this thing rocks, let's start with I got this so fast I couldn't believe it, showing my girl pics of it the same week I ordered it, she was visiting and it came in that day! it was less than a week, wild!

anyhoo. this thing is great. I can see the complaints for the sounds being listed as different genres (no death metal polka?), but that really means nothing in the scheme of things. If anything it will have you going to certain ones (retro) more often cause of the sounds there (retro), though I don't have any favorites cause I love (retro) all my kids (retro) the same.

moving around to adjust the sound can be a little tricky at first, the sounds out of the box are pretty much what you are looking for, then using the 4 knob classic control (sustain/decay, attack, filter, cutoff) is usually enough, but we all want more kontrol, and you get that with this. this is a perfect price as well, being just enough that you know you're getting quality, and not so steep that it's not affordable.

back to the device, the sounds are as analogee as you could hope for, the tones when dropped an octave, are so thick, dense and awesome, that it is just amazing. there are some really nice sounds out of the box that are impressive, with a couple that are surprising and enjoyable, like a whistle kind of sound and other chirpy sounds that are, as my sister and I say...the future, as imagined in 1972!!!! that said, this thing will probably be what most people looking to make their own electronic music, indie/diy stuff, and anything in between. I am a big fan of tangerine dream, the blade runner soundtrack, as well as other vangelis albums, so there is some stuff in here that gets me to where I want to go. I just got it, but the more I tinker, the more I am happy with what sounds and tones I find.

I wanted to end this on the controversy of the mini-keys. I at first didn't mind the idea, seeing as how, as they say in videos "you use one hand on the keys, the other one twiddling knobs". then as I actually got it and started playing, I realized something better that I haven't seen mentioned yet, though I didn't read all the reviews here, but it's safe to say NO ONE ELSE HAS SAID THIS, so gather round, make some s'mores, get your camo-snuggie on. the smaller keys works wonders for playing EXTENDED chords, so, to try to be clear and helpful, you start on one key, then, say, the next key you hit is 3 away from that one, usually chords only go like another 2 or 3 keys from that one, these little keys let you really stretch and easily make up chords that wouldn't be possible on a full sized keyboard, or if they did, you would have to use both hands, or overdub. does that make sense? trick question, it does, press rewind if I haven't...well you get it.

so the smaller keys actually is awesome, especially for electronic forms of music, where the chords used can be stranger than regular chords played on the piano. once I figured that out, this device became something more special than it already was.

what? what's that? vocoder? yeah, it's awesome. don't want to call it novelty, but it would be something tough to use all the time, especially recording and having every song with it on there, but it's here, it works, and it works well. will use more in time, for sure, will probably write whole songs with it, lol.

I got the vintage gold, which is the winner hands down! but this model has the most reviews, so I wanted to be included in this one. I have an inexpensive keyboard that has more "normal" sounds. this, with a keyboard with a HALF DECENT piano sound, and you can do something special. that with my guitar, bass, drum machine, sp-303 that I never use, and digitech jamman solo, and my effects pedals is enough to do some beautiful things.
this thing rocks, let's start with I got this so fast I couldn't believe it, showing my girl pics of it the same week I ordered it, she was visiting and it came in that day! it was less than a week, wild! anyhoo. this thing is great. I can see the complaints for the sounds being listed as different genres (no death metal polka? ), but that really means nothing in the scheme of things. If anything it will have you going to certain ones (retro) more often cause of the sounds there (retro), though I don't have any favorites cause I love (retro) all my kids (retro) the same. moving around to adjust the sound can be a little tricky at first, the sounds out of the box are pretty much what you are looking for, then using the 4 knob classic control (sustain/decay, attack, filter, cutoff) is usually enough, but we all want more kontrol, and you get that with this. this is a perfect price as well, being just enough that you know you're getting quality, and not so steep that it's not affordable. back to the device, the sounds are as analogee as you could hope for, the tones when dropped an octave, are so thick, dense and awesome, that it is just amazing. there are some really nice sounds out of the box that are impressive, with a couple that are surprising and enjoyable, like a whistle kind of sound and other chirpy sounds that are, as my sister and I say... the future, as imagined in 1972!!!! that said, this thing will probably be what most people looking to make their own electronic music, indie/diy stuff, and anything in between. I am a big fan of tangerine dream, the blade runner soundtrack, as well as other vangelis albums, so there is some stuff in here that gets me to where I want to go. I just got it, but the more I tinker, the more I am happy with what sounds and tones I find. I wanted to end this on the controversy of the mini-keys. I at first didn't mind the idea, seeing as how, as they say in videos "you use one hand on the keys, the other one twiddling knobs". then as I actually got it and started playing, I realized something better that I haven't seen mentioned yet, though I didn't read all the reviews here, but it's safe to say NO ONE ELSE HAS SAID THIS, so gather round, make some s'mores, get your camo-snuggie on. the smaller keys works wonders for playing EXTENDED chords, so, to try to be clear and helpful, you start on one key, then, say, the next key you hit is 3 away from that one, usually chords only go like another 2 or 3 keys from that one, these little keys let you really stretch and easily make up chords that wouldn't be possible on a full sized keyboard, or if they did, you would have to use both hands, or overdub. does that make sense? trick question, it does, press rewind if I haven't... well you get it. so the smaller keys actually is awesome, especially for electronic forms of music, where the chords used can be stranger than regular chords played on the piano. once I figured that out, this device became something more special than it already was. what? what's that? vocoder? yeah, it's awesome. don't want to call it novelty, but it would be something tough to use all the time, especially recording and having every song with it on there, but it's here, it works, and it works well. will use more in time, for sure, will probably write whole songs with it, lol. I got the vintage gold, which is the winner hands down! but this model has the most reviews, so I wanted to be included in this one. I have an inexpensive keyboard that has more "normal" sounds. this, with a keyboard with a HALF DECENT piano sound, and you can do something special. that with my guitar, bass, drum machine, sp-303 that I never use, and digitech jamman solo, and my effects pedals is enough to do some beautiful things.