I just got home after playing in front of 150 people. Although every show is different, I must concur with Uncle Dave - in a live performance spontaneiety (is this how you spell it?) is the key. Being able to switch between styles and sounds is a key ability for a musician in my situation. No matter how hard you work on your repertoire and try to arrange the music in sequence, each gig will inevitably demand them to be played in different order. And with the crowd of dancing people, I do not have the luxury to stop the music to preset the next song - I have to do it without stopping the beat. Of course, I use G1000, and it's usability leaves much to be desired (I am sure many of you remember my not so complementary posts before), but I am still able to switch the accompaniment style, or the solo voices with a few (very careful) button clicks.

If I were playing at home, this would not have mattered, but on stage it does.

A note to David Castles - I welcome your participation in this forum, and I think this says much about your company's commitment to your customers. I am sure that you will be able to learn of many requirements which the arranger keyboard players consider essential in their instruments. For example, my Roland keyboard will not switch the styles in mid-bar (only at the beginning of the next bar), but it will allow me to change chords to my heart's content within a bar. For many songs, this is essential. The other capability it allows is differentiation between the accompaniments playing in major, minor, and 7th chords. Granted, I have the ability to make all three sound the same (while still responding to the chord changes in the recognition region), but I also have the ability to make all three sound different. Is it useful? - for some songs yes, very. I guess this is not essential, as I understand that Yamaha does not do this on their keyboard (someone with a Yamaha keyboard, please correct me if I am wrong).

I do not have the Jammer Live at present, so I can not comment on the specific features of the software.

I am glad to know that you and your colleagues at SoundTrek are also experienced musicians. Having played with an orchestra in my younger days, I find that the skill set, the environment, the type of pressure in that situation is totally different from being on stage as a solo or a duo live gig with an arranger keyboard. Although I will admit that my instrument technique was much better in those younger days, then it did not require the ability to follow the crowd and to adjust the program to the changing demands and moods of the party.

A full-featured easy-to-use instrument allows me the ability to do that, and the features about which the session musician does not care about, are detrimental for a guy like me.

Regards,
Alex