dbl post

Dennis,
I've had the early Roland ones for years before I had a PA arranger, but I fail to see why you don't just record the song as a sequence if you're not going to play it anyway. To clarify ... you want to call up a tune and then just let it do the changes for you ... how's that different from playing a sequence? My opinion is that the c/s is there for when you want an extended solo, or a quick track that requires lots of pitch bend or something like that. I remember a friend who used an early Casio with a similar record feature and he'd play the whole tune as he sang or played the melody, then he'd hit the button and pick up his trombone and walk around the room playing over the changes. That's a great example of how to use it smartly.
I mean no disrespect to you ... but it sure sounds like you want a sequence. Why not just MAKE one?
Like Denzel said to Tom ... "Explain it to me like I'm a six year old..."

Because that is not how I use it Dave.

I have plenty of sequence files, which with markers are fine for pop, rock, country et al

But for my jazz stuff, I like to have the chords for the main head recorded so I can drop back into it anytime and do solos.

A lot of the time I can get away with full piano mode (which is my preferred chord entry method), but there are just too many tunes that do not fit well with this method, hence the need to save the recorded CS (again ONLY the head, or a selected chord progression specifically for soloing over).

I am not talking about a CS for whole songs. I agree, that would be pointless as a smf can cater quite well for that.

Dennis

PS: and I do make all my own smf backings and MP3 backings too, not on the Korg, but on the DAW...

PPS: No disrespect taken

I think you guys are STILL missing the point. Even if you have the chords for an entire tune down and saved (which is pretty unusual unless it's a pretty much ABABAB type structure) you still have control over those changes, just as if you were playing them.

You can build and drop down the energy at will. You can fill or not fill. You can select which variation you want. You can add multipads or not... You can change the entire style (I like to keep several swing styles all next to each other in the style list, so even more variety can be added as the song goes along).

Try doing ANY of that with a sequence!

My point exactly! So, why link them to a particular song in the first place, unless you wanted the specific arrangement?
I'm a fan of all the tools at my fingertips, and I think this particular one is best used on the fly. Chocolate and Vanilla ... maybe!
Nothin' but love for ya, guys.

Leave me off that Diki, I get it as well as you do

And that is the essence of it It is a tool to be utilised for the users needs.

A broad chisel may be perfect for what you want to do, but I do need rather a "finer" chisel...

The CS on the Korg is for me, at best, handy - and I have used it once or twice but I do think it should be saveable to a SB listing just the same as any other MIDI sequence ( vis-a-vis midi file) , or not saveable. I really cannot understand why it has not been addressed.....UNLESS there is an issue in the differences in modes on the Korgs.

What I mean is the modes (style song sequence sound) can only be run individually and are not really linked at all at the OS level.

So what I am thinking is that a CS (which is used ONLY in style mode) gets written to a volatile area of SSD memory set aside for it, but this cannot be saved as the PA is not in "sequence mode", which is where midi data CAN be stored to hard disk permanently...

Now if that IS the case, all Korg need do is advise this and it would stop all conjecture. Meaning the CS is what it is and can be nothing else!!

It is far better to have it as is, than not at all.

Dennis

I think the scenario where you would like to have the chords for a section already linked and ready to go would be for a section of a song that you HAVEN'T already played, but need to start soloing on it immediately... Or, for instance, you want to play guitar or horn over the tune, but still want control over the structure.

But I'm still a bit confused by the above post. I'm still not sure you get that the CS is the chords ONLY. NOT the fills, NOT the variations, NOT the changes to different styles. JUST the chords, and nothing BUT the chords.

So, each time you use it, you can still make it utterly different from the last time, you can still respond to your whims or the crowd's mood, and you can go into it and out of it on the fly seamlessly, so there is absolutely NOTHING the same from one performance to the next.

It is so utterly different to an SMF, I fail to see how you don't grasp this.

Sorry Dennis. Should have addressed the post more specifically. Of course I realize how YOU 'get it' perfectly!

All good m8 - I am just hoping against hope, that whatever Roland are putting on the next arranger release, that it has a CS, and is save able to a UPS or whatever it is going to be called (maybe a Performance??)

I have to say that after near ten years of Korg PA Arrangers, I am getting tired of the very constrictive OS. That it is the most powerful I do not have much doubt about, but I am more and more of the opinion its power is for sound programmers not players..

And that the "power" of the Rolands and even Yamahas IS more geared to players, which is why, I think, there are far more 3rd party resources available for both of those.

I do prefer Roland because of the style structure and its closer adherence to MIDI principles.

Anyway if the MusikMesse in March reveals a ho-hum release from Roland ( although I doubt it very much ) I might go back down the path of trying a software approach, BUT radically different to what you might assume....just a few ideas and concepts I have been mulling over ever since the "retirement" of the Corfu Rack Project.

But it DOES involve using VST instruments exclusively, and is not "style" based as we know it, but will allow a similar (though not the same and not as good) freedom to style play...

Not sure if it is going to work in the real world yet, so I cannot say too much, and in any case it might be moot depending on Messe....

Dennis