Hi,
I just received my XG Works a couple of days ago. One great feature that XG Works has that Power Tracks doesn't , is that you can create songs from inbuilt styles. Works a bit like Band in a Box. Type in a chord progression, then pick a style block ie 16 beat , 8 beat etc intro's main parts fills endings. Very quick way of creating a backing track. From there the arrangement can be exploded into individual midi tracks for extra editing and saving as a midifile.
One thing that the manual doesn't appear to mention ( I've only worked my way through 20% of it to date) is that it also has the ability to use the psr .sty files in the same way as it does it's 100 or so inbuilt styles.
I wrote the following to one of the user groups
The reason I got it was to create backing tracks ( I think that's the right term for songs without melody lines?) I have a 9000 pro I don't like the sequencer for steptime use , so I was hoping XG Works would solve my hassles. The way I used it was_____
I transferred a 9000pro style
into xg works, typed in the chord progression, picked the ( 9000pro)
style blocks I wanted Intro , main parts, fills and ending. I had a
backing track within 5 minutes. I probably could have even mix n matched parts from differing styles ( I haven't tried that yet).
From there I was able to explode the sequence into individual midi
tracks to perform editing ( tweaking)if required and to save it as a
midifile.
I had my 9000pro connected to my computer at the time, so that I
could hear what I was doing as I went.
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To me, being able to use a style as a basis for a song is a great way to start. There's far more control over your song style parts in xg works than in Band in a Box. You get to pick and choose the parts you want whereas in BIAB the program generates it's own style parts.
There's 1000's of psr styles available through the user group,( though I'm not sure all would work) and an xg sound source, all I can say is wow! I wish I'd discovered the program a couple of years ago when I first bought my 9000 pro.
Best thing to do is download the [url=demohttp://www.yamaha.co.uk/xg/html/midplug/m_mid10.htm#Downloads][url=demohttp://www.yamaha.co.uk/xg/html/midplug/m_mid10.htm#Downloads][url=demohttp://www.yamaha.co.uk/xg/html/midplug/m_mid10.htm#Downloads]demohttp://www.yamaha.co.uk/xg/html/midplug/m_mid10.htm#Downloads[/url][/url][/url]
If you decide to and I can be of any help on how I used the .sty files just ask.
If you don't have access to a XG sound source, Yamaha has a soft synth demo , also.
best wishes
Rikki
_________________________
best wishes
Rikki 🧸
Korg PA5X 88 note
SX900
Band in a Box 2022