Has anyone purchased midis from styles & music @ http://styles-music.com/default.asp? There seems to be no indication re cost in US dollars, only euros... like 12,50 each. Anyone here (USA) purchased from them?

Glenn

Hi Glenn,

yes I have many times.
I got midis and styles for my 9000pro and they all sound good and some are outstanding.

The Euro is almost equal to the dollar. Somtimes more and sometimes less.....

12,50 Euro = $ 12,50

You'll get the style and midi via e-mail almost instantaniously.

Depending on your KB the Demo might not sound as good as the midi.
For example: they use XG sounds for the demo, but panel sounds for the actual midi.

Hope this helps.

Eric

I can only echo Eric.
Styles-music make fantastic styles and midis.


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Roy-Andrè

wow,
12,5 euros !!
It's expensive!!

Yes, they are good, but not all of them and they do not sound the same on all keyboards. They usually record the midifiles for the GM/XG standard and then tweak them for different keyboards, but not all the tweaking is perfect (sometimes the choice of instruments or the effect settings are far from the perfect, but I guess that it comes to a matter of individual taste). The styles usually retain the intro/ending of the original midifiles (in variation 3) and this somehow limits their usefulness for other songs.

Yes, they cost a little bit, but you get what you pay for. You have to compare styles to others before you realize how good they are. There are drum beats and subtleties and details that you will have a hard time to match, and all the styles have a good beat whether it's hound dog or Bee Gees disco. As far as styles working for different keyboard, I have yet to find a bad style or file for my 9000 or Tyros. And I know from a friend of mine that Solton works great as well.
Dreamer, you maybe have a bad experience with your arranger?

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Roy-Andrè

Tune 1000 sells Midi's with Lyrics for a fraction of the cost of many other Midi producer companys. They sell Midi Albums, eg., 10 songs, PS: "sometimes more sometimes less" for example; for $17.45 USD. For 10 songs that works out to about $1.75 a song. I think Tune 1000's midi's are only in GM format though as opposed to GS, or XG format. You would probably have better sounding results if you manually revoice some of the instruments in the Mixing Console to suit your listening preference for quality. Still, it is a much better price your getting with Tune 1000. Here is the link to the web site: http://www.tune1000.co.uk/ They are located in the UK but they have their prices listed in US dollars also. Another company that produces "Excellent" midi's is Midi Spot. But they are more expensive; (similar in price to Styles & Music's midi's). Here is Midi Spot's URL address if you want to check them out: http://www.midispot.dk/index.asp They are a multi-language web site. If you speak English click on the British flag. Duh!, right? Sorry, but maybe somebody has never seen a British flag and doesn't know what it stands for? Although if he hasn't he's probably from another planet or has never read a magazine, watched TV, or been anywhere. Which is nobody, right? Okay, okay, I'll quit.

Best regards,
Mike

Roy-André,
some of the midifiles/styles are oustanding: I am thinking especially of all the jazz standards (like Route 66) or songs like Blue Bossa: you can really learn a lot if you listen to the solos in these songs or maybe analyze the chord changes with a sequencer program that can display notes as well.
So, I consider 12,5 euros a very good investment for midifiles like these. On the other hand, the Blue Bossa style on my 9000 pro has way too much reverb and some of the rhytm tracks are too loud; on the SD1 it sounds much better, so I have to think that it has been tweaked first for the Ketrons and later for the Yamahas. The strange things is that other songs (like Guantanamera) sound much better on the 9000 pro, compared with the SD1.
A final consideration, which has nothing to do with the technical quality of the midifiles, is the following: while I am more than glad to pay 12,5 euros for songs like Route 66 or Georgia on my mind, I would never pay the same sum for a song like "Asereje"; if you analyze the "Styles and Music" catalogue you will see that many songs/styles are "German pop", Schlager and so on. I think that this kind of repertoire has little or no appeal to musicians living in other european countries or in USA.


[This message has been edited by Dreamer (edited 04-22-2003).]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Dreamer:
[B]A final consideration, which has nothing to do with the technical quality of the midifiles, is the following: while I am more than glad to pay 12,5 euros for songs like Route 66 or Georgia on my mind, I would never pay the same sum for a song like "Asereje"; if you analyze the "Styles and Music" catalogue you will see that many songs/styles are "German pop", Schlager and so on. I think that this kind of repertoire has little or no appeal to musicians living in other european countries or in USA.
[UNQUOTE]

I agree, though we Scandinavians find some of these useful as well!
There is obviously a big market in Germany and the surrounding area since S&M (!) can churn out these magnificent styles every so often. You would think that between the UK and US there would be a similar market for country, jazz, blues, rock etc. Meanwhile I'm very happy with s&m.

Roy, I agree, but from what I've seen (and heard), nobody touches s & m for quality. Anyone know otherwise?

Their oldest midifiles used to be of excellent quality, because they were played by great musicians; maybe that's the reason why sometimes I am disappointed with them: I wish that even today they could record more evergreens, instead of songs that last just one or two months on the charts and then fade away (I realize that this is a highly subjective point of view, maybe because I don't perform in public and so have no need for this kind of songs).
The last song I purchased from them (released 2 or 3 weeks ago) was "Sitting on the dock of the bay"; well, to me the midifile was good (but nothing special), while the style was a huge disappointment, so another hypothesis is that the musicians who recorded songs like Route 66 or One Note Samba are not working for S&M anymore. Anybody has a clue?

I agree, it's all a matter of personal taste. However, I think they still make great stuff. I use a lot of their files and styles when I'm out in public, that's why I use some of the songs of today as well. An example is the song "Feel" by this french dude . I got hold of several files, and in my opinion, the version of s&m had the best "drive", or beat, for lack of a better word. When performing in public, this thing that gets your feet and body moving is what you're looking/listening for, whether it's swing, country, modern or whatever. This is what s&m do so well. You have to hear it for yourselves in order to understand what I mean.

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Roy-Andrè