But I knew the specs on this thing, and I know a thing or two on how to program sounds, so all hope was not lost. Needless to say, I spent some time filling up those presets with my own creations, and what more can I say - this thing is great! Once I maxed the volumes on the patches and put them in unison mode, this thing became a monster. I have never heard such screaming resonance - this thing can growl! And the stack mode is great - it will allow you to do incredible patch creations - detune and stack! I've even made several single-oscillator patches that I love. And yes - the strengths are leads, bass, sound effects, percussive sounds, and some pads (which take a bit more work). I've gotten some good strings out of it as well.

Now there will be people who will have complaints about the Sixtrak, but it is what it is, so what's the point of comparing apples and oranges? The programming is not as easy as a Nord or many other virtual analogs, but I find it much easier than my Korg Z1, and anyone who's dealt with the pain of programming a Roland JX3P, a Korg Poly 800 or some other DCO's will find a Sixtrak to be very intuitive and, dare I say, a pleasure to program.

In the end you buy the Sixtrak because it's incredibly cheap (in the US at least), it has incredible character (sonically and visually - love those wooden sides), and how many old hybrids from 1983 are multitimbral and receive midi control data for all parameters? This has become my favorite synth to play and sequence, and I feel I've only skimmed the surface of what this thing is capable of. If it was stolen, I would replace it in an instant, and I'd be willing to pay much more than I paid for mine.