Yes fellow arranger keyboard fanatics it has been 1 month since I made the conversion from the KN5000 to the Solton X1. I can't believe how scary it was in the beginning with no time to get used to it. Having to go on stage with one day to get familiar with it and "a little help from my friends, Dave:>)" and mucho help on the forums and X1 email listserver was very much appreciated for sure. I have at least 24 gigs under my belt this month with the X1 and let me tell you "I AM KICKING BUTT BIG TIME!!!" Uncle Dave was so right in telling me the best way to do it is to "Just Do It" and learn as you go in real time. As for the X1 I am so glad I converted because once you get this keyboard set up and tweaked it's simply AWESOME! The real sounding instruments are a thing of beauty and in all my years of playing I can truly say that I am enjoying the X1 with such a sense of having the "REAL" feel of a band playing along with me for sure. I haven't even got into the sequencer or sampler yet just editing registrations, sounds, drum sets, and midi songs so far, I will in time after the busy holiday coming up. Getting around the X1 is super easy the layout is very convenient for my style of playing.Theres a button to make the whole keyboard a PIANO instantly which I love for those times when I have to give a guest singer that special Tony Bennett style piano accompiament. Having 48 favorite sounds on the "one touch" feature is great too. The 6 pedal pod is a blessing to make variation changes, transpose, leslie rotor, sustain etc. There is so much more to learn and explore on the X1 w/HD, patterns, styles that it will be lots of fun to find out what I can really do down the road.

What I do miss is the SFX pads on the KN5000 having immediate access to instant on board drum rolls, sound effects, fanfares, etc was a nifty feature. In time I will figure out how to have something similar programmed into the X1, maybe a RAM card? "any ideas boyz?" I still sing out of my own sound system for now. I tried the vocalizer on a few gigs and didn't have the time to set up reverb/delay to my liking and singing style yet.I prefer to have Total control over my voice outside of the keyboard, although for small gigs (without my system) I do use the vocalizer to sing, the trio harmony was awesome and for studio recording is a big plus too.

I'll post more as I go along.

l8tr,

Donny