Donnie,
Why don't you change your handle to the "Ancient Wise One." Ha ha!
And by the way, you don't check your PM's anymore?

I think YOUR Not checking reply was sent hours ago to you??? btw it's Donny....not Donnie (fem)

Ian, in all fairness, arrangers are getting SO good that for all practical purposes, they can get acceptably close to the real thing. Secondly, trying to accurately reproduce every squeak and noise from a commercial record can get awfully difficult even for a good musician, and whether you are trying to capture those in audio or MIDI, it can still take quite some time. But, OTOH, the time to do it is considerably less expensive in a MIDI studio!

Next is the fact that Yamaha, making these for their arranger line, they have a well understood and pretty standardized soundset to work with. At least for the modern MOTL and TOTL arrangers, you shouldn't have much of a problem. Probably the likely best course is to make them for the S950, and then scale them up (if possible) on the T4. Probably easier than producing them on the T4 and trying to scale down...

But, don't forget, once produced on these systems, there's nothing to stop Yamaha from selling MP3 recordings of these files to those with less capable keyboards (and including with the SMF for the users that might want both options).

I simply feel that the SLIGHT increase in quality that a full audio recording offers doesn't outweigh the significant disadvantages it forces on you.

Oh dang!! I knew that looked odd. Sorry Donny

Boo no prob buddy Hope you got it all worked out now.

Diki,

Probably for you (or I) Audio Backing Tracks may not make much sense, but, for some performers, including several here on SZ, audio tracks are preferred or, at least, included in their show.

Reasons will vary among those who use them, and there are probably more motives of which I am not aware.

For instance, Yamaha's SA/SA2/Mega Voices and Korg's DNC still do not provide custom Vocal tracks (not just harmonies) for those wanting an exact duplicate of a particular song background...plus, Audio Backing Track playback is no longer limited by an inability to transpose and/or change tempo without affecting the outcome.

Would I use Audio Backing Tracks? No, I don't think I would, but again, there are a number of performers/players on SZ who do...perhaps they can elaborate on the reasons why they use them as opposed to SMF?

If anyone would know, it would be them.

Ian

There might be a market for the SMF, then the SMF done in audio with backing vocals, and maybe even the BV's alone. This might offer the best flexibility (that way, you mute out what you want on the SMF, record it as audio, then mix the BV track in...).

But for me personally, I stay away from audio backing at the moment, because there's no way to put Markers in. That one feature, for SMF's, totally opens up the way you can use them. You are no longer hog-tied to a particular form, and can extend or shorten your song as needed. Until they figure out how to do this with audio backings, I'd rather give them a miss.

Mind you, it might be nice to have some Kurzweil sounds or VSTi's beefing up the backing for sounds they might do a hair better than my G70 (without having to tote them to the gigs), but I can make do for now.

BTW, I don't disagree with people using audio. You are right, in some ways, the end result can be quite similar to SMF's. Probably what gets me the most is COMPLETE audio backing tracks, leaving next to nothing but the melody for the player. That's about where I draw the line! The Lord gave me two hands...!