I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but getting the ‘best’ out of any arranger (and basically anything in life!) requires us to get the best out of ourselves, first. Maybe, after that’s done, we’re in a better position to judge if marketing meant to play on our insecurities is of value, or just marketing…

If professional demo after demo for decades has shown us anything, it’s that professional demonstrators can make ANYTHING sound great. Whether the original instrument or its expansion sounds and styles. Let’s be honest… do we sound better than a professional demo for a 15-20 year old arranger? On today’s latest TOTL arranger?!

It’s still 90% the player.

Expansion sounds, extra styles, will they make you ‘better’? They’ll make you sound different, certainly. If the styles and sounds are what you need and beat out the ROM content, maybe they are useful. But will YOU be better? Doubtful.

That’s going to take practice, work on playing techniques, work on studying the gear’s OS to fully exploit what came with the original instrument. After that, the add-ons could indeed make you ‘better’. But even if you don’t get them, you will still be better.

The question remains. When additional resources are made available, is what you first bought ‘worse’? Of course not. It’s the same thing you liked enough to buy it..! The manufacturer or third parties are under no obligation to improve it. You liked it ‘as is’ enough to buy it. But if they do, by additional content, they are entitled to compensation for their efforts (considerable, btw).

Now, some manufacturers subsidize extra content to increase sales, some don’t. But third party content creators ALWAYS deserve their efforts being rewarded, not moaned at for it not being free. I’m sorry, but I just don’t understand the negativity. Someone has added considerable extra value to your arranger, and all they get is complaints?

If we can’t recognize marketing, we aren’t savvy customers. Will purchasing add-ons ‘realize its full potential’..? Of course not. There’s always more content, more styles, more sounds. What you are paying for is someone else doing the work you could do for yourself if you realized YOUR full potential… If you don’t have the time or inclination for that, extra content is worth whatever they want to ask for it.