As Squeak suggested, you won't go far wrong with an MU series synth. My 740 has approximately the same synth as an MU100 except for 16 parts instead of 32 and some different non-XG instruments. I rarely use the panel voices on the 740 as the organs have fixed velocity so it's XG all the way. What I do is to use XGworks because I've modified it for the 740, but any XG editor will do for the MU series - XGEdit, XGPad etc., and use my laptop like an MU panel. I just layer two or three organ sounds, add a touch of vibrato and tremolo and I have a pretty good Hammond sound. I can layer up to nine sounds or 17 if I don't use the rhythm section on the 740. I save all my setups as .syx files and with XGworks they load almost instantaneously (a lot faster than Midiox!). And of course I can save thousands of setups which I can't do with the registration memories on the 740. I can still use the rhythm section by turning off midi transmit from the keyboard for the rhythm channels. I need to do this to avoid echo from midi thru which I need for the keyboard channel.

Bryan

There's probably noone that cares about this except me, but I though I'd mentioned it... I use the Yamaha S-YXG50 softsynth on a laptop computer whenever I have to play an acoustic piano gig. I just hook up my laptop to a powered speaker and go to work. Since I'm not actually editing on the laptop and just using it as a sequence playback device, latency isn't a concern. The program costs about $50 and it sounds very good.

Good idea Pro. SY-XG100 here. Can be had for about 80 dollars and includes a software version of the VL150 acoustic modeling board. With ASIO drivers, virtually no latency noticable at it's fastest response setting. Never gets choppy like the VSC stuff does when you try to shorten the response time.

AJ


[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 04-10-2003).]