Someone highly recommended styles by Peter Solley in an earlier thread. http://www.petersolleyproductions.com/ . I purchased six of these very expensive styles: Big Band 1, Beguine, Klezmer 1, Klezmer 2, Polka, and 60's Pop. Here are my thoughts:

Charting out some nuances of musical territory not explored by Yamaha, these styles might fill a void for some. Nevertheless, they are not in the same league as Yamaha internal styles. I had to do some intense editing to get them close.

These styles are probably created on a PSR740, so they only have 2 intros, 2 endings, 4 variations, and 4 fills. The voices don't include many of the new voices found on the PSR2000, PSR2100, PSR9000, and Tyros. Revoicing is necessary. With the style creator, it is possible to create a break section by borrowing parts from another style.

The drum fills on these styles are almost non-existent. You have to use the style creator to get drum fills from other styles.

Another thing I don't like about the Klezmer and polka styles is that there are some very involved clarinet parts on the C and D variations. Way too busy.

On one of the styles, the 7th chords played on the keyboard, don't sound right.

Another thing that makes these styles inferior to Yamaha styles is that the timing is too perfect - overly quantized. It is obvious that these styles weren't created on real midi instruments like Yamaha styles are. And there isn't any variation in the velocities of the style parts. The beguine style sounds nice, but kind of mechanical.

After, some intense editing and some style morphing, I got some new styles that I feel pretty good about. I needed a new polka. The klezmer styles will be good for the Jewish retirement homes I go to. The 60's pop style is a lot like 60'sGtrPop, but different enough to be appreciated. The Big Band style is so so. Fixing it up, it is pretty suitable for Mack the Knife.

I will use these styles. I don't regret getting them, but I do question the hefty price tag of $9. The person who recommended these styles raved about the blues styles. I don't do much blues, so I didn't have any reason to purchase them.

I hope Peter Solley continues making styles, but I won't purchase any more until I hear some improvements: Create real drum fills, make a break section, make the rhythms a little less mechanical, don't insert extra busy parts that make it impossible to sing over.

Beakybird

Hi Beak
Thanks for telling us your thoughts on these styles. I was excited to discover the Peter Solley site from the post here at SynthZone. It looked promising - a pretty large assortment of styles. But the $9 price per style is THE MOST EXPENSIVE price I have ever seen anywhere. I thought that the price of the MidiSpot Tyros style disks are high ($37 each), but Peter Solley is much more than expensive.

Having said that, it would still be worth the price for some great new styles. But the samples didn't sound to fantastic - ok, but not great. I thought the same thing you mentioned - these sound like PSR740 styles. I'm glad to hear that taking the time to tweak them and improve them helps. But at $9 bucks each - I'll pass. I've purchased a LOT of styles from a LOT of places, for many different keyboards I've owned. It's too bad these styles didn't have you saying that they are worth the price and more. I appreciate your opinions on these.

Tom G.

Beaky,
Thanks for the review....you just saved me some money.
Terry

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jam on,
Terry http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html

The styles at styles-music.de (I believe that is the correct address) are the most expensive at 12.50 euros each. However, they are usually very high quality. I'm extremely happy with my New York, New York style.

Beakybird

Beakybird,
I recommended Peter Solley styles, but if you revisit I said Blues styles. I don't understand why you bought the ones you mentioned, as those are allready excellent excisting internal styles, and therefore a waste of money, yes.

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Roy-Andrè

Hi,
I tend to agree that the styles do appear to be rather expensive.
One good idea is that you can buy them individually, so you don't end up with a disk full of styles you don't have a use for.
I used to hate it when I wanted a specific type of style like a waltz or a big band, and the rest of the disk included anything from Rockn'roll to rap.

best wishes
Rikki

Rikki,
I agree. I would be much more interested in buying styles if they were sold by genres, rather then a general mix. I would be interested in buying a disk full of ballads or pop styles, but don't need waltz and polka with that.
Star

Hi Starkeeeper,
actually Technote used to do their styles in genre's for the kn's, I don't think I've seen any new styles recently, which is a bit dissapointing.
I remember checking out the Yammie ones for my Pro, but their's seemed to be a real mix on one disk, and I wasn't going to pay for styles I wouldn't be using.
Fortunately the style creation tools onboard my kn7 are great, so I've started to try and create a few of my own. Don't know how good they'll be, but, it's worth a try.

best wishes
Rikki

best wishes
Rikki

I believe this thing is to encourage each other to learn to create own styles.

The reason we buy from other people is because we do not create our styles or we do not create very good styles. This needs to stop and we need to do something about it.

Maybe we can basically have a topic about tips on how to create cool styles.

To create the professional level styles that appear inside a keyboard like the PSR2100, you have to go in the recording studio with studio musicians who are versatile in dozens of styles of music, and who are playing midi drums, midi bass, midi guitars, midi accordian, and midi wind controllers.

There is a program that interfaces with Cakewalk called Rhythm 'n Chords. This program gives you a library of guitar strums and guitar picks, and helps the user to create guitar picking and strumming too. With this program, some quality midi drum loops, and some good keyboard playing, I think a lot of great styles could be created by someone knowledgeable in style creation.

The only people who sometimes - and I say sometimes - create styles that are in league with Yamaha are the styles-music.de people. I don't know if they piece together professional midis (I imagine they do) or what, but some of them sound really hot. On the other hand, some of the Yamaha styles incorporate advanced studio techniques that you don't find in the styles-music styles.

Beakybird

Beakybird