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I bought the Xp-80 in good condition. I was really excited since I found all over the net great reviews.Still, as of today I can't say it's a great synth like I read in past reviews. Quite frankly I feel it's a solid 8 if not a 7 and the only reason I haven't sold it is bacause i've made a couple of great songs with it. But even so, I think the XP has more CONS than PROS. Don't get me wrong, I think the pros are stronger points, only that the cons, for me are more in quantity. I guess the first problem I notinced with the XP (as some other use mentioned earlier) is that indeed it sounds old. Actually it sounds like what it really is: An over-resurrected synth from the 80's that made it's way up with todays top competitors. Some may like the presets that come with the synth, but not me. As a matter of fact I didn't use the synth much until I got the expansion cards. I could go on and on why I am so unsatisfied with the sounds but to make things short I guess that my biggest dissapointment were the pianos. As a matter of fact, even with the expansion boards I own, I haven't stumbled with a good piano sound that doesn't sound like you are ringing a lousy bell when you play the keys harder. One thing I love about the XP is that you have a great liberty on modifying sounds except that you have to go through endless pages of factors that will instantly make you lose sense on where the hell you are. I'm not a sound engineer or anything, but I know the basic stuff and still The Xp-80 makes sound editing so frustrating you'll end up using it's lame presets. Expansion boards are a good option but most of them have like 20 great sounds and the rest are either variations of those or lame sounds you could have made by editing presets. For me the biggest and most frustrating setback in the XP-80 is how the synth includes other sounds in it's sessions. I usually make songs with more than 10 instruments and I must tell you, it's so hard to make all the patches sound in harmony with each other! Naturally you have control of volume, pan and effects but even so, you can spend hours trying to make the song sound well recorded that composing it. The hardware is not flawless either. Recently I lost an amazing sound I created because the Xp disk drive scratched my diskette, making me lose a lot of songs recorded (by the way did I mention the LOUSY, LOUSY LACK OF SUPPORT FROM ROLAND?). Also, I found myself having the same problem as other users: the weights of the keys are glued and after some time they fall off and make the keys stick with each other and the weights fall off. That said, As a workstation, it works swiftly and smoothy...it's easy to record and re-record different channels and songs. The editing is also a good point except that you have to press a lot of buttons to give a simple command (but hey, which synth doesn't need to?) If you're a beginner, don't rely on the manual but rather experiment with it and get tips from other users, also there's a video you can get on the net that makes thing clearer..of course, that is if you decide to buy the xp. In conclusion, the xp is agood choice if you play in a wedding band, if you are an academic virtuoso that doesn't care much about the sounds or you want a good synth to play music live or to practice, the Xp is agood option. but if you are looking for great realistic sounds a decent piano and more detailed composing, the xp-80 might do the work but it will give you several headaches..headaches you shouldn't have after spending good money on a so-called awesome synth.
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