It's not an OOTB demo if you tweak first, Donny

And it being dated is EXACTLY the point..! I'm not doing this just now to prove a point in this discussion. I did it ages ago, when I first got my G70. It didn't take years to make me post something, I was more than happy with the sound OOTB, and quite pleased to show it.

Why don't MS users feel the same way?

And to the Genesys... Every day you play in public, you are facing exactly the same issues. Somebody (whether they speak up or not) is not going to like your playing. But does that stop you? And, you know what? I don't think I can remember the last time anyone posted something good here that WASN'T praised... Sure, they'll often engender technical questions (like the Israeli MS demo, which turned out to not be an arranger demo after all), but in fairness, good demos get the kudos they deserve here.

We're a critical bunch, for sure, but praise AND criticism seem to be mostly (except from rabid fanboys, and who takes anything THEY say seriously in the first place? ) reasonably accurate. Show me a first class demo from a user, and I will sing it's praises regardless of what machine it was made on. I have no axe to grind when SHOWN I'm wrong. I simply refuse to be persuaded without a shred of example.

OTOH, there have been some pretty terribly demos up from time to time. If at all possible, I do my level best to ignore the playing, and try to concentrate on the SOUND alone, but some demos make this hard to do (they'll usually drown out the arranger in their awful RH!). I have learned to simply not say anything about these.

But put up a great MS demo, or a Wersi one, that sounds real, dynamic and exciting, and I am the FIRST to give it it's due. My problem isn't with the 'open' arrangers per se. My problem is with the FACT that, despite lavish fanboy praise from their owners, this does NOT translate to any decent demos from their proud papa's.

Some of these owners have fairly impressive resumés. So musical proficiency shortcomings and their resultant shyness shouldn't be a factor, you would think. So what IS the holdup? The longer it goes on, the fishier it all smells, and the harder it is to take the fanboys' gushing seriously.