If you basically just want a Sampler you may be happier with a stand alone one. The Motif Rack may be a good choice. The Motif Rack has 128 note Polyphony as well (same as Motif ES Keyboard). There are other Stand alone Samplers as well that may suit you better. If you have to have a Workstation Sampler/Keyboard the Triton Studio would definitely be something to look into. The nice thing about the Trition is that it has a "Loop Crossfade" feature which Yamaha deemed unnecessary to put into the Motif ES. Loop Crossfade allows a user to smooth transition from one part of a Sequence to the next part by fading out one part of a song, etc., and fading into the the next section. All within the confines of a sound or song "Loop". Hence the term "Loop" "Crossfade".

PS: You may want to wait to see what pops up at Winter NAMM 2004 (January 15-18) before buying anything. There is word Korg will be releasing a new "Workstation" that will blow everything else out of the water including the Motif ES which apparently you didn't care for anyway.

Best regards,
Mike