Brickboo,

X1 has buttons for volume and mute control with two columns of buttons to the very left of the button panel or next to the left speaker. Pressing both the "+" and "-" parts volume control buttons acts as mute. Pressing single button increases/decreases part volume associated. I agree with you that the hardware part volume sliders and dedicated mute buttons like the ones I30 has are much better. I also agree with Eddy that Solton needs to learn from other brands for multi pads, tap tempo button and rotary data dial for speedy tempo changes instead of just "fast" and "slow" buttons for tempo control on X1. Those are important features that X1 is missing.

I30's chord recognition speed is noticeably slower than other brands as I discovered it the first day I played it. The timing of left hand chord playing with I30 is much more critical than other brands because I30's accompaniment patterns react with some noticeable unwanted sounds before changing chords accordingly when the left hand's timing is off a little, especially when it is too fast, but if the timing of your left hand is accurate, you will not hear the extra sounds. Yamaha PSR9000 and Roland G1000 are more subtle in chord changes and do not have the same characteristic as I30.

I30 does have longer and more complex intros and endings than other brands of arranger keyboards. Whether this is an advantage or disadvantage depends on the styles of music you prefer playing. I personally prefer to have as many intros and endings as possible (at least 3 intros/endings per style, 4 even better) from short simple ones (for immediate continuation to songs so the audience or singers do not have to wait for the long, sometime boring intros/endings because they care more about the singing continuity than perfect intros/endings) to long and complex ones (suitable for an opening/warm up situation or a designated end of session). I30 has one longer and one shorter intros/endings per style. However, for my personal preference, most of I30's shorter intros/endings are still a bit too long whereas the long ones are excellent but could become boring when used repeatedly. A workaround is the use of arrangements (registrations/memory) to associate multiple variations of similar styles to effectively achieve multiple intros/endings and subtle style changes to diversify and avoid boredom.

I own and use several top of the line arranger keyboards from different manufacturers, research and enjoy each of them, but have not found any one that has perfect features that can totally satisfy all my needs. I am glad that you are satisfied with I30, that makes your life much easier.

Regards,

Paul Ip
from Texas

[This message has been edited by Paul Ip (edited 01-11-2001).]