The sequencer, while only 8 parts, really gives you seven "melody" parts and one "rhythm" part broken up into eight percussion parts [bass, snare, hihat, clap, cymbal, tom/percussion, hit, others]. This is good and bad-- on the one hand, you have 16 parts to play with/mute and un-mute, etc. On the other hand, it is apparently impossible to save volume levels, etc for each drum part--only for the rhythm track as a whole. Annoying, but I have learned to live with it and create around it [I am also buying another sequencer with 16 parts!]. You WILL eventually grow tired and cramped on this sequencer, but I have been able to work the hell out of it in a live set up, as muting and unmuting and the part-mixer and effects work nicely. I have been able to compensate for the low number of parts with my sampler. Also, 110,000 note *internal-memory* is not too shabby. Using a smart media card, you can get 400,000 note capacity.

Overall, this synth has some pretty good presets, and a few knob turns usually work wonders. I must admit to not having uncovered all the possibilities with this synth yet---I have only just begun playing with the wavetables that you can select for each of the 4 synth engines...the possibilities are staggering actually. Great drum sounds [lots and lots of kits]. YOU DEFINITELY should take the time to make your own drumkits to weed out the crappy sounds and only include the g o o d ones.

If you're on a budget and you want some fairly convincing analog-type sounds, some good percussion sounds, real-time control over certain parameters, a decent sequencer, pretty good, alterable effects, and a midi-controller keyboard, then the jx-305 is your bet. Have fun. Make a record.