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Well, lets get this sorted out!. When you want to record there are different ways to do that. On the rm1x these are replace,overdub,punch in,step,and grid step. When recording in all but one of those modes, that being grid step, you can hear whatever tracks are not muted. Grid step is yamahaz's equivilant of roland xox style programming, only the implementation is quite weak. I myself always end up using step mode wich represents the steps on the lcd screen, and you can scroll down entering the notes. The way this machine is set up I find that better for my needs, and it works perfectly. You can also of course use overdub, replace, and punch to simply record whatever you play in real time just as well as anything else. It only has 1 set of midi i./o however, so I guess if you wanted to hook up a bunch of synths you'd want a midi merge box so you dont have to chain them all together. It only has 16 tracks, so your not gonna be doing any orchestral scores on it, of course.
For structuring your tracks there are 3 main recording modes pattern, pattern chain. and song mode. With pattern mode, you get 16 patterns of loops, you specify the length of a loop and fill it with some noise. Then you can mess with arranging these loops., mute, unmite tracks messing around or whatever. Wich leads one to pattern chain mode, wich allows you to arrange the loop patterns in a fixed sequence and bring that over to song mode. Song mode being your %100 linear recording mode. I find for fucking around pattern mode is productive since by specifcying loop sections l;engths I end up leading my experiments into set segments. where as if I dont have music already composed and arranmged just flipping on song mode and recording leads to a big mess arrangement wise... and I digresss....
The tone module is rather limited. The "real" instrument waves are weak as hell. But there are a few gems in the synth wave banks I must admit. The 8 knobs make it fairly simple to adjust whatever sound you make, though the synth engine is quite primitive, this is no nord modular, or emu xl-7 in that department.
For further chipping away, redoing, and perfecting of what you do there are the jobs and edit functions. If your curious as to what the sequencer can do scroll down the jobs window and have a looksee. The effects are rather cheesy, but Ive grown to appreciate the cheese. While this may have the absolute worst saxophone sample ever, combined with the amp simulator effect you can get some strange acid sounds he he he... Beyond fucking up the sounds with effects, filters etc, or messing with the pitch of drum samples I find the synth engine uninspiring. The rs7000 I would think is a big improvement since you can messs up YOUR samples with a twist of all those knobs, but again I digress...
This makes a very good "my first kit", and a decent addition to a more experienced producers arsenal. If you already have a sampler and a few synths get this for sure! But maybe if you dont have all that a more economical use of resources would be to save up a little more and get an rs7000 or even a motifr or ex5 so your not stuck with those cheesy rom sounds.
Understand I give this a 3 only because its been outdone by the rs7000, and xl-7. I guess it could just as easily be a 4 or 5, scores are dumb.
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