What's Cool About It:

Extremely easy to use drum-grid sequencer...

16 little buttons - pick a part (ie. kick,snare,hi-hat) - press any of the 16 buttons where you want the part to be triggered - pick the next part - repeat as necessary. You've also got the ability to lay down patterns in realtime so, for example, you can lay down the Kick and Snare on the grid - start the pattern playing - and record open/closed hi-hats in realtime. You can then go back and edit any mistakes you made while inputting realtime w/in the grid.

Sounds...

The sounds kick ass. Extremely analogue, lots of crazy electro sounds. Haven't quite got the 808 bass drum or snare but not too far off. Don't be put off that this isn't exactly a 909 or an 808 and overlook that this thing makes it's own awesome distinctive sounds. I'll use the sequencer to trigger a sampler if I find I need to get closer... But really, this box makes awesome sounds.

Preset Patterns...

Believe it or not, most of the preset patterns are useable which isn't what I've found w/ most drum boxes I've played with. It's also easy to start w/ one of the presets and tweak the pattern and sounds slightly and come up w/ something completely different. I've also been spending a lot of time breaking down the patterns and sounds they've got programmed (Good learning tool).

Part Muting...

Makes buildups/breakdowns easy.

Original Value LCD Indicator...

A little thing but it actually helps alot (especially since the knobs are not continuous). Let's say you've got a sound you're trying to tweak so you turn the pitch knob - we'll, like most synths, you'll probably get a large 'jump' in the sound initially... The original value LCD helps you get back to where you started and then tweak from there. Not a huge deal, but it's intuitive, simple, and I think every synth should have a similar feature.

What I still wish for:

LFO..

It would be nice to have an dedicated LFO to assign to different parameters to modulate the sound over time (ie. Vary the Pitch param or the mod depth while while playing back the pattern). As it is now, you can accomplish the same effect by recording motion sequences in your pattern (manually twist the knobs while playing back - these movements get recorded). I'd prefer a choice of automatic (LFO) or manual but I can live w/ it as it is.

The ability to independently save sounds/kits...

I'd like to be able to save my favorite kick, snare, electro, hi-hat, etc. sounds and place them in a drum kit to automatically call up instead of having to dial them in everytime. What you can do right now is save sounds to a pattern, copy that pattern into a new pattern, erase the rhythm which leaves you just the sounds. So you kind of get the same effect but it's not as easy as it could be. It is fairly easy to recreate a sound from scratch, however.

Continuous Knobs...

The only synths I know with these are the Waldorfs but they should be mandatory on all synths. This way you can smoothly control parameters instead of large jumps in the param values. Some synths give you the option of having to pass the current value before it will change it which works pretty well too. For example, if the saved value for pitch is at 12 O'Clock and the dial sits at 7 O'Clock you'd have to move past 12 to actually change the value. The way it is now is when you start to turn the knob the value jumps from the 12 O'Clock value to the 7 O'Clock value. To be fair, alot of synths work this way but it doesn't mean I have to like it.

More Effects...

Just because the more the merrier. The ER-1 has a delay and distortion. The delay is global which is a drag and you can get a sort of chorus/phaser effect by setting the delay dvalues real low. I've also been playing around w/ shifting the delay time back and forth quickly while playing back... This varies the pitch of the delayed notes and sounds a bit like you're scratching a turntable.

More Outputs... I'd rather have the internal effects but if you had more than the 2 outputs you've got you could process the various parts w/ an outboard effects unit.

Summary:

Get it... Find a place that will let you return it if you're not satisfied (for you're own piece of mind)... Drop the meager $350 and try it out over the weekend. You won't be returning it.

I just put up a website a couple weeks ago so look for some ER-1 samples in a month or so... http://web.tampabay.rr.com/jep3/

Give it a 5