would be different from a maj 7th to minor 7th, etc.).

Imagine a chord analysis engine that, after you've played a set of changes once, and start to repeat it, it would recognize this, and adjust bass-lines and other single note lines to better suit this set of changes...

I just feel that, instead of concentrating on SONIC improvements, from a player's perspective I would honestly like to see most of the changes come at the OS and arranger engine end of things....

JMO, yada yada yada....

Diki, what you envision is creative, inovative, and well thought out. While I think some of the processes you describe (chord tracking & triggering algorithms)WILL be implemented on non-arranger keyboards, I think the increased complexity of operation will be over the heads of the senior citizens that arrangers are targeted for. Not many 70yr olds are going to buy a high-performance sports car with 8-speed manual transmission. They are going for the comfy sedan with auto everything and voice-recognition GPS nav.

While it would be greatly appreciated by PRO's and OMB's, my guess is that they probably make up no more than 10% of the arranger market.

Furthermore, for the time it would take you to master the instrument you describe (including the MediaStation follow-ons), you could actually learn to play a real instrument.

As much as I like the sound (and weight) of my Nord C1, all the digital crap, including the digital drawbars, is driving me nuts. I'm having to relearn to play a "B3" and man, it ain't easy.

But, truth is, I hope you're right.

chas