Can we realistically expect something bigger and better from, the Roland arranger series in the near future?

Nope.

Impuls

Same as Yamaha... You get what (and when) they give you!

Nothing!!

They surely have the sounds and the tech.. How about a supernatural arranger with most of the supernatural tones from the Jupiter 80 and easy to use OS like on the G-70.

Integra-arranger module may be .. I am still dreaming.

Only time will tell. Cmon Roland... we are waiting

The problem is that a lot of musicians don't realize one thing,
there will NEVER be an arranger from Roland again, they gave up
on it long ago and it was official...so no dreaming anymore.

Roland is doing fine with the WS division and so many other avenues they are involved with other then arrangers KB's.....
They know what they are doing. There is life after Arrangers ...lol

I think the many fans of Roland on SZ are hopeful that the company will come around make another high (or higher) end arranger, but, it appears they have let that part of the market slip away and now it is dominated by Korg and Yamaha.

From what I understand, the most sales (and biggest profits) are in the middle-of-the-line, or what we on SZ call the MOTL range of arrangers, like the S950/S750 and the Korg equivalents...the high end stuff is intended to help pay for the R&D, and, in most cases, introduce new technology. It is also an attraction for the public, so Roland may lose a bit on the exposure end of it, since they now have only mid-range arrangers, and these, unfortunately, aren't really representative of their latest and greatest keyboard technology.

Hopefully we will see them return to TOTL, but I'm not going to bet on it.

Ian

Ian, I really would class what most would call motl Roland arrangers currently on offer at the lower end of motl, or upper end of the botl..

The Bk series and the GW 8 series are (were in the case of the GW's) STILL relying way too much on the Sound Canvas sounds that first appeared in the nineties!! Albeit with minor (VERY minor) tweaks...

And the OS's are abysmal!! Just my view of course, others may think differently.

Yamaha and Korg DESERVE their market places now, as they both continue to innovate and provide more a more up to date sounds, features and OS's...

Whether the updates are free or require a new hardware purchase is irrelevant in my view, the fact that they continue to do so is the important thing, and the thing that will keep people coming back time after time.

Dennis

Dennis, I believe your description of Roland's present arrangers is more accurate than mine...yep, probably more close to lower end of MOTL.

I still think the styles sounded more detailed on the BK-5 than I remembered them on the G-70 and on the more recently played GW-8 and Prelude, but that may have been just an improvement in the way the filters and EQ were setup on the BK-5.

I feel the same as you...updates, extra (and very well done) styles, Sampled (and Custom) Voices, and reasonably prompt OS upgrades are very nice to have (essential in the latter case) and it is cool to see companies (AJ at Ketron is doing it too) continue to support both for gratis and/or at a fairish cost.

I do remember when the first Roland E-series (made at the former SIEL synth plant in Italy) hit the market, back in the late 80's, and how they blew everyone away with, not only the newly developed LA (Linear Arithmetic) sounds, but the strength and musicality of the accompaniment patterns. Back then you got 4 or 5 extra styles on a ROM Card (8 on the Easy Eight card), that was fairly expensive for the few you got, but at least the styles were of equal quality as those on board.

I even bought a Roland Super Card for my E-70, http://m.matrixsynth.com/2010/12/roland-super-card-msl-15.html which gave me a whopping 60 extra styles (it was all the then available Style Cards rolled into one unit) and it plugged into the E-70's card slot and required an AC adaptor...it even had a card slot so you could plug in any newer cards.

They were really ahead of the game, and murdered poor Yamaha (and everyone else) for many years, until the PSR-2700/1700 and the PSR-8000 finally let them catch up.

Now Roland's arranger selection is a mere shadow of what they used to make...kind of sad, really.

Ian