If your thinking about an xp and you don't know much about keyboards... Stay way!!!! With what little understanding you have of keyboards your really digging a big hole to jump into... I had an xp-60 3 years ago and got so frustrated with the interface I sold it and got a yammie... For a first Keyboard, stick with something easier.. Get the 3500 or psr550 very easy to use.., You may be happy when you get it but pulling your hair out later and don't say you didn't get any warning...
DJ

[This message has been edited by beachbum (edited 11-23-2004).]

It's not really difficult to operate. Personally I don't think it's the ideal (first) synth for someone who has very little experience, but it's by no means one of the hardest to navigate. The manual will give you so much, but you'll learn more hands on. The area I'd say most newbies got hung up on was sequencing. If memory serves me correctly there was (3) modes. Voice, Performance, and Drum. Sequencing of multiple tracks was done under Performance mode. This confused a lot of newbies. It's like that with other synths as well. I think he'll be fine with it. He just has to give it time and be willing to learn the OS.

Squeak

Yes, it will be my first synth, but i have very high computer skills and knowledge and pick up stuff very quickly. I dont think it will be that difficult, and worst case scenerio that i hate it, I can always re-sell it with little or no loss in money.

Thanks,

Phil

Im a proud new owner of an XP-60! I just bought it off ebay, cant wait! Thanks guys!

Phil

congrats and you'll enjoy the KB alot.both in live band and seq play gigs.

Please keep us updated on your experiences with the board. It will others in making similar decisions.

acctjm

Penny,
Congrats! I think you'll like the XP-60. The real power behind that synth is in the expansion cards. If you can..., get a few of those and install them.

Squeak

I recently bought a demo unit (XP-30) with full warranty and with a great price. It's not the most intuitive instrument, but quite powerful when we are familiar with it. If I'm not mistaken, this was the last of the XP series, so it benefits from a superior quality 24 bit DAC, as opposed to 16 bit DACs of other XPs. Not all sounds are usable or useful, but it has one of the most impressive pallette of sounds in a synth (something like 1700 patches), with 3 expansion cards built in from factory. It has some weaknesses in basic sounds like piano, rhodes and organs. Maybe they can be compensated by the use of expansion cards, but I'm almost sure these cannot match the quality of more recent generations of samples. One great feature is a smartmedia slot to store one's own patches/performances, but unfortunately it uses very rare 2Mb and 4Mb 5V cards. However they can be found on ebay.

-- José.