forrest@blia.UUCP (11/24/86)
I just bought a DX-100 at Guitar Center in Oakland. I got the DX-100, Starter Kit (cable to hook up to ghetto blaster and some tapes), MH-10 Headphones, and a 5' MIDI cable for $350, including tax. This seems like a pretty good deal. The headphones and cable were included "free" as part of a special offer. I don't know if this was from Yamaha or from Guitar Center. I should add that buying from Guitar Center is like buying baskets in Tijuana. You should always go in knowing what you want to pay because they will BARGAIN. In my case, they started out offering me the stuff at list, with them "throwing in" the tax. Since list was ~$475 this was not any great offer. So far I'm very pleased with the DX-100. I'm not much of a keyboard player so the small keys don't bother me too much, although I could see how they could be a problem if I get better. What is amazing about the DX-100 is how much you get for your money. I've seen many toy keyboards at department stores that cost more than a DX-100 but don't sound as good. The sounds in ROM range from being hardly recognizable to being fantastic. I especially like the low range of the Ebony and Ivory (I think this is its name) and the sitar sound, although they should have made the bend on the sitar only work on the last note played. I'm just now starting to understand how to create my own sounds. The manuals that come with the DX-100 are OK, not great, and seem larger than they are since they include French and German versions. The manuals do assume you understand sound generation. I haven't tried storing or retrieving sound using the cassette interface. I'll probably stick with this until I decide if I like the whole thing well enough to warrent buying the MIDI interface to my IBM-PC. A friend of mine has a DX-7 hooked up to a MAC, which provides some impressive features. This submission is obviously not chock full of new information but I did want people to know that the DX-100 is great for beginners like me. Jon Forrest ucbvax!mtxinu!blia!forrest