The rating system is like any other - listen to the style. If you like it, use it - if not, then don't use it.

If someone else were to rate the style, then someone that didn't agree with the rating would say it sucks. Kinda' like arranger keyboards, but with arranger keyboards you don't even have to own them, or even hear them, to say they suck.

Cheers,

Gary

Gary, have you listened to the 64,000 styles...I will take your word what styles suck..

Nah - I've listened to just over 15,000 of them, but none of them would benefit you, Fran - you don't own a Yamaha. Of the 15,000 I tried out, I probably kept 10-percent of them for my jobs. Ironically, some of the Roland conversions were among the better, third-party, conversion styles I use, so you probably already have them anyway.

Gary

Yep... that's about my take on things, too. Only high quality conversions of other factory style are really worth a damn.

I can count the number of really good user styles I have heard on one hand. On the thumbs of one hand, maybe!

Sure, there are SMF's of songs that have been converted into 'songstyles', and some of them can get good (as the SMF was, anyway!) but personally, I'd rather use an SMF, and gain the better voice leading in that case.

The rest? Well there's an art and a skill in being able to emulate every instrument well, and most user style creators ain't got them!