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I've heard a good combination of gripes about the RM1x. The presets suck, the effects are limited, it has no synthesis, it doesn't tuck me in and read me bed time stories at night. First off, it costs under $600 new. Second, it's not advertised as an all in one box. It's a Sequence Remixer. It's two biggest strong points are it's sequence editing and use in a live situation. Just those two uses are so strong that it beats a lot of higher priced equipment hands down. Don't expect this box to do all the things that a $1500+ workstation does.
Okay, let's break this thing down. Sequencer is extremely powerful. I hate software sequencers. Just too much editing envolved. This gives me time to concentrate on song writing rather than editing crap on a PC screen with a mouse. Plus, using a PC Sequencer flat out sucks in a live situation. RM1x has a nice backlit LED for editing and keeping your head from hurting squinting at small screens on other comparable sequencers.
The sounds by themselves are mediocre. You can treak them a little but you can't really edit them as much as you would on a synth. The drums are pretty decent but again, only treakable to a certain point. The sounds are definitly good enough to sit on you couch and lay down some tracks, then take it to your PC or outbourd gear for better sounds. Truthfully, the MC505 sounds are not as great as people make them out to be. A PC with a good sound card has a lot more potential and the cost of the MC505 is not worth it. One thing you can do to get a little better sounds is to layer different sounds on different tracks, add effects, and tweak the filters.
The presets are good example of what the RM1x can do on it's own, but if you spend money on box for it's presets, then you might as well go buy a CD or download some mp3s. The real beauty of this box is it's sequence editing. If you overlook that, then your really missing the point.
Effects is my one bitch about this unit. Three global, Chorus/flanger, Reverb, and Variation. It would have been more useful to have all three variation so I can combine Destortion, delay, and reverb, but hey, just means more thought envoled in finding a solution. The effect's quality is good though but my only solution is to use the effects available on my outbourd synths or my PC. A rack effects just won't cut it since I don't use distortion or delay on all 16 tracks at the same time. Again, you can get much better sounds from a PC, module, etc...
Overall, this box is great. The price is well within my budget compared to the MC505 and it impressed me alot more. The MC505 is a good box, but I think it's overpriced and overrated.
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