jacowannabe wrote:I want the setlists back! As it is now, I see no reason to get a 6 over my current 5D ... it feels like a downgrade, usage wise
Most of what could do with setlists can be done in Organize mode. As I understand it, there are two big differences in terms of functionality:
1. Set Lists allowed you to have 200 additional ways of accessing sets of up to four of your Programs, without using up any more of your 400 Program locations. Each 4-Program Set List entry (Song) which took up one of the 200 Set List locations will now instead take up 4 of your Program locations in order to have the same functionality (i.e. to give you a set of 4 buttons that give you the 4 Programs you need for a given song). So you can conceivably run out of Program locations much more quickly. For example, re-using combinations of four existing programs 50 different ways (i.e. for 50 different songs) used to use up 50 Set List locations and no additional Program locations. Now that function would use up 200 of your 400 Program locations. So yeah, if you have lots of songs and/or lots of Programs, this is a step backwards. The trade-off is that it's simpler, losing the separate mode and the distinction between programs and pointers to those programs. So, for example, no longer do you have to worry about tweaking a sound, Saving it, and then finding out that your changes weren't saved, because you were in Set List mode (which, yeah, happened to me).
2. If you use the same sound in many songs, with Set List mode, you could make changes to that sound just once (by editing the Program), and every song that used that sound would automatically now be using your new, updated version of that sound. Now you'd have to copy your new sound into every location where you'd used that sound. OTOH, this now prevents the possibility that you alter a Program and find that it changed the sound a whole bunch of your other songs were using, if that's not what you wanted to do.
I agree it is a step back in functionality, though it is simpler. I think many Set List users will still be able to make the new system work to do what they need. But yeah, it's a trade-off. The other "downgrade" is that there is reduced MIDI functionality, i.e. you can no longer split the keyboard with an internal sound on bottom and an external sound (by itself, or layered) on top, which was something I found pretty handy.
OTOH, the E6 has a lot of functionality that the 5 did not, i.e. seamless sound transitions, extra sample memory, the return of some clav EQ options, numeric keypad mode for program selection. And there will probably be a benefit to the new .nsmp3 sample format at some point. But sure, if the E5 does what you need, there's no reason to upgrade.
Tasten-Bert wrote:In my personal opinion the electro series should always be the best Hammond clone on the market plus a very good piano. So I don't need additional features like after touch, pitch bend or mod wheel. Friends of these things should regard the Stage models as their instrument.
I agree... it's primarily an organ and piano, with some extras. It's not really designed to be a synth or a MIDI controller, that's what the Stage is for. Though to me, its organ and piano features are equal in importance, rather than placing piano second to organ. Or more specifically, the organ may be more important for the people buying the SW versions, and the piano may be more important for people buying the HP version!