Suppose I want to take the bass pattern from one style and put it in another. Is there a way to do that without using a program/style editor? Is there some way to export the bass part as an SMF to the hard drive and then go to the style I want to put it into and load it back in in place of the other part? I'm a little new at all of this so I'm sorry if this sounds elementary to all of you pros. The manual mentions a free program from Korgpa.com that does some of this. Anyone tried this? What is it?

I think you can copy and paste just one part at a time. You CAN on the PA80. Find a bass part you like(copy it) and then paste it into the style with the one you don't like. You can even specify which variation it goes with.

Roland still does this better!!

Why is that Fran???

Seanbaker its easy.
Select the style you want.
Push the red RECORD button.
Choose Record New Style or Record/Edit Current Style.
Select the track you like to copy.
(a smal icon will appear like a tapedeck)
If you now push the MENU button you will see Style Edit.
In Style Edit you can choose tab Copy fm Style.
Now you can choose from which style you like to copy a track.
Write it to an empty place in your User Style list.
I hope this will help.

Jan

seanbaker, yes you can do that either by editing an original style or building style from stratch.
-You can select the style you want to edit.
-Press the record botton and select "record/edit current style" and hit okay on the touch screen. Now you're in the record mode, but you only want to copy diff. style track so press the menu botton right below the tempo/value dial and a new screen pops up.
-Now select "Style Edit" on the touch screen and now you're in a diff. screen. At the bottom of the screen, there are eight tabs. Select "copy from style" tab. The next screen is where you can copy any style parts, variatons, etc... Just make sure you press "EXECUTE" each time you copy a part.
-When you're done copying style parts, press the drop down arrow at the very top right corner of the screen and select "write style", name your newly build custum style and press "select" to slect your style location. After selecting the location, press the "exit" botton on the keyboard. Now you should be back to the write style screen. Hit the "OKAY" on the touch screen. A message pops up asking "are you sure", hit "yes" to confirm and you're set and ready to play your new custom build style!!

Sorry for the long explanation, but I hope this will help you in building your custom styles.

Johnny

Jan, Roland uses a method that is called "Morphing"..It is super easy and painless..I am sure most that tried both brands would agree that Roland has the best way of doing this..

Fran. The Roland only morph's the complete ACC's in block from one style to another. You can not select and copy individual style parts AC1 AC2 AC3 etc like the Korg.

I find this thread to be the essence of arranger keyboards. I've had very limited exposure to a variety of manufacturers arranger keyboards, but it seems to me
manufacturers have not drilled this vein much deeper.

Imagine if some keyboard manufacturer would put something like "Band in a Box" with expandable 1000's of templates into an arranger so that you can synthesize a style by taking 1000's of small midi clips of drum tracks, bass riffs, left hand riffs, strings etc. and morph them into any beat and tempo and assemble them into a brand new style quickly and easily!!!

This to me would be a HUGE incentive for purchasing a new arranger.

I don't use UD's method of 10 simple styles for all my songs, but instead try to get as close to the original song as possible. In this regard I find arranger keyboards very frustrating when I cannot find the style that is the most appropriate for a given song.

The other point here is that, if you use the same few styles, you get that cheezy "Oompa" scenario going. With a creative style maker in the arranger, you can create endless flavors of styles to keep things fresh and interesting.

Anyone else feel this way?

To me that is the whole point of having an arranger. That is the power of an arranger.
Creating styles by the method you described, or from scratch just makes it more refreshing to play a song.

Just think, to day you could be playing a song with style A and six months down the road you have an idea as to how to play that song differently. You create your new style B and now that song has a fresh feel.


Also, by creating your own styles, you can make a style that can be used to play 8-10 songs in a medley. You know if you have a groove going you may not want to break up that particular groove by changing the style. However, you have to use that technique carefully because if you don’t it may sound cheesy.

Graham, you are right and wrong...You are correct that the "morph" on VA's ,it is designed to quickly change all the accompanient parts..It is a great way to get good results..in real time..
You are wrong that Roland can not change individual parts..My G1000 can just like the Korg, but not in realtime on the fly..same with Korg...I never looked to see if the VA-7 could change each part in user style edit, but I would bet that it can...Morphing is just a better realtime feature for "live" situations..