Gee Diki...I hope I'm not stopping you from dreaming...

I guess I'm easy to please...I may even keep the S900 if the next S-series doesn't have significant upgrades that would suit me.

The new T3 should give a few hints on what might trickle down to the new S-series.

Ian

[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 03-03-2008).]

I guess in a lot of ways I'm like the guys who frequently upgrade. I'm always looking over the horizon for something that will really be a big upgrade. Unfortunately, these days the horizon seems to be a little farther away. Lots of neat things out there, lots of great keyboards, lots of improvements, however, all that stuff is not in one, neat package.

Guess I'll stick with the 3K for a while longer,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

John,
I have tried to find a younger person to whom I could pass along my knowledge of entertaining using an arranger keyboard.
I just don't see any out there, at least around where I live. Perfect? Of course that will never happen. But I would just like to see more younger people interested at all.
Maybe you have to be older to develop an appreciation for arrangers, where you can be quite spontaneous yet still have a full arrangement backing you.
I see a lot of people using sequencers and MP3s or wave files to accompany themselves, but no arrangers.
DonM

Dom,
I wise man once said to me:
When you reach the older years you find that you have learned so much but have no one to tell it to”.

I remember visiting my dad, he had moved into a retirement village in South Jersey, Holiday City. I saw something I was not aware of. In these homes you could find the best of every trade and educational positions, -- plumbers, electricians, teachers and leaders of other men. Sad, but the majority of them would pass on taking their knowledge with them. What a terrible waste.

John C.

Don,
I think the market dictates what is well received and what is not. In this area (Philly metro), the arranger is not all that beloved. The audiences that dance the most seem to respond better to tracks that more closelt resemble the originals. For those of you who do not know me, I speak from many, many years experience as a one man band, and I have never been out of work. I started playing left hand bass with a dedicated drum machine, and a Rhodes piano...and worked the same rooms ( for MORE $$ ) than some 3-5 piece bands. That was 20 years ago. Today's crowd is programmed to believe that they can all sing ( due to the dreaded "K" word, and that horrible abomination, known as "reality TV" ), and as such, they are slow to accept an arrangement that sounds "canned" or "generic".

Mind you - these are observations, and by no means the rule in any area. I use any tool that is available to help me in my task to entertain. Every artist (or even artisan, for that matter) depends on the right tool for the job. In the Philly night life...even in some senior centers, there is NO WAY an arranger/stock pattern and a 53 yr old guy singing the electric slide is going to get the same reaction as a charming, 53 yr old host, inviting the crowd to dance as he cues a track of the electric slide.

Sequences can add sizzle to your act, free up your hands, and allow you more vocal freedom. Tasty arranger use can give you sponinaity, and instant medleys. Using an MP3 can let you go to the bathroom and not come back to a hostile crowd !

Arranger use is not bad.
Neither is Sequence use.
MP3 use does not make you a DJ.
The key is in something Eddie Fisher said you gotta have......

(cue "Damn Yankees" soundtrack)

All my best, guys and gals!
UD