Something so few take into account when talking about drum 'punch' and the like is the vast difference between those that simply play their arranger at home (or even on a gig) relatively quietly, all by itself, and those that sing extensively on top, or have other musicians playing with them and try to rock the house!

Once you ADD in several extra musical elements to the style; a couple of singers, maybe a guitarist, and a competent, full two handed approach to actually PLAYING the arranger (rather than just letting it do it's thing and playing at most a one note melody on top), what at first seems like an adequate drum tone and timbre can rapidly disappear into this expanded mix.

One of the features I would LOVE to see on arrangers (but haven't yet) is a GLOBAL part boost. So, if your sequences and styles are nicely balanced for a polite, background level, and you get into a situation where they are starting to get swamped, especially drums (often the first thing to disappear), there is a global setting that would boost the drum part (or any other you select) and add a specified amount to it to get it back in the mix.

I know you can do this on-the-fly, but having a 'set and forget' would make life a LOT easier...

This would work the other way around, too, if your party mix styles are a bit brash for a cocktail crowd.

What do you think?