I can imagine what a Fantom S owner might feel about the revamped Fantom X. Of course, we can't really tell for sure from the demos, but the 'X' certainly seems like it is going to have a better sound palette than it's predecessors. The thing is, how long was the 'S' even out there. It seems to me it hasn't been a year yet.

The Motif ES is a worthy successor to the Motif for me, but maybe not everyone else. Just the additional polyphony makes it worth it. I'm very happy with the sounds and all, but it still has the most confounding OS of any board I've ever seen.

Not very experienced with the Triton stuff, but like Yamaha and Roland, another rehash, albeit a good one I think.

I'm kinda stuck with what I have hardware wise for now. Not that it's a bad thing, but I just don't see me going from the PA80 to the PA1x, or from the ES to a Fantom S, or whatever else may be the next great rompler out there. Not for the money it would take to do it. Not right now anyway.

The only piece of hardware that has me remotely excited right now is the Roland V synth

The more I see of this, the more I tend to gravitate toward soft synths. Upgrades ( which is really all the major hardware manufacturers are giving us in each succesive model ) don't cost hundreds or thousands of dollars with software.

I'd have liked to have seen a more open platform, so that I could have just made my Motif or PA80 become a Motif ES or PA1x. I'd be willing to spend good money to do it, but not the amount that I would have to put up to get a PA1x, even after selling my PA80. Until hardware manufacturers go more in this direction, I'm outta the game, unless of course something so radically different and hot comes out that I can't peel my fingers from it. So far, I don't see that at all.

AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 02-08-2004).]