The big advantage BIAB has over arrangers is, it KNOWS what the next chord is going to be (you already told it!). This allows it to walk basslines from somewhere TO somewhere at times, something no arranger can, because it never knows what the NEXT chord is until you play it, by when it's too late!

The thing about writing is, by its very nature, its SUPPOSED to be 'original'. The more generic a backing you put around it, the less 'original' the song sounds. On the whole, when working with arrangers for songwriting and demo purposes, I tend to use the arranger 'capture' as only a jumping off point. I'll erase everything I can play better than it (at least I know the next chord!), and edit as much variety into the Parts I can't play better than it (usually the drums and guitar parts).

But it's great to have a fully fleshed starting point. That 'build it up one Part at a time' way you usually do with workstations isn't nearly as quick, and often the results take longer because you have no guide track to help you with 'feel' and groove.

Anyhoo... back on topic. On the whole, I can get away with just a couple of styles if I rarely play that genre. But stuff I do a LOT, I like to have as many as possible. But with one caveat. They got to ALL be of pretty much the same quality, or you tend to only use the best one or two. I'd rather do that than have some naff style just for variety, though.

Problem is, most arrangers are chock a block full of oldies styles I wouldn't use in a million years, and painfully short on much that is contemporary and pop, especially non-electronic pop. I would happily trade every last cha-cha and cumbia for a few more 'Live band' styles, alternative rock/pop, and you can never have enough funk and New Orleans grooves!

All in all, if I were an oldies fan, I'd be in heaven... but I'm in 'hip' style hell!

Sad thin BiAB still does not support realtime chordchanges...

But i would love to see arrangerrs do some BiAb stuff when there is a set order of chords, like when using a chord arranger ( korg or Roland).

Another thing I Love to do is this, (not for the lazy ) ....when I need that certain style with that certain variation, groove, etc, either its a walking bass-line I need, or horn stabs, or a particular progression thru the variations, then I find one that works but it sounds like crap because of conversion or whatever,....Now the fun begins when I can take that so so style from any manufacturer, third party etc,..with the good foundation that I need and totally rework it thru style creator, Pc programs, etc, sound wise, fx, or even rerecord a certain part of it, or add a proprietary inro or ending, fill to it,.....might take an hour or so but in the end get it to sound totally amazing for my needs, save it and use it on stage...
I've done this many times with much success..

I am indeed having a blast with it, Ian, and I've only just begun to explore its capabilities. My first Band In A Box experience was with an early Windows (or maybe even DOS, I can't recall) version and my old Roland CM32L module. Things have come a long way with modern VST technology and audio tracks and more processor horsepower.

One feature I found particularly useful is the ability to drag tracks directly from Band In A Box into my DAW package. This feature alone is worth the price to me, and it does so much more, too.

Great thread.
Back when I first started doing one-man-band stuff, before arrangers, organs had only a handful of styles. A 4/4, a 3/4 a March, a Bossanova, later a 6/8. Early arrangers weren't a lot better. I used an external drum machine for the first few generations of arrangers, up to Technics KN2000.
It was fairly easy to build a basic style to sync with the drum machine. All you needed was bass line, guitar strum and piano chord. Quantize feature made it easier.
I did ALL the songs with maybe six or eight styles.
Thank goodness the technology is way better now. I still tend to use my favorite generic styles a lot, but they still have not much more than bass lines, guitar strums, piano, a little organ or vocal bed on some. I don't like sustained strings on the style or left hand, as a rule.
The occasional Song style is nice, but as mentioned, pretty much limited to the one song.
It is great that, for example, for a 6/8 or 12/8 ballad, we now have a half dozen or more at least to choose from on all the arrangers. Same with all the style categories.
I tend to do a lot of comping, especially guitars, so have to be aware to leave room in the style for that.
Still agree with Diki that it would be nice to be able to automatically mute the sound in the style that is identical to the one with which you are playing the lead line.
The BK9 does have that great Mute button, that will allow you to choose which style parts you want to shut off when you press the button, or control switch.
With the mega memory we have available now, it's easy to create, save and easily access several versions of the same style, if you need more variety than the four style variations allow.
This is the kind of thing we should discuss more, operational features, etc., that are common to all arrangers.

Don't forget, the D-Beam can also do a Bass and drums only mute...

So, if you need that, use the D-Beam. At the same time, you can cherry pick which ACC tracks you mute with the Track Mute button.

So you can have a choice of THREE different levels... Full style, maybe strip it down to Bass/Drums and rhythm instruments only, and just Bass and Drums.

Some Variation 4's get quite busy, these days, and it is cool to be able to mute out SOME of the extra stuff (maybe the brass or strings), but still have a high level of intensity for the rhythm section. Having TWO independent places you can mute stuff opens your possibilities quite a bit.

On the PA900 I can set an Assign Button to various things ... I have my 3 set at Mute Acc 1-5, Mic talk (which drops down the volume on the style, but not the mic) and Ritardando ... in the absence of 'auto mute accomp x when RH voice is the same instrument' how much more costly would it be to have enough assign buttons for each of the accomp parts ... right now, when I want to change in 'real time', I mute 1-5 and then go in and generally um-mute the guitar part, especially if it is just a guitar strum ...

Tony, that's exactly what the i30 had - a dedicated mute button at the bottom of each slider. They dropped the idea when the Pa1X was introduced, for whatever reason.

all this muting emphasizes my original post that with all these variations and muting options, part rerecording features, the combinations are endless....so I ask again WHY do you need all these styles onboard..
lets be real 50 should be TOPS to cover almost any song....

Because we can. What other reason do you need?