I used to work at a library that a Yugoslavian seniors group used to attend. They set up in a huge meeting space, and got blind drunk, while a musician went absolutely off on an arranger keyboard for 2 hours straight at an alarmingly loud volume. It was some of the most intense music I’ve ever experienced.

With that thing and it's headphone mic combo you can do telemarketing / tech support and also play the stand-by music while the customer waits.

How does that man do things that don't directly concern me and yet captivate me with every video?

Korg just got the best demo they could ever hope for. A testament to Benn Jordan's talent as a content creator, not just his musicianship. I loved every bit of this piece of kit, guilty pleasure and all.

Let me give you a little background on Arranger Keyboards. You say they are for the blue collar working man, and yes, in a sense, but that's not where it started. Back in the early 1970s Baldwin came out with something called 'The Funmaker/FunMachine.' It was a three octave, single manual organ which had another octave for trigger chords. It was intended for the home user. Up until that time, if your home had a keyboard instrument in it, it was either a piano or one of the venerable Hammond Organs. You could purchase a 'drum machine' for the Hammond, but you still had to do everything else, but it did put you a step up on most other home players. Baldwin came along and added a bass pattern and strum patterns to the drum patterns, all selected by a single octave to the left side of the keyboard, and you played one finger to select the chord. I don't remember how you did minor chords or seventh chords. Anyway, the concept was to add something new and different to the home player. After that, Yamaha, Wurlitzer, Lowry, and even Hammond all started to produce organs with these 'auto accompaniment' features. They were very basic, nothing like what we have today. No sample synthesis, not even stuff like FM synthesis. All it amounted to was 'Boom chicka boom chicka boom boom.' 🤪😛 Fast forward ten years or so, and by then, both Yamaha and Casio had developed single keyboard 'slab organs.' The IC, or Integrated Circuit, was small enough to allow companies to start to put a lot of features into these keyboards, but the sound synthesis was still poor, but some of the FM synthesis trickling down from the DX-7 started to make it into some of the Yamaha organs, and they started to sound a little better. I want to clarify something else, too. These instruments were all aimed at 'the home hobbyist.' The person who enjoyed music, but was not a professional, or even semi-professional musician. This is the individual who when they get home from work wanted to pull out some sheet music, sit down and play for their enjoyment and relaxation. These weren't designed for a gigging musician In 1993, Korg introduced the original i3 Interactive Keyboard. It blew the competition away and sent a huge wake up call to Yamaha, Roland, and Casio, which by then were really the only other manufacturers of arranger keyboards (although they weren't called that back then). I remember seeing the original i3 and I wasn't able to believe what I was seeing. The sounds were 'realistic', at least compared to the FM synthesis of the other products. No built in speakers, you had to run the outputs to monitors or something to hear. You could actually go in and edit the sounds. The sounds were sampled! This was the beginning of the 'Arranger Keyboard' line and concept. With two sequencers built in, you could load a SMF via 3.5" floppy and set up a play list, or, you could create a backing sequence using the accompaniment section, and then play along, or record over top of it, something that had not been fully explored. In 1993, there was an article published that pushed both the 61 key i3 and 76 key i2 as devices for songwriters, jingle writers, etc. Use the capability of the keyboard and backing tracks to flesh out a song. This is the first time that the word 'Professional' was used with an Arranger keyboard. My first journey into these keyboards was actually selling them, mostly Yamaha and Casio, back in the 80s. The first keyboard I owned for myself was a Korg iX300, 32 notes of polyphony, 14 megs of sample ram, 104 styles. Quite a jump up from the i3 of only four years previously. The sounds had also gotten better, using the AI2 software synthesis engine that was also found in the 'pro-level synths' of the day. The two lines were coming closer. It wasn't until the early 2000s with the introduction of the PA series of keyboards that things really started to converge. The PA1X was a 76 key keyboard (a 61 key version with speakers was the PA80) and technology was used from the professional level series of synths. About this time, the sounds and the styles were good enough for that 'blue-collar' musician to start doing single player gigs or a gig with themselves and maybe a singer/guitar player. I currently own an older PA800, which is about 13 years old or such. I want to buy a PA5X, but don't have the money for it right now. The funny thing is that the price on that keyboard is about the same price as a three generation old Yamaha CVP Clavinova with 88 weighted keys. (I can buy a currently new Yamaha CVP-701 from Guitar Center for $5K) If you want to see what an Arranger Keyboard can do today, I would point you to Alois Muller in Germany and some of his videos. In Europe, these keyboards have found much more positive reception than they do here in North America, and a lot more people play them. Alois speaks German, but if you watch his KZfaq channel, you can select the Auto Translate feature to understand what he's saying, mostly. www.youtube.com/@AloisMueller These keyboards started out for the home hobbyist, and over the years have moved closer to professional grade, and are regularly used for small venues and one or two person groups. They were never intended to be 'professional' keyboards, but they could easily do the job, depending on the type of music you're playing. For me, I prefer The Great American Songbook and have no need of synths and the ability to shape my sounds, but if I did, I could with the current crop of keyboards at least to some extent. Finally, the thing about these keyboards is that I can sit down, open a song book, pick a song, pick a style, and play immediately. Do it with great sounds, great styles, and even record to something like Cakewalk and do it easily and still come up with a good product I could share with friends and family.

These arranger-type keyboards are huge in the performance (and sometimes recording) of Arabic music. Usually you'll see two stacked, and companies like Korg have regional models with all manner of distinct rhythms (Iraqi, Egyptian, etc.) and instruments and, yes, tuning switches so you can go between different maqams (modes), which you mention at around 22:00 - (Ben, if you're reading, curious what you listen to!). They have such a particular sound that's immediately recognisable, and often there are all kinds of heroics with playing wild solos at weddings (which often turn into rave-like events). Aside from the blue-collar working musician you mention, they are huge internationally and everywhere from Eastern Europe and North Africa to Southeast Asia you'll find them in almost every restaurant or event. Respect to the humble arranger keyboard.

This episode should be called “Guy encounters instrument tool that does all the things that he had to figure out how to do the hard way.” This one was so fun to watch!

Back in the eighties and nineties in the Netherlands you could find these single man ‘bands’ playing somewhat cheesy but surprisingly skillfully arranged live music on large organ like contraptions in malls and similar places. I suppose these ‘organs’ were the spiritual predecessors to this type of keyboard.

Arrangers can absolutely be used by single musician live. But what they're used a lot as well is for ARRANGING. Like for reals. You have an idea for a song, a simple structure, melody chord progression what ever, and you need to QUICKLY and easily get the flesh over the bones and TEST your ideas and what works and what doesn't. You can either start programming stuff in DAW, playing instruments in track by track instrument by instrument... or you just press few buttons on an arranger and you can very quickly get the core idea if it'll work or not. There's something to be said about creative flow wit these, they're meant to absolutely never stop you from being creative and always get what you need quickly and easily right at your fingertips. They're more powerful for someone who wants to create than any Kontakt library, because with some 1000$ library you're not usually expected to be paying it live but to PROGRAM every single note and try and replicate real instrument or orchestra and go deep into key switching and CC's to get very accurate representation without real musician. Arrangers are not that, they expect that what ever you're doing doesn't require the highest of highest fidelity or accuracy, OR that when you've done arranging, you'll spit out notation, hire some session musicians and they'll come over to realize all the instrumentation that you weren't able to do and replace all the arranger stuff with real instrument. Arranger is either the whole package, or it's the first step to speed up the process. I bought myself Kronos 2 because no matter the amount of Kontakt libraries, they're NOT for what I need, which is to be able to get the idea across fast and simple so that I can present it to real musicians and then we'll replace the tracks I did as placeholders with real ones with sensibilities of real musicians and players. I'm just a composer, arranger... I'm not there to play all the instruments or program every single note in meticulous detail... real players of said instruments can do that after I've gotten my idea across. My main instrument for composing is still piano. If it doesn't work on piano, no amount of fancy studio work or arranging is going to make it stick. But sometimes it's great to be able to do a bit more, faster, than just the piano.

I enjoyed you enjoying the game show sounds more than you should have more than I should have. This was a fun one!

My mind was blown by this video. I never fully understood just how much of a musical Swiss Army knife these synths are. How you explained its features and utility was both easy to digest and 100% on the nose. I can well imagine a solo musician or the MD in a worship band becoming a sonic air traffic controller, directing everything from this beast. Lovely work.

This reminds me of the kind of equipment my grandfather used to gig with. He was a guitar player and had a guitorgan and then some other midi based guitar. This is back in the 80s and 90s when I was kid he would go and do one man gigs where he had printouts of the program numbers to put in his midi processing machine that did the whole backing band that would follow what he was playing. I don't know what he would be using today if he was creating the same kit from scratch.

You should try the Sofeh Sunrise Music Studio which emulates KORG Pa - it's the most complete software arranger, but nothing compares to the real thing yet. I've tried them all. Beware - it can be buggy and confusing and needs a bit of setup. Here in the Balkans arrangers are a HUGE part of all pop-folk like in Arab countries. Musicians program custom styles and there's a big market for selling / buying styles. Arrangers have been extremely popular here since the 90s - even old models are modded to replace the floppy with a USB drive. I've been dreaming for one, but even used it's too expensive. Here the KORG Pa is most desired.

When I was in Turkey, every restaurant had a guy behind an arranger workstation, it was a tape/sample of a song playing, and every keyboardist played along with the loudest, most annoying (after a while, like 10 seconds…) patch that was available. The patch at 23:20 was one of their favourites… got instant ptsd after hearing it again 😂😂😂

I am obsessed with arrangers! Good arrangers are deep and complex.. and only limited to your own understanding of the device and your own level of creativity. They are so useful for idea generation, arranging, and even increasing your knowledge of theory and Chord structures! Also exploring mixing genres! Midi is the key!

I remember music that sounds 100% like the stuff made with the "Oriental Version" from one of my cousin's first weddings. His wife was Tunisian and VERY late in the night a guy with one of these Keyboards showed up and just blasted us all with this music. Her relatives loved it, being from Tunisia and his relatives, being Austrian and very drunk, also loved it!

Your enthusiasm with this is infectious! Highlights something that about music making that people don't point out very often, namely, how FUN it can be. Keep on keeping on!

This unit will actually play TWO completely different styles with all the associated instruments and effects AT THE SAME TIME layered on top of each other! You can cross fade from one to the other as well in real time. I believe you can even layer styles that are in two completely different time signatures!

Musician content aside, the greenscreen backdrops and Benn flying atop the keyboard edits put this at a new level of hilarity. General MIDI but with param control on steroids CAN BE Fun! Loved it as always. There's an Android app called Org 24 I stumbled on a few years ago that I knew was an emulation of something deep and likely used in the Arab world I could never place its origins until this video, and now its obvious it's one of these.

Whats kind of bonkers is ive spent the last few weeks getting my head around a yamaha psr-sx900 to help someone who has one. Like you, had quite a mind melting experience when i realised how absurdly powerful they are.

Wow Benn! I’ve been playing arrangers for 30 years and this is the most fun yet informative demo I’ve ever seen. Thank you.

Yea, I write music for others and go to peoples homes to work on their ideas, so I bought a Medelli arranger as a "DO EVERYTHING keyboard"" that I can throw into the back seat of my car. Like you, I was extremely surprised in how useful these keyboards really are. Despite all my gear, I find myself returning to this as my starting point for so many projects. I always thought that they were just for "kids" to play in their living rooms, but the the higher quality ones are actually quite nice and ultra useful for a wide variety of professional tasks. I use mine constantly. Thank you for your superb presentation.

Arranger keyboards have always been underrated here in the US. They’ve been very popular over seas for decades now. I remember a time when if a person wanted good acoustic sounds on a keyboard workstation, the arranger typically beat the synth workstations most of the time in this area. Arrangers are very good song writers keyboards, and this has been one of their strengths for a long time. Sure, they’re good for the “one man band” musician, but as a composition tool for more traditional styles of music, they’re still an excellent tool for it. They not only have the typical linear sequencers, but most (including mid level arrangers) have full custom style recording, and the ability to mix and match style parts to help with certain instruments (like guitar strumming) that’s difficult to emulate on any keyboard. The weakness of the arranger has always been modern music like EDM, rap, hip hop, ect. Here in the US.., the semi pro and pro arranger market has always been aimed at the 50+ crowd. The crowd that tends to have more expendable income, prefers traditional styles of music, and no real desire to do extensive programming, like voice editing. That’s why arrangers have always been coveted as the best “out of box experience”. Just plug it in and play. Korg IMO has been the best at bridging the gap between arranger and synth with the PA series. The PA series really is a hybrid keyboard. They offer extensive and deep editing like you’d find on their synth workstations. Other manufacturers can’t come close to a PA series arranger. Even the old Korg Micro Arranger has more in-depth synthesis editing than a Yamaha Genos. The original Korg PA 80/50 had Triton based sound engines and could load some Triton programs (with a few limitations). I’ve always kept an arranger in my set up because of how easy and intuitive they are for song composition. Most of my work is DAW’s using VST’s, and even though I have several synth workstations, I also own several arrangers just for the purpose of out of box playability and scratching out song ideas. I’ve taken full backing track audio from my arrangers straight into my DAW’s because of how good the arrangers are for creating quality backing tracks. You can do this because even lower budget arrangers now offer the ability to record audio via USB to a thumb drive.

As a kid I had years of fun with my PSR8000 workstation. These devices obviously evolved a lot, but it could do many of the things shown here about 25 years ago. Was fun to watch, great idea's and creativity once again.

I play in a band, but I've always been an arranger keyboard kind of guy because of how the registrations, layering and splitting let me make changes while I'm playing. At the moment I'm using a Yamaha PSR-SX700, and because I can have multiple sounds across the keyboard, and I can use a footswitch to make changes, or only sustain certain parts, I can make it sound like I'm playing 3 or 4 keyboard parts at once. Occasionally I get accused of pretending to play live, because someone in the audience can play the keyboard, and they can't work out how I'm doing so much at once. I like having speakers, because if I'm practicing at home, I only need a sustain pedal and a power supply. Keeping wires to a minimum makes me happy. The auto-accompaniment side of the keyboard very rarely gets explored.

It can be used as a DJ device. It can play full MP3s and audio files. And it can play two of them and use the cross fader to fade from one to the other like any DJ mixer.

I loved the sound of that fretless guitar :)

Hey Benn, where can I book you for a wedding? 😂 Also I'm looking forward to the 12 hour Loopop video covering all of its functions.

I’m a “blue collar” singer and guitarist working hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs e.t.c for over 30 years generally in duo’s and trios. I can attest that arranger has been our most valuable tool. I’ve followed the progression of arrangers from the mid 90s, with the likes of the Roland E-66 all the way up to the Korg PA5x, I’ve seen what can be done with these fantastic machines and I would recommend the top contenders to be ketron, Korg and Yamaha. At lest that’s what the dozen’s of keyboardist’s I work with are using. To be honest there is soo much you can do with these keyboards that most of the guys I work with don’t even use a third of it.😂

Yamaha QY 700 is a mixture between sequencer and arranger. It does 'arrange' type things but still you can program your own sequences. I think this is the reason it is still used by square pusher

Benn is making psyop videos so we buy all the 4k$ keyboard arrangers and he keeps all the cool synths to himself smh

In 1969 I got hooked to music as a 12 year old. And I‘m still at it as an almost 70 year old. So far the most gigging I ever did in my life was with arranger keyboards (and I made more money with them in my spare time, than working as a doctor). I even worked on the design of the user interface and on some sounds and arranger patterns for Korg, Yamaha and Roland. The idea for the crossfader is from me. The idea for holding down a button and getting help for the selected function also came from me. There was a lot of progress for some time, and the sounds, patterns, effects, controllers and UIs really made huge jumps in usability and quality. The advent of preprogrammed MIDI-files (and their individual enhancements by the Yamaha (XG) and Roland (GS) standards really upped the game, but they also ruined the business. All of a sudden playing with such a keyboard was nothing else but karaoke with not really good sounding backing tracks. The integration of vocal harmonizers further spoiled an otherwise acceptable performance. It‘s really difficult to program a good harmony track or actually play one on a keyboard. Most performers didn‘t even bother with programming or controlling anything and just used a preset for every song. So that didn‘t really help, as the results were not that attractive - to say the least. Personally I „returned to my roots“ and I started to play all the acoustic instruments I had or could learn, like guitar, blues harps, banjo, saxophones, mandolin, pan flute, steel drums, bag pipes etc. The audiences really liked that, especially in the first half of the night. But when it came down to dancing, the arranger keyboards really didn‘t help a lot. So, apart from the crossfaders, I suggested realtime arrangers using samples (like today‘s loopers) with a touch screen. Yamaha actually came up with a sampler that could be played with the keyboard, but the samples couldn‘t be played via MIDI file. Roland realized the touch screen and expanded the MIDI capabilities. But nothing was even close to being useful. And that is where the developments of arranger keyboards stagnated to this day. No company has managed to merge arranger keyboards with loopers and advanced sampling technology. If you look at my setup with a PC, two keyboards, two loopers and tons of outboard equipment and all the instruments I learned to play over the years, you‘ll probably get the creeps. The cabelling alone is a nightmare, even though I‘ve reduced it to a minimum. So now I wonder if AI will make some things possible and how long it will take the companies with enough design power and budget to make my dream of the perfect super creative One Man Band come true. I suppose I‘m not the only one waiting. 😁

I picked up an old tyros 1 a few weeks ago and I can’t stop playing it- it’s getting connected to my analogue gear this week! Thanks for this and let’s hear more!

FINALLY someone in the proffesional music space giving these arranger keyboards a chance! You're correct about alot of music youtubers don't really bring up or mention these keyboards and i never underatood why. These keyboards can be very powerful and can absolutely be uaed to create original and non-cheesy music if you use them correctly! Great video!

I have an old Yamaha psr530 the sequencer has "virtual arranger" which is kind of quantised randomisation...from 30+ years ago.

It’s a way to make a living! I have been working with arranger keyboards and performing for 25 years. Much better than having a DJ if the customer can’t afford a whole band. The thing is that you can’t just play. You must connect a mic and sing. It’s supposed to be used as a band! 🌹

You did a great job of showing the potential of an arranger keyboard. I really don’t recall hearing the guitar input effects in any other video, so you may have provided a demo of a feature that no one else has. You are correct in that many of these keyboards are used by keyboardist that are either solo or in a duet and many times they are covering a large spectrum of musical styles. So the band in a box concept works great for that. The real key and where skill and talent comes in is taking the instrument beyond just a backing accompaniment and working with the sounds and the various parts of the songs. Also having a good understanding of how a real instrument sounds like when you choose that sound for your lead/solo. I started with arrangers back in the mid 90’s and have been amazed at how far they have come. Yes they are not as popular in America as they are in other countries, but there is still a following here.

Watching Benn have so much fun with this was great. The video backgrounds were the cherry on top.

A pro arrangement instrument is used by pro song makers and arranger professionals who demo and try out ideas before they are fully cut into a studio session. An arranger machine like that allows a songmaker to be constructive and creative at the construction phase of a song without the need for a full band of session players at the studio. Of course the ease of use makes it a natural choice for amateurs and weekend warriors as the presenter described.

A friend of mine has a Yamaha Tyros 2 he uses as a one man band and sings along. When he demonstrated it I was sold. Would never have thought I will be into arranger keyboards but now I have a Yamaha PSR-SX600. It is an entry level keyboard but boy, what fun it is!

Yes I learnt piano from the age of 4. Yes I have worked in the industry. But now I play when I can squeeze it in at home, and love improvising with a backing, casual multi-tracking - I have a Yamaha 'Arranger' Digital Piano (OK with the voice effects and brilliant speakers). Just such a joy to see someone not being a snob, being open minded and appreciating what enjoyment these can give, beyond beginners! Great video ... first of yours I've seen, now subscribed!

Awesome video, usually not that into the gear videos, more into the science and business ones but this one was really awesome, had a big smile on for the duration of it :)

I was very curious about these. Thank you for doing your usual amazing job! Funnier than usual actually with the background videos. I loved the slow-mo stock car!

Just loved seeing how much fun and giggles you had with this thing even if it's not what either of us want or need it just looks hilarious fun

Arrangers have always been great fun, and a great way to lay down ideas on the spot.

I’m so glad you made this video because I’ve similarly been thinking more about arranger workstations recently for the exact reason you showed, that even though I’m neither a professionally gigging musician or a particularly gifted pianist they just look like so much silly fun. Personally I’ve been leaning toward the Roland Fantom series so I’d love to see you do a video on one of those.

I'm gonna need a full 3+ minute version of that first jam. This whole thing was a blast. Thanks Benn!

I never have seen anything like this. Not a clue these amazing machines even existed. Thanks for educating me once again Benn!

This is probably the best description and demo of an arranger I've ever seen and I've been in pro music retail for almost 30 years now. 😉

0:05 - nobody makes fun of modular synth nerds more than modular synth nerds

Oh man, Band in a Box brings up memories: a music teacher used to use it to help us learn improvisation on the guitar like, 10 or 15 years ago. It was easier than setting up a whole band just for it, and more versatile than just playing over mp3.

I adored the little giggles you made when you discovered something new on the keyboards. You didn't want to like it, but it was fun and you couldn't hold it in. Wonderful, honest "review."

Dude I could watch hours of you playing around with arranger keyboards, So FUN! patiently waiting for the next one with a constellation of gear to create the ultimate automatically harmonizer ochestra

Yup, Ben. I am a user of both worlds, too: non arrangers and intelligent arrangers keyboards & modules. Thank you for sharing your thought and views on these musician arranger gadgets. Music is FUNtastic! Hoping one of them you will be sharing your thought on the Ketron Event, too.

Benn, Thank you for posting this video and taking this journey for all of us who "Had No Idea" that these things even existed. I really enjoyed this video. It was extremely entertaining to watch.

A friend shared this video with me so I could check out the arranger and what it can do, so I was really surprised when I saw a couple of my animations in the background. That was a very entertaining video and I was definitely surprised by what an arranger can do.

I started with arranger and i still got one..the Technics KN-3000. I learned a lot of things from this machines. I even made my own electronic demo back at 2000.

In the early 2000s I worked in a small-ish music shop, and a 70+ year old guy came in to check out and buy a Technics KN-6500 (or 6000? 7000?) - and the stuff he made happen made my 20 year old modular-synth loving self blown away. Parallel universe indeed! I was bummed when Technics stopped making instruments because of their digital pianos (and the glass-jawed but lovely sounding & feeling SX-P50 stage piano), but it must have been HEARTBREAKING for users of their arrangers!

What I find most interesting about arrangers as a composer is that you can quickly review compositions across many genres and tempos. What your original song style plan might work best completely different than that, and it could take you just minutes to find that out on the arranger. I still prefer using a workstation to create the song, but an arranger is a great tool to explore song possibilities.

So much infectious fun! After a hideous experience coming home from Heathrow with its underground signal failure ride the bus crap, this was the pick-me-up I needed. You are funny and smart. Bravo!

I picked up an old Korg i30 (one of if not the very first arranger models they released, back in the mid 90s) for $50 at a thrift shop 9 years ago and it's still my master keyboard. It's amazing how little the workflow has changed between it and this model. Anyhow, the real magic in these things comes when you start programming your own custom arranger patterns. Even early Korg and Technics arrangers have really deep (and abusable) pattern programming that's very unlike any other kind of sequencer.

Respect Due. This was a fun watch! I have wondered for years what arrangers really do. Never really tried to find out. Super cool.

"Pan Flute on the beach" is the soundtrack for every small obscure resort ever.

The part that really sells it for me is the lens flare when Benn plays his fretless guitar. Well, that and the bored girl in the background when he's playing Autumn Leaves.

Love it! So much fun. Much more decent in musical quality (the instrument) than expected. So many cheesy but fun possibilities! Reminds me of 90's Amiga MOD cheesiness, style-wise

The smiles on your face tell the whole story... it's ridiculous but it's insanely fun. To be fair I started my musical journey with a Yamaha PSR520 (good keyboard for the time) and many of those beginner keyboards had many of the same features, just the size of the ROMs are now bigger so they have better sound quality. It also had chord display exactly like this, and that was back in 1997. I love the gameshow sound effects on this instrument though. I'd buy it just for that.

I have the Yamaha S970, which is now pretty basic & we're waiting fir the next set of Yam arrangers to be announced. I've gigged with it (I play & sing, a muso-mate plays saxophone, have solo gigged with it - pop, blues, prog rock, folk pop, reggae, World Music), we've recorded with it, I've spent hours exploring & losing myself in musical moments late into the evenings with a goos set of headphones on. All the styles are tweakable so you can alter just about everything & save it as a new style. It's a really useful tool for songwriting & exploring those more complex chords that bring another dimension to the musical experience. I don't read music, haven't had lessons, but still belt out a tune. This 72 year old is still learning.

Lovely perspective, thanks for sharing.

The ease and speed you can create a complex arrangement is impressive.

I bought a used Korg M3 88 in 2009 for $650 and very quickly it became obsolete as Omnisphere and Zebra and NI stuff started being my go-to stuff. Plus it’s like 150lbs. I had the M3 out again last night and the combis and sounds are just excellent, and they load up really quickly. I mean - I have Komplete 14 CE and the string, piano, brass, woodwind etc sounds are comparable on the M3. Not quite Spitfire audio quality, but pretty close. The thing with these arranger/workstation synths is - they’re fun. Like keyboards were when you were little and you had those Casiotone and Yamaha PortaSound keyboards (I still have my Yamaha PSS-480 (with midi out!) and it still gets used in midi for a laugh - I’ve had it controlling Kontakt and Maschine for example). Plus these arrangers/workstations can be a really great standalone synth and controller outside combi/song/sequencer modes. Now back to my M3. Great review!

This is cool. I’ve never paid attention to arrangers and never really understood the point. I don’t think it’s for me, but I now feel like I “get it”.

Arrangers are for the "dark matter" professional musicians. You don't see them, but they make up 85% of the mass of the universe.

that hand snare reverb sync thing at the end every time, one of the most underrated salutes here on YT!

I had a rough day and this made me smile constantly. Ben is such a gift. What a fun, weird episode!

Great video about arrangers. I have been using them since 2004 as standalone instument and found your video great. I use Arabic versions many of which are exclusive to the middle eastern market and have a physical scale on the panel. There are competitors to this as Yamaha Genos(not montage) and Ketron Event which I also enourage you to check out.

Okay the over head CAM plus face view is amazing! Much appreciated.

Great video! This video looks like a standard Friday night for me. The Yamaha Genos community is anticipating the new release of its flagship arranger, possibly to be called the Genos 2, possibly out this month, possibly next year. I am a composer and songwriter and guitarist, but by no means a good keyboardist. For me, the Genos provides inspiration for me to write new tunes and melodies, sometimes with the “training wheels” a full accompanying band provides, controlled by simple chords using my left hand (even a single finger). I am not Yugoslavian, but am Slavic (Czech), and will often jam on my Genos - the major competitor to the Korg in the video here - in socks and Birkenstocks. Make no mistake, the samples in these top flight arrangers are often top flight, but so is the price, about $4,500 for new Genos unit. Mine is available for anyone in San Diego with a major social media channel that may want to demo it.

The best part of this video is the pure joy the device brought to Benn.

The fact that you're playing the guit the same 'wrong lefty' way like I do... totally love it. We're a strange breed :D Loved the vid!

Im on board for the Arranger journey! These things are flipping awesome

There are 2 vintage arranger modules (no keys) that may be quite interesting, the Ketron X4 and GEM WS2. Being quite old, these modules don't break the bank. What makes them interesting is the amount of user styles that can be loaded at once, 48 for the Ketron and 32 for the GEM. And the fact that you can quite easily program your own custom styles in a DAW and then play them into the arranger module. The internal sounds are not bad, but these modules work best as fully programmable midi pattern sequencers, triggering external gear. The trick is to go a bit beyond the intended use. Especially in improvised settings, styles tailored to a song can be a powerful tool. For example, the sub pattern for minor 7th chords may instead play the full chord progression of your chorus, allowing you to do other stuff. (the fill sub patterns are best for this).

Ben you just put a smile on my face every time I watch you! God bless you man!

I had a similar reaction after I shoehorned an old Ensoniq MR-61 into my shed-based studio about a month ago. While it's not an arranger, it can send MIDI out on 16 channels simultaneously, and the Idea Pad is a brilliant concept. It has opened up entirely new ways of interacting with the embarrassing number of synths I've accumulated.

First, thanks for giving arranger keyboards a fair shout. I find them fascinating (I've owned a Tyros and a Genos) and endless fun - fun, as you say in your video. The price point for the most advanced models is often (and obviously) a huge hurdle for many people who might otherwise discover a deep well of fun, creativity and inspiration just noodling and playing about with the sheer possibilities these keyboards offer. Some of the less expensive arranger keyboards (especially those from Yamaha) offer spectacular features and any one of them could easily sit at the center of anyone's DAW studio.

Love the videos Benn. I laugh every time and the content is gold. Thanks for making these. 🥳

Now I want one. It honestly looks like fun and helpful to get down some ideas.

The editing is this fantastic hahaha thx for sharing!

That was shocking hilirious fun and you've got a serious talent of comedy. Thank you Benn!!

This looks like so much fun! So in theory can you use one of these to import a bunch of stems and B versions of stems and fills and just go nuts remixing your own tracks live? because that would be so so sweet. To be fair I can imagine there being less involved ways of doing that just inside of Ableton, as I do now, but still.

Brilliant video 👍. I always thought those things were the evil love child of a ROMpler and one of those early 90s home keyboards that had surprisingly effective auto-accompaniment. Clearly they have come a long way. I can see a working musician being able to thoroughly entertain their audience whether restaurant muzak, weddings, or local flavour to entertain the tourists. I have to admit, that thing looks like fun!

The unsure chuckle at the beginning giving way to childlike joy during your performance of PAN FLUTE ON THE BEACH was really inspiring to watch. As was hearing "god I hope they have some sort of speed metal"

I had a cheap Yamaha arranger when I was younger. Never understood how to actually use it back then, I simply just flipped through its factory sounds and tinkered. I wish this video existed back then, I would've had so much more fun with it!

Most fun yt video ive watched in awhile, thanks for sharing!

13:25 You managed to plug it in with only 2 tries! I'm impressed.

Sooo goood!!! This pan flute on the beach!!! Groovy

Awsome!! vid dude . I was weighing up on a new arranger keyboard between a Yamaha Genos2 and the Korg PA5X and youve sold me on the PA5X . not only is it cheaper than the Genos2 . it also has better funtionallity and is a better quality keyboard . Thanks so much 😀

I have a Yamaha DGX670 and it feels amazing. The versatility of styles gave me an instant polish to my playing. Killer keybed.

The video background at 16:00 was just to funny!! Nice work Benn, as always

I was in the market for a good digital piano, and the Roland Fantom 8 came into my attention when I looked into the market. The price point was about what I was looking at for dedicated pianos but of course it has all of the arranger stuff, too, so it was a no-brainer. I've barely dipped my toes into that side of it, but what I did do it's clear how fun it can be.

Actually the faders are not JUST used for beatmatching or fading between songs. They are also used for incorporating elements of two simultaneous styles and blending them together.