This is the Achilles Heel of the arranger... Unless you use a Chord Sequencer or SMF's/MP3's, your LH is pretty much tied up doing the chords for the most part, and you can ONLY bend, scoop, etc. when you can spare the hand away from those damn chords!

But listen to a real sax player, and you seldom hear notes that ARE 'straight'... The sax is VERY sensitive to lip pressure and breath force, bite strength etc., and everything is somewhat 'loose' pitch-wise. You have to almost constantly ride the pitch bender to get something close.

I'm afraid I'm not a big fan of the majority of SA2 type gimmick horn tricks, because they seldom seem to happen when YOU want them, only when specific intervals or hit strengths are reached. They sound great when you listen back, but I get that disconnected feel actually playing them. But that's just me... as a horn player, I expect the 'tricks' when I PLAY them, not when some machine tells me I should do them!

I do like the mono/poly behavior depending on whether you play single lines or chords on the Roland SN saxes, but I'm kind of glad that none of that gliss stuff has appeared yet. I'd rather do it with a F/Sw than a button (again, I'm busy playing!), but all in all, I'd rather PLAY it than have a sample do it.