This thread just emphasizes that, despite the industry's apparent misapprehension that arranger players don't need extensive MIDI control of external gear, nothing could be further from the truth...

Samplers, B3 modules, dedicated analog synths, laptops, ALL of these are being used on a daily basis by us poor, dumb arranger players who apparently know nothing about this MIDI doohicky! Someone needs to let them know that they are short-changing us SERIOUSLY compared to our WS brethren when it comes to making our arrangers the center of a whole system.

At the very least, any arranger (at least mid-line and up) should be able to direct ANY Part, Keyboard Style or SMF to either Internal or External MIDI, and allow ANY kind of MSB, LSB PC# codes, even if the Internals don't need it. You shouldn't have to restrict your choice of externals by whether you can MANUALLY call up the sounds or not... Sheesh! How 20th century!!