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This sampler is bomb ass... Load it up with some RAM out of an old computer and you can do anything! The machine might look a little limited with only 10 sample pads, but there actually four sample banks per song, which gives you a working capability of 40 different samples. There's some nice functional variety, too, from the basic looping sample to one-shot pads to the unique "composed loop". I kind of hated the composed loop pads at first, as they seemed somewhat confusing, but once you figure them out, they are REALLY useful and allow you to introduce a lot of variation into a track with a lot less sample hacking.
Sample manipulation is a breeze with this box, and seems to have a lot of versatility. With the groove tweaking capabilities of the SU, you can mash together damn near anything and have it sound pretty good.
As with a lot of current Yamaha products, the onboard filter is really excellent with some strong "bite" for a digital filter and lots of options... low pass, high pass, band pass, and even a band emphasize filter (although it is of dubious utility).
The onboard effects are pretty encyclopedic and also sound quite good. A wide range of delays and reverbs are available, and the chorus, compressor, and rotary speaker effects are also worth a mention. They all sound pretty good, although I tend to think that the reverbs are a little bit *too* strong.
Overall an excellent sampler. Since Yamaha discontinued them, they can be found *dirt cheap*, but they are still more than capable of standing up to other samper-sequencer boxes by the likes of Akai, Roland, or E-MU...
I just wish that it were a bit easier to find the expansion boards for it... Using floppies takes forever!
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