KN

I'm not certain what the Technics does, so it's hard to say if the PA80 does the same thing. What the PA80 does is allow you to easily mix any individual component of any style or variation with any other styles / components. Also the style to midi tool ( freeware ) allows you to make styles or pieces of styles out of midi files or pieces of midifiles if you want to work with an external sequencer. Generally I prefer to work directly with the PA80's internal sequencer for making new styles or new parts for existing ones.

I chose the Motif vs The Triton and all the others mainly because of it's great sounds ( although the Triton stuff sounds great too ) but also at least in part because of it's other features including the pattern chain record function. Editing is easy too because Yamaha provides a freeware patch editor for the computer. Where the Motif isn't as strong as the Triton is in the arpeggio dept. The Fantom is excellent for modifying arps too ( using algorithims rather than trecorded midi data ), and I like that the upper keys can trigger fills. The big drawback.. Motif allows for user arps.. Fantom does not. Maybe the next version Fantom S ) which will also include sampling, will allow user arps. With those two features and maybe a few updated sounds, the Fantom becomes at least a possible contender for me vs the Triton series for a second workstation.

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 02-28-2003).]