Uncle Dave,

I've enjoyed reading your posts and have learned a good bit in the process. After many years of dedication to it, I consider myself to be a pretty accompished keyboard player, albeit one who still feels the need to practice so that I can continue to improve and hone my skills. Still, I am certainly a neophyte on the entertainment end of it, and I have gotten a lot of good things from reading you and other seasoned entertainers at this forum.

We have agreed on many things and disagreed on a few things too along the way, but every bit of it has been worthwhile to me. I think you should remain as you are. For myself, I wouldn;t want it any other way.

To the original topic at hand...

I have 2 distinctly different needs and preferences for evaluating styles for my uses. I have to judge certain manufacturers based on conversions because I've never owned or played their boards extensively.

The first need is for live play. For live performances I want simple styles that blend in and don't overpower my own performance. In this setting Yamaha styles work very well because of their simplicity. The PA80 allows me to replace the internal styles withs styles of my own choice. In my live setup, mine still has probably a little over half of the original Korg styles. Many were replaced because I found them to be a bit too busy for me. Most of the imported styles are from Yamaha boards, with a sprinkling of G1000 and Technics styles thrown in ( I like some of the jazz styles from Technics ). There are no Solton styles at all in the live setup. ( I find that they are also a little busy )

I have an completely different styles setup for home and studio use. I simply change the whole thing via disks. ( styles and performances as well as user voices and one touch settings ) In this setup, there are more of the original Korg styles. They sound very alive to me and I enjoy jamming to them and using them as a base or scratch pad for my own songs. In this package there are also several Solton ( ketron ) styles ( also very alive sounding to me ), a few Yamaha styles, a couple from Roland, one from the Casio MZ2000, and no Technics or styles at all. There are also a few hybrids that include pieces from different manufacturers and / or grooves that I played in real time and drums that were born in Jammer Pro software.
What I like about styles for live play is almost the exact opposite of what I like for home and studio use. I lose interest quickly with a lot of the Yamaha and Technics styles, and to a lesser extent the Roland's as well. I also agree with Don though that the latest Yamaha styles ( CVP209 and PSR2000 ) do have a little more flavor and a few from those boards made it into my studio setup.