On this subject of how important is pitch bend: I found a sound file I made of myself demonstrating pitch bend for a talk I was doing a while back. The song was a big band oldie where I took a trumpet "ride" in the middle of it. Listening to it myself, I can see how lifeless it would be without PB.

It's about 20-30 seconds. I have no way to post it. If anyone would care to place it on a "downloading" site they have access to, I'll mail it to you as an attachment.

Lucky