The presets are not crap, some are excellent. They are even more excellent once you get it home and start playing. The LCD screen is almost as good as the RM1x's. This box has 800 DANCE ORIENTED SOUNDS. No crap. No General MIDI. If you want flutes buy a QY100 or some other such tone generator nonsense. Not as good a selection of pianos & organs like the 305, but this has the same or better sounds than the JX305, new D2 (owned it sold it), MC505 (better than the 307 but costs 50-75% more), the Boss DR202 (owned it sold it) and RM1x (still haven't sold it).

If you have an ounce of creativity in your body and you don't want to get an Assoicate's degree in synth tech 101 this box is for you. I have created some original stuff that DJ Dan could rock with. I love it when some clubber asks if my groove is a white label.

About two years ago I would read the negative reviews as gospel, then I decided to try it myself and not rely on some jerk off who spent 45 minutes in Guitar Center pushing the blinky lights. If you want a serious tool buy this. It looks like a toy but it rocks. I think roland is discontinuing them as the price is really dropping. Get ahead of the damn curve and get one. Does it have 46 buttons and knobs like my 505? NO! Do I use all those buttons during my sets? NO I use ADSR, cutoff, resonance and the mute buttons. Guess what? You have knobs and buttons to control every damn one of these effects on the 307 in real time. Peace.

UPS: Some sound paches I will never use but most basses, synths, FX and beautiful pads will blow your mind away. Controls are pretty much self explanatory even though you should take a peak at the users manual for futher reference. Reverbs, delays are awesome. You can tweak them suckers anyway you want not including pan, attack envelope and others. DF-X channels are of the a hook. I think there are 13-14 of them and they can be assigned to any channel form the mixer contorls. My favorite ones are expander, distortion, lo-fi, compressor, chorus (don't sound all that realistic but it gives that extra flavour to the melody). You can record any changes to specific channels when you use cut-off or ressonance or any other control modifications, that gives you extra breathing space so you don't have to do it real time. Some of the appregios are tight. They makes your melodies sound so much better and more sophisticated not including that wonderful peops from Roland give you 14-user appregios that can be programed and used at your disposal. The patterns are alright but I prefer making my own and composing them with on-baord sequencer. Even though if you want to hook it up right you should consider a synth master keyboard to control this crazy little puppy. The memory space is more than you need. LCD screen kicks ass. Even begginers would get used to the gear quickly.

CONS: When I record rythm parts using real time recording, they come out loud and clear. But try to record rythmic parts using step by step mapping and they come out tiny. No matter what filters you push it through the sound like shit. Some much for mapping beats. Correct me if I'm wrong. When you create 8-16 measure basslines or melodies punched through the filters sometimes on-board sequencer tells me to go screw myself. It just doesn't want to turn on/off the sound when you tell it (realtime sequencing), that includes variations with the effects (most likeley pads with punched up reverbs). What's up with the plastic buttons and brushed metal? Common let's be serious.

In all, I have to give this unit a 4. It's great piece of gear with some limitations. Get to know it better and soon it will be your next friend that'll do whatever you tell it to do. Love it and share your moments with it. It'll love you back, believe me. Mine did.