Rikki, you may never be entirely satisfied with soundfonts for use as your Right/Left hand Lead/Melody voices. However, you should beable to get them up to satisfactory quality to run your styles. If you do not want to invest in things like Kontakt you could call up another instance of LiveSynth Pro within forte and use higher quality soundfonts many of which you can find free on the internet. But again I do not wish to talk you into things you don't like. You see once you are used to the Yamaha sound then anything different may not sound good to you. It is all in the ears of the beholder.

With respect to changing volumes you can change volumes within the styles by using one of M. Bedesem's programs. This would be the easist way to change the balance of all your instruments. I do believe you can change the volume level of each instrument or sample wave within Soundfaction Alive or Vienna. This would normally be done in the volume envelop parameters (delay, attack, hold, sustain, release, initial attenuation and so on). I am not certain how well this would work to trim the volumes of the individual drum instruments (hi-hat) within a drumkit. You could always give this a try. This could be tedious work!!!

forte Ensemble does not have effects and equalizers built in. You would need to find ones you like on the internet (free or price). There are many to choose from (DX or VST). You would install the instrument in the first column in forte and the effects in the second. Then you can make adjustments to suit your style of playing or music. I have sent you an Email.

I hope this helps. Again I am convinced that the software approach provides the best flexibility and quality ---- but don't let me sell you something you don't like (sound quality, time, money, etc.). Take it more as an alternative to the traditional hardware approach.