Bill, you gave a very nice response. I and others, I am sure appreciate the time you spent stating how you use some of the fine features in COMPOSER. The KN7000 gives you so many ways of using the keyboard to create fine work. I do not use the CHORD MODIFY the way you use it for a bass line. The way I compose a bass line works in ANY SONG that is meant to be played in the style that I have composed. I use CHORD MODIFY for what it was primarily meant to be used for – chords. However, I also use it as an example of playing a piano riff in a style that I have created. As you and some know, playing certain notes in a style doesn’t necessarily play back the way you composed them. More often than not, they don’t play back correctly because of the harmony changes. When this happens, I go into Step Record and change NOT ALL but some of the notes in the piano riff or whatever instrument that has a melodic passage to play back correctly when hitting various harmonies, using CHORD MODIFY. I find that this takes a bit of experimenting to do this. Composing chords – I find that generally but not always, BASIC C, E, G works best for chords. The placement of the chord in your style is very important. I find that if you play E, G and C position is best. You can vary the position by changing it to G, C and E. Going to a higher position will make your chord sound weak and not right. This is especially true when using 7th chords. One Chord Modify that I also like and is a bit more interesting is changing CHORD MODIFY to Chord Tension. (C, E, G, A) Your chord position should be E, G, A, C. It is surprising how well complex harmonies work with using this. If doing a guitar strum, however, I prefer CHORD MODIFY be BASIC C, E, G and in the position aforementioned.

I’ll be so bold as to state that I have plenty of criticism for the “authors” of built in styles. By their using a bass line that is all over the map shows that the style really is intended to sell the instrument. The one and only way you can even come close to a built in style to sound OK in a song is to make damn sure you use simple harmony and don’t make very many changes. To prove my point, play a song with a built in style with all the tracks muted but the bass line. In your right hand, play a song with a lot of harmonies using Tech-chord and try to separate your playing and listen to the wrong notes the bass is playing with the harmony that you have played. Speaking of this, it would be great if Nigel had a way of allowing us to present examples on the forum. I am speaking of uploading something created that can be heard correctly by everyone to know exactly what the person is conveying. Sending files through email is time consuming and everyone can not hear exactly what is being presented. Perhaps this is the wrong forum for this. I have never visited another forum on arranging. Bill, people like you and Larry Gosmeyer that have beautiful websites may have an answer for this. I don’t know the technicalities involved in what a site needs for uploading songs.

The above is barely touching on the possibilities that can be achieved with this fine instrument.

In closing, I want to clear up a couple of things. Firstly, I apologize for being over the top on what (I’m starting to laugh) CHORD MODIFY, RANGE EDIT and DRUM USER KIT is for. I was in an irritated mood because many of you want to switch to a new keyboard when there is much to learn in the KNs. Anything and everything is there, folks – you just have to learn how to use it. There are still things that I do not know and am learning all the time. Secondly, this is directed to Audrey. You speak of having to carry so much when performing but I have to ask the question regarding the Yamaha Tyros 3. Has the company come to their senses by having the speakers in the keyboard? As we know, the Tyros 2 has to have the external speakers, which to me, not only is a pain to have to bring on a gig but also quite ugly sitting on top of the keyboard. It might be a lighter keyboard but in the long run, is it worth having to take all the extra baggage?

Member casarosa, please forgive me for misleading you on what the three things I mentioned did. Oh, my! I was having a little mischievous fun with the forum.

Kn7