1. The idea that it's opaque and difficult to program is way exagerrated, if not just plain silly. I am no expert programmer by any means, and I'm already completely comfortable moving through the guts of this thing and I'm not even using an editor. *How* exactly all of the different models and oscillators work, and how the myriad adjustable parameters interact and affect the sound is another question, and I would love to see better documentation about the many things you can tweak and the synthesis models available. I suppose you just have to study how the presets are built and play with parameters as you go.

2. As has been oft said, the presets do a fairly poor job of representing the Z1's power. This is not a strength. I like the old saw, "if the guys who built it can't get good sounds out of it, then why would I be able to?" Well, the Z1 is not without usable sounds, but there's a flatness to the presets that will make you think you've made a terribler mistake if you're just scrolling through the patches and tapping a few keys. Turns some knobs and scratch the X-Y pad a bit and your opinion will rapidly change.

I like the synth leads a lot. The pads are good but I rarely like or use pads, so... You can actually do some damage with organs if you play around with the drawbars and such. Ditto for the EPs. As for the physical models, well, very mixed bag. Some of them do *behave* in very cool ways, but their essential sonic quality can't match good samples, IMO. I look forward to layering some Z1 brass in with brass samples and seeing how that works. I think the power in the physical models lies in tweaking them into new sounds and not expecting some shocking level of realism.

3. As y'all know by now, the realtime control elements are awesome. They are what makes this thing so addictive--the only synth I've ever owned that keeps me up late, not writing my music but just twiddling with my new toy.

4. As is also well known by now, this is not a bread and butter machine you can build your studio around. For me, it is serving the role of my first VA and the machine on which I intend to really bolster my programming chops. I think it will do nicely, and after 2 weeks, I think it sounds good. Essentially good.