I don't honestly care whether the bass line of a Style is the same as a recorded version or not..... what's important is that it NEVER leads the changes, always follows.

My SMFs (at least the ones I edit, which is most!) don't necessarily use the recorded song version's bassline. I'm not trying to sound exactly like the record. But they DO work as real bass lines, not looped, repeated chunks of bass line!

Next thing to listen to, especially if you don't play with a guitarist, is how smooth the changes sound on the acoustic or rhythm guitar part is. There is altogether too much 'root-root' chord changing, rather than going from one inversion to another, as real guitarists do. It's another arranger dead giveaway.

The more you listen carefully to the differences between real rhythm section and arranger parts, the more you realize which songs will work OK on an arranger, and which cry out for a more dedicated SMF.

The trick still, with both types of playback, is to only use the absolute bare minimum of automatic parts. Play as much yourself as is humanly possible. Your audience will appreciate it.....

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 01-28-2007).]