This is probably not of interest to most, but to those it is - I hope this is exciting for you!
For some background - I consider Tom Lewandowski's KQ6 MIDI edits and soundtrack CD to be amongst the best work he (and everyone else since) ever made, extremely intelligently blending the MT-32 and Sound Canvas for basically peak perfection.
While I'm not doing that in this case - (although I do have an intention to do "QuestStudios-esque" soundtracks blending the MT-32 and JV-90/1080 at a future date, but I need to finish learning the JV's, and they are much more complex - although sound *much* better - than any Sound Canvas!) - I am re-editing very slightly the QuestStudios GM score for KQ6, which I edited in 2010 and started a MT-32/SC-8820 version that I never finished (ha!). I may release it if there's any demand. While I have made very few changes, I have made some, like extending the Winged Ones track to include the whole second part loop, and adding the missing 4th gnome sound effect for the excellent Sense Gnomes track (one of Tom L's best ever edits, making that complex track neat and tidy!).
So - after editing the GM score into single files with minor changes, I intend to arrange it for my Technics KN6000 and possibly Casio MZ-2000 (possibly will do both combined or both on their own), which can both be considered arranger keyboards of extremely high quality, much better than the SC-8820/50 of which they were contemporaries of. The Technics expanded has about 1300 patches, and the Casio about 500. Both have amazingly realistic voices, particularly orchestral and rock/pop sounds, and with MUCH better and more generous effect sections than the SC line (5 effects on top of global reverb/chorus for the Technics, and 2-4 on top for the Casio - whereas only 1 for the SC-8820/50 and of much less use as well). Despite these keyboards being released in 2000, they are still comparable quality wise to much newer equipment. But I will not oversell it, I'll let the results speak for themselves if I ever finish this project!
For those who have heard me talk about making super-realistic versions, this is not that project, I have some more modern gear - Yamaha MODX, Roland INTEGRA-7, Kurzweil PC3 and Korg M3 that I intend to do a more modern and realistic version of while still maintaining nice sound and doing complex mixing of these powerful synths. But there is a lot of complexity in doing such things, and each modern keyboard/synth requires deep diving and learning. The arranger keyboards in this more 'fun' project have nearly the same quality (the main advantage to the Yamaha and Roland, other than huge sample memory and some hyper-realistic patches, are nearly every part has automatic custom effects, Yamaha = 12, Roland = 16) and for the most part, are easier to work with 'out of the box'.
Hope everyone is doing well in 2025, despite some of the crazy stuff going on in the world! Hopefully I'll have some more news in the coming weeks.