the next Roland arranger is BK-3

http://www.roland.com/products/en/BK-3/

Yeah, good post m8, I totally agree...I don't know a lot about the early arrangers, I had heard of them, but never actually played or heard one, my first being the RA50...

It is a shame really that a company who dominated so completely simply cannot be bothered (or can see no economic benefit) to at least maintain some sort of comparable product.

Dennis

Video of the BK3...

http://www.roland.com/video/page.cfm?id=313036613002

I would like to see roland re-invent and reintroduce the e30, e86, g1000

I think that Roland seem to have got a pretty good handle on the arranger market right now. Concentrate on the low to middle end of the market. While we make what SEEMS to be a fair amount of noise about the high end of the scale, we are but a TINY percentage of the market. And growing smaller every day.

You see, contrary to what impression you might get if you were deluded enough to think that SZ in any way represented the majority of arranger players, most people that buy an arranger do not immediately start obsessing over what the NEXT one might do. In fact, the vast majority of arrangers go to people without the skills (or desire!) to learn the capabilities, in full, of what they already got!

Think of them, in a way, as Granddad's 'home organ', sitting in the dusty living room... HE certainly didn't change organs every time a new one came out! They sit in the living room (or bedroom, or closet!) for YEARS..!

High end arranger sales are dropping like flies. People got a LOT more on their plate than what to waste their money on, these days. In the meantime, the low end arrangers have become SO MUCH better than they used to be, for anyone less than a professional or a VERY serious hobbyist (with deep pockets), they are all anyone could need!

Look at the low end that has come out lately. PA600, BK-7m/BK5... Arrangers down in that $1000 price range (still not chump change when you compare them to the über-cheapies down at Sears). They easily blow the TOTL from 10 years ago out of the water! It has gotten to the point that, unless you are a total arranger FREAK (or one of the many here that seem to think that a new arranger is the way to play better!), a $1000 arranger is all you will ever need.

So moving away from the VERY expensive TOTL arrangers, with their rapidly diminishing market (if you are the major supplier of arrangers to a small area, perhaps you haven't noticed this, but go talk to one of the smaller dealers!) and rapidly narrowing capabilities and sound with the BOTL seems to be a smart move.

The only REAL area left for improvement is what YOU play on them, not some bell and whistle. And, from so much of what I hear here, that's an untapped well of need! One that will not be met by buying a TOTL arranger!

Kinda like golf clubs. You can buy the most expensive ones, but only practice and experience makes you play well.
Still, bells and whistles are fun sometimes too.
I remember paying big bucks for arrangers that wouldn't hold a candle to anything made in the past 10 years!
DonM

A TOTL from Roland ain't gonna happen, in my opinion, as Yamaha and Korg have the high end, and mid-high end pretty well to themselves, and most previous Roland users wanting more than the low-mid end can provide (playing samples, more robust keys/keybed to name a few), have migrated to one or the other, and of course, Ketron, especially since AJ's powerful upgrades.

Tyros4 and Korg PA3X appear to be doing very well, for those seeking the very best in TOTL arrangers, and the mid-high, and some of the low end, has really come along nicely, with terrific interest in S950/S750/S910/S710, Korg's new PA-600, and even the PSR-E433 entry level is doing well.

I suppose it depends on the area...arrangers never really took off in certain parts of the USA and Canada, and in Canada, for example, the East Coast (including Newfoundland) and Quebec are the most prolific arranger users/buyers. The Tyros4 ( which sold more than all earlier Tyros combined), has recently become very popular with pro studios (sold three in the past short while), and, no doubt Korg PA are as well, as the word gets around that these puppies aren't your grandpa's big old Electone or overpriced Atelier...they can produce some awesome demos and finished recordings in a very short time.

One of my bosses told me that Australia was one of the last holdouts for Yamaha Electone instruments, which are now pretty well confined to Japan...maybe that's why arrangers seem to do so well there, although for some reason, they sell very, very few in Japan.

It's a shame Roland has slipped away from a relatively (depending on area) lucrative market (the reasons for which are known only to the company's top brass), as you have to sell a lot of low-mid range arranger keyboards to equal the profit on one TOTL instrument.

Ian