Hi Andrew,
A little about effects and insert effects. from my limited knowledge anyway.

A synth generall operates in one of two modes 1)called voice or patch mode or single mode and 2) performance or multi mode. I'll use the terms single and multi for conversation sake.

In single mode the keyboard only plays one sound at a time. In multi mode, all 16 parts would be available. You would put it in multi mode to playback a MIDI sequence if the midi sequence has more than 1 part and most do.

Most synths have an effects processor built in. You can bring up say an organ patch and apply maybe reverb, chorus and a rotation effect (to emulate a leslie). Usually a keyboard lets you choose a rebverb, a chorus, and one of a number of other effects such as rotation, flanger, delay, etc... Often you are limited to just these three possibilities.

Now in multi mode it gets more complex because lets say you are using 8 sounds;
piano
organ
e. guitar
harpsicord
strings
drums
flute
bells

Usually you can control reverb and chorus of the entire sound set as one big unit and set each individuals chorus and reverb "sends" to control which part has lots and which parts of little. But lets say you want a distortion on the guitar and rotation on the organ and delay on the flute and flanger on the harpsicord. Well then you'll need 4 insert effects. Some synths only allow 2 insert effects. Any insert effect such as distortion is available to all parts (generally). So it's not that only one part can be effected by the insert. The motif allows for 8 insert effects in multi mode. That's a pretty good amount. I don't know what others (Triton, Fantom) offer and exactly how each one is limited.

To be honest, I've not fully put my motif to it's paces in this area either. I mainly use my MoEs7 and S90 in single mode live.

This post to to give you an idea of what effects and insert effects are. Please check with the dealers to get the correct information of each synth you check out.

Controlling... I'll try to touch on this a little too.

Controlling is really the synths ability to control other synths when you hook them up with MIDI cables in the master/slave set-up.

Some keyboards produce no sound at all and you would need a "sound module". These are called controllers. Midi out of the keyboard to midi in of the sound module and the sound module is the slave and the keyboard is the master. Whatever the keyboard tells the slave to do, it should do. Some keyboards have many things it can tell the module to do some have very little. These "things" are midi messages. Notes played on the keyboard are actually midi messages.

Just about all keyboards have a midi out. Some have 2,3, or 4 midi outs so the messages can be sent to more then just one module or PC for that matter. Some have buttons to turn on and off each midi out port. Some can send messages like program change to switch sounds on the module, some can't. Some do this easily with the tap of one button, some do this rather cumbersomely and are therefore not good for live situations.

It can get more complex that this but hopefully you understand the concept. Some keyboards are great controllers some are lousy at it. Some are made for the soul purpose of being a controller and are great at controlling. The Roland A-90 and A-70 are a great controllers. The S90 and Motifs are very good controllers. The Roland XP-80 and XP-60 are also very good controllers.

Bob
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[This message has been edited by RW (edited 06-15-2005).]