Well, you are comparing a factory demo to essentially a 'user' demo, for one thing, then not the same style.

I still want to hear those head to heads.

From listening to the vArranger demo, I think perhaps Dan needs to take a look at some volume offsets. It's obvious that the horns got buried in the intro on his version, but then again, without the original, it's tough to be sure.

But here, in many ways, is the whole problem with the idea. To get an accurate translation, it's not enough just to line up the samples. You HAVE to get the velocity response curve AND the volume CC curves (AND the reverb/chorus/delay curves) to line up dead right...

You see, there's nothing in the MIDI spec that specifies HOW CC7 affects the volume. Is it linear? Is it logarithmic? Is it somewhere in between? There's nothing in the MIDI spec that determines HOW velocity will affect a note... just that it get louder. But by how MUCH? And with what curve?

And each arranger manufacturer is slightly different. So plug one's translated style into another's engine, and you can STILL have unbalanced styles. Heck, it even happens when you plug legacy styles from the SAME arranger manufacturer into a far more modern arranger. Getting the sounds to line up is just the BEGINNING...