I programmed a VA sound and a "reed" PM sound from scratch (not just tweaking existing sounds) and while the editing seemed a little fiddly at first, I soon fell into the Fusion editing paradigm - there are lots of nice shortcuts implemented to speed up things as well...individual mod pages have shortcuts to related sources and destinations.

The end results:

The VA is very nice! The "RP" filter in particular is especially warm and squelchy. While my result wasn't quite as warm as some of the sounds I've heard from the Ion, it certainly is at least the equivalent of the Waldorf Q, if maybe a bit warmer. Certainly theres none of that brittle digital "fizz" I've noticed from my Nord gear, but its certainly not "dull" or "muted" sounding. All in all, I really like the VA engine.

The PM engine is bizarre! The trick here is to use the mod matrix extensively with multiple envelopes affecting things like "breath pressure" and "bore frequency", "reed threshold", ect... I was able to get a very dynamic Reedy Flute sound going in no time that I could actually "overblow" by using high key velocity. My verdict: the PM engines are great too!

I created some FM patches today. The engine is really powerfull in its being flexible without adding complexity! You can make up your routing scheme as you go, you're not locked into specific "algorhythms". I've managed to get a depth and subtlety of modulation I could never get from DX style FM. I created a patch that could easily be mistaken for a rather nice real analog string pad - and that was before even adding any filters!

The FM engine can still do the "ringy" DX thing but can take it a bit farther. There's a FM preset called "Oxide" that I'm dieing to inspect - an ethereal scrapey bellish resonant thing that is astounding - it sounds like its rusting as you play it!

Also, I loaded the new OS today - it adds Loop-style recording to the featurelist. Still havent had a chance to mess with the HD recorder yet...I'm still having too much of a blast programming patches on this thing. :D

Don't waste $8,000 dollars on a Korg OASYS save $6,000 and buy an Alesis Fusion that may even sound alot better.

The keyboard is very intuitive to get around on and if you read the quickstart manual, (downloadable at Alesis's website) you should have no trouble navigating around the innards of this keyboard. I've already tweeked the "Holy Grail Grand Piano" program to my liking demonstrating that if you don't like a program (patch) you can easily customize it.....

The OS is a work in progress. It is still very buggy. However, Alesis's technical assistance has been very helpful and seems to be doing all that it can to really make this keyboard a winner.

The FM,Analog,PM,Sampling plus onboard sounds made this my dream come true!

I personally love many of the sounds in the current stock soundset as they are. I will be creating my very own sounds too. Since I have a big gigantic 40gig HD to store the sounds to.