Lets be honest here, though. Without the original T5 style's audio, it isn't really a comparison, is it?

Overall, I'd say, if those SD-2 and PA600 kits are the best choice to match the Yamaha ones, the drumkit mapping needs improvement. Plus, panning seems strange. Some of the SD-2 examples felt like the snare was pushed off to the left.

When vArranger plays these styles into the sound source, is it generally asking for GM2 type sounds, or is the mapping going deeper into the best sounds the modules make?

I'm also hearing these styles a lot drier than I think the original might have had. And sorry, but an Intro and an Ending (both of which are essentially SMF's, not style play)... you aren't throwing chord changes at the style. That's where it all becomes easier to hear.

Not to mention that awful vibrato sound at 10:56! Wow! What was THAT on the T5? LOL

Maybe, at least with the PA600, you can create kits and sounds that match the Yamaha's original overall sound a BIT better, but so far, I'm afraid it all reminds me of some cheap 15 year old arranger, and I can get one of those for less than the software alone!

Thing is, play a PA600 style alongside, and you start to see what gets 'lost in translation'... I've said many times, the performance and the SOUND are intrinsically linked. Each sound makes you play a certain way. Each combination of sounds makes you play them differently. Change the sound, and you change how well the performance played into it works. No two sax sounds respond the same way to the same data, and don't even get me STARTED about kits! PA600 sounds great playing its OWN styles, but these translations almost make me think it is a different, cheaper arranger.

I think vArranger is a great IDEA, but, as with using VSTi sources, if you aren't using the sound source that the style creator used to make the style on, you are always going to get mixed results.