I think the FantomG's ARX expansion brass board has the ability to do a 'divisi' of parts. What this means for those that don't know, is that voices (often different voices) can be stacked up on one note, but if you play two or three notes, they 'split out' rather than the second note ALSO having two or three sounds on it.

Think of it like a trombone, an alto and a trumpet playing unison. Then they play a chord. Six other players don't join them! Each of them takes ONE note in the chord.

I think this would be an amazing new feature for arrangers to add, particularly as focused as many of us are on older music like jazz, bigband, old school R&B, etc..

Not to mention, the same technique is also applicable to woodwinds, sax sections, strings, just about any ensemble in the acoustic realm. Plus, as a bonus, imagine synth lead or pad sounds that are stacked, but split out when chords are played. In synth terms, this is very handy for creating more complex sounds, and it has the benefit of the VOLUME of a part or track remaining more consistent despite you changing the number of notes played.

It used to be a feature on many of the old school analog synths, at least with the same sound, and with Oberheim's and some other with different sounds, and is also in many of the newer VSTi synths too.

If we are trying to think of ways that arrangers could be made more realistic, here's the perfect thing... and Roland have already got a board that can do it. I see no reason why software alone couldn't add this to just about any arranger out there. It's just a question of tinkering with the voice allocation routines, really.

What do you think?