Most of those old commercial SMF’s only use the Capital GM/GS sounds, which, to be frank, are seldom the best in the keyboard. You often find better sounds in the Variations. This is for compatibility, but it’s maybe a good idea if you work on the Makeup Tools to improve one orchestral piece, write down which variation sounds you use to replace the base sounds, and use them on the next piece as a jumping off point...

Don’t forget as well, on the E80 you had an insert MFX available for an SMF, and this might be a good place to send certain orchestral sections that sit at the rear of the orchestra into a different reverb with a slightly larger size (it would also have been nice to put the church organ into it) to give it that more distant sound. This works well with French Horns and trombones and percussion.

And overall, the general reverb from the regular send effects sounds like it could have done with turning up a hair, if you want that Royal Albert Hall sound!

I have to say, I hated the church organ sound, that really needs one of the better variations dialed in!

And don’t miss out on the additional per Part EQ option that was never used by those commercial SMF’s. The vast majority of SMF’s were set up for a basic Sound Canvas at best, so there’s a TON of simple ways to improve them.

Roland’s Makeup Tools has an incredibly useful per-sound velocity offset, where you can easily add or subtract an overall value, so if you find yourself using sounds that have a velocity cross-split, you can dial up or down the velocity of a sound until the split happens musically (and then correct using the Volume offset to compensate for it being louder or quieter). Wonderful for strings which get more marcato as they get louder, French horns which get more strident in the fortissimo passages, or for any orchestral percussion that uses soft and loud samples. Don’t forget, on the Drum Part, each individual sound within the kit can have separate velocity, volume, effects and EQ offsets...

And all are EASILY adjusted. If there’s one thing that Roland’s always had it in spades over their rivals, it’s that Makeup Tools section. When you make it so simple to adjust the sounds, effects and dynamics of a style or SMF, there’s far less excuse for not using it! I’ve often had to do the same kind of editing on Korg’s and Yamaha’s, and I can get the job done better in a tenth of the time using the Roland Makeup Tools!

Try a few of these tricks out, Terry, and see if that sequence can’t be transformed! 😎