Since my PSR540 can only accomodate 3 user styles, can someone recommend a computer realtime arranger. i.e. Alexander Lotov's real time style performer. Others?

Star,
Have a look at Band In A Box too for arranger software.
http://www.pgmusic.com/

Terry

Unless it changed recently, Band in the Box is not real-time.

-David

David,
You're correct, it's not....just laying out some options.
Terry

Try this site:
http://soundtrek.com/

Soundtrek's JAMMER LIVE reportedly does real-time accompaniment. There is a free demo available. I haven't tried it yet but I intend to. Might be what you are looking for...

Pro,
That Jammer live looks very cool indeed. I wasn't too impressed with Jammer, because of a lack of styles (compared to BIAB), but this looks like it might be happenin'. Be sure to let us know what you think when you give it a try.
Terry

Alexander Lotov's real time style performer will actually play Yamaha styles in real time. Will try this out soon. I believe that Jammer live, like Band-in-a-box require that you key in the chords ahead of time. Band-in-a-box is not interactive.

Jammer Live is supposed to be a real time software ( I don't have it ). Jammer Pro is not ( I do have it ).

Jammer pro, like BIAB ( I have that too.. vers 11 ) , requires that you enter the chords ahead of time in step time. Both softwares will however, enter chords at random for you as well, with some parameters to control the feel in each.

I agree with Terry about the Jammer Pro styles. Many more for BIAB. Why I prefer Jammer is that I can get more realistic sounding accompaniment from it.. I've never used the internal styles in Jammer, always preferring to build my own. It's a breeze to do in Jammer, and the software allows me to build custom patch lists for my synths. Style creation in Jammer is completely different from BIAB. BIAB style creation requires recorded pieces of midi files, much like arranger patterns. Jammer uses several algorithim schemes that allow as little or as much control as the user wants over the actual notes played in a style.

What I don't know is whether you can use Jammer pro created user styles in Jammer Live.. Does anyone else know whether this is possible ?


Other software to look at includes The "Midi Wizard " or Midibrains. Not real time creation either but an interesting software to create patterns with. I also use Pump Beta from Bram bros and the "Jazz" sequencer. All 3 of these can do some accompaniment creation ( Pump requires you to enter the notes on a grid like other drum machines, but works on non drum tracks too ).
All 3 are now freeware as well.


Some of the algo software available is cool too.. such as " music in the numbers " and fract music 2000. At times I've used these almost as "quasi" arpeggiators.

AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 09-19-2002).]

Do a search on this forum for "flr2002".
Mr.Rosenthal is our resident expert for real time arranger software, and he's tried
them all.

If I purchased "Live Styler" or "Real time Style Performer". The styles would be voiced by the PSR540 not the computer. The computer handles the MIDI and Styler software only. What would be the minimum system requirements to avoid latency problems?

I have to say that I tried Jammer Live (the demo) and it is impressive (for $59, it's a bargain). It doesn't have the polish of an arranger keyboard but it certainly could with a little effort. It's a bona-fide real-time software-based arranger program. If Frank Rosenthal is correct and Soundtrek makes their Jammer Pro Styles compatible with Jammer Live (no reason why they shouldn't), then this will be a must-have program. One hot wish-list feature would be a style-import function but there isn't one here yet (I tried renaming a BIAB style to the Jammer Live format for kicks and as I expected it didn't work). It would be fun to be able to import BIAB and/or PSR styles into Jammer Live (someone'll figure out how). At least you can create your own styles or import midi-files-to-styles (full-version, not with the demo). You can also import style patches and/or make the exisiting styles compatible with the patches of your given keyboard. And you can assign midi notes or control parameters or a QWERTY keyboard to control the start/stop/fill functions.

The country-strumming style that came with this demo was surprisingly good, and I liked the jazz styles as well.

For a real-time arranger program, Jammer Live is better than I expected and has even greater potential with further development. I was not a fan of Jammer but this could change that. You could easily "humanize" some of these styles by exporting them as midis to a sequencer and randomly varying the velocity about 10%, then re-importing those midi files back in to Jammer Pro as styles to freshen things up a bit.

You guys that have been wishing for a digital-output arranger may want to try your Trinity's and Motif's with this program and a laptop... especially since the demo is free. Add an MFC-10 midi foot controller and you would have quite a lot of live performance options.

Mr. Pro,
If you can import MIDI files to Jammer Live, and Band-in-a-box can export styles to MIDI files, then:
Band-in-a-box --->> MIDI files
MIDI files --->> Jammer live

Starkeeper

SK: I know, that's why I made that point, but things could get lost in the translation. What would be better would be Band-In-A-Box ----> Jammer Live.