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The Yamaha DX-100 is a fun little keyboard. I bought mine around November '96; won't tell you how much I paid, but rest assured, it was way too much. =) Anyway, I originally bought it as a "midi controller" keyboard, which is a very bad idea, given the DX-100's mini keys and velocity unsensitivity. For those fist few months, all I used it for was a MIDI controller, until I got a real MIDI controller keyboard. At first, the DX-100 seemed like a toy, with nasty-sounding presets, and generally thin sounds. It took me a while to get over my bias against 4-op FM synths, after working with the Yamaha OPL3 in computer sound cards for so long. But the DX-100, as I discovered, has some very nice strong points, especially considering its price. First off, it's a fun and phat bass box. Granted, this is no TB-303, ;) but you can get some useful sounds out of the DX-100, even if you only use the presets. Once you learn to tweak and create presets, the DX-100 becomes very useful! And, if you toss it into monophonic mode, where envelopes remain untriggered between notes when keys are held down, you can get some great "realtime" effects, even without sysex or CCs. For example, by having OSC3 have a slow attack and decay on the BRASS 3 patch, and playing a pattern in mono mode without letting up on the keys, you get a great filter-sweepy sound; I've actually used it as a background lead in GOA trance with nice results. Other patches worth mentioning include 'Drawbars,' the definitive 'solid bass,' and, if flanged harshly, the 'fuzz guitar.' A note on processing: You'll really want some. You'll want a multi-effects box for the DX-100. It IS dry and thin-sounding when you only hear the dry output! I coupled mine with an Alesis Midiverb II, and it's hard to believe how far a large room / hall reverb will add to any patch, even at low mix-in levels. Also, some of the heavier flanges are interesting when applied to some of the harsher patches. I'd love to have anther box or two and see what the DX-100 would sound like with distortion, flange, AND reverb. Alas, no multi-routing in the midiverb II. In terms of bang-for-buck, the DX-100 is a great piece to have for budding electronic musicians, or wanna-be's like myself.
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