I was playing a Korg Arranger on stage in 1983....

before this there were mostly Synths & single KB;s to stack but Here I am playing on stage 1983 with my band with one of the first arrangers a KORG SAS 20 Intelligent Arranger KB & on Top a Yamaha CS-01 Mini Synth for LH bass...
Wow times have changed!


http://www.keyboardmuseum.com/ar/k/korg/s/sas20.html
http://tinyurl.com/6eawrnx

http://www.vintagesynth.com/yamaha/cs1.php

The old SAS-20 was one of the first arrangers that sounded reasonably professional...a great keyboard in it's day.

Personally, I think Roland's E-20 was the first really pro sounding arranger, along with Korg's I-series (I remember the I-3 had a wicked sax sound).

Yamaha had to wait until the PSR-8000 before they were in step with the others, in my opinion.

What was the price of the SAS-20 when new, Donny?

I wonder how it would compare, in today's dollars, to the PSR-S910 or it's equivalent?

Ian

If I remember correctly I think I paid New $699.00 for the SAS20 arranger in 1983..... it also came with optional style discs that plugged into a slot on the rear. Before that it was a stack of 3 or 4 Kb's... I also used the i3 for a long while on stage also when it arrived.....great 8 &16 bar styles and some awesome sounds too...built like a tank too. BTW look at the size of those 18" Cervin Vega speaks, and the Roland JC120 in the back

Donny, cool shot!
How bout filling us in on the venue, band mates, and the rest of the equipment.

Scott if I remember correctly that was an early sound check before a performance later that evening at a popular New York Club, drummer is off to the rt side not pictured...on a few songs my horn player would hide in the audience wearing a trench coat at the bar etc,.....and when his solo came he'd whip it out and stand on a stool and blow ...people would freak out !!! lol

Ah, the SAS20. The World's First Intelligent Keyboard, featuring Korg's Compu Magic. That was kind of a breakthrough instrument. It had the ability to select accompaniment chords based on a single line melody played on the keyboard. It worked pretty well for some songs and not so much for others. but still an amazing thing at the time.

Dave yes it was surly a ground breaking unit for arrangers in it's day I played the crap out of that baby.......it even had sliders too. Coupled with the Yamaha CS-01 mini synth for LH bass it was a great combination for small gigs....

Years ago I played a couple nights a week with a female guitarist/singer and kicked pedals for bass. I used an old set of pedals from a Yamaha portable organ that I hard-wired into a CS-01. I still have both but have since disconnected the pedals from the keyboard. I still use the CS-01 every once in a while along with a breath controller.