For the price, I think that there are enough features standard with the software. Effects are plentiful enough so that even an amature could produce a track worthy of at least street credit...Scrounge the net to find plugins if you cant find them locally.

Price paid

$200

Interface is pretty configurable.

This software is truly amazing. The sound quality truly depends on the soundcard and the quality of the sample recording. If you really want to tweak the sound, drop in some new vst/vsti or dx plugins. You can make this program sound just like you working in a $1,000,000 studio. That is no lie. With the right monitors and headphones, you can make you tracks soun any way you want them to sound. Just like a bank...(Fill in the rest)

Well designed. Fits well with all genres of music...

The features in this are great. I love the NNXT and almost never use the NN-19 because I can just load the samples in the NNXT. I think they should incorporate some sort of .wav or .mp3 importer convertor though because I'd like to use some of my kicks and stuff. Great options to keep you busy for a while

Price paid

$400

Some of the features are kind of hidden and you have to read the manual to know how to use them. A quick read through the manual and you'll be a pro in no time.

The sound quality on this is very good, although at times I do get a little distortion between my bass and kicks. The quality is only as good as the producer, heh. But yeah this definately has some hot quality.

Never had to get it repared, easy to install and the icon never runs away from you.

I like the editing on the mpc its the best sampler

Price paid

$575.00

Very easy you just turn it on press record and play and you got a beat

like I said the best sampler on the market the only thing is after the years you gotta replace the screen

The sound is very good

I find it to be the best sequencer as many audio formats are supported. whether you need to use audio loops or midi its all there. more included plugins would be useful but thats the only thing i feel they are lacking in. a lot of people say they need windows that dock. I didnt mind the seperate windows structure. the windows tab makes it easy to switch back and forth between windows, and you can close a window that isnt in use and open up back later.

Price paid

$500

When you first fire it up, it can be a little intimidating, but one read through the manual and you'll be all set.

The included plugins are decent enough to get some songs done, but to really use cubase to its full potential you gotta get some vst's.

I messed up my install once but installing too many free vst's. I wasnt sure what plugin messed with it, but i had to reinstall cubase, it would crash upon start up. that was the only problem ive had. its never crashed on me.

Being a workstation, you got everything aswell as some nice added features. The sequencer is a bit hard to figure out at first but once you get the hang of it, theres no problems. Everything in the sequencer mode is routed through the mixer which is nice and makes stuff easier. Job Mode in each area allows you to do nearly anything to any part of the music.

Price paid

990 euro

Not easy to start with, but once you get the hang of everything its easy and quick to use. The small screen makes it a bit harder too but again once you know the layout its fine.

Big and pretty heavy so its a solid construction. The keys are very good quality, aswell as all the buttons and pitch/mod wheels.

The flute, string, brass, piano and organ voices all sound real. Most the basses are nice and the synth sounds are good enough to use in any genre. The drums are good, alot of nice 'phat' kicks and acoustic snares, great for hip hop. Some good percussion too and lots of good FX sounds.

Sampler...Sampler...Sampler, the main thing they forgot. Why create a hip hop workstation with no sampling???

Price paid

748.00

This isn't a "1-2-3" now I know how to use it type of thing. It takes time and headaches. With so many features the human mind can be overwhelmed. One of the main things which bothered me the most was it's 2 line LCD sreen. You have to cursor everything around. But when you comprehend it's basics, it's an alright machine.

I owned it for about 3 weeks. On the second week it shortcircuited. I never knew what was wrong with it. The power switch and the volume knob, were'nt working, which meant I had to return it to G.C.

The sounds were not bad at all. They could've added piano samples. The drums need to be more beefy.

The amount of features on this thing is just amazing,ionly have it for a month so every day i find something new on this thing. it's a great goovebox-sampler and both functions are very grown-up.

Price paid

1050 euro

I hate reading manuals, so for me it takes a little longer to learn all the inns and outs but it is nice to discover something new, and when i want something to happen, it useually does (sometimes after some effort) once i discover how a particular function works, it's a breeze...

i think i is very robust, but i havn.t giged it yet, or have it dropped to the floor or anything, so i'm not sure... but it's heavy and it feels strong

The sound of this thing is the reason why i bought this box in the first place, when i went to the store, i was convinced i was gonna walk out with a roland mc-909, but i heard them both in the store (on the same mixer/amp/speakers) and the rs just sounds bigger and better!!! so i ended up with this baby

This unit gives you a taste of basically everything you need to create music. It has 8 programmable knobs with an on-screen display of the current setting, so you can pinpoint the values on the spot without guessing. It only has 25 keys, but it's easy to flip through octaves. Also, being that the keys are velocity-sensitive makes a huge difference; it takes out most of the "midi-sound". The pitch bender and modulation wheels are a nice plus also. I give the features a 9 simply because it's not for the true piano player, theres just not enough keys. But for someone who wants to step away from step sequencing their melodies and get into the basics of piano, this is the unit of chice.

Price paid

$120

This one would depend on what you actually have it plugged into... I'm running it with FL Studio and it's extremely easy to assign the knobs and stuff. So ease of use in my situation is a 10.

It has held up for quite some time, and nothing has given me problems yet. My only complaint is that it looks like a child's toy. It's much more capable than it looks...