I got my first look and feel of the 2100 today. My first impression was.. " gee this seems exactly like my 2000 ". The key feel is maybe a tad stiffer ( because the board was brand new I would surmise ) but still not what I like. The voices and styles sound similar to the 2k except of course the new styles ( very few really that I would use a lot ) and voices. I did like one of the new guitar voices ( I can't recall the name ).
Overall, I like the board well enough that I would buy one, but I didn't find enough difference that I want to sell my 2000 and replace it with a 2100. If, however, I was looking to buy a new Yamaha arranger and didn't already have one, I'd definitely go with the 2100 unless the 2k was available for substantially less.

I tried the new Fantom S ( 61 note version ). I love the 16 assignable drum pads on it. The board seems to have a lot of cool features that I would find useful and it could hold my interest for that reason alone. The one disappointment... I expected better sounding acoustic instruments from a Roland. Some I liked but others.. I didn't care for at all. I don't care for all of the ones on my Motif either, but I like more of them than I do their counterparts on the Fantom. Perhaps it was the sound system that I played it through, but I just wasn't really impressed at all. Too bad, because it has some features that I'd like to have on the Motif.

The pleasant surprise today was the Triton Studio vers 2. I never cared for a lot of the acoustic "bread and butter" sounds on the previous Korg workstations / synths, but this baby sang to me. I didn't get a chance to check out all the features, but from what I did check out, I liked it very much. I could easily see myself owning one of these. I am not certain I'd give up my Motif to get one, but the board defintely has me interested.

I tried out the new "Moog" with the touch screen controller.. ( ok it's not THAT new ). I love it ..but..not enough to plunk down 3500 USD.. Of course if I had money to burn, I'd be looking at it right now in my studio as I type this.

I love trips to the music store.......

AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 06-26-2003).]