Back in 2000, this groovebox brought turntable tricks to the digital world, letting DJs scratch and pitch-bend patterns like vinyl with dedicated emulation controls—Push, Hold, and a granular tempo fader that feels just like a record player's speed control.
It's a compact powerhouse at 422 x 277 x 98mm and just over 2kg, with a sturdy black metal wedge body, big backlit LCD screen, and hands-on pads for sequencing plus four assignable MIDI knobs for real-time tweaks. The digital PCM sound engine delivers 64-voice polyphony across eight parts—seven instruments and one rhythm track—drawing from Roland's JV/XP heritage with 10 structure types routing tones through multimode resonant filters (LPF/HPF/BPF/Peaking), LFOs, boosters, and ring mod. Load up 800 presets or 256 user patches, 240 dance patterns, 50 songs, and hammer out beats with an arpeggiator, RPS for instant riffs, and three synced effects processors offering 33 flavors like Isolator, Lo-Fi, slicer, phaser, and gated reverb—plus a Grab switch for quick rhythmic stabs.
Owners love its intuitive flow for live beatmatching and fat dance sounds, though some note pattern-switch gaps and a learning curve for deep edits; it's held up as a vintage DJ secret weapon ever since.
