For any who may be interested:
I have just spent the past several hours experimenting with the demo version of FreeStyle. This is by no means a complete review of that program, but is mainly to find and point out any drawbacks compared to using a full arranger keyboard. To begin with, I must say that the program appears to do everything it is advertised to do, and it does it very well. To my surprise, it operates as a reat-time arranger by detecting and responding to left hand chords played on the keyboard, and MIDI signals are sent back to the keyboard to use the keyboard's own voices (tones), but you can also pre-program chord changes and use it similar to Band-in-a Box. I found that very handy. You can allow FreeStyle to default to using your keyboard's GM voice bank, or set it up to use the keyboard's higher quality "native" or "panel" voices with pre-programmed volume, reverb, chorus, pan, etc. One shortcoming I ran into immediately was that the demo version did not come with any type of user guide, manual, or help file. That was no major problem, as its user interface is very intuitive, but there were some features that I could not get to do anything, and I could only guess as to what they might be for, but that really has little to do with what I was really looking for. The demo, and I assume the full program, comes with 125 style files with a .STY file extension. These appear to be files from the older PSR units, as the newer models for the past decade or so have used files with a .PSR (and other) extensions. To some extent, the naming conventions are interchangeable. You can rename a .PSR file to .STY and the keyboard will still load and play it, but not so FreeStyle. I tried loading several .PSR files from my PSR-3000 into FreeStyle, but FreeStyle would not even "see" those files in its "STYLES" folder until I renamed them to .STY. All of the .STY files that came with the program played fine on my Casio CTK-7000 with no required tweaking or re-voicing, but when I renamed my PSR-3000 files and loaded them, they played OK, but I immediately ran into major voice mismatches. This leads me to believe that the Janotech folks have already tweaked and revoiced the styles that they include with the program to use the keyboard's default GM voice bank. I do not see this as a drawback, but rather as a fact already stated above by Michael (SeaGtGruff) - most styles you import are probably going to need considerable revoicing for your particular keyboard. I think it is pretty decent of the Janotech folks to include such a nice selection of good sounding styles just to get you started. Many (most ?) of the included styles, being .STY files from the older keyboards, have only one intro, one ending , and only two main variations. As a matter of fact, the user interface seems to be set up to only use one intro and one ending, even if the style file has more. If you are coming from an arranger that offers multiple intros and endings, you may see this as a drawback, but with its 4 main variations and 4 auto-fills, Casio users used to only one intro, one ending, two mains, and two fills would probably still see this as an overall gain. Now, it appears that many of the newer .PSR styles (that you would have to rename to .STY) have parts (intros, endings, mains) that are just too large or too complicated for FreeStyle to handle, so it will just ignore those parts. My favorite style from the PSR-3000 is the Ibiza2004. It has a rather complicated 16 bar intro that FreeStyle just ignored and hopped right into the main. It is also a pretty sure bet that SFF2 styles from the newest PSR and Tyros keyboards will not load without first being converted to the older SFF1 format. See
http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha for the SFF2-to-SFF1 conversion program. Here again, I do not see this as a shortcoming. Just be aware that you can not assume that FreeStyle will be able to handle any of the latest, greatest, largest, most complicated stuff that you can drag in off the internet and throw at it. If you do, sooner or later you are going to be disappointed. BUT . . . NOW . . . to a couple of items that I see as major drawbacks compared to a full arrange keyboard. The first applies to any stand-alone arranger module - where to mount it in relation to the left of the keyboard so it is within quick, easy, reach of the left hand and does not interfere with left hand chord change timing. I used a Roland RA-50 Realtime Arranger for years before I got my first full arranger keyboard, and this was a perennial problem. This is further complicated in FreeStyle by the fact that, unless you install it on a Windows-8 touch screen tablet or laptop, you will have to use a mouse or trackball for switching between various main variations, fills, breaks, and endings. No problem with the intro, as it leads directly into the first main variation, but the rest can be a real nightmare, especially for us "righties". This is where I needed a manual or user guide. Perhaps assignable controls on the keyboard, or a MIDI pedal unit can be programmed to do this, but the accompaniment controls on Casio keyboards do not appear to send MIDI signals for this, and a MIDI pedal unit is yet another piece of gear to lug around in addition to the PC/MAC/laptop to run the FreeStyle program. For $30 US, FreeStyle appears to provide a lot of bang for the buck, but with that last limitation I mentioned, I would be hard pressed to consider it over my existing arranger keyboards. However, I am still considering purchasing it as a pre-programmed chord sequencer to provide a style selection alternative to Band-in-a-Box. Not to be outdone by arranger keyboards, FreeStyle will also make a nice MIDI recording of your performance as you play. Plus, I just love hearing those Yamaha styles coming from my CTK-7000. BUT . . . I think the average Yamaha-to-Casio style converter seeker is still going to prefer a stand-alone self-contained converted file that they can chuck into their CTK/WK-Whatever and have available at the touch of a button without extra gear or contortionist dexterity to contend with. Just the same, check it out. It's a really nice program.
In re-reading what I have written above, I must admit that I have been unfair to not state at the outset that this is not really a comparison of FreeStyle to full arranger keyboards, but rather a consideration of FreeStyle as an alternative to style conversion programs for those who already have a full arranger unit. For those with straight synths without arranger features, I think FreeStyle would have much more appeal than to current arranger owners looking for a simple conversion program. Hello programmers ! Are you listening ?