They aren't BAD styles, but does anyone think that these compare with some of the better closed arranger's ROM styles? Particularly the guitar parts?

The 8-Beat suffers from a PSR (pre Mega voice) quality to the guitars, and also a lack of cohesion between the snare drum sounds (stick sounds like a different drum to the main snare, which sounds different to the accent rimshots). Also the bass is a bit tubby... (and not happy with that weird 'worm' sound in the intro!)

The Entrance style was recorded panned predominantly to the right side, but be that as it may, once again, this didn't make me want to go out and ditch my G70! Plus, I'm sorry, but demoing a style with just ONE chord doesn't expose whether it responds well to changes, whether the bass line transitions well between chord types, whether the guitar's NTT's and wraparound points stay realistic, and many other things that never get exposed until you try to play YOUR changes on them.

I am sorry, but if these were put up in an effort to show how easy it is to make great styles on the MS, I am not sure it really demonstrates this... Plus, you don't give any details of how long they took to create and perfect, or what your playing skill level is, whether you have created styles commercially for other arrangers, etc., etc..

There are great style creating and editing tools on MOST arrangers, closed or open... but very little in the way of users succeeding at creating good styles (with 'good' being used as in 'comparable to the ROM styles' quality'). I tend to take this as proof that it is MUCH harder than it is made out to be by those that have no CHOICE, either by playing a style of music not included in the ROM selection, or by using an arranger that comes 'bare bones' with few good styles to start with.

These are nice enough styles, AFG. But they hardly qualify as proof of the MS's 'superiority'. In fact, they do more to expose it's weaknesses, necessitating it's users to attempt the job that all other manufacturers hire VERY talented style creators to do for them... A job that very few of us are skilled enough to do as well as the ROM style designers.