Truth be told, the audience doesn't know, and doesn't care if you use styles or SMFs. And precious few musicians do, either. Most of them don't care how you replace them, just the fact that you do.....!

There are probably as many solo entertainers (OMBs) using SMFs as there are using arrangers (possibly more, if the truth be known). This IS an arranger forum, so you are probably going to hear from them the most, but don't let yourself be fooled, if this was an SMF forum, you would come away with the impression that SMFs were the way to go, and arrangers were another, but flawed, way to perform.

Truth is, if you are entertaining, if you are solidly booked, if you get plenty of repeat business, it doesn't matter one jot which system you use.... NO-ONE CARES!

Only somewhere like here, where devotees of one particular way to make music gather, are you ever likely to find anyone that gives a damn. But both systems have their strengths and weaknesses. Finding which works best for each particular song is the real skill, and not getting too invested in one form of music-making or another will free you up a lot more than deciding 'it's arranger play or nothing!'

For me, the true weakness of arranger play is having to give up your left hand. Many of you may feel that's no great loss, but as someone who has spent a lifetime learning how to play with essentially two right hands (I can make my left hand into a pretty good organist, while my right hand is the strings or horn section or soloist, etc., etc.), having to compromise what 50% of me plays to just input the damn chords is a great loss. Others may feel challenged just to play the right chords at the right time, and not understand how much you have to give up to control an arranger, but many here, I am sure, do.....

NickG if you think you can input chords and STILL use a bender effectively, try this..... Play a solo while you are using the arranger, a nice sax sound will do. Record it into your arranger's sequencer. Now have a listen. OK, now mute the solo track, and play another solo over the top of the accompaniment, and record THAT (on another track if you can). Now listen to both solos one after the other. Listen to how many times you use the bender when you would have been using your left hand to play a chord in the second version. I guarantee it is a LOT. Most instruments that bend and scoop a lot almost inevitably do it at chord boundaries (amongst other times!), EXACTLY the time you would NOT be able to do it in arranger play.

There are a myriad tricks and licks that cannot be played with one hand, from fancy piano arpeggios, to syncopated funky clavinet licks, to banjo-esque cross fingering licks, and so on. Arbitrarily deciding that you will no longer play these techniques because of your slavish devotion to inputting simple chords with your left hand is myopic. If there is a way to still be able to do these entertaining and musical feats, by all means use whatever exists to further them.....

I honestly think that, from reading a few of the previous replies, that some of you have ZERO respect for your audiences. If they honestly didn't care whether you 'entertain' them with an arranger, or with a full band, there would be NO full bands. The truth is, they DO care, and they CAN tell the difference. They may not be able to articulate WHY they prefer a full rhythm section to an arranger - no-one is EVER going to come up and say 'I LOVED the voice leading on your bass lines', but if you replaced your arranger bass lines with a real bass player, or used an SMF with a true line, they will enjoy it more.

If they really don't care, why NOT 'local off' your brains out..... Oh yeah, that's right - then the only thing they might care about is how well you SING, something that might make many of even the pros here nervous! So you'd better pray they DO care, or the singers will take over everything and the only guy making any money will be the SMF developers.

Despite this being an arranger forum, I hope that most people's goal is to 'make music', NOT 'play an arranger'....