I view software arrangers as having 2 distinct catgories. The first is those that can be played in realtime similar to the way one would use a hardware arranger. These are suitable for live work with a laptop. The second is those that are based on step / chord entry recording. These are more suitable for recording midifiles for original or reproduced songs.

In the first category, I've tried One man band, Real Time style performer and Live styler. I actually purchased OMB, and think it's a good program that does what it claims to do. Also available from Soundtrek is Jammer Live. I haven't tried this one at all but it has gotten mixed reviews here in the past. None of these include a vocal harmonizer.

In the second category, I have and use XG works, Band in a Box, and Jammer pro v5. XG works is a sequencer which uses Yamaha styles and chords and style variations are step entered on a grid. It allows for vocal harmony if you have a VH100 vocalizer board installed in the computer or a hardware synth. BIAB is a program that will "auto create" a song via sevrral parameters the user sets. Chords can also be step entered at various intervals. Midi files cannot be imported except that in the later versions small files can be imported into the style creator for use as user styles. JammerPro is similar but works in different ways than BIAB. The latest version allows for quick editing of style parts via a midi piano roll, which is a big improvement over version 4. It is also a sequencer based program with it's own interface, and allows for import of and editing of midifiles. It also uses different algorithims to vary the recorded midi data. For me it allows for the most realistic sounding backing tracks of the 3.

AJ