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you can't go wrong with this synth. it's a great all around workstation, solid sequencer, powerful sound editor, nice keyboard, etc. but the thing that really turned me on to it was the expandability with the sr-jv80 boards. I think roland consistantly has the hippest sample based sounds, and with four expansion slots on the xp-60, you can expand it in pretty much any musical direction.
the only complaint I have is with the filter envelope. it's really weak and steppy. and on top of that, all you have to work it with is four little flimsy sliders. I much prefer knobs. so you won't be getting any slow smooth filter sweeps out of it, because the filter is so 'steppy', and forget any really quick emulative filter movements with those little vertical sliders. on the other hand the steppines of the filter can sometimes be exactly what you're looking for. so I guess you could look at that as being unique. I was just thinking I would buy a VA in the future to take care of that, and just use the xp for drums and soundtrack style sample noises, and to be my main sequencer/controller. it's perfect for that.
here are some comments about the expansion boards, that really make this synth so powerful. fully expanded you'll have over 1600 patches and 30-40 drum kits(depending). not to mention all the free patch sets all over the net!
Hip-hop: I was some what disapointed with this one. I got it for the really thick drum kits it has, which are great, but probably 150 of the 250 patches on it are looped beats, which are totally useless as far as I'm concerned. so beware of this one. I suspect the 'techno' board has the same problem.
World: I got this for a little extra curicular percussion help, and some of the novelty noises, didgeridoos, jungle flute, etc. again I was a little disapointed, most of the sounds on here are crap. the drums are ok. the tablas sound great, and a few others, but there aren't enough of them. most of it is garbage sounding flutes, and mandolins, ethnic bells, etc. I'm looking for a replacement source for world percussion sounds....
SFX: this board is fucking awesome. every sound is useable at some point or another. there are true sfx noises like airplanes, babbling brooks, cars, etc. aswell as plain old tripped out sound effects of undescribable origin. everyone will find use for this board.
if anyone has comments on the techno, house, or drum kit boards, I'd like to hear them. especially the fairly new dedicated drum board.
also, if anyone wants to hear this synth in action, you can check out my tracks at www.mp3.com/Jiggles the first two are made exclusively with the xp-60 and the above expansion boards.
and to answer TRISTANS question, you're looking for the RPS(realtime phrase sequencing) feature.
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