I own a MOtif ES. FOr live gigs it is a bit on a heavy side but a layout is pretty good. I mean I'm blind and I have no issue finding the right sound/performance. Programming it is as easy as it gets.
Sure, it took some time to learn about it's front panel layout but that's the case with everything out there.

Usually it is just a matter of reading the manual and not spending tons of time trying to discover everything yourself.

My friend uses Phantom X and his quite happy with it's front panel user interface and controls. I can't say much about the Triton but I've seen a few posts here describing it as a good synth but also mentioning some odd things about some of the parameter related confusion and issues. Mostly stuff like "parameter copy" but nothing major. I'm sure it's been dealt with by now given the amount of updates it has undergone since i'ts release date.
But since I haven't got much experience using one myself I'll leave it up to Triton owners to talk about it's ups and downs.

My experience with using things like touch screen date back to the times of Korg Trinity (I picked one up just as they came out). No issues in the studio but when using it for live performance (hands getting sticky from playing for hours etc) using touch screen became a bit difficult. I've heard a few friends of mine mention the same thing. Nothing really major though. Most of the time it was just a matter of cleaning my hands and the touch screen. LOL

Big fan of old T3s since they are as easy to use as it can be and since their FX and synth engine are pretty straight forward and simple it is hard to screw up. Wish they still made them like that today.

Touch screen might appear cool in the music store but most of us would rather just press a button or two and may be move a slider up to desired value instead of sliding fingers on something that just doesn't feel right.

Okay, another thing about today's Korgs is as Shboom put it. THey get sluggish. Especially when jumping from one sound to another. Z-1, Trinity and Triton all suffer from that. ONce internal FX are disabled it is no longer an issue but who in the world would hook up a Triton to a multi FX processor just to speed up patch changes? I'm not that dedicated to using Korg.


Yamaha and Roland on the other hand don't have those issues really. ROland isn't ideal for multitimbral use from my point of view and some sounds don't quite "cut through" sort of speaking (as in they get lost in the mix easily due to all the abnoxious pan settings and huge reverbs that ROland tend to get crazy with on their presets). However, some would disagree so I'll just dismiss it as being my personal opinion and not more than that.

As far as using optional controls and so on... Foot pedals go well with my guitar rig (Roland GPX-700, Roland VG8 etc). However for keys I'm quite alright with buttons. Works for me. On mmy ES8 it's just a matter of selecting the right mode and than using bank and program buttons. Easy. No issues. Master mode is awesome. Basically save whatever you like into it. It can be a sequencer setup, a multi or a single. Scroll from one to another in a split second. No sluggishness or any of that. Nor I'm having hard time finding the right sound.

Okay, that's my $00.02


-ED-



[This message has been edited by 3351 (edited 11-04-2005).]