NewYork, New York".
(If your MIDI configuration is OK; the quality will depend on your GM Bank)
A severe and short review about          
arranger programs
(For Windows.  That I have tested and  reviewed in 2002):

                 Performer   

A nice and easy  Auto Bass Chord realtime program. (arranger). 
I recommend to musicians to use the demo and buy it if you have money.  Beyond realtime, it has instantaneous response to the chords you put,  like PSR keyboards. (I hate programs or keyboards that you must press chords before the moment. When you make fast chord changes, the poor programs (or keyboards) lose out some chords...)
I also don't know why and for what exists annoying programs like Band-in-a-box, Yamaha Visual Arranger, Jammer and other garbages that you can't play in realtime.  (Maybe those programmers have not what to do...) I am a professional musician, addicted fulltime lifetime to music (deep music research these days) but even so never I made any work on these programs... I think I remember 10 years ago some friend musicians has used these progams to create basic comercial jingles...   But Performer is REALTIME !
800x600 pixels= If you like 640X480 pixels video configuration, like me before Performer, you'll view Performer on a too big window size. Performer window fits not to screen and you need drag it.   You need to change to 800x600, like me. If you like 640X480 pixels because the big fonts, there's no sense to keep 640X480 pixels= Just configure bigger fonts in Video Properties.  Good news for 640X480 pixels users, like I was= Cakewalk give us the sensation we bought a bigger monitor!  And I discovered the value of 800x600 using Performer, when I let my PC with 800x600 during the last week (march), to rehearse to play on a party on Clube Pantaneiro.   The problem of Performer is the shareware version= It restricts severely styleparts changes during performances, and most times a user stays only using Main A.  Only the full version enables musical keyboard keystrokes to change styleparts, when the musician may change easily styleparts.
So among free arrangers available today (july 2004), Performer wins.

MusicStation (Steinberg)

I have tested it formerly. But is unstable with style dense edition. (But not to run styles= I got to play successfully a colonel's golden wedding on Lalai Candies in 1999, even with the not professional sounds of a Yamaha PSR-510).
It was hard to make styles run correctly.  (The styles are created in a "creation window".  After work heavily, (having all perfect in the creation window), when we went to test the style in the ABC (arranger) performance window, it failed some instruments !     ( grrrrr  : (
This happened mainly when we make several editions in a style. It seems the program doesn't support dense style editions, (like some idiot people that I knew in my life, that don't support many improvings in their way of life).   
In that hell I losed hours of useless work, trying to stabilize the styles....
(Maybe this was the reason Steinberg took out MusicStation of line).
But Performer not= When I go to Perfomer to test a style, it plays firm, it doesn't matter how many editions I have made. (If I did all right, of course).
By a backup fault, I losed the installation diskette and now unhappily I have not anymore its setup.

CUBASE VST  (Steinberg) 
Another "pineapple"hard to peel.       : (  arghhhhh)      
(A "improved Music Station" in their words, but really
worsed). I fought to it several days with it the last month and I gotn't make it run stabily....
It's impressive how many plugins Cubase has, but it
worths nothing... (How much propaganda they make!  "Frankfurt NAMM World Tecnology Exposition", bla bla bla ! Go to hell !)

Frankly I don't understand why till today it doesn't exist
a ABC program so professional like a Roland and other expensive auto accompaniment keyboards...Computers are powerfuller than keyboards!     Only lacks somebody that writes such useful program...
Programmers! Stop to lose time writing useless programs! Write a full professional ABC program!
(But Performer is the most close to the ideal ABC software... )

Review 2003 
on arrangers   For Windows.
("arranger" menas realtime “live” performance with a MIDI keyboard connected to a PC, like it is done by auto accompaniment PSR keyboards).  (In the 70's called "ABC"( Auto Bass Chord) in my longing BK4 Yamaha cabinet organ. I prefer this old denomination, but as ewverybody is using the term "arranger", what can I do?).

Performer      
The best till now. (See above my 2002 review).   :  )

MusicStation (Steinberg) 
Another good program for those who haven't another solution.
The bad side is that it is unstable in style heavy edition.    : (

Live Styler     
This program plays sty. styles. It doesn't create styles. You can create them in Cake.      The author seems a hacker, because he have put a engine to freeze our computers, when we start the program the PC freezes and disables a lot of keys of the PC keyboard !     This guy haven't what to do?   Maybe he really wants SELL his shareware... But HOW people will experiment the software to buy?  That guy needs to read my shareware page to learn more about the correct shareware way. (Sharewares with a certain warning advice at startup).    This demo it's really a DEMO. (demon).    Maybe there's a crack in Astalavista for it.   : (

Music Companion 6   
This shareware doesn't save styles or songs.  (It's disabled to obligate you to buy).     .mcs  proprietary style format (.mcs= Music Companion Style), so you can't neither import styles in sty format, nor other.  It's useless rename sty to mcs. Music Companion doesn't read it.   : (
The good news is that it seems very stable and responds instantly to pressed chords.       

MAAS (MIDI Auto-Accompaniment Section)    
Also a exclusive proprietary style format. (So you can't use sty styles, nor other).  It's useless rename sty to rcs. (Like Music Companion, it doesn't read .sty renamed to .rcs).  The good news is that it seems very stable and responds instantly when we press chords.    The bad news is that you can't create styles. Only the Pro version creates it, but for it you
must BUY if you have money or not!  Style creation is disabled in the Pro version demo. (RMCA Pro= Realtime MIDI Chord Arranger Pro)    : (

One Man Band    
makes the entire keyboard to act as musical keystrokes when you press the last key= you can change tempo, volume, switch instruments on and off, choose multivoices for the melody, load styles, without the need to use mouse and computer keyboard.  (Leaving your hands exclusive to play MUSIC in the musical keyboard. So people will have less suspicions you are dubbing ).
Good news: It reads sty. (styles in the Yamaha format that you can create in your sequencer and then import to One Man Band). Loads midi files and paste them into styles.
One Man Band also creates styles, but for what you'll burn your brain dealing to its style creator if you already know to create in your sequencer?..   
It seems very stable and responds instantly when we press chords. 

Bad news= When you load any other style beyond the supplied 5,  playing is interrupted after 30 seconds...   : (

expressor       : (
Not realtime !  Is just another garbage type Band-in-a-box or
The Jammer........bah !       
Frankly I don't understand how so much people wastes time writing so much garbage softwares, and we needing a powerful arranger software...     : ( What you think my friend about ? )      : (

Review 2004 
on arrangers  
Big Boss
Yet I could'nt decipher it. Maybe because I am fine with Performer. Lio (see below) told me about it. It seems good.

Busker
Bad news= It's shareware 30' limited.
I couldn't run a style. Would be it another shareware limitation?   : (

MELODY ASSISTANT
It's not a arranger. It's a arranger plugin. Amazing soft! How can it simulate a person singing? It uses that text-to-speech engine to song! Incredible...Click to hear "strangers_in_the_night" demo. CLICK.   Search MELODY ASSISTANT on Yahoo.

SHAREWARE QUESTION
Why programmers don't deliver its sharewares working full, with just a note at startup of the arranger type "You are running a shareware. Help me to keep this software with a small fee of X $, etc".   Learn more on my site SHAREWARE.   CLICK
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       some cool E-mails

  JFORAND,  from some spanish country= 
"I found your reviews very interesting. Thanks, maestro.
Q= which Cakewalk should I buy? 

A= Any Cakewalk.

There are so many, such as Home Studio, Sonar, etc.  Unhappily Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 is discontinued by manufacturer. Do I need a Home Studio or what do I need to make styles in a sequencer ?"

Lio from France:"Hello Maestro Ney from beautiful Brasil !   
I've just found your website about Performer and Real Time Arrangers for midi music.  I'm very impressed because for years I never found any site about RTA... Like you I wandered in the jungle of junk soft like non real time arrangers, or proprietary style formats. I can't, like you, figure out why any big company (or even "home company") did not develop a killer app for RTA... 
My conclusion is quite the same as yours: the least awful (minus bad) is Peformer.
But good news= I have another good soft. Its name is BIG BOSS (french software difficult to find on the web)   I have 2 versions, one 16 bit version cracked, work good the 32 bit version, BIG BOSS 2001 in demo mode, ive not been able to crack it until now:  Download address= http://www.rythmnsoft.com/html/products/creation.htm
If you want them, tell me, i'l give you.
  :  )     
Best regards, lio".

Exclusive Soundfont  to play live
You must to make a little soundfont, exclusive to play live with Performer (or other  arranger) to don't confuse your normal song sequencing soundfonts.  ( because you need to configure presets according to Performer octaves;  you don't need so much presets and samples to play live, as you need to record; you need the soundfont loaded in AudioHQ, etc).
In this exclusive soundfont use only instruments you'll really use in your live performance;  few instruments, due to the simple nature of live performances. (compared to the complex work in a universal recording studio).  
You need to have a soundfont loaded in Audio HQ to work Performer in full mode, include to hear solo instruments. (With megafont you can't hear solo instruments).

In Performer demo, if you are a keyboardist-singer, while you are singing you can use also Main B, using mouse with the free hand, but when you are playing accompaniment and solo (2 hands) it's difficult to leave keyboard to hold mouse and click Performer to run Main B).
A good tip is always to end the songs singing, to hold mouse to change styles.
(but to return to Main A is easy= the F3 works.  Only Intro and Main A responds to hotkeys F1 and F3 respectively, in Performer demo).

    How I edit styles
When I have a lot of styles (or any files) to rename at once, I use a program named "Renamer".  (Search for it on Internet, it's free, simple and light).

First I go to Windows Explorer and I rename the style extension to ".mid".
When I'm at studio, preparin myself  to perform "a live show at Madison Saquare Garden" 
  : )  and I verify something in a style is running bad, I close Performer, I go to Windows Explorer and I rename the style extension to ".mid" and I press Alt comma and I edit the style.  (Alt comma is my shortcut to Cakewalk). (If you make a lot of editions, it's important you to have a shortcut to your sequencer and to Performer.  

ALL PROGRAMS VERY FREQUENTLY USED MUST TO HAVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS, to reduce the difficulty to open them).  

Ctl Z TIP= If you deal to Performer day-to-day, when you are running in Performer a style that you have worked in it just some moments ago in Cakewalk and desire edit it, the fast way to rename it to ".mid" is close Performer and press Ctl Z over Windows Explorer. (In this case, your last action in Windows Explorer was rename style to ".sty").

(We need continuously close Cakewalk to open Performer, because Programs can't occupy the same synth at the same time) (without special drivers). (I already tried run a Roland driver that enables "till 8 programs to use the same port", but I gotn't. I use Hubi's loopback with megafont, but I gotn't too.    Can somebody tell me something about?  : )

If you are expert in styles creation, set also program change, volume, pan, reverb and chorus values using control change messages in the empty measure. If you are not a expert, it is not necessary for a basic use.

Background for the 16 track version

Due to very different source track layout in style files (even in YAMAHA factory files) I have created a program which is able to set Ctabs for voices located in all 16 available MIDI tracks and redirect these Ctab settings to the PSR keyboard default accompaniment tracks (09 to 16).

If you have a "nice" style file where voices in the midi parts are located in the same 8 tracks as at the keyboard, the Ctab settings are really easy. But if the voices are spread all over all of the 16 available tracks, you have to get this organised.

Many YAMAHA factory styles have pads and phrases located in several source tracks. As an example the PSR 740 style no. 24 (U.S.Ballad) has a piano accompaniment voice in both track 2 AND track 12 and a guitar accompaniment voice in both track 3 AND track 13. It is not possible to set Ctabs in track 01 to 08 at the keyboard, but in CASM Haze Manager you actually can redirect the settings related to tracks 01-08 to tracks 09-16.

I suggest that you open your style file in a sequencer software and finds out in which tracks the voices are placed and which part of the accompaniment the voices belongs to (pad, chord, phrase etc.), and then "redirects" the source track to the appropriate destination tracks when setting the Ctabs.

Background for the 16 track extended version - Casm Haze Manager Pro

This version makes it possible to use the "Note Mute" and the "Chord Mute" facilities.

When a note/chord is selected the track concerned will sound when this note/chord is played to the left of the split point. When a note/chord is deselected the track concerned will mute when this note/chord is played to the left of the split point.
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To use these styles (.sty, created in a PC) in PSRs of course it's needed more tasks, boy=
Click here to go to "Creating styles in computers for PSRs" page=

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                          Other sites of mine
I have a lot of sites: Jesus, Soundfonts, Fender Jazzbass,  Elvis, Beatles, Titanic, Personal, Virtual trip to Israel, SB Live, My personal photos, Pantanal, etc,   are only some of them.  All worths the pity, with beautiful full screen photos.  Click the following link to go:  Go now to links page.
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