Yamaha RM1x

For a beginner in the dance music genre, this is a must but It's a definite for any aspiring producer who wants to create genre crossing music at a low cost. My unit isn't upgrade which doesn't even matter because to me this thing came out the factory perfect. The presets are amazing but (as some would expect for a sound module) a little cheesy. the tone generator could use some work but it isn't enough to complain about. What amazes me about this thing is how I took it out the box, fooled with it for a couple of hours and already had a completely original song recorded. It shines at it's ability to fuse vrious forms of music. I make Hip-Hop and Techno so the fact that I can take hip hop beats and throw them on top of epic trance sounds means alot to me. The Manual is shit but luckily it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to edit the sounds. When you get ready to program full songs though you're going to have do some reading and probablly some websites (www.rm1x.co.uk is a good one.

The efects and polophony never mattered much to me because I use the Rm1x fpr what it's ment for....sequencing. I route all my drum sounds through a seperate with better sounding drum kits and all my synth sounds through my Korg MS2000 and other modules. To me the overal sound quality is disapointing when it comes down to record so I choose to use seperate units. Thats only my opinion.

I'm not sure about expansion, from the looks of it, any expansion would probablly have to require taking it apart. Nevermind that, you'll never run out of sounds you can manipulate on this thing, so unless you're lazy you should need to expand it. It's the ultimate MIDI machine. THe Midi Sequencer is the best and combined with the floppy disk drive it can't get any easier than going on the net and downloading midi patterns and using them in your own songs.

Lacking. Like I said, I use other gear and just sequence with the RM1x. One it's own the Rm1x sounds to 'manufactured' even to a novice like me. This machine is must have for Hip-Hop, dance music and other forms where maximum creativity is a must. It makes songwriting extremely easy...even for the dumbass. =]

Deus Ex RM1Xica!! Put your all faith in this thing!!!!

Wouldn't know but thats a good thing because I haven't had to call. There is a new OS out now but I don't want it. I'm already use to the old one.

If the Rm1x killed my first born son I'd still go out and get another one. It's as essential to my set up as my computer was before I got it. I don't reccomend using it on it's own though. Although easy to get your head around, the sounds don't carry enough impact alone. Doesn't sound bad if you use it live (through a PA) though. The perfect set up is the Rm1x as your Master controller for a Keyboard/sound module and Sampler. Or if you're w\a virtual fan, you can use it with Cubase, as well.

The yamaha rm1x is very easy to use and it has a nice LCD screen that makes it easy to program. After reading the manual I was making my own tracks in days, so any one with experiance using a roland or other groove sequencer should catch on rather quickly

The features are pretty nice good sound effects, wide range of capablities and a 3.5 floppy disk is the greatest thing on this unit because it allows you to save all your user banks on file. I also like the LCD screen because it makes everything much easier.

The sounds are great. Sound quality is rich clear but it lacks bass at first, but theres a low boost feature where you can alter the lower frequncy given it more bass . The sounds are great for techno, trance, drum n bass and the presets are acctually pretty good. 654 sounds 46 drum kits theres plenty to work with.

hasnt left the studio, works great.

no problems here

I recommend the yamaha rm1x for anyone looking for a great groove sequencer at a low price. Real easy use, good sounds, great quality and good effects.

This box was so easy to me when I first started, that I made a nice pattern the first ten minutes of me working with it. The step recording is a piece of cake. It has the grid-step recording setup. If you are recording in real-time, you will need a midi controller. The keys are not built for real-time recording and they are not velocity sensitive. When editing the patches you may find many more unusual sounds which is very useful. The presets sound great, and I don't even listen to dance music. If you have worked with computer software sequencers this will be a cakewalk.

It has 32 polyphony which is enough for me. The RMX1 has 16 sections of patterns. The box has a variety of reverb, chorus and variation. You can also edit the effects. The one downfall of this box is that the play fx swallows up polyphony and spits it out. 50 patterns and 20 songs can be saved in memory. You can also save your tracks on floppy disk, which is a big plus.

Don't expect many realistic sounds. Remember this sequencer is dance oriented. It has over 650 sounds; I don't know exactly how many. There is 20 drumkits and all are useful ( GM drums are the same as on other equipment,GARBAGE ). The bass pad bank is impressive to me, because it has a variety and the voices sound full. A few patches are to thin sounding to me. I create rap music and there is well enough sounds for me. If you tweak around with the voice editing you may find some interesting sounding patches.

I would use this on a gig anytime. This piece of equipment hasn't ever locked up on me( those darn MPC's ); not even a split second pause.

I have no idea.

I will buy this gear again if I lost it. The biggest problem this gear can cause you is getting only 3 hours of sleep everynight, or your wife making you sleep on the couch for not paying her any more attention.

The manual is not that good for someone who bought this as his first
piece of gear . For people who know a lot already i heard it's good enough.
For a first time user it takes some time to get used to the thing and all ,
but after 1 or 2 weeks you should be able to handle it more or less.
So after those two weeks , you really get the hang of this box ,it's EASY TO USE!

The Sequencer is Great .
There's a lot in this thing that could be of use.
If i must find something that's not perfectly right it would be:
-the Drums and Bass sounds are not PUNCHY enough (although you can always add that extra punch with soft programs).
-The in-built sounds could have bin slightly better ...
:-)

AS IT SAYS IN THE MANUAL , the Rm1x is a complete DANCE WORKSTATION :
-so it's good for Trance/Goa/Rave/Hardcore/Dance/Jungle/Drum&Bass/House/Techno etc....
The onboard effects are "OK"
Some of the instruments are not very very very realistic , but for Dance they are certainly realistic enough...

Don't no yet , and hope i'll never have to know

If it were stolen i would bye it again , in the Groovebox chain it surpasses all others!
Untill now i only own this piece of gear , and i am quite satisfied , i am thinking of hooking it up to
a Supernova 2 , and a Roland XV 88 heheheh!
L:-)

This is the part where rm1x really shines. Very easy to use and make your own little songs. Manual is good and you dont really need it because the machine is so easy to use. It takes a week or so to really get the grip of the machine, but after that you know enough to make songs.

It has over 700 sounds. It should be enough for anyone. You should have a keyboard of some sort...the keys in rm1x are not good (and are not pressure sensitive). The sequencer is very easy to use and great. The disk-drive makes it very easy to backup your songs.

Well, altough there are over 700 sounds, the quality isnt always the best possible there is. Piano, strings, horns and other natural sounds are not so great. Expecially the strings. I dont like the sound at all. Dancesounds and drums are good (maybe drums could be little better still) and these are the sounds that are mostly used (it is a dance-machine after all). But, the sounds are still good enough to make other kinds of music also.

Reliability is solid. Couple of the knobs are a bit loose (but i play with this thing daily) and the keys are looser than they were when i bought it, but no problems have occured.

never dealt with the company...no opinion

I have had my rm1x for 4 months now and it is the best gear i have ever had. If you like doing your own dance/ambient/blah/blah electronic music, dont want to spend your whole life savings and want one machine to do it all, then rm1x is your choice.

For a first time user the yamaha Rm1x is a great tool. Although there is lots to do and it can look a little complex at first. If you have a little knowledge however this machine can really sing. The tone gen section is great although it would have been better with 64 note polyphony instead of 32 as the play fx section can really eat at the polyphony. The sequencer section is awesome and supports all the cc nnumbers, sysex ,xg sysex cat, and pat ,rpns and nrpns.Editing is a breeze and the real time controlls fall easily to had and are assignable to all the cc,s . All the lfo section the patch change section and the effects section are recordable in overdub mode as are the control knobs. So you can break anything you ,like! The manual is good and comprehensive but misses out explanations for things that would definatley confuse the novice. The os one mine is 1.12 but I happen to know that it has recently been upgraded to 1.13 although the difference is minimal and has only to do with it not outputting a patch change resest when the zero back function is operated.

The sound quality is awesome, alhtough there is a very slight snap when you give it too many effects patch changes. The effects are strong and easily manipulated to pleasing effect although the reverb could be better, but maybe I'm getting jaded know! The amp I use is an old Sony 175w silver jobby. I have no favourite artists but I'm big on electro and techno and it kicks ass for both of them both in my DJ sets and in my live work.

100 percent reliable as a gigging sequencer better than any computer as a live sequencer I have absolutely no worries on that score

Yamaha are friendly and effecient

Techno and electro
been playing 1 year with it
if stolen I would kill whoever did it if I could ..it really is that good
I love everything about this machine, it's exactly what I wanted
compared it to all the roland products and they just diddn't stand up at all
It really helps my cretive juices floww
Only problem is two outputs,the cut off knob is getting a bit loose, but since the knobs are assignable it won't be problem if it breaks down

After just a few hours of use you'll find yourself piecing together impressive patterns and songs.

It has an impressive number of features given the very low price. The synth section is a little limited - but you can create fat sounds simply by layering them together. Why not hook in up to an EX5 ? The sequencer section is great.

Clearly aimed at the dance market - breakbeat, progressive house and trance are this machines forte ...

I've not come across any reliability problems as yet, though there's been a couple of niggles ...

Though I've not really gone to Yamaha, I do feel they could offer more support through their website. More in the way of downloads, new patterns etc etc.

A great machine that's not only great as an introduction into Dance music production but one that can offer experienced users something too.

This thing is idiot proof. You open it up, plug it in, turn it on, and push play...BOOM, you have a funky pattern going and push buttons to change it. The preset patterns are mind-blowing as presets go in my opinion...but they're still presets and it shows. It's really easy to record your own patches though, and I found that you can make the drums sound really human if you mess around with them for a bit. The Divide Drum Track function is wonderful, and it has an arpeggiator...nothing special, but hey...I can get it to do cool stuff. The manual is your basic Yamaha Manual : Tells you what you need to know as quick and simply as possible. Doesn't really delve into examples, but with something this easy, who cares?

32 note polyphony which you'll overload if not careful...I did it a few times but since then I've learned effects can make less sounds sound a lot better, so I haven't done it since. It's got lots of effects (EQ, Distortion, Overdrive, Delay, Flange, Chorus...etc, etc, etc...) and these are customizable to your liking and are all of good quality...but I have beef with this: You can only have 1 Variation effect per style!!! AGH!!! Yamaha, you make really stupid mistakes sometimes. This isn't SO bad once you can work around it with sounds, but god...it pisses me off. It's little keys are good for step recording, but you'll wanna hook it up to a keyboard if you're doing anything serious. In/Out. Its sequencer is quite powerful (110,000 note) and plus it has a floppy drive. Also, its resolution goes up to 60th notes...that's really fun...bwahaha

Realistic? HA! I have yet to see a box of this style to be labeled realistic...it has a few nice pianos and strings, but overall...it's all synthetic, and you can tell. It works well for what it was made for: Dance and Trance and Techno, etc...but I'm sure you could get it to do Rock and Hip Hop just fine too. Amazing drum kits...all 40 of 'em...Effects spice things up nicely. Only thing is that the onboard keyboard is a joke. Cushy rubber buttons...blah. But hey...it works for what they're meant for: parameters and muting and switching patterns.

I have yet to have anything bad come out of this one. It's sturdy and metal and I've dropped it a few times with nothing bad happening. The 4 knobs near the LCD are a little flimsy compared to the rest, but I glued them on good, so it's fine now. I have gigged without backups and it's never failed.

I can't live without it. Integrated with a JX-305, CS1x, and D-50, it's still the centerpiece. It sounds more full than the JX-305/MC-505
and it has a much better sequencer in my opinion...not to mention easier to use. It's definately a great box for serious music or as a scratchpad to start on. I use it for drums and basslines, sometimes synth pads, and play the JX and D-50 as leads. I'm sure there's much better things out there, but nothing touches it for the amazing quality and price.

I took a couple days of manual surfing to get the nuances of it, but a lot of the features are easy to figure out right out of the box. I was re-mixing presets in the store before I even saw the manual. All the features are easy to find, all the buttons and knobs are clearly marked, and the large LCD screen just makes everything easier. The manual is nicely laid out and makes everything clear, and explains all the functions clearly. Comes with a big "List Book" that lists all the sounds and all the parameters of every effect. Very handy.

Its analog style controls are like having a miniature Phatboy built in. The sequencing functions are nice, but I still prefer to edit on a computer. It does offer an event list style editing that makes it easy for small scale editing, which is very handy. A nice feature is one that allows you to break down a song into individual sections, allowing you to re-mix track by track, section by section. For example, you can re-mix just the snare drum in the chorus, either by creating a new pattern, using a different drum sound, or both. Then, after you re-mix the song section by section, you can "glue" it back together as a full song. Another great feature allows you to break a drum pattern recorded on one track, down to eight tracks, with each piece on a separate track. i.e.-Kick on tr.1, snare on tr.2, hi hat on tr.3, etc. Making it easy to use different programs on individual pieces, or effecting individual drums. An internal MIDI router makes it easy to bypass the internal synth and send to a second external unit via the MIDI out/thru port. Just in case you want to use another synth. There's so many sounds here, I don't know why you'd have to. Built in floppy drive for backup, and it reads Standard MIDI files. So those can be imported and exported.

The drums are great. There's over 40 kits, and all the drums can be tweaked to your hearts desire in case you happen to not like the sound. A lot of nice keyboard sounds, including some nice Rhodes and Pianos. A lot of ethnic sounds, haven't experimented much with them yet, but the sitar was OK. I like the Alesis Nanosynth's sitar better. A plethera of bass to choose from, so there's something for everyone's style. Strings and horns were above average, and more to my liking when tweaked. Analog sounds are good too. Again, there's a lot to choose from, so you can't go wrong. The on-board effects are tremendous. 11 reverbs, 11 choruses, 42 on the variation block, including piggyback reverbs and choruses, delays, EQs, phasers, distortions, flangers...and yes they're all editable in real time. Plus, there's an overall bass boost that adds a nice punch to the mix.

Solidly built, it probably will take a beating, but I've been very gentile with it so far. I've brought it into the studio several times and it synced perfectly with an Alesis BRC, so that's a plus. I would recommend making sure you know your way around the menus before taking it on the road or in the studio. But that's just common sense.

Dealt with them once about something I couldn't figure out regarding syncing to an external computer sequencer and recording data in real time from a computer sequencer. Received a VERY helpful and detailed three and a half page response that more than explained the problem.

If I lost it I would buy it immediately. It's the number one weapon in my current recording arsenal. I even prefer it to Acid Pro. I've used it in a professional studio as my back-up band and it sounds great. For the price it's unbeatable. I know there's a lot of talk about other products (Roland MC505, MC303, etc), but the RM1X blows them away. I've used both and I've recommended the RM1X to everyone that asks. It's easier to use right out of the box, it's got a better display, and I like the sounds better. Keyboard players will have to use a controller, but that's probably the only weakness. But since the onboard "keyboard" is clearly not designed to be used as a serious keyboard, and is made to handle on-board functions, I can't complain about that. It's easy enough to hook up an external controller anyway. This is one serious piece of hardware. I can't recommend it enough.

Easy to get to grips with, incredible presets possibly the best I've ever heard, 60 Preset styles that cover every type of dance music possible. Really clear and decent manual, only reason it didn't get 10 is there's a lot to take in.

Decent groove sequencer, that's all ya need to know really, the keyboard is crap, I'd recommend getting a controller device, although it's probably okay for really simple stuff

All the dance sounds are great, The general MIDI bank is weak, but you won't be needing it at all, sometimes the Non synth sounds, (Horns, Strings, etc) Sound a bit electronic but no real problem, effects are nice , 3 fx banks , Variation , chorus and reverb. Really nice arpeggio which is customisable.

Okay falls down a little here for one reason, the damn buttons are really unresponsive! (Dunno if this was just a fault with mine) But playin at a live gig and you press the button and it don't respond could be pretty damn costly!

never used

Definately worth what I payed for my site www.dijaiwig.co.uk has music which was created on this machine alone, it's a powerful piece of kit. Sexy Massive LCD Screen is lovely, strong metal box, and it generally looks the business, really good if ya wanna impress ya mates. Maybe work on the raw analog synths (FM, Sine waves , etc) would have been nice as some of these are quite weak, but you can tweak them. Easily pay twice as much for something this quality tho I thought.

I've owned my RM1x for less than a week now, and I have atleast a grasp on all of this units function. It is very intuitive. The only other sequencers I've own were the Alesis MMT-8, which was easier, but less powerful, and the MPC2000 which was more powerful, but much more difficult to figure out. The RM1x has a well layed out front panel, and all of the functions are easy to get to. The menus are written out on the right side, so you can look there to find out where you need to go. All in all, very easy to use.

This sucker is loaded wit options. Being able mute parts on the fly, change patterns, and switch which parts are affected by the knobs, makes this unit very powerful. You can also choose whether each of the sequencers tracks affects the built in tone generator, any external instruments, or both.

700 sounds that are very good for dance music. There are sounds in this box that I've been trying to achieve for a long time, buthaven't been able to. Not just your standard bass synths, strings, and stabs. But also bass drops, clicks, blips, horns, etc. Each of the sounds can also be edited in many ways unlike other machine like this. (ie MC-505)

Not a problem, but it hasn't even been a week.

I will be keeping this unit till I die. It is so usefull and easy to use. Great for anyone who wants to make dance music. Whether you only want on box, or are looking for a dedicated sequencer like I was.
BUY THIS BOX

I think it's hard for beginners to get good sounds out of this thing.Even if you read the manual(and understand it!),I don't think it'll help people who never tried a synth.But the best thing to remediate is to experiment!

Very much effects,very much sounds of any type,amazing drum section.You can make any type of music you want.

Most of the sounds aren't good if you DON'T use effects.But once you use them,the quality is incredible,it gives a very good depth to your sound,and can transformate it any way you want.As I said before,the rythmic section is very good.

The onboard is perhaps a little bit slow,but it can be accelerated,so no much problems here.This unit is based on "dance" music,but I tried to get sounds for Rock,and did it.It is flexible enough for that.

It's all built in metal,so I think there will be no problems if I ever use it on a gig.The keys are perhaps a little bit weak.

Never dealt with them.

I'm a beginner in dance music,and this is my first sequence-remixer,but I spend hours on it and I like it more and more.If it were lost or stolen I'd regard on my money,but I'll surely buy another one,

Kind of lost untill I realized that almost all features are kept hidden in the Job list. I tend to think that part of the manuals purpose is to give you a run around so you don't have to get it from them:) But Once you grasp the concept, it proves to be quite inteligently laid out!

This unit was bought because i thought that the sounds were usfull enough not to have to turn them upside down before use, thus I can use my 32 notes of polyphony sparingly. Even so them 32 notes still don't go as far as Id like them to! Effects aren't bad, but not good enough to expect us to use only 1 stereo output. More outs would be nice to rought through external FXs.
As a sequencer...NO problems as of yet!
have 4 midi devices hooked up in a chain, all controlled by this, and have witnessed not any bunging of data. It's a blast for live, you get right into it .......ROCK ON!!!

Expresivness??
Well sure just DON'T use those little white tabs on the bottom.(you see them? those little white tabs?) The sounds do sound good, way more versatile than some of the "Groove machines" that we won't be so evil as to mention..RrRrRroland.. cough ,..cough.
Lots of Dance stuff but mine is used more for experimental electroism.
No problems so far but could run into major problems for any fans of sound-scapes or atmosphere. As for my "broken mechanism style" it does the trick!

OK, All Right, these two sections might not apeal to the keen costomer!!!!
I...Have not touched my RM1X for 7 weeks now!!
When I bought my unit, brand new mind you, it came with a faulty disk drive!! Figuring that it was lack of knowledge I spent 3months toiling with the stupid manual trying to figure out why ALL my work got all fucked up when ever I loaded it!!
Finely, I sent it back to the store and haven't seen or heard of it for coming up to 2 months!!! let me spell that out: TWO MONTHS!!!
Make sure everything works before you take it home!! I guess on the + side in the duration of the 3 months that i had one nothing ELSE broke down. YEH YAMAHA!!!

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE H
HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO!!!!!!!!

Over all? a great unit if we had a working relation ship!!
Smart, FUNNY, Versatile, Good Looing But I Can't take it anywhere with out it embarresing me!!

This machine is easy to get started with and can keep you busy exploring its features for hours. Supposed to be great in a live situation, but I don't use it that way so I wouldn't know. Lots of real time knobs are fun to play with.

I think the polyphony is 32 which I have maxed out many times.
You're going to need to get a separate MIDI contoller to play this thing. The little buttons on the front aren't very good for laying down grooves. The little buttons also don't sense velocity. The effects are a little on the weak side. Only one type of effect can be applied at a time.

Some of the instruments are cool. I find though that I gravitate towards the same ones though. Mostly a dance machine, but I hate dance music and I still love this machine. I often use some of the preset drum patterns to build up a song. It plays 100 times better if you use an external MIDI controller.

Out of habit I always back up all my files, but it has never crashed on me.

It's a good thing to get if you're starting out with electronic music. It's easy to get started and it gives you everything you need to start making some basic tunes. I use it to sequence my software on my PC. The Rm1x is the only piece of hardware I own. Hook this thing up to Fruity Loops, sync up, and you are ready to go!!

The manual, like most musical equipment manuals, is a little difficult to follow at times, but overall, the RM1x is a breeze to operate. The learning curve is not very steep at all, and you should be able to get a firm grasp of all its features in a very short amount of time. The large backlit screen makes most tasks very easy. I no longer needed to use the manual at all after only a few weeks of use.

Where the RM1x really shines is in the sequencer department. If you're looking for a great synthesizer, look elsewhere, but if you want a hardware sequencer that's extreamly powerful when used live, then the RM1x is the way to go. Like I stated above, the large backlit screen makes creating and editing patterns a breeze. The RM1x is definately aimed at the creation of rythmic and dance based music, and I'm not sure how usefull its non-linear sequencing abilities would be for non-dance purposes.

The synthesizer section is the RM1x's weakpoint. Basically you have a ton of preset sounds, that you can modify slightly, i.e., lowpass filter settings, portamento, very limited LFO, Simple EG. Some of the presets are ok, but for the most part, it has a very thin and digital sound, and it takes a lot of work to keep the mix from sounding muddy. If you do some layering and unison setups, you can make some fairly decent sounds, however this eats up a lot of polyphony. Bascially, don't buy the RM1x and expect to get an all in one wonder machine. The RM1x is such a great sequencer, that it would be a shame if you didn't use it to control more gear than just itself. On a side note, I found the DJX's soundset to be slightly better sounding than that of the RM1x.

I've hauled my RM1x all over the place, and I've left it turned on for days at a time. I've only had it crash once in hundreds of hours of use. I feel totaly confident using the RM1x in a live situation. However, there have been some reports of the buttons and knobs getting a little worn over time.

I've never had to deal with Yamaha.

If I lost my RM1x, I would definately buy another one. It controls all the synths and samplers in my rig, and I'd be lost without it.

This thing is pretty to easy to wrap your hands around. I've had it for 4 months and am still learning new things as I try more things, but it took about a week before I was really comfortable with it. The presets, ofter criticized, are not bad. Actually, if you are able to throw some effects on your voices, they sound really good and sit well in a mix with other instruments. Alone, I would be sick of the presets pretty soon, but you can do alot with one other piece of gear - say a decent keyboard.
The manual is a little thick to read at first, but once you get into the Yamaha mindset, it is quite useful.

The features on it, all in all, are mediocre. As a sequencer, there are a few things that annoy me - like you can synch FX to tempo, you can't record mutes, you can't record patterns in song mode and there is no MIDI THRU. Otherwise, the sequencer is fantastic. I got it because it does everything, but I will keep it because of the sequencer. Song mode is easy as hell, pattern mode is a little strange to wrap one's mind around, but very cool once you get used to it.
The FX are pretty good, as of today, there isn't any expansion possible (and this hurts because it only has 2 analog audio outs, and only one MIDI OUT) but for $600, you can't really complain. The keys are not pressure sensitive, but you can adjust the velocity.

I find the presets to be good and bad. The synth sounds are crap but the possibilities with the Bass tones are endless. They are hollow to start (which is good sometimes, when that is what you want) but you can EASILY fatten them up with some chorus or reverb. The sounds are not all that realistic but remember that this is a dance oriented instrument.

I have not had one bad experience with it. Never crashed (cross my fingers), never lost anything. Very stable to this point.

Haven't needed it yet.

I have had it for over 4 months now and it is the CENTER of my setup. If I lost it or stole, I would be very disappointed and would definitely consider getting a new one. It fits well with my Korg N364 and ER-1. I wish expansions were available because there is no onboard EQing and there are only 2 audio outs. Another MIDI out would be great as well. But, I also remember spending a little over $600 for it and to me, it was a bargain. Don't compare it to things twice as expensive (like the MC505 - which I considered but passed over). This allows me to make the kind of music I want to make. It is not the end-all of hardware, but it is a damn good start and I will keep it, even as I expand.

This thing is really well laid out, sort of similar in organization to the QY-70, but with more controls that make it easier to get exactly what you want, ONCE you've learned it. Having used the QY-70, i figured this thing would be a breeze. And while it IS similar, it's a lot more complicated. So if you're new to Yamaha's screens and organization, get ready for a couple of weeks of learning before you're going to be able to do much programming. But the complexity is all there for a reason, and once you've got it down you should be able to do whatever you want with minimal effort (there are several ways to perform many functions with relative advantages and disadvantages, which is wonderful). A couple of irritating details (for example, switching between tracks is oddly ackward), but mostly a great interface.

Hell yes there are features. At least four different ways to enter data, all different and all useful depending. There are just tons of screens and you can get very "deep" into everything. This thing pretty much makes a MC-303 look like a my first casio. Read the yamaha site for a list of features. There are some weaknesses, tho. I found the arpeggiator to be pretty simplistic. My biggest gripe with the QY-70 applies here just as well - the lack of effects. Yamaha claims "three effects processors," which means chorus reverb and variation. Each track can be bussed to any of the three. This means if you want distortion on your drums and rotary speaker on your electric piano you're screwed. Maybe okay for some (and addmitedly that's not QUITE the end of the story - you can simulate delay, tremlo, and other things with midi), but to me this is just a HORRIBLE state of affairs. To make matters much worse (again, for me), there is only one stereo output (!!! - my SR-16 has four outputs). I'm not really qualified to evaluate the quality of the preset patterns (which are all dance), as this is not what i bought the thing for. But i'd just say that they seem impressive in programming complexity, but it's an open question whether you could actually "rock a party" with the presets. personally, i'd feel a little stupid. but yes, yamaha DID try to make this something that could be used in "live performance" (knobs and informative lights all over the place). the extent to which they succeeded remains an open question.

I used to have the QY-70, and was dissapointed to find that not all of those sounds are here. there ARE lots of nice sounds, mostly electronic but a decent sampling of acoustic instruments, esp. as pertains to electronic music (eg, lots of ethnic instruments). There are LOTS of cheezy synth tones on this thing, although if you want someone to think you've got a minimoog i'm not sure it's going to happen. 808? check. 909? check. rezzy bases, DX-7 strings, "setting sun" bass drum drop? check, check, check. Esp. great is how much you can edit the sounds - all the usual suspects (cutoff, res, a/d/s/r, etc etc- all here, and on knobs no less). the built-in keyboard is more useful then it looks, but of course no velocity sensitivity.

comes in a very nice metal case, but the knobs look a bit fragile. the "playing" keys look like they could take some abuse (and feel great, BTW), the programming buttons a bit stiff. but i'm sure this thing's going to last for a damn long time barring abuse or serous carelessness.

i'm sure the customer support people are very friendly and great. haven't called. incidentally, the manual is not too great. very cluttered and skeletal, not too readable. i've always wanted like an "appliation" book that tells you what different featuers would typically be used for. sort of a cookbook for frequently prepared recepies. but you never see that :-(

there's nothing else like this. i'm not thrilled, but it's the closest to what i need. much more serious then the roland stuff. i'm sort of trying to take the dance out of it, which is a challenge since it really IS a dance machine. i'd say this thing and a cheapo sampler and you could do some pretty decent trance/whatever, tho intricate drum & bass maybe look elsewhere. it's mostly a great machine.