Bad points are wimpy,non-resonant filters,and a convoluted (to me) fx system. I mainly use mine as a controller these days,cause I have other synths,but it is a good,all around synth,and would be great as your first keyboard.

I made my decision between Korg N5, Yamaha CS1x and QS6.1. First reason for purchasing the QS6.1 was that I liked it sounding better than it's competitors. Second reason was, it was so easy to preview those presets, gee those buttons rules. Third reason was the amazing keyboard action, it made all the other competitors feel like toys.

I think that its sounds will keep me happy for years. I haven't yet... haven't even really needed to create my own ones, those presets are just so great, sometimes they just need little modifications.

My music is something like Dark pop/rock and QS6.1 fits to my style like glove in the hand...

Stop reading these reviews, go to the shop and listen to it. I'm sure that you learn to use it later on, if you just like how it sounds... and all details of using it are explained in the manual anyway :-)

I find that my 6.1 is a fantastic machine. The 6.1 has been seriously upgraded to eliminate many of the concerns listed above - do y'all think we need a new synth category for this one? This instrument seems to have alot in common with the slightly larger QS 7 - I mean it's now identical. Sounds are good - I have no problem with the piano sounds on the 6.1 (many don't like the piano sounds on the old QS 6) The multi-timbral mix mode is a little weird to grasp - and I don't find assigning channels to be as easy as I thought I might, mainly because I use this keyboard in conjunction with my MAC to run a computer sequrncer, finale, performer, mastertrax, studiovision, etc. The sounds are good. I am not happy with the trumpet patches, yet I think that the trombone sounds are fantastic! Guitars are excellent, percussion is better than average (I am a percussionist) The mix mode has alot of split presets - for some great, others like me - I'm not too into that. Live performers may find that extra useful. The QS 6.1 has 4 control sliders as opposed to the 6 which only had 2. At $700-800 bucks the value is superb. I am so far really into this synth!

Anyway, I've had a Roland JV-50 (still have it, in fact. Anyone wanna buy it?) and I couldn't get a good Hammond sound from it, nor a Rhodes sound (for some reason, Roland only put Roland Rhodes samples on their machines. Roland Rhodes sounds like shit) and I wanted some good FX too. I asked in several places and all roads led to the QS6. So I bought it.

Three main fors: - It has 8 MB of sample ROM, and about 20 Hammond samples, including all 9 drawbars and 3 percussion samples, so you can construct almost every Hammond sound you want and get a very good sound (not like the B3, but I can live with that). - The FX includes Overdrive/Distortion, Delay (stereo/mono), Chorus/Flanger, Reverb and most important: Leslie, so your Hammond sounds can be VERY realistic. - The acoustic sounds (especially the Winds) sound exactly like real instruments.

Three main againsts: - The piano sounds suck. All of them. But I hear that if you buy the stereo grand QuadraCard you can get sme very good sounds. - The FX is not a 4-channel multieffect like they say - it is one multieffect with 4 sends. This is not very useful - I never use more than one send. - The Mix mode is bad and all of he program in one mix share the same FX.

For conclusion, the QS6 has become my main board (out of my two), I use it for most of the sounds I want. If you play rock then this is the board for you.