Having followed the discussions on the pros and cons of the current wave of new arranger keyboards I would like to dwell on these three for a moment. In particular since I added a Yamaha arranger to my Korg one thing has become more obvious to me than ever. You all know that I offer several sets of Resources for the Korg PA models that often took me months if not years in programming. I was always of the opinion that Yamaha sounded much better "straight out of the box" and it basically does , at least compared to Korg, but even with my current Yamaha PSR750 you are still a long way off if you do not delve into programming yourself. A lot has been said about the style market and how there are thousands and thousands of styles available for the Yamaha arrangers, whereas Korg is playing second fiddle here. (mind you I am talking quantity here, not necessarily quality). Nonetheless it has become apparent to me over the last three months that basically the Yammies need substantial tweaking as well to make them really shine. The first thing essential is the basic quality of the sample, a matter subject to discussion but a matter that cannot be altered.( apart from the limited RAM sample loading)
I share the view with may of you that some basic samples are superior on the Korg and others on the Yamaha. ( incidentally, and that is less of a personal opinion but I think that the ketron drum sounds and samples are superior by far to the other two brands). Having said that there is a lot that can be achieved by changing the filter, the EQ ( high/low),volumes and effects ( in particular reverb settigs) in both the Yammies and the Korgs. On average it is my opinion that factory wise but also in all the Songbooks and Music Finders there is way too much reverbs. ( often a default of 64 out of 128 level.) Similarly the EQ settings are neutral and subsequently rather bland. A piano needs more high than say warm strings, etc. Volumes is perhaps the greatest deficiency and luckily also the easiest to remedy. When I select a song from the factory Songfinder (yamaha) or Songbook (Korg) it is often staggering to notice how wrong these settings are and how bad the mix is. Sure, all of these things are subjective but one does not have to be a pastmaster to ascertain that for example the acc. section is way too loud in relation to the upper sounds or that one acc. track is far too loud or too low in relation to the other acc. instruments.
What I am trying to say is that with a decent amount of tweaking of rather obvious parameters ( volume, reverb, eq) you can go a long way in making your arranger sounding at least twice as good as it does factory wise. And that is an understament..............
In doing so myself I have grown fond of both my Yamaha and my Korg arranger keyboard.

regards,
John