I've already said quite a bit about the good of this sampler, I'll come back to a little more about this later, but right now I'll have to tell you the bad things I've found. My main gripe is the sequencer.

For one thing, I *HATE* this piece of crap "song" format all the new sequencers have, which basically means you have next to no real time control over song structure...so if you wanted to change the song around a bit when you're playing live and maybe add a certain riff that you thought was cool, it's out of the question. That is unless, on the DJX anyway, you sacrifice one of the [five] channels (including drums) and put your riff in there, then turn it on/off when the time is right. My dream sequencer is one that records a measure or two's worth of however many notes and that would be considered a pattern, then you could chain them together. I'm sure there's one out there, I just haven't seen it yet. 303/606/etc. style sequencing would be nice too, as my 606 has spoiled me. The other thing that pisses me off about the sequencer is that you can only play in 4/4...I guess since the DJX is the "ultimate dance machine" then you don't really need it, but half of my songs are 3/4...minor gripe but I could see that becoming a real pain in the ass real soon.

The sampler is really getting on my nerves too. I tried for a while to put cool grooves I found on vinyl onto different sections of the keyboard, then saw that they were usually cut short because the DJX's sampler only does 6 seconds...and - get this - only 3 *per sample*. They didn't say anything about that before. That's OK though, cause you can just sample it an octave up by CoolEditically doubling the speed (or whatever you use) then popping it into the DJX, then you just have to play it an octave lower, of course with a lower sampling rate, but there really isn't too much difference, just to show you how low the rate is to start with. Also the sampler has a weird way of assigning samples to keys, you have to be clever about where you sample at. No specific notes sampled to keys, just "general area". So basically, I just take samples of other synths, (and sometimes Soundblaster FM and STOMPER) and use those on the sampler. That has yielded some nice results.

My other gripe is the all-around user interface. The knobs are great, don't get me wrong, but then when you want to change effects, dual volume, arp type, etc. you have to hit function, then type in what # the function you want to do is, then type in the value...not really hard, but it is a pain in the ass live. Also those effects can't be used more than one at a time, but you can use the effect that you choose on any combination (or all) parts of the keyboard that are playing (except "style"). Also major stairstepping effects, especially on the pitchbend wheel when set to a whole octave, but I like to use the stairstepping to my advantage for weird supercheez effects :) Other gripes are the way the organized the voices using the bank method, no seperate outs (but hey...) , and no MIDI thru port.

Now for the good parts...this is really nice. You can get all your parts going, turn them on, and turn them off (I think 50 people have said that already), but they didn't comment on this...you use the knobs, slider, or assign knob on whatever "part" you have selected, and it will "remember" the settings when you switch to a different part. I haven't played with too many synths yet, really just the Ensoniq ESQ-1 and various drum machines, but I haven't seen anything that's been able to do that yet. Two thumbs up. The other really important good thing is the fact that this transmits all kinds of data, arpeg, knobbies, pitchbend, and it does it well. Also, I'm not real sure, but I think all those real time "parts" you can turn off are transmitted too...and that can come in handy.

So what can you do with this? Quite a bit...I use external sequencers on it and highly recommend it...though the knobs don't work on the incoming data (which pisses me off too!) or you can also get the arpeggiator going and play that along side one of the [actually pretty usable] preset styles. I guess you can use a combination of the two also, but that would get confusing...I should probably try that sometime. Anyway, this is a pretty good unit and really it does have miniature versions of, but *does not* replace, a lot of expensive gear. I'd definitely recommend it, particularly if you already have a good sampler and a sequencer and are looking for some good real time usable sounds.