I'm a poor 16 year old with his eye on the SC-8850. I currently have a KR-570 and need to know whether the patches of the SC-8850 sound more realistic. Also, are any of the distorted or overdriven patches any good for punk or metal? How bout the brass patches? I need to know whether I could make money of this thing cuz I'd be blowing my entire personal savings on that.

All I can say is, if you are going to blow your personal savings, get the SC8850 or the rackmount SC880.

I hav the SC880 and it was the best purchase that I did for my studio. The sounds (except for the electric basses) are superb. It is rumored to have at least 40MB of Wave ROM and the drum kits are great.

I would imagine that the SC8850 would be slightly better as it may have more Wave ROM and more Drum Kits. The B family of Roland SC instruments are just as good as their more professional XP/JV series. I can say this because I own the XP50 and I think that the SC880 has many of the same waveforms as the XP/JV plus some off of their expansion boards.

The Infamous EPU.