Well, for me, as a full time gigging player (in addition to the studio work), I'm afraid that time spent translating and tweaking is EVERYTHING. Which is why, to be honest, I actually use very few translations. They are generally more bother, timewise, than they are worth.

Sure, nice simple styles are a snap, but who wants to play nice simple styles? (I got plenty of those!) The more attention and detail put into the style in the first place to leverage the technology of the original keyboard, the very thing that makes you WANT to translate it, is also the very thing that makes the translation so hard to do. Sure, strip out all the hard stuff, translation is easier. But what you end up with is a shadow of its' original glory.

What would be a REAL test of the whole thing (and I know it's a lot to ask for) would be for you to pick perhaps the dozen absolute BEST, most groovy, jaw-droppingly fabulous styles in the PA800, with no regard to whether they are simple or not, and all of quite different sound. Some rock, some jazz, some modern alternative, whatever...

Now translate them into MS styles using VSTi's, and don't rest until they sound BETTER than the originals. Then let us know how long it really took you. That would give us a 'real world' set of figures to estimate for ourselves what translating our favorite style libraries would take.

You see, as I kind of keep pointing out to those that have actually had an MS for quite some while, but still don't feel confidant enough with their work to post any of it, for a working musician, it's no good that the MS COULD sound MUCH better than a closed arranger if it takes so long to actually get it there that you never get around to actually doing it. Some of them have had MS's for YEARS now, and STILL they won't post anything they are proud of, and those that do, well, let's just be charitable, and say better luck next time?

The whole POINT of the MS is to use it live. A lot of us already GOT VSTi rigs to do home and studio work on. But the MS is supposed to be gigged. And, in that case, it has to be able to be set up fast enough that someone steadily gigging actually has enough time to do it! Sooner or later, to convince us skeptics, someone is going to HAVE to show us how fast it can all be done, and not just on the easy styles..!

I wish I had enough time to be able to take my own sweet time getting it ready to gig. But unfortunately (or not!), I would rather be earning money playing, than NOT earning money programming...!