Thanks for you help, Ian.

Yes, I've got 2010. Perhaps some of my issue relates to my ignorance about the relationship of styles to melodies and soloists. I note most of the melodists appear to be jazz oriented and are linked to specific styles.

Maybe if I learn how to make my own styles I can figure out how to make melodists closer to what I'm looking for? I note that when you use the midi file to style function you can designate a track as melody. I'm Reading the Big Fabulous Manual, but so far the section on the Melodist Maker doesn't really make things clear to me. It looks like the edit page has all the 'rules.' I see that there are extra numbered but untitled melodists in the drop down box. I guess these are the ones you tweak to make your own?

While the soloist does have a function to tell the max notes to a beat, I don't see this in the melodist.

I guess the drill is to find a melodist as close to what you are looking for as possible, then inspect the parameters in the melodist editor and keep tweaking till you get as close as you can to what you want.

Yes, thanks for the heads up about not changing the melodists already there!

Prado

PS I'll think about reposting this titled as you suggest.