Quote:

I found this discussion interesting and helpful, since I use BIAB and a Yamaha arranger in live settings almost daily. As a solo performer, I select which to use depending on the gig and various circumstances. I get plenty of gain with both through a small mixer and powered EV speakers. Fortunately, that's never been an issue for me. With BIAB, I was slow to adopt the Real Tracks and stayed with midi for a long time. Now, I've seen the light and have moved toward the RTs, especially with the latest additions and upgrades. I do a lot of remixing and resaving to keep things right. I've got far more material, styles, and songs to work with in BIAB. In this case, I'm on guitar, with vocals. However, the Yamaha styles and polished sound really sit well for instrumental dinner music in a solo setting. In terms of overall sound from the speakers, I can't say my clients prefer one over the other. The rhythm section from BIAB approximates a real band, in my estimation, better than the arranger. The arranger, however, seems to be a fatter, fuller sound. Those strings, vocal backups, etc. really dress it up. Wish BIAB had that. My dream would be the "marrying" (as someone said) of the two programs. For recording or creating backing tracks, imagine being able to quickly type-in chord changes for a professional arranger, without having to play it in real time, or use the dreadful step recording? I'd pay dearly for something like that.



There is one that I know of in the works, called vArranger by a musician/programmer in France named Dan.
I bought the current version & he is working on an add-on MIDI Export module. It currently reads Ketron
styles, some Yamaha styles with Roland styles planned in the future.