Professional Arranger Keyboard Workstations: These come with authentic instrument sounds and extremely realistic backing tracks, making them perfect for one-man situations or where you don’t have access to drummers and guitarists to provide the accompaniment. These are professional keyboards but differ from typical music workstations. Here we review the top products from Korg, Yamaha, Roland. You may skip to the [easyazon_link identifier=”B00GM839U2″ locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″ cart=”n”]best professional arranger keyboard in Amazon[/easyazon_link].
Introduction
The arranger keyboard that most beginners buy to learn to play is okay as a first keyboard; it comes with several features and decent sound quality.
But an arranger workstation belongs to an entirely different league.
If you have are still playing on the first music keyboard that you bought few years back, you are just going to be amazed by the sound quality, powerful speakers and the array of styles that is available on a high-end arranger keyboard.
It’s like watching a movie in a cinema hall, after watching the movie on your television at home.
You can use these in one-man band situations, to provide accompaniments to the singer in a small band, and you can also use these to compose full-fledged music (that is why these keyboards are also referred to as arranger workstation keyboards).
The Best Arranger Keyboards
Here are the best digital arranger keyboards that money can buy, ideal for the live performer / entertainer, for composers, songwriters and for quick arranging.
Yamaha Genos Arranger Workstation Keyboard
The recently released Yamaha Genos is a 76-Key arranger workstation keyboard with state-of-the-art Styles, 9″ color touchscreen, and has several tools to help you as a songwriter and performer. Has sseveral assignable sliders and knobs with their own OLED display, and even 6 assignable buttons.
Unmatched sample quality, state of the art Style content, and professional level connectivity.
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Yamaha TYROS Arranger Production Keyboard
The Tyros is one of the best arranger keyboards from Yamaha till now; perfect for those who want choose and play type features. There is a learning curve though for using the advanced features. Read more…
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Korg Pa4X 61 / 76-Key Professional Arranger Keyboard
For years, the Korg’s PA Series has been one of the most successful line of arranger workstations. Here’s their newest flagship product, the Pa4X is a worthy competitor to the Yamaha. Some fantastic styles here for your use and you will really love the drum samples; use the drum tracks as it is for your studio work. Read more…
The Korg Pa4X is also available in an Oriental version, which includes Sounds, Drumkits, Styles, Keyboard Sets and Pads from Turkish, Persian and Arabic libraries.
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Korg Pa700 Professional Arranger Keyboard
Korg Pa700 is a professional arranger but better suited to the musicians on a budget. It comes with modern music styles, range of instruments, and features the powerful KAOSS effects engine. Includes touch screen and several powerful features from the flagship Pa4X. An excellent professional arranger with an enhanced feature set available at an extremely attractive price.
Korg Pa700 is also available in the oriental version that lets you play quarter-tone scales and has several Middle Eastern instruments.
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Yamaha PSR-s975 Arranger Keyboard
The Yamaha PSR-s975 (upgraded version of the PSR-970) is the next best arranger from Yamaha (after the Tyros) and works quite well for accompanying, songwriting, creating demos. It comes with realistic sounds, great styles, and several cool features, including color touch display. It’s more like a mini-Tyros, minus the price-tag. Read more…
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Yamaha PSR-s775 Arranger Keyboard
The Yamaha PSR-s775 (upgraded version of the PSR-770) is basically a toned down version of the psr-975. Cool voices and styles, large color touch screen, flexible audio playback functions and a Mic/Guitar input, and more. Read more…
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Related Links
- I assume you’ve already looked at the arranger keyboards that are available for under $1000 (for serious playing), and didn’t find anything suitable
- Good arranger keyboards for intermediate players under $500: Good features and decent sound
Pro Arranger Workstation: Buying Guide
Pro Arranger vs Workstation
A professional arranger keyboard can be helpful in various situations – be it onstage or Studio.
When it comes to buying high end professional keyboards (costs at least couple of thousand dollars), you have the option of buying an arranger, a synthesizer or a workstation keyboard. Each has its advantages and use in different spheres of music – be it performing or composing.
So if someone tells you that one is better compared to the other, its really not true; you should buy one based on your requirements/needs.
Though the distinction between an arranger workstation and a pure workstation keyboard is gradually diminishing, there are some basic differences.
Professional arranger keyboards nowadays are becoming more powerful, intuitive, and interactive. Not to mention their stunning sounds, especially their acoustic instrument sounds, and styles.
A pro arranger keyboard can help you and be almost indispensable when it comes to certain areas of music.
Performing as a One-Man Band
This is where a pro arranger scores with its ability to give a more LIVE feeling to the music. The world class styles and the variations that you can provide using intros and fill-ins make them ideal for solo performances.
The same band-like effect can be achieved with a workstation too but then you will have to program all the stuff and play them back in a sequence when needed.
Top Class Sounds & Styles
Arranger keyboards are no longer meant for home entertainment. With the availability of superb quality sounds (especially acoustic/orchestral instruments) and styles, it has become a necessary tool for the pro performing musician.
These keyboards faithfully recreate authentic acoustic instrument sounds and their nuances, and you feel as if you’re really playing that acoustic instrument.
The styles and performances on pro arrangers are created by world-class musicians. In fact some of them are so good, recording studios at times use some of the tracks as-it-is and release them on CDs.
And why not, this is the era where time is a precious commodity and everything is needed quickly.
So why create from scratch when you have recording quality sounds and styles already provided in your pro arranger.
Recommended Pro Arranger Keyboards
Great for Creating Demos
Not all professionals work in bands. Lot of them work in studios, are constantly making demos (they need to produce it quickly), and also play live in small settings as solo performers or as backup player to a singer. Yamaha Tyros fits in perfectly there.
You can quickly perform and even create music in a variety of genres such as – Pop, Rock, Jazz, Blues, Latin, Samba, Classical, Ethnic, etc. All using just one instrument!
Create Original Music Quickly
A very common scenario for any music professional to face is a situation where a client asks you to compose something in a day or two.
Just imagine if it is a style of music which is not your forte! To learn more about that particular style and to acquire the technique in a day or two…too tough!
And if the keyboard is not your primary instrument, then in all probability you may have to pass that opportunity to somebody else.
This is where a professional arranger keyboard can help you out!
You just have to choose the appropriate style, play your chord progression, some melody and a bit of editing. There you go…your track is ready with great sounding instruments.
Serves as a Great Educational Tool
Gone are the days where once you have proved yourself you could be assured of work for the rest of your life. Today, you have to keep on upgrading yourself and keep on proving yourself from time to time.
The more versatile you are in your sphere of work, the more you get work. And the same holds true for music as well.
Here a pro-arranger can serve as a great educational tool too. Whenever you have spare time on your hands, you can educate yourself on the inner workings of the various styles and genres.
A good professional arranger will certainly increase your value and longevity as a working musician.
It is not necessary that just because a keyboard is expensive, it has to be difficult to use, and should give you tons of customizable options. And that is where these arrangers can be really useful.
You can use the voices and styles as it is; they are world class and ready to be used for live performances or even in the studio.
There are many musicians who don’t create sounds a lot, and focus more on the performance factors. For them, the ready-to-use options on these boards are a great help.
And mind you, these do come with several features to help you customize and create your own sounds as well. It’s up to you if you want to use them.
And since we are taking about the best here, some of the options to consider include the Yamaha TYROS and the Korg Pa4X arranger workstation keyboards. These are some of the most realistic, powerful, and easy-to-use arranger workstation ever produced.
And which of these two brands should you choose? Again, it is more of a personal preference. But it has been observed that Yamaha has good piano and orchestra sounds, and it is very easy to use.
Korg on the other hand has always had a successful line of arranger and synth workstations, and most pros seem to prefer the Korg brand because of their cutting edge sounds and tools.
More Arranger Keyboards
Here are some more professional arrangers that you could consider depending on your needs.
Around the $1000 price range, you have the option of going in for the korg pa700 or the yamaha psr-s770 61-key keyboards. These are the best options that you have if you are looking for an entry level professional arranger keyboard.
Performing musicians looking for more professional features can opt in for the yamaha psr-s970.
For musicians looking for the most realistic, powerful, and easy-to-use arranger workstation, you have options of going in for the Korg Pa4X or the Yamaha Tyros.
Final Thoughts
Pro arrangers nowadays are powerful, intuitive, and interactive keyboards with the most stunning sounds ever produced. They are rightly suited for “one-man-band” performances, though they are flexible enough to be used for studio work as well. If you are a performer and composer, these pro keyboards can help you to quickly transform your musical ideas into complete, polished productions.
Also Read: Arranger Keyboards vs Synthesizers>
Related Posts
Yamaha Tyros 61-Key Arranger Workstation Keyboard
One of the most powerful, easy-to-use, and versatile arranger keyboard workstation available in the market. Read more…
Yamaha PSR series Arranger Workstations
A few cool pro-arrangers for the budget conscious musician…if you cannot afford the Tyros. Read more…
Korg PA arranger music keyboards
Korg arranger keyboards are popular among musicians because it makes songwriting and performance much easier. Read more…
Roland Arranger Music Keyboards
Similar to the Yamaha PSR, for the musician on budget. Roland Arranger Keyboards give you very high quality, and some exotic, sounds and styles. Read more…
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I am new to keyboards and my goal for 2017 is to get serious about music. And I have gathered enough courage to splurge on an expensive arranger (under $2000). Currently, have shortlisted the S970 and the PA900. Is there anything else in this range that I should research?
Also, I see these models were released a few years back. My big worry is that the day after I buy an expensive (for me) arranger, Yamnaha, Korg or Roland might announce an updated model with even more features, but at the same price! Worse, the model I bought would then be sold at a significantly lower price!
Wanted to understand a bit about refresh cycles in this space. How often are new models released in the arranger category? How does the new version impact the pricing of the existing version. And yes, when is the next round of upgrades expected to hit the market? Anytime this year?
Thanks!