You really have to play a Korg to hear this. It sounds great and is one of the reasons I went to Korg. It makes a style much less boring and more authentic.

Dave,
I'am taking only the BK-7m out to it's first gig tomorrow. I'll find out real fast if it is going to be feasible to use only the module on a gig. I have thought about this and your entire lifeline is the USB connector - if it goes bad or someone hits it and breaks it you won't have any of your performances to play. I know you can fall back on the music assistant or just pick a style and play - but it still is a bit scary.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow evening of my setup.

Deane

I'd prefer that the instrument didn't do the choosing. That's why I would disable it.

I'd rather play the variations myself...more control.

Plus, I wouldn't want an accompaniment that wouldn't recognize rootless voicings.

Roland has still not caught up with the rest and implemented this very important feature....and yes, Korg and Yamaha both have it (so do Ketron).

Ian

Frans, there is a way to achieve different patterns for different chord variations within the Yamaha Style File Format. In fact, some Yamaha factory styles make use of this feature. However, if you want to make a style like this yourself, you have to use a 3rd party utility called CASM edit, because the on-board Style Creator does not give you access to all of the required parameters.

There are also undocumented parameters that control the behavior of Roland styles, such as the "Retrigger" behavior (which I consider quite important.) However so far there is only some speculation, and not a 3rd party utility to make user styles with full control of this parameter.

I have really come to appreciate the way Roland implements certain features, and their highly logical Chord Intelligence which gives a wider variety of common chords with simplified fingering. But on balance (and taking into account available third party utilities), I think Yamaha has better possibilities for creating user styles. My $.02. -Ted

... and let's not forget, Technics 'had it' as well.

+1 to what Ted S. said.

Hi FransN

Are you sure that’s all it does, as keyboards have had this for donkeys years, even the old Wersi OAS style system had this and that is as basic a style system as you can get.

When I temporally tried the Wersi OAA (Standard on new instruments) and played some T2 styles (The OAA plays them natively without conversion) these also had chord variations on most styles (If appropriate) so it’s hardly anything unique.

NOTE: for those that are not sure, we are talking about loop variations that occur with different chords (Just like real players do) not the variations changing themselves. (Usually demonstrated by showing how the intro changes depending on whether you start on a Major or Minor Chord)

BTW For Wersi owners that have not tried the OAA , the chord system has been extended from the 4 basic chord variations per style track to up to 16 chord variations per part/track (Intro, Fill Variation etc. ) so is now on a par with all the other arranger sections out there.

Bill

That's why I said you have to play a Korg to hear what I mean. It is very complex. I don't know how to explain this in English so maby an other Korg owner can explain this better.

What I do know after playing Yamaha for years that the Korg styles sound much better and more authentic to me then Yamaha ever did.

Strange they (Korg) don't sound very authentic in the demos. The instrument doesn't have any dynamics in the styles, or in the Right Hand voices either. Very one-dimensional. It's almost like they took a step backwards.

Even some long term Korg users are of the same opinion.

This is made all the more disappointing, because it is such a great looking instrument...the slinky black casing and the nicely arrayed sliders and buttons look terrific, in my opinion.

Let's hope that "magic demo" appears in the very near future.

Ian

We all know Ian even if Korg comes with the best demo ever you still won't like it. Same for the BK 7m from Roland. You only like your T4. End discussion

Not true, Frans...in fact I was hoping Korg would deliver what was initially promised.

Now, all we get is poor demos and what appears to be, excuses.

The BK-7m sounds great....actually, from the demos, it sounds much more detailed than the, so far, one-dimensional, PA3XPro.

You'd think Korg would at least want to redeem themselves from being shown up by a mid-range arranger module, but, obviously, they either think it's not important, or they can't.

I am not going to compare the PA3Xpro with a Tyros4...but I do know two pro players, who were potential PA3Xpro buyers, who bought a Tyros4 instead...I'll let them do the comparing.

Ian