Style conversion is possible, and you can get pretty good to excellent results. In many cases it just takes a good bit of tweaking. With programs like Joe's OMB or the freeware conversion software made by Michael P Bedesem, the actual conversion has become relatively easy to do and can be done in a matter of minutes. It's how you tweak them and the making the effort to optimize the conversions for your particular board / module that makes all the difference. This does take some time to do, but if the style is worth the trouble of converting, I think for me that the conversion is very incomplete if I don't spend the time needed to make it sound better. This is never an exact science either. One needs to find the right patches ( panel voices ), eq settings, dsp / effects, panning, vol levels ..etc.

Some of the styles I converted for the 2000 from my PA80 sound pretty good. There are some voices and parameters that are hard to dupicte exactly, and sometimes drum parts have to be remapped, but all in all conversion is possible. The PSR to PA80 conversions seemed to work out better, as the PA80 itself is has very good editing / capabilites and allows for adjustment of a lot of parameters. It has many useful patches ( voices ) to boot. Of course If I made XG voice based styles I could use XG edit to tweak further for the 2k..

There are other ways to make style too. The PA80's style sequencer is user friendly enough that I do a lot of work in it when I want to add some parts that I play in real time to a style. Otherwise, for me often it's Sonar to record or slice up pieces of midi files, or use the R&C chords guitar program or slicy drummer, then add some of my own playing. Or I might make some sophisticated drum patterns in jammer pro.. There are enough programs to assist.. The key is having the time ( and / or be willing to spend the time ) to make styles that sound good. Sometinmes, it's easier if I'm writing a tune to just do most of it in real time, but I have made a few song specific styles for tunes that I want to play live on an arranger ( particularly a couple of my originals ).

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 09-07-2003).]