Here is a website where you can buy the styles on the thumb drive that Roland is selling for the BK-7m.

http://www.musikhaus-mueller.de/advanced...amp;x=0&y=0

Right now 49 Euros is roughly $72.00 US dollars. There will be shipping also.

Here is a 2nd website that is 44 Euros.
http://www.soundland.de/catalog/advanced...;y=0&page=1

So far neither of these companies will ship to the US as far as I can tell - I don't read German. Perhaps one of our German friends can help us out.

Deane

You can always mute tracks in the style mix if you like it stripped down .....thats what arrangers are for arranging.

I do know for a fact that the roland guy I recommend my customers to call here in the USA does not have a sample of one to go to at this moment. He can only rely on the owners manual and support from Roland's design team. It is sad that one is not supplied immediately to the tech support folks but it's the way it's been forever. I even shipped out my sample last week to a customer who lives in another state so as not to disappoint him so now I have to rely on my memory to help my customers who have received theirs.

I setup my studio again today, then started using the BK-7m with my SonicCell, G70 and HX. I used the HX as controller for the BK7m and SonicCell, and had the G70 stand-alone. I had lots of fun blending sounds from all the instruments. I got some great Jean Michel-Jarre sounds with lots of indiviual sound effects onto the pedals for easy triggering.

I also found the BK7m and SonicCell ave very different vocal patches, but they blend really well. They make excellent pad patches! Also the A300 is great at controlling filters and envelopes on the SC, as I can make a change on one channel then move along the channels quickly to set the other parts.

I really had a lot of fuyn. I didn't think I was going to be able to use this stuff together, but I know I can now.

The way I set thios up was HX midi out - BK7m midi in (soft thru on) BK7m midi out to A300Pro midi in (Midi merge set to Midi out) A300Pro midi out to SOnicCell midi in. Although I have a mixer, I chose to set this all up into the audio inputs of the BK7m so I could get easy blending of the signals at my fingertips. I can't have the mixer close to my playing surfaces as I have nothing to mount it on, but this really made a great solution for me.

Donny......arrangers are made NOT for arranging styles. Most players, who are busy working, want their styles to be ready-made. Further, you can "mute" tracks all you want, but there's no cure for bad styles to begin with!

These are the worst styles I've ever heard Roland come up with. And I like Roland equipment. Some, no, MANY of those styles don't even sound like they're supposed to. I think one of them might have been the mambo, or one of the Latin beats.

Speaking of Latin, whoever put those styles together knew nothing about Latin music. There's no guts to them. Ketron has "guts" if you're wondering what I mean.

Further, the variations of each style are not real variations like in the old days. Back then, a "variation" often sounded like a whole new style. These variations consist of "one" added instrument to each press of the tab.

My feeling is Roland knocked themselves out putting so much into that machine, that they did the styles last and they just threw something together for that.

My friend has a machine. But to be fair, there's so much in there he hasn't tweaked it to perfection yet. Still, I wouldn't buy it based on those styles alone.

This is my opinion. I respect others who happen to love this unit. Maybe my opinion will change when I hear more members posting what they've done with theirs. Or my friend will hopefully get HIS up and running.

I have to agree with Mark here. I am having to spend hours trying to fit styles to my gig set lists. I am banking on the old styles to help me out here plus the styles on the thumb drive Roland is selling.

Also, since you can't change the OTS voices on the module it is even more important that they be setup properly which is not the case in a lot of them.

I did discover that listening to the unit with headphones or a single speaker does not get the best results. When I used both of my Bose L1 compacts there was a huge difference in the quality of sound.

hammer

This is why I didn't buy one and waited before jumping the gun as many sadly do & in the end have to sell at a huge loss when they realize what they already have is better by far.....I guess its human nature to be anxious, I learned my lesson and now I sit back and educate myself first before making a purchase.

Good Luck to all.

I'm anxious to get mine back. I was quite pleased with many of the styles. A lot of them seemed well suited to my styles of music, which are old r&r, Country, Standards, Blues, etc. I use a couple of bossanovas and rumbas but not a lot of latin otherwise.
The sounds and styles please me. The necessity for incorporating several outboard devices may not. Don't know yet.
DonM

Don, will the BK-7m styles work in your E-50?

To me, using a module (and having the fussiness of setting it up, and configuring a controller) would be almost a last resort...unless it was for weight considerations.

The E-50 can't weigh that much...or do you still have it?

Ian

I still have the E50 and I still like it. I don't know if the styles will work, because of the problem I had with the module not being able to use the USB drive. No way to copy them.
Anyway, the sounds seem to be better on the BK and the memory storage is far advanced.
Weight is no problem with the E50 or the module.
I'm just always looking to improve. If the upcoming Yamaha motl arranger addresses the drums and vocal harmonizer I would consider it too. It think I could be happy with Tyros 4 even though it is pretty bulky and pretty expensive. So many good choices these days. I haven't heard anything that sounds better than Audya (for my purposes).
DonM