I make a good edit of what I said two years ago:

CHARACTERISTICS All are easily found on the internet ...
Wholesale: 16-track sequencer, sampler, 1200 sounds, backup media cards Smart and all the connections necessary for a workstation. (In fact it is better to have the option to have the AIEB2 optical outputs and separate outputs ...)

Basically it is a Pattern expander.

UTILIZATION

The general config is pretty simple if you have already used this type of device.
functions are easily accessible and the LCD screen is large enough to be clear.
the manual, like all the manuals, will insist for three pages about what we have understood the first time, and summed up in two lines complicated functions found! (But at least it's in French!)

SOUNDS

I criticized the sound at the time, but eventually spending time to change something you can get out of a lot. For tranceux I still advise having a real synth side. (Virus in my case, it perfectly complements the RS).

the effects are good but it is a shame to select only three per song ...
the compressor is pretty rotten, you can not change many parameters. It can serve as backup if we use the RS one but that's it.

The micro keyboard is very useful for more than two years that I have the machine, it still works perfectly. (Edit: well over time I have bad contacts in three keys, it gets boring ...)

I find that the arpeggiator is rotten, I preferred that of my MC 303 ... (I confirm that it is rotten, compared to the virus, there is no picture!)
the sampler is pretty simplistic, but sufficient for what I do.

OVERALL OPINION

I have since February 2003.
I love the sequencer (I only use mode "song"), it is convenient and the capacity is ample. You can create a song very rapidenemt, c enorme.
Congratulations also to the many BPM knob and the display separately.
before him I had a MC 303, 700 and a QY EX7. It remains in the Yamaha method, which I find very well.
For a device that performs several roles (sampling, sequencer, tone generator) is perfect.

red card for the arpeggiator and safeguarding Smart media, (they are rare these damn cards, it is necessary to stock up!)

I bought it new and Euro 1700 with 64 MB of ram, I think it was worth compared to the rest of the production. (Edit: c always true. I regret not taking the option AIEB2, and now we find almost more ...)
I highly recommend, especially now that it is affordable opportunity, and for those who wonder if it is still sudden, I say YES!

I'm not ready to part with it, except maybe for a Motif ES in order to save space by having RS + keyboard in the same machine. (and with the ES MegaVoice bonus ...)

So there will go for it!