As I said in an earlier post, each has their own pros and cons. Here are a few off the top of my head.
  • The arranger keyboards are better for real-time playing, jamming, and arrangements on the fly + Arranger
  • The arranger keyboards tend to have more elaborate intros and endings than BiaB + Arranger
  • The arranger keyboards with their limited number of patterns that always happen in the same places are able to have a tighter lockstep between certain bass and drum patterns + Arranger
  • BiaB can have more patterns and surprise and delight you more + BiaB
  • BiaB knows what chord changes came before and after and can choose the appropriate pattern for the musical situation + BiaB
  • BiaB can have hundreds more individual patterns than the keyboards + BiaB
  • Keyboards usually have the styles tweaked for the voices in the keyboard, but have a limited number of sounds - a draw unless you are playing BiaB on your computer's sound card
  • When you want a couple dozen new styles for the keyboard you have to buy a new keyboard which will cost you a few thousand dollars + BiaB
  • All the keyboards I've 'met' have had only two drum rolls, I've put as many as 32 in a BiaB style + BiaB


I'm sure there will be others that I'll think about as soon as I click "send". Do you have any to add?

They are two different tools and shine in two different applications. I have an old Korg i3 and BiaB. I regularly update BiaB and still have the Korg - floppy disk and all. Because when I play live, I play to pre-recorded backing tracks http://www.nortonmusic.com/backing_tracks.html that I make myself, and I don't bring the keyboard to the gig anymore. Instead I'll be singing and playing sax, wind synth, guitar, flute and/or percussion controller with the tracks.

A friend of mine brings his Technics KN700 to the gig because the styles are so simple and so void of strong personality that the audience doesn't notice the repetition. But he plays keyboards live and has a very good right hand.

Different tools for different situations.

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