I still love VSC mostly for the midi player when I do pop music. I haven't found a replacement that is as simple to use on a gig. It's not only the sound of VSC, for some reason it does a better job of interpreting midi files IMHO. I've loaded the same midi file in VSC midi player, Sonar, Music Creator, and BIAB. I haven't messed with Real Band much. I've used TTS-1, Coyote, and VSC dxi to play the same file. On certain midi files TTS-1 doesn't play the right voice and many times the drums are too loud and harsh sounding. Coyote comes closest to want I'm looking for next to VSC. I know how to tweak midi files and change voices and stuff but as I mentioned earlier VSC seems to play more files "correctly" overall. When I use the word correctly, I mean to my satisfaction. I've also notice that over time my ears are getting use to different things. At first I didn't like Coyote, but I've grown to like many of the sounds. I love the strings on TTS-1 but those drums never seem to quite do it for me. TTS-1 is a very powerful bit of software but I don't want to have to tweak a lot of stuff just play it.

Dell Studio 16 Laptop i7 with 256 gig SSD
BIAB, Reaper, Encore, Sibelius
Roland SD-50