I would rate ketron first, its just incredible how many things you can set in the engine..

I would rate Korg in the middle..

I would rate yamaha on the low end, as in general its pretty straight forward..

So where would we rate Roland ea7 (is their only current model)
And casio?
And the more exotic styles from Böhm and Wersi?

1) Ketron I Rate it with a 9 (For Audio Style Modeling)

2) Korg I Rate it with a 9 (For many advanced edit function)

3) Yamaha I Rate it with a 4 (very poor editing and very difficult to create a style from scratch)..

For Roland I don't have opinion because I don't have any model..

I agree: Ketron first, and probably Korg second. Ketron definitely has some thoughtful and imaginative customization options to authentically reproduce specific genres of music! [What I don't like about Ketron is their chord RECOGNITION. It tends to acknowledge sixth chords over the more common minor 7ths, and I'm not about to re-learn fingering for songs I already know how to play!]

Yamaha and Korg have similar parameters, which is evident by how well Yamaha styles convert to Korg format. But the two companies take different approaches. Korg gives you access to everything. While Yamaha does allow different patterns for major and minor chords, this option is hidden, controlled by parameters in the CASM that can only be accessed with 3rd party software.

I would rank Casio fourth. They have a pretty complete range of control options. However, none of their arrangers since the MZ-X2000 have had a "memory" parameter to mute the accompaniment but keep the drums going when you release the keys. (Sync stop kills both.) The factory styles are dull, and except for the newest AiX chip, the sound engine isn't great, which doesn't help.

I'm a huge Roland fan, but for style control I rank them absolutely last. They don't even have a 'retrigger' parameter! Or at least it's undocumented and possibly implicit in the sound sample. Likewise the wrap/range; again I believe this is determined by the selected instrument sample. Frankly, I'm amazed at just how playable and good-sounding Roland styles are, given so few options in the Style Composer. Alteration mode was added in G-70 version 2. (This is similar to Yamaha's Note Transposition Rule, and determines whether a chord is revoiced "close" or parallel.) But at the same time they mysteriously dropped "chord family assign," which allowed a user to assign one of the recorded variations (M, m, 7) to a given type of chord.

Another thing that frustrates me with Roland is that they don't give you an option for "no transpose." Multipads finally arrived with the E-A7. But phrases ALWAYS transpose to match the played chord. You can copy style patterns to the pads, and use them as accompaniment to play over a non-transposing MIDI song. But doing so takes a lot of time and effort; a primitive workaround for a feature the competition's had for a long time.

One thing that jumps out at me after studying many reference manuals: All the brands had 90% of their style format (and related user parameters) in place 20 years ago, with only minor additions since then. There truly is nothing new under the sun!
Good topic!!

Bohm and Wersi are both the best and the worst styles on the market, this is because they are programmed for organ play which full arranger styles are not, (Hence the other styles you mention don’t even reach the bottom rung of the ladder if you’re playing organ) however out of arrangers I would put Korg & Ketron on the same level as they just use different types of technology to achieve a live sound, Yamaha is bottom as they need special voices to sound anything decent and fall apart when you try and simplify them.
Casio are fine for the money, while Roland in the G70 era were the top styles available, their lack of commitment to arrangers these days means they fall short, but on the flip side they are great for organ play.

Bill

Makes me womder wa edit functions you found on Korg ot available on Ketron..
- the only one i can think off, is not being able to edit GM voices on Ketron..
But thats not a style thing...
- and then there is the 4 differend variations for different chord types in Korg..

I found that there are so many little hidden things and settings on the SD9 pro its even beyound what Korg allows... and thats not just audio tracks... espescially the whole style modseling tab on the sd9 pro... and the launchpads... make ketron stand out.. but also options tos set a single drumset and bass troughout a performance..

So.. Ketron (Audya and SD9), in my opinion is the winner because includes a good (Midi) Style creator, and a very good and easy Audio Styles Modeling..
Korg with 6 (not 4) different CV (Chord Variations) for Variations and 2 CV with Fills, Break, Intros, Endings, also the very good Guitar Mode, and more fuctions as is Sound Articulation Record, advanced Event Edit, Import and convert style from Midi file, Inport Slices Groove (audio Loops), different Volume with RX Noices, Expression Volume for each Channel and more..
Of course all this can be done onboard on Keyboard...

Yamaha engine is kind of theoretically perfect
But impossible to create high quality styles without eternal sofware

Korg is also very good and let the user edit everything on the keyboard

Ketron and Roland are more basic, but they sound good too

I try to take the best of all worlds in vArranger

By the way, they have all updated their style engine over the years...

Hi, have Ketron actually added style editing functions ie event list editing etc similar to the stuff one can do on a Korg? Had an sd1 many years ago , trying to edit was hopeless.

Unfortunately Ketron are not readily available here.

This is exactly what we have written in an headline on our homepage (see signature).
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For those interested we have the key highlights on the home page, a link to an internal page with a more in depth discussion, and even the full reference manual available online.

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I am sorry there mate, but your software still has huge catching up to do compared to V-arranger to be usefull to mostbout of the box arranger players