Yamaha RM1x

This thing is a breeze for anyone who has used a hardware or keyboard based sequencer. The big display is great and you can highlight any parameter showing and use cursors buttons OR the dedicated knobs. It's setup is very intuitive. After I figured out the Yamaha jargon compaired to Ensoniq it all made sense. A beginner might be overwhelmed but thats what the presets are for to mess with and figure out how things work.

This has everthing but sampling capability. I was going to wait for the RS7000 but since I all ready have a cheap sampler and learned how easy the RM1X is to assign MIDI I just bought it. It drive my drum machine and sampler tighter than my Ensoniq SQ2 did. The floppy drive is great, allthough a zip drive would've been better. The SMF import thing is cool to. I can do up a song convert it to SMF and give it to my bandmate and put it in his Korg N364! It responds great to a Real MIDI controller. It could have used a second set of MIDI ports and audio Outs though. The real time controls are great and their parameters can also be proramed by hand if your not into the knob twisting. The midi delay is crazy and when combined with its arpegiator. The manual just says what things do but isn't very detailed. Again a beginner of sequencing could be overwhelmed but that is a plus in the long run. I don't know if the OS can be updated or not and nothing can be expanded.

I like the sounds for what they are worth. I do Goth-industrial and have other gear for my realistic sounds. The dance bleeps and bloops and drums are all I expexted from it anyway. The drums are good I think and respond well to tweaking. I've found many of the pads and strings can be really expressive if you have GOOD Midi controller that has aftertouch and velocity. The voice Atoms Pad is a good example of this. The thing that does bug me though, is the fact that the sounds are all "dry" until you apply effects to your patterns. I'm used to synths that insert the sound w/ its default effect in a track. It's not hard to apply the proper effect but it can be time consuming. Overall the effects are really good and combine well with the play FX mode making up for this. I could see a button pusher, DJ, or preset using poseur really being annoyed by this.

I bought this for live gigging. I know this thing is a tank by how it feels. It feels solid (its metal) and balanced the disk drive it smooth and fast a hell and the wall wart has wire at both ends so it doesnt hog your power strip. I'll really know in a year or two after some gigging. It hasent burpped or don any wierd OS things so far.

Not that I had to for this but from the recent past Yamaha is great. I had a used SU10 and they sent me the manual free of charge. Yamaha also does a good job of putting manuals for almost everything on the internet. I got the .pdf and studied tha manual for free before I bought this. Music salesmen are like used car salesmen so having up front info (that is actually accurate unlike some companies) is nice. Try finding this for Roland or Korg instruments!

I bought this to replace my Ensoniq SQ2 for live gigging. I've ported two songs so far and they sound very close if not better. Sure it took some tweaking but 10lbs is better than 55lbs on the road anyday. It really is meant for composers but has enough for beginners. I liked some features of the of the competition (the MC's, Electribes, etc) but i need sequencing power not prewritten material (allthough there is plenty)or unlimited sound modeling. Like most Yamaha products, the RM1X price is fair value of features per dollar. Why buy an MC303 with a shit sequencer and Midi implimentation? The 505 is better for sound than an Rm1X and almost has a compairable sequencer but is only worth half as much as they charge and that new D2 box (the orange box) is a fucking joke for $500. Electribe sequencers dont come close. Any decent modeling synth or sampler can be driven from the RM1x anyway. Experienced DJ's and rich kids with their parents money "mommy look what I can do," push button, should stick to there overpriced groove products and stealing riffs from vinyl unless they are willing to learn how to be a musician. All others should buy this for the sequencer alone, which is WORTH the pricetag. Short of buying a laptop computer and all the software and excessories the RM1X is the best newer portable sequencer on the market. Hell, its the best synth workstation for the money too!

Preset Patterns sounded excellent 2 years ago, now they are a bit dated. Good voices: organ1, DX pianos, some EP, flute, Bad voices: grand piano. Editing voices does not do a big difference on the sound although it is fairly easy. The manual is thin (which is good) but for the amount of information it gives it could be even thiner.

Keys are hard to press and do not sound every time you press them. It has a reasonable amount of effects which are easy to use. Sequecesr has some good live performance features (sections, mutes, transpose) but in the editing department (cuting, copying of tracks and patterns) it is not that easy to use

It surprised me that it has good lead-solo voices. With its EPs or organs you can make a rock solo It will sound a little muddy and distorted but that is just the point. In general it sounds complex (compared to 2 variation of autoaccompainmetn keyboards)

Metal case.

Had it for a couple of months, It's not as fun to play as an autoaccompainment keyboard, I am probably going to trade it for one.

I had used an ensoniq asr-x for years, then I was forced to pawn it when I needed money. I was real close to buying another asr-x until a guy at my local music store showed me the rm1x and su700 by yamaha. I wasn't very familiar with yamaha and didn't really want to buy anything other than the standard roland or ensoniq products, but after I heard what these things could do and after listening to the quality they had, I took out a loan from the bank and bought both. Best purchase I have ever made. Oh by the way the rm1x is very easy to use. Especially if you are familiar with keyboards or similar gear.

This new "groove box" concept of finger tip sized keys really annoys the hell out of me, but I guess its better than having to pay $200 more for a keyboard, but I would recommend a midi controller for this unit. The effects are great espesially if you run them through an alesis nanoverb, adds a lot to the sound.

Very dance music oriented which is one of the main reasons I bought it. I can't stand it when I go to play a "synthesizer" and all it has in it is horns, pianos, guitars, and crap. If I want to play or hear those instruments I will pick them up and play them, but when I think of a synthesizer I want to hear techno sounds.

Extremely reliable. If I was a millionare I suppose I would buy a backup, that is a stupid question by the way.

I have never had to call them, and I hope I never have to.

My advice would be to go to a music store and play around with this thing for a couple of hours. If you love dance music this machine is perfect. For me this machine is perfect.

I found the RM1X easy to use. It is easy to make your own patterns, although the song mode is a bit fiddly. This machine is best used for pattern based material which it excells at. It is very good for dropping in tracks and muting parts etc. which gives a DJ kind of feel. Although I havent used it in a live situation I would imagine it is very easy to use and you can be creative and mix in and out of parts well giving you alot of originality in what you are doing rather than having everything pre-sequenced. Editing of sounds is'nt one of its strong points. You can edit everything but its not as intuative as I would have hoped for, but it does make what you can do easier if you know what I mean.

I found the keyboard useless for playing anything that you would normally do on a proper keyboard but it is'nt really intended for that use. You can easily add a midi keyboard anyway so that is not really a problem. The keyboard is usefull for step time sequencing with the key acting as each sixteenth beat of a note and you can drop in your note on each key. This is very good for buillding up beats but unlike on the MC303 etc you can only see one bar at a time, and it is is a bit awkward moving to the next bar. The effects are not bad, but I have dedicated effects units which I would prefer to use. There are no expansions to the unit. It would always be nice to load in new samples on any module, and I would love to with this as I am not too keen on the overall sound set included. The main advantage of this unit is the sequencer. It is very good for buiding up patterns and very easy to use. One of the reasons I bought it was the inbuilt disk drive. Very important to keep all your patterns and songs etc.

I found the sound set on the RM1X at first to be very good, but after playing around with it the sounds are all very similar. There are loads of digi type sounds, which are good if you like that type of thing, but I could have done with more original sounds to give this machine more of its own character. The pads are all very buzzy but there are some good sound effects, and some of the basses are very playable. The drum sounds are very weak and you look down the list and think you have 50 drum kits but most of the kits are the same samples in different arrangements and then you have 25 kits, with the other 25 the same kits just slight variations on the sounds. The kick drums are limp and the snares very sparse and not very pleasing. I would have expected allot higher standard in the rhythm samples, seeing as this is a dance machine. The realistic sounds are not very realistic. I sound like I hate the sounds but they are good (except for the drums) if you want to sound like everything else at the moment. If you want a bit of creativity and more depth to them then I would advice you go for a dedicated sound module and use an alternate midi sequencer. I had hoped to use this for making allot of my beats, You have the step sequencer which is great but no great sounds to back it up.

There is no doubt it is a reliable unit. I have no problems with the actual reliability of it. Solid and dependable.

Never needed to contact Yamaha with this product. I did send them an email once though and didn't get a reply for about three weeks.

I no longer own this instrument. I swapped it for an Emu Xtreme Lead with a Techno Expansion card fitted. If it had the sounds to back up the features it has it would have been an excellent piece of kit. I once had a MC303 and although it only had 8 drum kits I found I was making much more interesting beats with that. I would not recommend you buy the RM1X, but that is purely my own personal experience. Other people without a computer may find it brilliant for what they want, and what it does best is building up patterns. I found it tried to be too much of everything but didnt master any of them. This could also be my lack of creativity though as the preset patterns did sound very good.

This is a piece of cake to use. It takes a while to learn,
particularly if you are used to 808, 303 style interfaces, but once
you know your way around, it becomes second nature.
The size and resolution of the LCD screen makes for a very user-
friendly interface with menus and graphics, so you always know where
you are and whayt you are doing.

Sequencer, drum-machine, synth, effects.
Buy it for the sequencer. If this box had no sounds and no on-board
effects, it would still be worth the money for the sequencer alone.
There's nothing you cant do. The MIDI delay lets you change the pitch,
gating and velocity of the feedback and because it's all done with
MIDI, you can apply it to any of your instruments. How did I manage
before I got this???
The tweakability is another major selling point. The built in sounds
may be naff but you can twist and warp them all to hell until they are
unrecognisable.
I dont use the arpegiator but I imagine it's useful if you're a trancey
person.
Basically, the features on offer make programming original beats and
rythms very easy indeed.

To be honest. The sounds aren't great. They're flat and shallow. Most
of them I wouldnt touch. They're saved by the ease with with you can
play with them. There's a wide range of effects, and you can really
let rip by pitching sounds up and down, gating them, fiddling cutoff
and resonance. And you can capture all your tweaking in real time to
the sequencer. AND THEN you can go back and step edit one note at a
time. The possibilities are mind boggling. You really have to
push this thing to the limit to get an interesting sound out of it..
but it is possible.

I've been using it heavily and some of the knobs are starting to get
a bit wobbly. Take care.
I've also had the odd stuck note - which I imagine would be
embarrasing in a gig - especially since I couldnt get it to stop
without turning the bloody thing off and on again.

Never needed them

This is astonishing value for money. There's so much you can do.
Don't think for a second that its all you'll ever need. If you don't
have any other synths you'll soon be aching for a fatter, richer
sound. And if you want to make punchy dance music you're gonna want
a separate drum machine like a 909.
I use it to drive a drum machine, synth and sampler and the
sounds on the RM1x fill in the gaps nicely - but thats all. The trick
to getting a good sound is to tweak the hell out of it.
Most importantly, it's a very powerful and editable sequencer, and a
perfect replacement for the computer in a live setup. It's pretty
much at the heart of my setup and as far as I'm concerned it's
irreplacable.

Im using the latest versions of cakewalk, cubase and other editors. But find hardly use of them because the RM1x is fully equipped with everything you need. There are al lot of presets in sounds and ritmes. You can make your own from scratch or edit the existing ones. I love it. Good manual too (in diferent languages.)

16 multitimbral with a lot of effects to use. There's a diskdrive to and it's compatible with the computer.

I use it every weekend to drive my fans completely crazy. Im a DJ.

Can't comply to that. Only one reason, I didn't need it till this moment.

I am using the latest software version considering I just bought it brand new at guitar center exactly 16 days ago. Editing patches is a sinch. I have been Djing for 2 years and wanted to get into producing so I bought this as my setup along with a cs2x. The manual is good for learning the first few days you get it. I cought on extremely quick and started making my first track in 13 days.

The features on this thing are incredible. The poly is 32 in the tone generator and 64 in the sequencer block. The built in effects are good and can alot can be used at the same time, and are easy to use. It has midi in and midi out. Basic midi. The sequencer is where this thing is frigen incredible. I did some wacked out sick beats with this sequencer from scratch. AND I've only had it 16 days. You can create some crazy arpeggios on this sequencer and you will always keep this even when you expand your setup because of the extremely powerful sequencer. See, I was having trouble making up my mind on a hardware sequencer or a software sequencer. But I thought that a software sequencer would kill my creative mind and take the fun out of making music so I went with this and I am so glad I did.

The sounds on the rm1x are good for a beginer as myself. But I even think that the sounds are to mechanized in some weird way. That's why I got myself the cs2x. But as of now I just use the internal sounds and with alittle tweaking they are pretty darn good. I like the drums but the bass doesn't kick as hard as I would like it to but that can be fixed also.

I can no doubt depend on this blue monster. THe thing I don't like is the knobs are somwhat flimsy and seem that they will wear out alittle quickly but this doesn't bother me one bit. And the keyboard is flimsy but good for what it is meant for (triggering). I would use without a backup no doubt.

I've never delt with them so I have no comment here, but, I have heard they are not too good.

Well this is where the real shocker comes in. As my first thing I bought a korg triton 61-key workstation and wasn't too happy because of the learning curve and didn't have the sounds for my style of mellow house, and progressive trance. So i brought it back for the rm1x and a cs2x (I know most people out there think I am crazy and I kinda regreted it) UNTIL, I brought the rm1x home and started using it. I was so happy with my changeover. The rm1x just fit my type of music better. It is up to you and your style ofmusic on if you should buy this or not, go to your nearest music store and check it out. If it were stolen, first I would go on a search for the person who dear steal such a precious item and then probably be really mad concidering I am 16 and took the money for this gear out of my car money. So that wouldn't be good. I would no doubt replace this concidering it has helped me make a first song in only 16 days and have learned many aspects of it in that short of a time also. What I love about it is that it helps me take what is in my head and lay down a track in no time. As of now, there is nothing I hate but I will later post another review to the rm1x when I get better with it. I compared this to other products and did LOTS AND LOTS of research before making a decision. THe salesman at guitar center tryed to get me to buy an used Mc-505, but for some reason I had me heart set on the rm1x, and I am glad I did because I am happy with my purchase. It helps me make music no doubt. I recomend this for beginer-pro that wants a peice of kit that will expand with any setup, anyone in need of a great sequencer and decent tone generator, and anyone into house, trance, techno, dance, and even some hip-hop. Well this is it for now and I will post another review later on when I am done with a few more tracks and when I learn how to use it to it's max. Peace.

Once you get familiar with it, you can move around pretty quickly. It's super fun to tweak the sounds on. The control is great. The keyboard thing gets a little annoying, but you can always use a bigger controller.

Most features of any hardware sequencer in its class, hands down. This thing is the BEST. I like Yamaha because they don't seem to skimp on features (like roland, akai, etc.). This is no exception to that rule.

The sounds are great, and there are tons of 'em. Even if you don't like them, though, you can tweak them so much you that wouldn't care.

I've had this for over a year and never had a problem.

Never had to deal with them.

What a great machine. I could no longer live without it. I use it with a sampler for beat-loops and, and a couple of sound modules. I get amazing results. A real PRO piece of gear.

version 1.12 (i think!), this is the most easy piece of equipment i ever used (toasters aside!). editing patches or effects isnt a hard task on this one. the manual seems to be pretty well writen, but i honestly never read the thing...i was able to figure out how everything work within minutes (ok, maybe an hour then!)

the keyboard seems a little flaky, and not really reliable, it sometimes double trigger notes, or sometimes dosent trigger it at all...use a keyboard to trigger it if you want to extend the longevity of the keys.

by now you should already know all the specs for the unit, so ill just add my PROS and CONS!

PROS: sequencer to die for, very versatile in the recording modes dept., 16 keys to trigger differents parts (way cool!)...try to do this with a software sequencer! grid groove, once you master this function your groove and looseness will dramaticly improve! 16 tracks sequencer (well,its better than his 8 track silver cousin!)

CONS: the grid step sequencing DO NOT work in realtime, meaning that tr-x0x style editing is not really inspiring...for this deciving feature ill have to deduct 2 points....other than that its a nearly perfect machine!

first of all, i didnt bought the unit for its sounds or effects, and i didnt expect much in this dept either!

the drums are pretty good thought! since i dont own a drum machine, i was pretty impress on the rather wide selection of drum and perc the unit have (47 kits,and a boatload of other percs).

as for the other sounds, nothing really caught my attention, except maybe that sweet electric piano sound...there is not much to edit here, so go get yourself a good dedicated keyboard!

the fx section is good and fairly editable for such a cheap unit...but again, an outboard dedicated unit would be a plus.

i guess i could depend on it, but the keyboard will eventually crap on me!

Yamaha support?? you must be joking right??

go thru your dealer to prevent headaches.

i love it!

i dont rely on its sounds (i got other gear to back me up!), but the sequencer offer more than i've expected.

this machine actually saved me from all of this software madness. i used cubase for a long time, and this software actually killed the creativity i use to have, but the rm1x is making see the light again.

i recommend this unit to anyone seeking a creative boost or a change in the way of creating and manipulating tracks.

Okay I know that my software version is pre 1.13....
the manual was half decent, however i found it was written for new comers some what, me not being one it is a little annoying when everything is explained so simply....

The preset patterns shit all over the mc505's preset patterns..the preset sounds are better....i find the drum kits sound real, ie the 909 hi hats for example sound so much better than the 505's samples....

The menu system with super large green display is definetly a plus, however it requires a somewhat different approach to the mc505, so while being easy to use in one regard it can be more complex in another....

but unless u have a button for everything u can't really expect a box such as this to be 'simple' to use..u just have to grow into the thing...

I think the sequencer polyphony is 64 notes, with the tone gen having 32 notes...my keys are a little dodgy, however it was purchased 2nd hand so i'm not surprised..

The efx block is half decent, i've only had it for a few weeks and i haven't been able to get into it much...

Expansion capabilities? no.

Its a full blown midi sequencer though, however the bug with the original OS shits me up the wall, i can't use it to control external gear because it sends random PC messages when u do things like hit record etc, and the supposedly FREE upgrade isn't FREE in australia because of some jackass excuse that our dollar isn't strong enough...
basically this is a load of crap and a defect on the behalf of yamaha...since when do u have to pay for a free fix to a design fault?

Some sounds are crap, some are excellent, but being a ROMpler u are kind of limited...like with my 505 i have come to a point, after two years of exploring different genres, all my songs sound the same...to me anyway...u really need a synth/sampler to get the most out of this box. The onboard effects are half decent, midi delay is okay but i would have liked to have seen a delay efx unit as well....

I really love the way u trigger sections, like u play them like samples...me being a live performer it really allows u to be creative ....

Uhm....could i depend on it?

Yeah i guess so, i've been relying on the mc505 without a backup for the last year or so...and i think the rm1x is better in many regards...

but i have two minds about yamaha...that midi sequencer bug...hmmmmm

What shits me is the fact we are expected to pay for an upgrade that every other country gets for free, when the main point of the upgrade is to fix up a bug that yamaha overlooked.

If it were lost, i would buy it again. I've been playing out for a year, writing for about 6. I own an mc505, behringer mx2004, virtualizer, roland xp10, guilemot maxi studio isis sound card. I love its sounds, the section triggering, its look, i hate its midi stuff up, i hate its lack of a midi thru port (just like the 505..there is space on one and they don't require much circuity)..i hate external power packs...

I wish these things had samplers...i would say it helps me make music..i wouldn't have bought it otherwise..

i would have given this box straight 9's or 10's if it weren't for the fact i'm now a disgruntled yamaha customer because of the midi bug.....that i have to pay for to get fixed...bugger them all to hell u can never win hehehehehe