I'm afraid the first post simply shows just how BAD things can get...

IF you are trying to play over SMF's that already have a lot of parts on it, it only shows that either you are too lazy, or too unknowledgeable to edit the damn things in the first place.

They are NOT karaoke audio files, that you have NO control of whatsoever. They are building blocks to whatever you WANT them to be! If there are too many tracks, you mute some! If there aren't enough, you record some more. If they address the wrong sound, you change it. If they don't go on long enough, or go on too long, you edit them...

It is only laziness that makes anyone play over an SMF that is less than perfect FOR YOU. You have simply not bothered to customize it to your requirements.

All of this refers to commercial or third party SMF's....

But now it gets interesting. What about making the SMF entirely by yourself. The ULTIMATE in originality and customization... Too much work, you say? Shame on you. But OK, let's move on...

The point I have been trying to make is that it is a piece of cake to make an SMF of the output of your arranger. Play the tune, but don't solo. Job done. But NOW, it gets interesting. For starters, your LH is now FREE (at last, thank God I'm free at last!) of the mundane chore of inputting the chords, which, unless you are either a genius at re-harmonization, or just plain bad , is going to be the same every time you play the song (at least on a section by section basis). Redundancy of 50% of your playing skills strikes me as a waste. If you have ANY skill as a REAL keyboard player, or piano chops, organ chops, etc. (all two handed skills), you should WANT to use those, shouldn't you?

So, now you just doubled what YOU can play (not the machine). What are you going to do with all that extra power...? Well, first things first. You could turn OFF some of those auto parts, and play them yourself! What, you say? You can't play them as well as the machine does? Well, I'd start practicing, if I wanted to call myself a PLAYER, not a 'faker'. Trust me, letting the style play almost everything for you is no different from karaoke, even if you ARE playing a chord. Let's face it, how hard is THAT?

But let's assume you CAN play as well as the machine (or better... no repetition, more dynamics, better voice leading, more variety). So now you can turn off several arranger parts and simply PLAY keyboards. You know, just like REAL keyboard players...! In fact, I usually try to treat my SMF's like a live band... drummer, bassist, guitarist, and little else. I have to play the piano parts, string parts, brass parts, organ parts, etc., just like I would in a real band. So, for one thing, no-one is listening to 'karaoke', that's for sure!

But now that some of the better arrangers have adopted the Marker system, the one thing that gave arrangers the edge, the ability to adjust the arrangement as you go along has largely disappeared. And the regaining of the ability to actually PLAY normally (if you learned to play normally in the first place) is MORE than worth the few other things left, IMO.

So, before you jump all over someone that primarily plays over SMF's, you first have to ask 'Do they play SMF's the way I do, download them off the net and play a wanky solo over them with no work done to the file at all?', or do they either make custom SMF's, or re-work the arranger output to be a file you can actually PLAY fully over without clashing with the accompaniment?

Because there is a HUGE difference between the two, and sadly, the fact you even can post that first post just goes to show how little you have tried to do, so far. If other's get it wrong, that's not the fault of the process, that's the fault of the PLAYERS. If you are doing a solo or a duo, and just use bass and drums and little else, how could playing it 'live' make you sound full? All you would then have is NO drums at all (if you play with a guitarist, like your example). That's a totally different act, just piano and guitar...

Sorry, but a 'live arranger player' in MY book simply means a 'one handed keyboard player, playing over repetitive short SMF's'...

Not that that is any WORSE than playing over SMF's (if you use them to their potential), but it certainly isn't any BETTER...