Well thank goodness this thread is back on track. Nigel added The Bar Forum for OT discussions, so we should respect the guy who created, pays for and maintains the Synth Zone and keep topics on track.

Lee, your idea of having a group of styles dedicated to a particularly complex piece of music is something that I did back in 2000 when I was hired by Baldwin corporate as a digital piano product support rep. The day I started I was informed that in two days there would be a company-wide meeting and that the product support guys (I was one of three) were to perform at the meeting to introduce the new models. I decided to play Birdland by Weather Report. Nice idea except besides the fact that I hadn't spent any time with the Pianovelle PS2600, I couldn't find any style that was to my liking for this tune. My thought was to sequence the entire thing other than the parts I would play live, but the downside of that is having to stick to the structure of the song; I wanted to have the option to stretch out on the solo section. So I got the brilliant idea to create a style that had all of the various sections of the song recorded in the different variations of the style. The PS2600 has four variations, but I needed more sections than that. So my solution was to use the styles ability to change patterns based on the type of chord being played, Maj, Min, 7th, etc. so that each variation had totally different patterns based on the chord type I played. The result was a style that had far more than four variations. I think I ended up with 12 or so completely different patterns for that song that were called up by choosing variations and by playing either Maj, Min of 7th chords. The patterns that I recorded had chord changes built-in to some of them and I had the split point set for the very bottom octave of the keyboard (88 note) which allowed me to play across the entire key range (minus the lowest octave) and not have to worry about loosing my left hand to trigger chord changes. It worked like a charm and the song went off without a hitch. Mind you, up until that point I had never created my own style on any instrument. I have been sequencing for years starting on a Commodore 64 with Dr. T's software so I was very aware of the recording process, but certainly not with creating styles in an arranger keyboard and I accomplished what I described above in a day and a half. Don't misunderstand, I am not tauting myself as some kind of genius. Just pointing out the fact that with an open your mind, spending time reading the manual, and using the capabilities the manufacturer was kind enough to dream up and include in the instrument, great things can be done.

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Wm. David McMahan
The Modulators