No animosity here either. I just don't think arrangers are "dead". What has replaced them? What other keyboard instrument gives you the flexibility of style play?


Yes, styles have their limitations and I understand Donny's point about the repetition. The bass lines can be very un musical due to the fact that the arranger keyboard can't anticipate what chord is coming next. This is most noticeable in jazz walking bass where the bass normally has passing tones that lead smoothly to the next chord. Also in salsa music the bass part usually anticipates the upcoming chord tone one beat before the other chord instrument in the ensemble change chords. I have not figured a way around this on an arranger.

The few times I use a SMF is if I can't find a style file that fits the song (very rare) or the song has very important breaks, stops/starts, very important bass line or figures that I simply can not cover.

Frans suggestion of using markers for the SMF sounds interesting and is something I need to learn about.