"Success"..why was it so short lived?


I have a different view than you guys...The biggest reason sales in the US (arrangers)are down...they are not understood by the US players..Some just snub it as a "old Casio", and refuse to try and figure it out...Bringing it to my second thought..I have found the professional musician (average) can not and will not grasp the learning curve needed to succeed with an arranger..

As Diki has mentioned the top model arranger keyboards excel over the workstations in live use..There are no comparison....and my opinion the arrangers match the sound of workstations easily...maybe even exceed...

For my personal use of an arranger, I am just as happy to turn off the arranger, and play just left hand bass, drums, and piano (organ etc)..This is where the "pros" should look at arrangers to meet their needs..They need to get a better understanding of "how" the arranger can benefit them...not just their "Casio" memory..

This also has to be part of the retail store operations..Sales people have to be trained to understand ..what they sell.. use the correct approach to sell these instruments, they can be found to accommodate "any" buyer...

Well, it did sell very well, and I guess that's a success in itself, but, since I'm the kind of guy who has always worn his baseball cap the right way 'round, to get the real nitty gritty, you'd have to ask Squeak, who literally wore a DJX out from using it so much.

He'd know much more about it than I.

I do know that the DJX was far better (successful?) than the subsequent DJXII, which seemed to lose "something" according to those who liked the original.

Ian



[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 05-04-2009).]

Fran.... Just as it is only a small percentage of arranger purchasers that are pros, so is the percentage of WS buyers. And also, the percentage of TOTL arrangers is small, compared to the whole market. While a TOTL arranger, Fran, CAN be used at a 'pro' level, sadly, the feature set and overall sound is not contemporary enough for young 'pros' to really accept them. Yes, they are great 'meat and potatoes' keyboards, but the sounds?

If I was primarily doing Usher, or Madonna, or Beyonce or Maroon Five, I wouldn't be using my G70. I'd have a MotifXS or a Triton or a Fantom... And trust me... the learning curve to perform well on those things is JUST as steep as an arranger. More so, in fact. That's why I use an arranger - it's easier, not harder!

No, arrangers are not used by younger players because they play younger music. And arrangers are voiced and styled for YESTERDAY'S music. Even the dance and trance styles on a TOTL arranger are at least ten years old. And ten year old styles and sounds don't pack a dancefloor of young kids. Not compared to cutting edge dance loops and sounds that modern WS's carry.

BTW, before you say that young pros won't pay arranger prices, consider the K2600's and Korg Oasys's that you see on stage all the time. Both at LEAST as costly as a T3 or PA2Xpro... (which are also niche arrangers that few of us, even, own due to the cost, and hard to find to try out - heck, even WE have to drive hundreds of miles to try these things out... you can hardly blame the kids for being unfamiliar with them )

Young kids are not stupid... they know what suits THEIR music. It is arranger manufacturers that are stupid, if they think their product appeals to younger buyers. Either they make the investment, and the market grows, or it's 'move over, Home Organ'...

most of the pro workstation users are not actually pros as in getting paid and those that are struggle to pay for their gear just like anyone else. They are as price conscious as anyone and many refused to even consider the Oasys because of its price point. Its only the arranger market that does not seem to be as price sensitive because the people buying them tend to have more money, less commitments and are more into buying the latest keyboard than actually making the best use of what instrument they already play

I've worked retail in the past, spalding. My WS customers, on the whole, were no more or less well heeled than the arranger customers (if they were going for TOTL).

I think it is more economy of scale. WS's outsell arrangers (at least in the $1000+ range) probably 30 to 1 or more. This simply makes them able to sell them less expensively. And the all important content costs a LOT less per unit when you sell in those numbers. As Nedim has pointed out, the styles in an arranger are a considerable factor in it's overall cost. Only sell a few hundred, it's a sizable portion of your costs. Sell a few THOUSANDS (as WS's do) and the cost per unit goes down considerably.

so how much longer do we have to wait for this 2.0?

AJ? Ketron?

I wanna try out AUDYA w/ 2.0

sometime this year maybe?

still waiting, and waiting...

not only for OS2, but some sort of ETA, status, what's causing delay, anything, an answer to our posts, answers to our concerns be they of good or bad

but we are only potential future customers, so why bother keeping us in the loop?
that's not important
i mean we've only been waiting 3 years,
what's a few more months?

if Ketron can't answer questions before you've bought their goods,
then what makes you think they will AFTER you buy them?

support, cust. serv, is definitely lacking on Ketron's part,

but we are only paying $5,000, so that's understandable

leezone your still waiting?

aren't we all ??