Actually, they DO come up with new ideas every three years... trouble is, often those ideas are geared more to marketability than plain practical stuff...

Often, a feature looks WAY better on paper than it does in real life. Sadly, so many buy these things after reading the brochure, rather than having PLAYED the damn things!

I am still unconvinced about those SA2 buttons... If you are in arranger mode, your LH's got WAY more important things to do than press those all the times. Like playing the chords, for instance.

There's a simple test anyone can do. Play a well known melody, and use the arranger's MIDI recorder. Store the file. Copy it. Now strip the solo OUT of the copy. Now play a solo using the SMF backing you just made. Store that. Listen to both versions. Which is the better solo..? Now have a good listen to the solo over the SMF. Try to work out just how many times you used the bend lever, mod wheel, or SA2 buttons EXACTLY when you would have had to have made a chord change..

You would be amazed to find out how many times you probably did it (if the tune had more than the simplest of changes). Scoops, bends, all those non-keyboard performance tricks are usually used by real players at chord boundaries, to transition from one mode to another, or to emphasize the change. As well as all the other places, of course! But just try it... It's scary once you realize just how hampered you start to be when you CAN'T use your LH because it HAS to play the changes...

It's the main reason I stick primarily to SMF's (with Markers) for all but piano songs. I hear the solo in my head, and if I can't play what i WANT to play because my LH is tied up, I get very frustrated!