Not just integrated, but run tactilely from the touch screen...

Sure, sky's the limit if you want to cobble together disparate instruments, software and hardware... You could just as easily hand program an arranger from scratch if you had the skill, time and money! But let's not kid ourselves. We don't!

This is what makes Yamaha's new CS the game changer. You don't need a PhD in MIDI and software control to do it any more. You just play in the chords and save it. There's even software that can LISTEN to music audio and figure out the damn chords if you can't do it yourself or look them up online..!

Nothing's 'new'..? If you were a genius, you could have built a jet and flown it before the first guy did. But you didn't. To my knowledge, NOBODY has done this before. Second guessing the feature is a cheap shot, IMHO.

It's as big a leap forward for style players as Markers in SMF's were for sequence users. You aren't locked into one linear song structure any more, you can be as free as you want, you can still do all your normal style things, change styles, drop in fills where you feel like, change from the CS to your own played chords and back at will, sky's the limit.

But yes. it IS 'new'. Up to this point, chord sequencers were ALL one sequence only. One loop, no more. Yamaha changed that, and anyone with an SX900 or Genos that isn'y using it is missing out on finally freeing up their left hand for more musical things than rote chord input without having to compromise on free song structure. I realize that some of us may have extremely limited LH playing skills, but a lot of us don't. Hopefully, those with more traditional two handed skills can see the revolutionary nature of this 'new' feature!

Tell you what... You can currently drop in Markers and using a computer or tablet, move around freely (in sync) in an audio backing track. But no arranger can do it yet, standalone. So, when the first arranger comes out that can do this, feel free to tell us it's not 'new', OK? LOL