I am a little confused... when you say Legato Mode, are you referring to going monophonic? Because that's as unrealistic with wind patches as the pitch strip, IMO. Only SA (and DMC) allows totally different samples for legato as detached, AFAIK...

When you are dealing with older technology (like the Roland's, for instance ), there simply is NO 'legato' mode. There's either monophonic, or polyphonic. The thing about using the strip to perform partial phrases (I DID say you couldn't do an entire line like that, but even if it is one note or two, that's still double or triple what you can do without one ) is that, you are not still locked into either mode. Play a lead, then play a section answer. All on the same sound, with the same technique...

I have to confess, I am FAR more into finding a single gestural way to do as much as possible to a note than in finding multiple complex ways to program it in. As I said, earlier, the strip allows you to do a large selection of articulations, with NO programming, and all at the same time. You task your LFO to do trills, now it can't do regular vibrato. Maybe on far more complex synth engines like the Triton, but the large percentage of decent arrangers don't have these parameters available to reprogram (nor do I have the time!).

Even if they are half-assed, and not as good as you can program with a full fledged synth, having such a large variety of inflections available by the simple (I certainly don't find it in the least difficult to get what I want out of the line as I go along) application of ONE controller strikes me as an elegant way to gain a LOT more control over a sound with the least amount of programming. Ask any guitarist if he would prefer to do bending with one controller and vibrato with another, and trills with another again, and hammer-ons and offs with yet ANOTHER, and he will laugh at you!

He can do it all with the one technique. So can we...

I think I get where you are coming from, certainly a recording perspective, where the goal is to be as accurate as is humanly possible, and the devil with how complicated. I tend to come more from the live perspective (because, if I'm looking for a good sax lead on a track, I'll hire a good sax PLAYER!), and in live, sheer accuracy isn't anywhere near as importance as sheer playability. Having all those types of performance gestures available instantly under ONE easy to use controller is worth the lack of ultimate authenticity.

But I can see we solve the same problem in two different ways, and that at least is a GOOD thing! For me, every step we take beyond simple 'hit the note, hit the next note, hit the next note' is a step forward to releasing the keyboard from its' shackles. Guitarists still lord it over us in the ability to add a degree of expression that is instantly recognizable from player to player, even with the same guitar and amp. Anything that allows me to play something in a way that no-one else possibly COULD is a good thing, in my book. The minute you start programming the inflections in, rather than physically PLAYING them in, you reduce the amount of YOU that each performance brings. With a strip, there simply is no way for me to play a line identically each time. With LFO programming, it's hard NOT to do it identically... (unless you can put some sort of random offset to the values).

I am a trombone player (was my major), so I think I'm pretty attuned to what is the essence of why horns are so difficult to emulate. And primarily, the aleatoric aspects, the sheer randomness of it all is what separates the played from the programmed. With an embouchure, all the note stability (or lack thereof!) is an unconscious part of your performance. Your ear hears what is wrong (or right) and adjusts your lip and breathing to compensate or enhance, but all at a pretty subconscious level. You don't THINK 'I've got to do a trill here, so I've got to adjust my lip just SO, and change my lung pressure just SO" (and so on) - you just DO IT.

For me, at least, getting that degree of control over a keyboard sound requires that whatever you use to control it be as natural and unconscious as your lip control on a real horn. Having to think 'up for vibrato, down for trill, left and right for pitch bend, Knob 1 for trill rate, Switch1 for mono/poly' and so forth takes FAR too much away from the sheer connectedness of the sound to your hand. It's cerebral rather than visceral.

Is it as accurate as you can do with programming? I really doubt it. But do I feel more intimately connected to the control of the sound? You bet I do

BTW, I am once again enjoying a VERY interesting discussion with you. I hope you don't take it as simple sheer argumentativeness, because I value what you have to say, and am learning a lot from it. I can tell that you spend a LOT of time thinking about all this, and that is so refreshing, here! I would certainly be very interested in hearing some naked wind playing with the programming techniques you have been talking about...

It's always a pleasure discussing things with you.