Only reason a company dissolves a department is because it's not profitable I would think?

No, thats not allways the case..

In the case of technics, they ditched the arrangers as the numbers where to small...

also GEM, General Music, Farfisa, etc, and a slew of others....
at least we have a few left barley hanging on...

Actually gem and general musics are names for the same company, and they filed for bankrupcy, when their major investor pulled out..

Why Arranger Keyboards Matter

Thoughts?

also GEM, General Music, Farfisa, etc, and a slew of others....
at least we have a few left barley hanging on...

The best part of my life was when I had my band. My arranger keyboard is the best substitute I can find. I’m still there.

++1

IMHO arrangers will morph into workstations and be more software based. It just makes sense to have a system that can be customizd and upgraded as needed by the user. Why companies don't do this more is strange. They could charge for the software updates so as not to loose income from selling new keyboards.
It seems there are so many keyboardists out there using laptops for sounds and effects live that the soft synth market will only grow.

Virtually all arranger keyboards are software based these days, however they are bespoke to the manufacture and they only fit hardware that allows small updates before the complete arranger has to be replaced. (Most also don’t allow 3rd party support)

Only two manufactures (That I am aware of) has long term upgrades, (Some free, some cost) these being Wersi and Bohm who make single keyboard versions of their organs with arranger features included, however the arranger features on-board are designed for organ play, (Where the player plays virtually everything themselves) not arranger play, (Although they do now allow 3rd party (From the big arranger manufactures) styles to be used so as to allow an easier transition from arranger play to organ play for those wishing to expand) Wersi (And Bohm with the optional Cloud Station) also allows 3rd party support via a VST Host on-board so that you can have pretty much anything you want.

Both are niche products, and being hand built cost significantly more that an easy play arranger keyboard that is mass produced, (Also organs have never been cheap) however that no one else has followed suit just shows how difficult it is to bring to widespread market, (Most arranger players prefer to press a button and have everything done for them rather than make themselves stand like the old organ players did by developing their own style of playing (Hence arrangers have always been aimed at home players) even though long term it works out cheaper for the customer and manufacture, (Software is much cheaper to change than hardware) for example the original Wersi OAS instruments came out in 2000 and were not discontinued until 2014 (And this was only because certain 3rd party hardware was no longer available) with many sound and feature updates over this time.

Arranger keyboard sales are on the slide and like the entertainment organs that they spawned from, will become a niche market in the future, but will still be around just like organs are.

Bill

Arranger keyboard sales are on the slide and like the entertainment organs that they spawned from, will become a niche market in the future, but will still be around just like organs are.
Bill

Bill, very few musicians I know have the patience to learn and use soft synths and
arranger software, taking advantage of vst's.

Bill
Nice post and good info but the one flaw I see is the two companioes you mention cater to the home organist, not the younger preforming musicians. Moon River on a 20K digital organ is fine if thats what you want but the manufactures need to go more after the new crop of players out there.
Just a "simple and fast" way to program your own backing tracks or convert SMFs to Styles would be a big step forward.
Adding new sound sets according to your playing needs woud also be some starter ideas. My BK9 has some SN voices, why can't I get or even buy more to add to the keyboard.

You can convert SMFs to Styles in about 10 seconds on Korg PA4X. Not all perfect but a lot of them are very good.

Don
Why did you tell me that ? I don't wanna buy another keyboard and now you made me think about it !!!
Korg sounds like a great machine, maybe there will be a software program that will work as simple and fast for Roland.

That is until the few remaining that remember them
is still alive......and then there were none..

There's my little Debbie Downer.

Let the truth be told ... or let's face reality,
the G70 is the "BEST" arranger Kb that ever was & ever will be!

DNJ, there is one for sale. You'd better jump on it!