Hi 800DV
About Sound Quality.
You have a point to one degree. I have seen people who can take a cheap $50 or less keyboard and play it in a way that would blow away most people.
But sound quality is important in my opinion. Very important overall. But what makes the significant difference is the current expectation of modern society.
I remember when a Hammond Organ was the highest quality keyboard and it only did piano sounds. I hated the imitation electric piano sounds. Then when I was 14 years old, a 35 year old musician bass player introduced me to the analog keyboards that had to be patched together with wires and cables. They were HUGH! One synth could fill up a large walkin closet. You had to re-wire the stinking thing just to create a new sound, then you had to write down or memorize the wire set-up you used to get that original sound. Around that same time I was introduced to the Korg Poly 61 and several others. I thought they were the most amazing synths I ever heard, with no wires, and no patching, even preset buttons.
Later, I got hold of a Moog Roug. I thought it sucked!
Years later I heard a Korg M1 and thought it was the greatest keyboard.
The point is! As technology grows so does the quality and purity of the sound, and with it comes new abilities and ways to decimate them.
The Yamaha DJX as you suggest, is simply a tool. A persons skills and abilities will obvious be an influence in the overall quality of music that someone could produce.
However, the awesome thing about the djx is that anyone can punch a few buttons, pound a few keys, and tweek some knobs, and produce some really cool music regardless of ability.
The future evolution of music will be the continual improvement of instrument voice quality, the ability to decimate the sounds, and the ability to be used by anyone regardless of ability.
The DJX meets those needs for now, with some great original voices. But, eventually it will become outdated. That is why Yamaha needs to continually recreate the DJX series of keyboards. The one thing that is going to last about the current DJX keyboards are it's assignable controlls.
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Official DJX Users Group
http://page.freett.com/newfriends/ [This message has been edited by dj_white_rice (edited 12-16-2001).]