A question:

I have a friend who uses a PSR-620 to produce commercial sound loops - they are very good. However, I guess that some other sound loop developers who use standard synths and software like Cubase, etc., began accusing him of plagiarism because of his keyboard's arpeggiator. A lot of other developers stood up for him, I guess, saying that using a keyboard like the PSR-620 to produce commercial loops was in no way plagiarism, and indicated that these other developers were (a) condescending toward those who use arpeggiators / arrangers or (b) just jealous because his loops were popular. I was reading some of your comments today about arrangers vs. standard synths and it got me to wondering - do you agree that it's not plagiarism to use a PSR-620 or a like keyboard in this manner?

Thanks for your input - you all seem very knowledgable here.

Mel

If he bought a PSR keyboard it is not plagerism if he makes the master from his own playing. Just look at it this way. Manufacturers wouldn't sell any instruments if musicians had to pay royalties because they used the instrument in their recordings. The only way he could get into trouble is if he used pre-recorded music and mixed them into his compositions.

Thanks for your reply, ricok.

To clarify: When you refer to the use of "pre-recorded music" you mean that using a pre-recorded song(s) included with the PSR would be unacceptable, but using styles from style cartridges while playing original music is acceptable, correct?

Thanks again for your input.

Mel

Absolutely,

you simply cannot use or include any piece of music, sound, composition or song that came with the board. Most manufacturers specify in the user manuals what is copyrighted and what is not. For example, you can probably use the PSR Styles and sounds, but not any portion of the demo song(s).

Regards,
Steve