for 1000$. 01/W pro differs from 01/W FD in some features; the most important

differences are 10 Mbytes (80 Mbit) of PCM-sample (instead of 6 Mb/48 Mbit) and

6 1/3 octave keyboard. The sounds of 01/W are very convincing. I like acoustic pianos, ac guitars and

strings best. Actually many "real" pianos haven't got as good sound, provided

that sound reproduction is good also. I have no use for strange sound effects so

I don't say anything about them. Synth and brass pads are nice; sounds aren't

thin like in many other synths and that concerns almost all the sounds. Many

sound banks are also available in internet, you just have to find them and

select the most suitable sounds. 01/W is easily GM-compatible too, you just have to make a couple of small

modifications to play standard midi files (*.mid) via MIDI. The MIDs sound

a BIT better via 01/W than PC sound cards... Average sound cards sound like

toy electric organs. Sequencing is quite easy. Only sequence editing takes a bit time to learn.

However, i prefer Cakewalk in sequencing, because it can handle sound banks

and print notes. Using sequences on stage, the FD is essential. Loading 10

average 3-minute songs from disk takes about 20 sec and after that you can

play any of them immediately. So you don't have to spend lot time loading

songs on stage or you don't have to take your computer with. You can also play

sequences from external sequencer via MIDI to 01/W:s sequencer and of course

save them to the disk. My 01/W is not MS-DOS-compatible unlike the latest updates or eg Korg X-series.

But it is IBM-PC-compatible and with diskimag.exe I can copy disks from/to

my PC (720 k 3.5" floppy). I like the big graphic display; it helps to mod the sounds faster. I wonder how

X3-owners edit the sounds... For example, Kawai K I/II is a lot more complicated

to use though it is quite ascetic in qualities! It has only 2 textlines in

display. Some features of 01/W are a bit complicated too, but 01/W has so many

properties that it's no wonder. Korg 01/W is a real workstation synth, anybody can make recording-ready

compositions (excluding vocals) with it. Im satisfied with my 01/W, as well

on stage as at home sequencing with my computer or just playing songs, and so

it's hard to me to find any negative features from it. I give 4 marks out of 5

because it's a very good synth but not perfect. The best RECOMMENDATION I can give is that this week I bought another 01/W! tl