I'd be careful what I'd believe there guys, the only way is to really try one because perpetuating online rumours doesn't really help anyone. To me the noise really isn't that bad and the keys are more than useable (and I am pretty picky).
I got to try one the other day and as someone who owns the original (with the same 35 filter) I was generally quite impressed.
I'll post what I wrote on another forum about it;
...Keys are great and not remotely as bad as the Microkorg despite being semi-mini keys. Definitely easy to play and much better than I expected. Conclusion? Not an issue.
Noise? Totally overstated in online forums which if you believed some comments would lead you to believe it is nearly unusable - which is ridiculous because it is perfectly serviceable. Yeah perhaps it's a little more than the original, but honestly it really didn't bother me (and I was using headphones). Doesn't need a noise gate as when the envelope is closed there is ZERO noise. Conclusion? Not an issue.
Sound? Put simply, great. Only thing I did notice was the filter didn't break up and saturate quite as nicely as the original with high res BUT it was 95% of the way there. So honestly I really wouldn't worry about it. Maybe some difference in raw OSC tone, but I can't say I really noticed. Conclusion? Well I'll leave it up to you to decide if the extra 1k in price difference is worth it.
Build quality? Well this is where it was a little weak, but honestly most of it is very sturdy. The weak points being the knobs and the jack sockets in the patchbay, which to me were the worst part as they are not mounted on the front panel, no those are *not* nuts, they are just bits of metal (or plastic, not sure) glued on meant to look like nuts. The actual sockets are no more than ordinary PCB mount sockets, which does lead to a little wobble. In time this could cause issues but if you're careful with your gear (and you should be) it isn't really a problem. Conclusion? Overall good, in certain areas could definitely be better but at the price? Can't complain.
Overall I actually loved it. If I didn't already go to the trouble of finding the original (before this was announced), I would definitely be picking one of these up instead. Plus the "Mini" size was really cool, I loved the smaller cables and overall compactness, just made using it less clunky and fun.
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 4:39 pm