Well, James, I am afraid I AM talking from experience here. And I believe you are still talking theoretically. I have a plethora of Korg translations, Yamaha translations and Technics conversions. And JUST by substituting sounds (in my G70's case, especially with older styles, I ALREADY have sounds that are 'better' than the originals), I rarely ever get something that sounds as good as the original. I just don't think that you are getting the fact that, even though a sound from a VSTi may be WAY more realistic, that is no guarantee that it is going to match up to the performance very well. For me, at least, the sound IS the performance.

Call up three different brass patches. Try to play the same part. You can't. They sound so different, you adjust your playing to the strengths of each one. Same with bass sounds, pads, you name it. Piano is the simplest, and even that you have to adjust if the original performance leveraged the sample switching to emphasize dynamics. And don't even get me STARTED on how difficult it is to get drum Parts to translate to other drum kits cross platform. We have moved a LONG way away from simple GM/GS sounds on most TOTL arrangers. Drum kits are no longer mapped consistently, there's no standard for multi sample crossover points (say where the snare skin turns into a rimshot, just for a simple two sound example - multiply that by the number of samples a snare has... my G70 has four on each of many snares available per kit). What about ruffs, stick drags, tom flams, timbale flourishes, all the many things different in each closed arranger different from the basic GM/GS spec? Now take into account say bass parts, that may have performance samples all mapped differently, slaps, clicks, pops, mutes, notes that trigger mutes, etc.. How on earth do you map that onto a sound that has them all in different places?

You end up with nearly as much work as if you had decided to create a style from scratch. There are no macros... you have to do almost as much work for each different arranger you are translating from.

You see, I'm not talking about getting close. I'm not talking about getting adequate. I'm talking about being BETTER than the original... after all, what's the POINT of a open arranger if you don't end up with 'better'? Might as well buy the original, if it is going to take you MONTHS if not years to translate all the styles you need to even equal the original, let alone better it.

You are thinking old school, James Modern TOTL arrangers have FAR more nuance and detail in the sounds than older ones did. And the style creators leveraged that nuance for all it is worth. And it is translating that nuance that is so difficult. I'm afraid you glommed onto the ONE sound that doesn't have that much problem (Pianoteq) translating. But you conveniently ignored the drumkits, or things like Mega voice guitars and basses. You know. The FOUNDATION of the style...

The thing is, Yamaha and the rest do EXACTLY what you think Dom couldn't do. They make tons of new styles (and have a back library of hundreds) and give them away for free with each new arranger model. Or do they? You pay for the arranger, don't you..? You are paying for the styles, too.

Here's where Dom slipped. He thought that the content was something that arranger players could do without, make themselves, translate, whatever. I am convinced he DOESN'T have the musical skills to do this, and severely underestimated how hard it is. He thought that the technical aspects of the arranger would be sufficient. And a handful of people went along with it. And, from everything I've heard posted, NONE of them succeeded, at least at the level rivaling a T3, etc..

And, like most people that see this new, exciting technology and look past its' daunting flaws, I think you are still underestimating it yourself.

I don't think I DO sell myself short. I've tried making styles, and I've tried making translations, and even with my skill (take that as modestly as you want!) I find it VERY hard to equal the best of the ROM styles when played back on the arranger they were created for.

I'm afraid your offer to compare things between a Triton and a PA just doesn't hold water. The PA was BASED on the Triton. You want to impress me, take a style from a T3, with mega guitars and lots of nuanced drums (maybe an ethnic multipad layered on it), and replicate it on your PA. Better yet, replicate the MIDI file of the Yamaha style on a V-Machine...

Not as easy, I betcha!