Depends of what you're after. Myself I like MidiSpot styles because the "live and punchy" sounding, and
they are programmed in a way that fit my style of playing as well as many are made to play well for the
Scandinawian Dancefloors.
Regarding the pricelevel, yeah, a bit expensive, but they try to make a living of styles and midi, not
by build the hardware.
Yamaha is for me too CD'is or may I say, "too well studioproduced and polished". That don't mean they
are not good, but it prevent me from buy any yama keyboard so far.
When I'm out dancing and listening to the music, I would rather have musicians that dare to play a
wrong note but still make you wanna dance, rather than a orchestra that just sit there and play perfect
as written in the paper, and sometimes make everything sounds like expression never invented.

Cheers
GJ

I love it!

TWD

Conversely, those of us who cherish the Yamaha sound, find the polished sound much to our liking...especially if you do any home recording.

I've played dances with Yamaha arrangers...didn't seem to have any problem getting people out of their seats to have a go on the dance floor.

People's taste with how an instrument should sound will always be varied...thankfully we have choices in what we buy.

I like Midi Spot styles as well...as you say, very punchy, and not overdone either.

Ian

Well, I've never said the Yamaha instrument sounds / solo sounds don't sound good, in fact
they sound great, and so do your work and recordings.
But the styles play a kind of limited regarding peek and expression for my personal taste.
I'm sure there is features that let the user adjust or tweak this in any way or other, but
stright out of the box, as most of the demoes and uploads we hear are, it don't make me
run to the shop and buy.
After all it's the autocomp/styles who are the main rason I buy an arrangerkeyboard, if I
was any good piano or synth player, I would buy soething else.
The part about "punch" in the styles I think Ketron and even Roland G-70 do better than
Yamaha.

Cheers & Happy Playing
GJ

I like the styles straight out of the box for demoing, but for personal use, I always end up editing them for my own liking.

I tend to try and make the style progress from variation to variation in a more balanced way.

I like the Roland sound as well...just not as much as Yamaha...of course, that's why I work for them.

Ian

Guys, you are not getting it...

It is obvious that, at the current price, few people actually ARE downloading the Premium Styles legally (or there would be a LOT more of them ), the best, most skilled writers aren't making enough to want to make a full-time job creating new styles constantly.

I am convinced that, for every person that actually PAYS their $7, AT LEAST ten or twenty (who knows?) end up with the styles eventually from trading around, style sites, etc.. And that, to be honest, is a VERY lowball estimate, IMO.

So, let's look at the math. ONE sale at $7, or TWENTY (conservatively) at $1... If I were making styles for a living, guess what I would choose

I would happily make a $5 a week impulse purchase to get five TOTL produced styles. And, I'm pretty convinced that thousands worldwide would to the same thing. Not sure I would pony up $35 a week, though.

BTW, you can transfer a protected iTunes MP3 from one computer to another. I can't think of any reason why, with Ethernet jacks on them (how does IDC connect now?), one arranger can't be hooked to another transmit their ID codes, and allow a one way transfer to your NEXT arranger (program would automatically delete styles from the source arranger, so you can't sell it with the protected content still on it after transferring).

This system has generated billions for the recording industry. I don't see any reason why it can't for the arranger one. We all complain there is never a lot of fresh, exciting new styles, but never wonder WHY. Piracy makes it impossible for writing styles to be anything much more than a marketing tool for the arranger. Yamaha underwrite the Premium styles, to coax the best style writers to make a few more. But if they could make an honest living selling styles, they would make them 24/7.

Maybe the system could be set up like iTunes, where ANYONE could post their styles on the site (in a special, non-manufacturer section for instance) and the 'store' takes a cut of the $1, but the writer, if he makes GOOD ones, makes a fortune.

What better way to encourage the growth of what is, essentially, a pretty stagnant industry, right now?

How did you come to that opinion, Diki?

Ian

If I could sell a CD for $200, I'd have a thousand different ones of them for sale...

The free market fills up whatever capacity it can. If people are buying Premium Styles at a sufficient rate, they'd make a LOT, lot more, a lot, lot faster, until the market was saturated. If the current rate they are making them at is any indicator of what the market will bear, I'd say I proved my point...

Sorry guy, I removed my post...it's not that important an issue.

Ian

[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 02-14-2010).]