Firstly, I think it IS important to play in the intros... I've heard WAY to many user demos that start out GREAT, and you get all excited - 'wow! this guy's good!' BUT... then he starts to actually PLAY, and it's 'OMG! This sucks!'

I'm pretty sure any regular listeners will feel the same, but maybe without the knowledge of WHY... Play your own intro, and at least there's a degree of consistency.

Secondly, yes, there are many alternative Intro options, including my favorite - Roland Intro 2, just like the Korg, where it follows your chords. But Intro 3 on the Roland's all have a nice set of changes, good dynamic backing, but no solo. THIS particularly is the type of intro that screams out for the chord display, as it allows you, at least at the start, to use BOTH hands for that big flowery piano intro, or an expressive sax solo with tons of bends and scoops (in fact, just like the factory ones), without having to do the damn gymnastics of flying back with your LH to trigger the changes while you frantically try to find something to play that DOESN'T need a bend exactly where you need a change

And now your LH is even MORE tied up trying to whack those SA2 buttons, the problem gets worse...

MIDI files have LONG been able to analyze the chords and display them (at least on Roland's), and an Intro is simply one of those. The OS needs only a minor tweak to achieve this, and I hope some of the manufacturers realize what a boon to people that can actually PLAY (maybe not their core market, true ) to have some way of knowing these changes without rote memorization...

It's a worthy feature, IMO.

To answer your points directly...

Donny.. they think WAY more that you are Mr Automatic when they hear music and see you playing NOTHING (surely you don't do that?), and the demonstrators are capable enough to play the intros as well as the preset ones.

Ian... that's the job of the built-in Demos. Why does every style force you NOT to play? Even Voncken et al often sit there like doofuses. I'm SURE they would prefer to play...

Gary... they do that to completely live bands, too. Got nothing to do with you playing a machine, it's all about ignorance and rudeness, a sign of the times.

Zuki and Rikki.... Roland add the option to the Korg choices of a fancy Intro with NO solo (it's a different intro, usually, and there's no need to manually go in and mute the solo part). This is exactly what this feature would be for. Didn't know that some arrangers don't have a 'no solo' Intro... I guess for you, this makes less sense, but all I would say there is ADD the request for this type of Intro to your wishlist. It's darn handy type, and, as I said, often different to the main full Intro. Gives YOU (not your machine) the opportunity to make a grand entrance to a song, and ups the wow! factor quite a bit.

To be honest, song specific styles with Intros straight off the record, etc., now that SMF's have song position pointers stored and you can re-order on the fly, don't really make much sense to me. I still feel hampered having to input the chords all the way through and tie up my LH, when, if you are going for the 'off the record' playing, are going to be the same every time you play it, so why not let the SMF do the grunt work, and reclaim the use of your LH?

But while you ARE in style mode, let's get those Intro changes displayed. It WOULD make life easier, IMO...

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 10-06-2008).]