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Please excuse the diatribe, Ive been holding it in. Like any piece the SU has its flaws and virtues, For what I do with it so far (weve been together for a couple of years now) I probably could get away with something less ambitious but I would never part with it now. I dont use it for full scale prod. but more as a live sample trigger/player/tweaker efx processor(with decks). I read these reviews and I know all about the well documented flake outs, trust me I know. My first requisite purchase was most definately the scsi, and yes it should come standard, most of my problems stemmed from operation failures with the disks. Only once had a zip fail and it was only one volume. I think I over loaded the alloted memory. I always back up though. I play with three other studio junkies, very live electronic jazz dub thing, and we somtimes use midi sync. I have twice had it freeze when external sync is set. I dont know why but it may have been all the rapid tweaks I was doing, not good. I am putting this out there first and foremost because I think every consumer/producer should be well informed about these key bugs. Those are the only problems technically that everyone needs to accept going in. Beyond that this is a list of issues that are purely subjective, starting with the source:
Yamaha- Can everyone say "corporate". For those who did not know this still selling unit is discontinued, and is for all intents and purposes unsupported. There are no further planned OS updates and frankly I cant even get them to give me the last update. I firmly believe that this product was cut short of its full potential, even despite the processor. If properly implemented this machine could have been the bastard heir to the legendary Sequential 440 which Yamaha bought in the late eighties and most assuredly borrowed from. A sort of latterday cross of all the best 12bit drum samplers +++. All other problems stem from the source. God bless their money grubbin asses.
Processor- This is from what Ive gleened the reason it has not lived up to that potential including the slow ass scsi. 20Mhz cheap chip, amazing though what it can do.
Limited MIDI- Is it really that much to ask for complete and open midi specs, at least a thru?
No Computer interface- Come on now, we got MIDI, SCSI. What kind of scam is that? At least open source the format so somebody (not me)can get us connected.
Anyway, I am not bitter, well a little bit but I do love this machine or else I would not gripe so much. Here is why: It is the most immediate fun piece of sampling gear I have ever used and in its own way the most powerful in terms of sheer creative possibilities. If they get cheap enough I will probably get another. Though many poo on the sequencer I think it is quite refreshing and organic. I am not an expert however as I am just now getting into any kind of real sequencing. For all the B-Boys/Girls please drop that battle mentality for a second, cop an authentic opinion and try one without predjudice. With composed loops*16 you could create a deadly dum kit with essentially unlimited pattern variations and still have continuous loop and free samples. Not to mention the filters and effects, so much fun.
I know that the RS7000 was designed to adress amny of these issues, particularly integrating sequencing and sampling but its strayed a bit to far from the mark (and price tag) for my sake. The refreshing thing is that it is getting proper upgrades, based on user feedback and does not appear to be getting replaced anytime soon. I will probably try one out but I will never give up my Sue. Please forgive the spiel(again).
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