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I'm mostly make progressive electronic and industrial music, although I've also used this keyboard for a wide range of styles. I think that all though the MR synths were originally meant for general rock - pop production, I think mine works GREAT for what I do. Surprisingly enough I can get MASSIVE distorted power noise drums out of this thing, because of its hard percussion samples, and AWESOME distortion effect. I love the effects processor, but I wish there was more then one of them, though the global reverb and chorus processors help with this, and I can also rout the sound to aux outputs to use an external processor.
The sounds are great! And I don't even have any of the expansion boards! I've done all of the drums for a metal band on this board and they sound powerful, clear and realistic! The acoustic instruments are lovely and the overall sound is full rich and clear. The synth sounds are great, and really interesting, but FORGET resonant filter sweeps! The only way to do that is with an insert effect, whish means any channel using the effect gets the same filter sweep.
I've used this for a long time side by side with a K2000, and honestly I like the factory sounds on the MR much better then the K2000, Especially the drums. HOWEVER, You can't make your own sounds from scratch on this board, and editing for the factory patches is limited, but it was sufficient for me to make the sounds more my style, And there is a computer editor for it, which I've never tried. You can save edited patches automatically as part of a song or sequence, or save them individually on disk, or flash ROM. The flash ROM is a bit limited and I wish the expansions weren't so expensive. The range of sounds is very wide, and with the effects section it can do hard pounding noise music as well.
The sequencer is VERY easy to use, and supports cut and paste functions. It allows you to make 24 patters, of ANY length, and arrange them in any order repeating any pattern at any time as many times as you want. 24 sounds like little, but because the length is limitless I don't think it matters. I wish there was more ram to store large compositions though, and for anyone who runs out of ram while using it remember to DELETE any muted tracks, it saves space.
It's a GREAT controller! I use the sequencer part to save dozens of controller settings each on it's own track, and to control several other units on stage simultaneously, and because each track, and each sequence has it's own button that lights up, it's so easy to switch patches during a show! One of the keys is starting to make a physical clicking sound, but this doesn't affect recording in any way so I don't mind. It's RELY BIG, which makes it a hassle to take to shows, but then I'm a pianist so I love the weighted keys... I might buy the smaller 61 key version just to play live.
The preset rhythms were useless for me, but would probably be great for someone looking for a quick simple, but realistic accompaniment. And I almost ALWAYS work in the sequencer section, even when setting up sounds for an external sequencer.
Anyway I love my MR76, over all it's a beautiful sound module intuitive controller and easy to use sequencer, but that's all it is, no sampling, or sound creation hear. Also I wish it had more memory all together.
Download Sample Sounds of the MR 76 / 61!! To hear it in action go to www.pinknoise.ws, the compositions listed below which can be found on www.pinknoise.ws are made with ONLY or almost ONLY the MR76 as specified below:
www.pinknoise.ws Home 3031 (includes Ensoniq ESQM on 1 track) Love Bass Frequency (ESQM on 1 track) Hunting Crickets (ESQM on 1 track) Grind Looney Shift Happiness
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