I've often pointed out that the arranger's shortcoming is that it never knows WHERE you are going, only where you ARE..!

Music, at it's better levels, is about the journey, not the destination. The thing that makes basslines and passing chords so integral to music is that they provide a direction. They point the way to something that is coming. They smooth the transition between chords, they provide a logic to a set of changes.

The arranger, unfortunately, cannot do this. Until you PLAY the next chord, it has absolutely no idea what it is going to be. So it can't set it up, or move smoothly to it. Music is a series of sudden jumps from one place to the other. TBH, of all the shortcomings of arranger play vs. SMF, this is the one I hear more than anything. The joy of a great bassline that walks around and leads you from one chord or section to another is missing. The voice leading and passing chords from the rhythm guitarist or pianist part is gone.

Organists have the opportunity to bring that back to auto accompaniment, and the results can be very musical!

I still think there is much that can be added to arrangers' OS's in the future to help diminish these shortcomings. One thing I'd really like to see is, if you use a chord sequencer, the first time it repeats the chord change you played, it now KNOWS where it is going... no reason why walking bass and passing chords can't be added now. BIAB does this to a certain extent, because you have TOLD it what the changes are, and it generates a backing that includes a decent amount of voice leading. I think this is an area that could be explored, should any manufacturer want to improve...

Glad to see you freeing your mind and playing only what YOU want to do Ian. Feels good, doesn't it?!

I hope you get to play the BK-9 at some point. I know it won't probably change your mind about your T4, though. In many ways, it is the complete antithesis of the T4. Raw, punchy, unrefined, in your face, relatively unsophisticated! But it has a sort of brute charm about it..! If you are into live sounding stuff, it's a doozie!

(BTW, doesn't the T4 have three pedal inputs? Programmable per Performance? A double sustain and a volume pedal would allow you to set up one of the SA2 SW while still having sustain and volume, surely?)