Unfortunately Chas, I can't try before I buy as all the music stores I've tried around here don't have the PA1X.

I wanted to use the more contemporary styles of the PA1X instead of Roland's idea of Contemporary if you know what I mean...

Dennis -

One thing I want to bring up (again):

Is the polyphony really THAT much of a problem on the PA1X???

I work almost totally with SMFs and I'm prepared to pare them down even more instrumentation wise if I have too...

As long as, say the drums (specifically the kick drum) don't suffer from note drop out I'm ok with it - even the VA7 dropped out very occasionally and it had 128 note Polyphony (although how Roland come to their "polyphony note conclusions" has recently been up for debate - along with all other Manufacturer's formulas for calculating same...)

Also the other 2 big drawcards for me with the Korg are:

1. Sampling (drum loops etc) and then using said loops in SMF's and Styles - easy to do?????

2. Dual sequencer cross fading in between SMF's/MP3's to keep everyone on the dancefloor - works good?
Note drop out not a problem there????