John, you said "You can accomplish #1 by using the Performance on your Pa3x. I shut off the Blinking STS light and select from the 4 STS settings -- or from the performance."

That is obviously what I am doing with the STS buttons although I do it with a foot switch and I am working with the Song Book rather than performances.

You said "Did the Technics STS settings change instruments immediately when you went to the next variation or did that wait for the next measure?"

As I said in my first post, the voicing changes immediately with the next note played, and the next variation occurs at the first beat of the following measure. This is with Panel Memories functioning in the expanded mode, of course.