I still don't get the point of running Yamaha styles on a Yamaha style player in the MS. I mean, for Pete's sake! Korg don't tout playing Yamaha styles as a 'feature', Yamaha don't even TRY to put Roland style compatibility into their arrangers. No arranger attempts to put the features in so you can play Ketron Live Loop styles.

Each of the majors stands or falls because of their OWN styles and sounds (a gestalt, or whole thing, made from two connected components).

Ian points out that it is a piece of cake to assemble and edit styles... Yes, true to an extent. BUT... what he's doing is editing and assembling (frankenstyling!) styles out of the ALREADY brilliant Yamaha styles in the first place. He's not creating them from scratch. He's certainly not hunting around in a disjointed VSTi instrument library for sounds that work well TOGETHER, to go along with that style.

The idea that the STRENGTH of an MS is it can emulate a Yamaha (except for Mega and SA2 voices, which, let's face it, are the BEST things in those styles!), and end up sounding little better than a cheap PSR is ludicrous. As I have been saying since day one, it's the CONTENT that makes the arranger. Unless you are Nicolas Damgaart (MidiSpot) or one of the top style creators (and even THEY don't have to work on creating a cohesive soundset), who exactly is going to benefit from the MS as an arranger?

I see it as a fabulous addition to an arranger, but standalone? Not until Dom blows a year's development costs on styles and a library of integrated sounds equal to the best TOTL arrangers. THEN, it is going to ROCK!