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#136471 - 08/26/07 03:56 PM
Re: Why I passed up the PSR S900
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Member
Registered: 10/22/03
Posts: 1155
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Originally posted by Uncle Dave:
Years ago, Fran and I decided that we didn't need to have hundreds of styles to get through a job. It's NICE to have variations, but all we really NEEDED was a thing that Roland called the "Easy 8".
This was a plug-in card for their RA50, the only real arranger module of it's time, except for the Wersi, but that was not marketed as well, and WAY more expensive.
The EZ 8 had the 8 basic styles needed to play most any generic song style with. Over the years, I've come to reinforce the need for these styles, and even with new additions ...... if i have these 8 staples, I can entertain ANY room for hours and hours.
1) 8bt - slow for ballads, fast for pop
2) 16bt - slow for R&B, fast for funk
3) Rock - nuff said
4) Disco - Motown, Rock and Disco
5) Latin - generic for chacha, rhumba etc
6) Shuffle - slow for 6/8 feel ballads
7) Jazz - softer, hipper swing version
8) 2bt - Polka and Bluegrass
Now, the only blatant omission is the 3/4 for waltzs, but they were usually done at a tempo that did not require a strong drum beat. A good, solid bass and chord pattern could handle most pop and country waltzs.
Now, sure "serious" ballroom dancers crave more specific beats, but the good ones will adapt.
In today's market ..... ad another 10-15 beats and you'll be hard pressed to find a song that won;t fit into one of those catagories! Well said!! For a 2-3 hour gig, you can do that with 8-10 styles. With revoicing features and different right and left-hand sounds, you can keep the music going for hours. And if you make your own user styles that is icing on the cake. If you make 1 style a week, for 2 months, you can have a new batch of styles that are giggerable. The mistake that some people make is that they think a style has to be made complex and use all the style tracks. You only use what is necessary for you to sound good. It always amazes me when persons would say they would buy an arranger for the “onboard styles”. An arranger does not have to have 200-300 styles for it to be good. You just need 10-15 good ones that work well for you and you create your own to fill the gap.
_________________________
TTG
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