-sounds good! (although clearly digital) -great price compared to the competition -uses good old (cheap) floppy disks to back up its plentiful memory -nice big LCD display -nice appearance -very small and light for what it does -very powerful (though not ideal for me) sequencer

The one tiny fatal flaw I can't live with it is that the delay is an insert effect, so you can't use it on top of any other insert effects, most notably distortion. You can use delay with the dedicated reverbs and choruses, but I hardly ever use those. Since it only has one stereo out bus, I can't apply external effects to only some parts while leaving others untouched.

(Soapbox Sidenote: This just goes to show how every musician has different specific needs. What Synthsite needs is less "I love it!" or "I hate it !" reviews, and more specifics about the strengths and weaknesses of a piece of gear.)

The rm1x is so much fun, it has completely hooked me on being able to manipulate complex music live. so now I must try the MC505, which has its own problems, but at least has a dedicated (and tempo-syncable) delay. If I can't live with that one either, I'll send it back too. Who knows, I may end up buying an RM1x again...

Internal sounds not THAT bad... you always gotta tweak 'em anyway no matter how cool your box is! And hey, we should all be writing our own arpeggios anyway ;-) And those knobs!

Goodbye social life, hello RM1X.

The timing on the 303/505 plain sucks, it's floaty, load up on the tracks and try and sequence some external gear and you'll see what I mean. Simply put 1/96 tpqn timing is as old as dirt and it's what you get with a mc 303/505 -- and it's just not solid, it's bouncy but not useful at all for jungle tracks etc. This is where the RM1x shines, 480 tpqn note resolution, which is as good or better than most pc sequencers, the grooveboxes are a lot better than most people will admit to, but the RM1X is a far better sequencer and the filters don't stairstep as much either.

The Rm1x is a dark horse contender, trust me within a couple of years these will be highly sought after, it's a great intuitive instrument and sits directly in the center of my midi setup. Word to the wise though, don't do everything in any one box, buy some other gear for variety -- mix it up, be original and for christ sakes stop putting a bass kick on 1,4,8,16 steps and sequencing the hi hats for all 16 steps, god am I ever sick of Boom chick chick clap chick Boom, house originated in the eighties and hasn't progressed much since, come on folks do we really need more 4 on the floor garbage?

RM1X- Great, professional, easy, quick, accurate, floppy drive for saving, decent sounds (esp. drums), all around the besr in the category.

First off, the 505 is BY FAR the best for live use and the best all-in-one box. As a sequencer the rm1x is better. However most of it's features are stuff most people won't use.

And regarding the 8 versus 16 tracks. The 505 actually has 16 tracks as well. The only difference is that 8 of them are "sub-tracks" of the rhythm track. Kinda weird at first but actually really useful after you get used to it. On the rm1x each drum sound goes on it's own track which most of the time means each box ends up with the same amount of tracks left over for non-drum parts. In fact the rm1x will only transpose tracks 9-16 which sorta proves that they intended the first 8 tracks to be used for drums.

Effects - the 505 wins HANDS DOWN. I think the rm1x has a bigger number of effects but most of them suck. I mainly just use the delays, amp simulation and ... that's it I think. On the 505 you have (I think) fewer effects but more usefull ones. Also you get 6 outputs so you can add even more effects then.

Sounds - I don't really love the sounds of either one but if you are on a budget and want the maximum enjoyment the 505 is much better because it has a real JV-class engine which allows you to truly create you own sounds. Editing on the rm1x is a joke and pisses me off to no end. First, you can't really change much and second, your changes are stored with the pattern/section. Also, each part/pattern shares settings with the section so if you change a setting in one part it messes up your whole section. sucks!

Arpregiator - rm1x - blows. 505 - best I've seen ANYWHERE!

And if any of you think I've got the 505 now and am just dissing the rm1x because I don't have it anymore, you're wrong. I've got the rm1x now and will GLADLY trade it even for a 505. Just email me!