Hi Larry
Start with www.musicrobot.com and take it from there...that's a search engine for all midis on web sites throughout the world...
Rog

Wow! Guess I asked the right question here!

Frank and John C...Thank you so much for your words... Time for me to do some major exploring of the composer area of my 7K. I will look into finding out about midi files as well...

New questions: Why do so many of you want to sound like the original/popular productions? Why don't you want to bring forth your own unique expressions of the music you enjoy playing?

John C... Could that be Colin Leaney who lives in open country with his 7K at his side?

Hi ETWO - It's called meeting customer expectations...chuckle.

Bernie,
In the next few days I'll try to do an outline for making styles from MIDI files and post as a new subject. I'm a little slow, so give me some time.

Larry,
You play so beautifully, I'm not sure this will be of any value to you. But look at this "Old Time Music" site, you might find it interesting. http://rosemck1.tripod.com/jukebox-nostalgia.html Frank

It greatly depends on the audience ... many 'older' folks enjoy hearing a performer put his/her own interpretation to a song, while most 'younger' people NEED to have the song sound just like original ... IMHO, this 'NEED' is one of the factors that contributed to rise of DJs ... and the rise of DJs helped feed the NEED ...

Back 'in the day' when I had a band in New York City we COULD play any pop song in 'our own style' and the audience enjoyed it ... but that happens less and less with younger audiences ...

t.

I totally agree with many of the comments about 'customer expectations' - not just as far as the 'younger generation' are concerned!
As well as playing with jazz groups, I also do gigs on KN7000 with a Guitarist/Singer, performing songs from the 60s and 70s, for audiences who were of the 'younger generation' at that time and they expect to hear these songs sounding as they remember them - like the original!!
Most of these songs just don't sound right unless the 'backing' is a reasonably authentic representation of the original. To this end, I spent many hours listening to the accompaniments in these songs and then trying to create styles which produce a good representation of the original song backing.
From the comments we have received during our gigs, it would seem that the effort was certainly worthwhile.

TONY...

Your response answers my questions nicely...

Both my audiences and I are old people...I just would not have any gigs at all if I were playing for younger people...

Some years ago while visiting with my musical daughter, who plays only christian music, and her son who was playing "emo",
my grandson said he really did not like my music.... I told him the same thing. Two different worlds for sure....

FRANK... Thanks for the "Old Time Music" site.... I play all of those good old oldies. So much fun.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by etwo4788:
[B]Wow! Guess I asked the right question here!

Frank and John C...Thank you so much for your words... Time for me to do some major exploring of the composer area of my 7K. I will look into finding out about midi files as well...

New questions: Why do so many of you want to sound like the original/popular productions? Why don't you want to bring forth your own unique expressions of the music you enjoy playing?

John C... Could that be Colin Leaney who lives in open country with his 7K at his side?

Yes,yes,yes that's him, I love his music.

A word about midi files:
1-They are needed – I use them.
2-There is no shortage of midi files, there is a shortage of good ones.
3-I have used the VanBasco.com program both for playing and for the search engine on his site.
4-The Vanbasco program can reset tempo, volume and key on the spot – then it saves the changes the next time you call for the song.

5-Warning) I found that in my effort to put some midi files together I was spending more time on midi files than playing. I have collected hundreds of midi files and use a small handful.
6-(Warning) It is very comfortable playing with a background to a song leaving you with one job, to supply the melody. (For the most part) It is my opinion that your playing skills after a period of time will diminish.

My belief; ----Use all that there is available to you but love only your keyboard.

John C.

Wow!! This is an interesting topic looks like I will have to check this out also
Many thanks to everyone for the comments on this subject

Horses for courses I guess but...
Listen in on monday 11th May from 2.00pm to 3.00pm UK time here http://www.keyboardcapers.com/radio.asp
and hear the wonderful skills of Bill Norrie on his KN7000 playing many Abba hits.
It's just amazing what Bill can achieve using the sequencer and composer features of the KN7000.