The full piano mode concept would make sense, but it doesn't work. Unless you play super simple stuff and/or help the keyboard to recognize the harmonic content, the result is hardly musical. It's really not a problem for me, as I hardly use the arranger features for live performances. I record the chord progression alone, or just loop it and only then I'm able to play what I want without getting conflicting notes.
There's absolutely no way for any of these keyboards to be able to fully understand the relationship between notes in a phrase and cluster....and then add the sustained notes to the mix.
On Korg forums many have disagreed with me on this over the years, so I have challenged them to show a demo. Either I got a ding dong "Piano" track...they got offended and said they don't need to show anything to prove....or they're too busy and simply disappeared!
Until I see a real person doing this in real time, the FULL piano mode is only ok bordering on useless. I don't blame the keyboards for this at all. Music is much more than a simple math. Harmonic content is not only decided by what is being played already, but also by what comes next. Any given note can be a passing note, or a chord tone depending on the next move and that's just a basic issue. No keyboard can guess that. The human element associated with all this is too complex but that's music.
I agree. That's why it would seem to me that a program like Band-in-a-box which can analyze and entire song before creating an arrangement, would do a better job than an arranger (with no look-ahead opportunity). I haven't looked at BIAB in a few years but would guess it to be quite sophisticated at this point. Those that would like to see it operate in 'real-time' apparently don't realize that it would lose that (look-ahead) advantage.
I'm not a purist/snob/etc., but I too have been critisized for saying that I never have and probably never would, use an arranger on a professional gig; that, and the fact that an arranger doesn't do well with the type of music I play in clubs (jazz organ trio/quartet). I consider myself a arranger hobbyist and fully acknowledge it's strengths as a GREAT songwritiing tool, a quick way to flesh out a tune, a way to try a tune with different styles, and overall, a fun instrument to play around with....for awhile. With the right type of music and a talented performer, it can also be a viable tool for a OMB, especially if the emphasis is on vocals. However, except for visuals and somewhat more flexibility, the sonic effect would be much the same as a backing track (IMO). In fact, with the likes of song markers, etc., in midi files, most of that 'flexibility' could still be there with the backing tracks.
chas
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