PG Music Home Forums General Discussion I just heard Band-in-a-Box on YouTube A battle between Band in a Box and Yamaha PSR SX900... (fun watch)

A video from Woody Piano Shack.

Interesting to watch, and certainly the Arranger Keyboard is a great product, but I still think the two systems are uniquely too different to compare them in the same evaluation.

Years ago, I had one of the PSR's. Not the most sophisticated nor the more capable of the newest generations, but not bad either.

While it sounded great at the time, for me it became boring after a while. Same intros, same endings, same licks, same drums..same everything...just locked down. I didn't interact with it, it interact with me.

Maybe the newer ones allow more creativity...I don't know. These days, I'll take RealTracks!

Jeff

What about the best of both worlds Biab Live Chord Input Playing

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cclb5zq413870e4/BB-Tracks-Live-Chord-Playing.mp4?dl=0

Here is the second part of his test...

I honestly don't know what to prefer.

The Realband stuff sounds wonderful, but there is a case to be made for the midi arranger. Midi has come a long way since 1995.

Great video by Woody! Makes you think. (not because it's easy, but because it's hard... thinking... that is)

I have a Korg PA3X which in my opinion is better than this Yamaha. And btw, it's not the flagship, the Tyros is and that one is truly a killer arranger.

My biggest thing is the drums. Notice how the Yamaha's drums really pop? The Real Drums are very good overall but when you want them to pop like this they simply don't and I really wish PG could correct that. Otherwise yes, this is a bit of an apples and oranges comparison. First you need to be a very good player to control one of these arrangers. If you're not it won't sound much better than a consumer level one you can get at Best Buy for $300.

The biggest difference is live gigging. With an arranger you the player completely controls the arrangement. Want to just jam on a solo? Want to vamp while a vocalist is taking a request? No problem. Biab is fixed, you can't do those things live on a gig.

For home use I love my Korg. I can just jam it out for several hours. I can change styles in the middle of a song at the push of the touchscreen, change tempo on the fly, use my foot pedals to invoke drum fills, variations and whatever else I want live, while I'm playing. Some of these things are exclusive to the Korg, the Yamaha won't do that which is why most pro gigging players prefer the Korg PA series. Tons of fun.

Biab is a tool for sitting back on my couch and experimenting, creating band charts and other things. It's also tons of fun but in a completely different way.

As for the idea that arrangers are limited and you start to get bored after a while is partially correct. This goes to my comment that a person needs to be a good pianist to control one properly. The top arranger styles have 4 variations, so does some Biab styles. As I mentioned I can change styles on the fly on my Korg which not only gives me a new style but new variations, drum fills etc. Plenty of things to mess around with.

However, it's correct that ultimately the arranger is more limited than Biab because new styles are coming out all the time. New styles are available to arrangers too but not as many. Plus PG keeps coming up with brand new Real Tracks to go along with the new styles and we are all free to mix and match any of the now thousands of RT's any way we want. Arrangers have their built in midi synths and while very good cannot match thousands of RT's. And for some tracks the real audio RT's sound better than even very good midi parts. You can also mix and match individual elements of arranger styles too but not close to the thousands of RT's Biab has. Most of the time that's a moot point because very few can max out the various combinations of style elements in a high end arranger to the point they get bored. If you just play one style at a time, don't use a lot of variations then sure, you can get bored fairly quick but that's on you as the player.

Both are great tools for different jobs.

Bob

Some good points you make there, Bob! I only disagree in one of the things you are mentioning: I don't think the Tyros is the flagship anymore... surely the Genos is better? At least I think so.

Will