Very true Rikki. I can go back to 1998, which is when I first started playing around with soft synths. I tried a few and quickly abandoned the idea. Even just 7 years ago, I thought the sonic quality of most of them to be relatively poor vs hardware.

Fast forward to a few years later. I kept reading about the FLR system, and then started frequenting sites like KVR and to a lesser extent Harmony Central. Then I d/l'd
RGC Audio's Freeware "Triangle", and I was amazed at the sounds. Right then and there I began to realize the potential. A couple of years later, and I'm still amazed at what can be done with vst and like technologies.

Back to the topic.. I can see where using XG works, and maybe even SQ01, could still hold some advantages vs using Cubase, Sonar, Logic, etc for Yamaha arranger / XG based kb users. SQ01 is actually decent, and has good audio capabilities, but they left out a few of the things that were good about XG works, like style playing capabilities, the midifile importer, etc.

For any other keyboards or softsynths, I wouldn't recommend either XGW or SQ01 vs even a decent low to mid level sequencer package. There are several things that even the bottom end versions of Cakewalk ( Metro ? ), FL studio, and Orion give a user that XG works won't. Heck, there are a few freeware DAW's / sequencers at KVR that do more.

Scott, I remember reading about that as well. I think the closest they may have gotten was to use Opt panels that are setup for Some of the Yamaha kbs, and that I believe may also be interchangeable between Sonar and SQ01.

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 01-11-2005).]