I have to agree with Diki on this one.

If you were just to consider the musical aspects, I Even think that if you were to compare a good arranger player to a good band, from a performer�s perspective playing in a band is much more satisfying. But that assumes that you have played with a good band and you are a good arranger player.


Now there are reasons that we use to justify using an arranger or midi file (I think a good electronic musician can get a midi file sounding as live as an arranger) instead of a band. Financially one solo player could charge less than a 5 or 6 member band. With a solo player, you don�t have to worry about the hassle of coordinating rehearsals and dealing with personality peculiarities of band members.

But having said all that, just the musical experience and interaction of playing on stage with a �GOOD� band has advantages over playing solo. We play solo because of economic and personality differences.

I think that a good arranger or workstation act is live music if they can be spontaneous.

I would say however, that when we try to mimic another instrument on our keyboards (whether arranger or workstation), we are cheating. That is not to say that we are not employing skills. It does take skills to be able to take a sax sound and make it sound like or as close to the real thing. But that is just it. If we are trying to sound like the real thing, then that looks like we are trying to cut corners. Why don�t we get a sax player to play that part? We all know the reason why. It is just not economical or feasible to do so in today�s business world. Instead, we substitute a real sax player with a keyboard sound that sounds like a sax. And we try to make it sound as much as we can like a live sax player (Cheat). We all do that me included.

I am one to admit that in a sense it is cheating, however, I would also say that there is a skill that goes along with making it happen. In order for the sax to sound real you have to know about the sax and what is possible and not possible on a sax and you have to know how to manipulate your keyboard to make it sound real.